Controversy surrounding Atlanta’s public safety training center has spread not only throughout the city but across Georgia and beyond as vandalism against companies tied to the project has popped up in Savannah and in other states.
The Savannah office of the facility’s architect, LS3P, was targeted Thursday night on the first anniversary of the officer-involved shooting of activist Manuel Esteban Paez Terán, who was killed during a law enforcement raid of a tent encampment on the training center property.
Demonstrators in Savannah staged a small protest Thursday at Forsyth Park before marching to the nearby architect’s office, where they vandalized the storefront with slogans and profanity.
The defacement included language that members of the Charles Manson cult wrote on the door of one of their murder victims, Sharon Tate, in 1969.
Five protesters were arrested and charged with criminal trespass, according to the Savannah Police Department. Much of the graffiti was removed Friday.
Credit: Adam Van Brimmer
Credit: Adam Van Brimmer
The Savannah incident comes as Atlanta officials have struggled with continued attacks against, not only local law enforcement vehicles, but private construction equipment by opponents of the $90 million project.
The problem has prompted the Atlanta Police to announce that the agency, along with a coalition of local, state and federal agencies, is offering a $200,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of people who have been setting fires across the region to protest construction of Atlanta’s public safety training facility.
Local and federal officials say similar incidents of vandalism have taken place elsewhere — most recently in North Carolina.
According to the Raleigh News & Observer, eight cement trucks at Thomas Cement’s plant in Raleigh were damaged in November. A police report obtained by the newspaper said that vandals also broke windows by throwing rocks through them and spray painted “stop cop city” on a wall. The damage totaled $14,400.
Earlier this month, The State newspaper in South Carolina reported that additional Thomas Concrete trucks in Summerville were set on fire. According to local law enforcement, several trucks on the property had been spray-painted with messages like “From Weelaunee’' — apparently referencing the South River Forest — and “You build it, we burn it.”
A Charleston man has been arrested in connection with the incident and faces second-degree arson charges.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Unsolved arson incidents being investigated by police in Atlanta date back to May 2022, when someone broke a window at the back of the At-Promise Center and tossed in four Molotov cocktails and an incendiary device.
Since then, police say even more fires have been set: A contractor had his equipment set on fire a third time in October; and in November, work vehicles owned by Ernst Concrete were set ablaze in Gwinnett County.
Most, but not all, of the incidents have targeted contractors or agencies connected to the training center’s construction. Ernst Concrete, where 12 cement trucks were destroyed, has said it is not involved in the construction.
Atlanta Police believe that people involved in such incidents are also responsible for similar crimes in other states.
Local businesses, too, have been caught in the middle of the heated debate over the facility that will house both Atlanta police and firefighters. The owner of Manuel’s Tavern said the midtown Atlanta bar was vandalized ahead of a speech that Mayor Andre Dickens delivered to Democratic supporters this week.
Brian Maloof said authorities aren’t sure who spray painted the restaurant and clogged locks on the building’s doors with glue. But he said police had warned that protesters who oppose the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center could target Dickens’ speech.
Clashes between police and opponents of the facility have resulted in dozens of arrests and hefty racketeering charges against more than 60 activists. Some face additional charges of domestic terrorism, arson and money laundering.
In November, a crowd of several hundred protesters clashed with police on Constitution Road in unincorporated DeKalb County as the group attempted to march to the construction site from Gresham Park Recreation Center. DeKalb County Police in riot gear with armored vehicles lobbed tear gas and flash-bang grenades at the protesters as they collided.
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