Five people arrested on charges including domestic terrorism as authorities tried to remove the protesters from the site of a planned public safety training center will remain in custody without bond, a prosecutor said Thursday.
The arrests happened as agents from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Atlanta police officers, and other state and local law enforcement officers removed barricades blocking some entrances to the site, the GBI said in a news release.
The five people arrested had their first court appearance on Thursday, and DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston said in a news release that they will remain in custody. They range in age from 20 to 25, and only one is a Georgia resident, according to the release.
“I strongly believe in the right to peacefully protest for what one believes is right and just,” Boston said in the release. “However, I draw the line at violence, destruction of property, and threatening and causing harm to others.”
Opponents of the training center have been protesting for months by building platforms in surrounding trees and camping out at the site. They say that the $90 million project, which would be built by the Atlanta Police Foundation, involves cutting down so many trees that it would be environmentally damaging. They also oppose investing so much money in what they call “Cop City,” which they say will be used to practice “urban warfare.”
