After a protest following the murder of a local activist on Saturday night, unidentified “far-left radicals” allegedly rioted in downtown Atlanta.
According to Fox 5, a riot broke out when protesters “began hurling bricks at buildings and setting fire to police cars.”
According to Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum, the demonstrators started peacefully but quickly became violent.
However, a subset of the marchers “decided to start performing unlawful behaviors including shattering windows and assaulting police vehicles that were in the neighborhood” when they reached the Ellis Street and Peachtree Street crossroads, as Schierbaum put it.
You can hear a local reporter trying to minimize the event by calling the rally “mostly peaceful” in one Twitter video.
In a statement, the Atlanta Police Department claimed they reacted to reports of radicals “damaging property at various sites along Peachtree [Street].”
It’s been reported that “many arrests have been made at this time, and the order has been restored to the downtown space,” APD confirmed. Due to the continuing nature of the inquiry, we cannot yet release information regarding the number of people arrested or the value of property damage.
In a message shared on social media, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp denounced the violence and vowed the unrest would not be condoned.
Kemp emphasized that acts of violence and criminal property destruction are not legitimate forms of protest. “Georgia will aggressively pursue prosecution for such offenses. I appreciate the efforts of the [Georgia Department of Public Safety], [Georgia Bureau of Investigation], [Atlanta Police Department], and everyone else out there making sure the streets are safe for us tonight.