Rioters spoiled for Atl. fight
Lefty ‘agitators’ go from privilege to protest
THEY present themselves as rebels against the system, fighting to preserve a piece of local woodland.
Yet many of the terrorist suspects arrested and charged over occupying government property and the violent attack in downtown Atlanta on Saturday are children of pampered privilege from out of state.
Hundreds of far-left activists, including antifa, had gathered on Saturday evening at the Five Points neighborhood to protest the death of their comrade who died in a shootout with police earlier in the week at an occupation south of the city.
On Jan. 18, Manuel Esteban Paez Teran of Tallahasse, Fla., shot and severely injured a Georgia State Patrol trooper at the so-called autonomous zone before being killed by returning fire from police. The year-and-a-half-long occupation is at the heart of the “Stop Cop City” movement to shut down the construction of the future Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, a proposed training site for law enforcement and first responders. They hate it because it’s a police center, but also claim that they are protecting a forest.
At Saturday’s gathering, masked militants dressed head to toe in black marched in the streets, shouting: “If you build it, we will burn it.”
They then smashed up businesses, cars and the Atlanta Police Foundation building. A police cruiser was set on fire with an explosive. Livestream videos recorded at the scene showed the violent extremists working in an organized manner, such as using a large vigil banner to hide the rioters who torched the vehicle and grabbing large rocks from a shared bag to use as projectiles.
Tourists of ‘terror’
Some of those arrested represent the sort of professional leftist agitator who have popped up across the country after George Floyd’s death:
Francis Carroll, 22, of Maine
Carroll was already out on bail for a domestic-terrorism arrest at the Atlanta autonomous zone last month. He is the son of a multimillionaire family and hails from the wealthy Maine town of Kennebunkport — home to the vacation compound of former President George W. Bush and his relatives. Carroll, who lived in his parents’ mansion before going to Atlanta, was among six people arrested and charged with crimes including domestic terrorism and aggravated assault on Dec. 13, following a string of property attacks, a carjacking and assaults on officers. They were all bailed out by activists who crowdfunded their legal defense using Twitter.
Madeleine “Henri” Feola, 22, of Spokane, Wash.
Feola is a trans, nonbinary activist and 2022 alumna of Oberlin College, where they majored in archaeological studies with a focus Rioters spoiled for Atl. fight on decolonization. They’re from the wealthy Portland, Ore., suburb of Happy Valley before relocating to Spokane, Wash.
Feola wrote a February blog post for the American Scientist titled, “It’s Time to Stop Gatekeeping Medical Transition.”
Emily Kathryn Murphy, 37, of Gross Isle, Mich.
Murphy is a middle-class vegan activist who previously served Rioters spoiled for Atl. fight
as the at-large chair for the Chicago chapter of Al Gore’s “Climate Reality Project” organization before becoming further radicalized into eco-ideology.
“I have been vegan five and a half years now, and, no matter how much explaining I do, my own family still doesn’t fully understand what being vegan means,” Murphy complained once in a blog post for the group.
Ivan James Ferguson, 23, of Henderson, Nev.
Ferguson is an award-winning classically trained clarinettist who studied at the prestigious San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Before becoming radicalized, Ferguson regularly performed in classical concerts in California and his home state of Nevada. Rioters spoiled for Atl. fight
Explosive find
They’ve each been charged with: felony domestic terrorism, felony interference with government property, felony first-degree arson, felony second-degree criminal damage, riot, unlawful assembly, willful obstruction of a law enforcement officer and pedestrian in roadway.
At an emergency press conference following the riot, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens revealed a shocking discovery: “Some of them were found with explosives on them. You heard that correctly, explosives.”
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation and other law-enforcement agencies have tried multiple times to end the violent occupation of the woods. Yet militants have regrouped and continued to occupy the area, heeding the call shared on anarchist sites for comrades to “defend the Atlanta forest.”
At the first police raid in May, police were met with Molotov cocktails. The GBI also said it found gas masks and edged weapons at the raid.
Previously busted
Among those already arrested were more privileged protesters:
■Teresa Shen, 31, from Brooklyn, is the daughter of a pharma exec and graduated from Barnard College before working at Reuters and CNN, according to her LinkedIn.
She is charged with domestic terrorism. Her parents are wealthy expats from mainland China.
Her father reportedly runs a large consulting and media conglomerate for Chinese pharmaceuticals in New Jersey and her mother is a former British Foreign Office consultant.
■Abigail Elizabeth Skapyak of Minneapolis is a former Justice Department intern who graduated from American University. She was arrested on May 17.
■Marianna Hoitt-Lange, a violinist who graduated from New York University. She was arrested on May 17.
■Madeleine “Matthias” Gunther Kodat of Philadelphia, who was arrested on May 17, is the daughter of the former provost and dean of faculty at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wis.
In November, rioters tried to set on fire a man who had driven into the area.
“It seemed to me like they were going to burn the truck with me in it,” Richard Porter told 11Alive News at the time. He was forced to flee for his life as his truck was torched.
In early December, two underconstruction homes next to the occupation were burned to the ground. The same month, another raid resulted in six being arrested and charged with domestic terrorism.
Serena Hertal of Sun Valley, Idaho, was one of the militants charged with domestic terrorism, aggravated assault and criminal trespass. She graduated from Pitzer College, a private liberal-arts university in Claremont, Calif., with yearly costs of more than $82,000.
It’s spreading
In addition to the weekend violence in Atlanta over the shootout death of Teran, far-left sympathizers from around the country have held direct actions in solidarity and urged retributive violence.
“Scenes from the Atlanta Forest,” a collective that represents the autonomous zone, called for “reciprocal violence” against police in a heavily shared post on Twitter.
The nonbinary child of Democratic House Minority Whip Katherine Clark was arrested in Boston on Saturday for allegedly spray-painting a landmark bandstand and assaulting of an officer in solidarity with the Atlanta occupation.
Riley Dowell, 23, of Melrose, Mass., was charged with assault by means of a dangerous weapon, destruction of injury of personal property and damage of property by graffiti.
In Lansing, Mich., demonstrators on Saturday night vandalized a bank, writing, “Stop cop city.” Six were arrested.
A Portland UPS center was also reportedly set on fire Friday, according to an anonymous claim of responsibility shared on a local activist’s Instagram account.
“We call for more actions directly toward the companies that are donating to and funding the Cop City project in Atlanta. Forest defenders have a right to stay in the forest, and groups will continue to retaliate until the Cop City Project is canceled,” reads the anonymous statement.