Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp issued a state of emergency Thursday authorizing the use of up to 1,000 members of the Georgia National Guard for a 15-day period after protests in downtown Atlanta turned violent over the weekend.
The governor's office wrote that demonstrations following the police killing of a local protestor grew dangerous when "masked activists threw rocks, launched fireworks and burned a police vehicle in front of the Atlanta Police Foundation office building."
The unrest came days after environmental activist Manuel Esteban Paez Teran, who went by the name Tortuguita, was shot and killed as authorities cleared a small group of protesters from the site of a planned Atlanta-area public safety training center that activists have dubbed “Cop City.” The 26-year-old non-binary individual, who used they/it pronouns, was accused of shooting and injuring a state trooper.
But there has been backlash after Saturday's demonstrations were deemed “violent,” with one political communications professional arguing that violence constitutes harm to a human being, not damaging property.
After the "Stop Cop City” protests in Atlanta came to a fiery end, Marisa Pyle, a senior rapid response manager at Fair Fight Action — a voting rights nonprofit run by former Georgia state Rep. Stacy Abrams — who also worked as a senior manager for Abrams' One Georgia leadership committee during her most recent gubernatorial run said in a tweet that’s now private that, “you cannot commit violence against a window or a car. Killing a human? Now that, that is violence."
The U.S. penal code defines a crime of violence as “(a) an offense that has as an element the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against the person or property of another" or “(b) Any other offense that is a felony and that, by its nature, involves a substantial risk that physical force against the person or property of another may be used in the course of committing the offense.”
The National Desk's Dee Dee Gatton spoke with both an activist and a legal expert to get answers about how this applies to the events that took place in Atlanta.
Trial attorney Karen Conti said she disagrees with Pyle's statement.
“It’s legally inaccurate because violence can even be the threat of physical force and again physical force doesn’t have to be against a person, it can be against a car or a wall or a store,” said Conti.
Pyle added that she feels Atlanta’s leaders are prioritizing "protecting property while our people are murdered by their police." Conti says there are different levels and categories of violence ranging from threats to money, domestic and physical violence and while hurting and killing a person is more serious than breaking property, it’s still illegal.
Barnett says he has been at chaotic, sometimes deadly protests nationwide. He says he doesn’t agree with Pyle's tweet but understands what could lead a person to damage property when they feel there is no change.
“That’s what I get from a lot of people, is that they’re tired, frustrated,” national civil rights activist John C. Barnett said. “We’ve had riots here in Charlotte — Keith Scott's case — windows broken, downtown hotels, different stores.”
Gov. Kemp quickly denounced the violence and thanked responding officers, tweeting, “Violence and unlawful destruction of property are not acts of protest. They are crimes that will not be tolerated in Georgia and will be prosecuted fully.”
Many activists say while the anger over police brutality is understandable, they continue to encourage non-violent forms of protest as a better way to make an impact.
“Busting out a window putting a cop car on fire and someone losing their life does not bring back justice,” Barnett said.
Conti further points out that she thinks perhaps a failure to prosecute is allowing people to think what they’re doing is okay.
The National Desk reached out to Fair Fight Action Group. This story will be updated if a comment is provided.