Southern Poverty Law Center insists lawyer arrested on ‘Cop City’ terrorism charges was ‘legal observer’

It Southern Poverty Law Center After he was nearing being charged with domestic terroristic felony, he defended one its employees attorneys. AtlantaGeorgia after violent protest over the establishment of a center for training police officers.

Thomas Webb Jurgens (staff attorney), was among 23 people arrested for domestic terrorist on Sunday. He was accused of rioting in opposition to the $90 million construction of a police training centre across 85 acres of DeKalb County. The center has been called “Activists’.” “Cop City.” Police arrest 35 suspects, including Atlanta Police Chief Darin Shierbaum describing the incident As a “very violent attack” Protesters were seen launching large-scale fireworks at each other and Molotov cocktails.

SPLC ATTORNEY AMONG 23 FACING DOMESTIC TERRORISM CHARGES AFTER ‘COP CITY’ PROTEST

“An employee at the SPLC was arrested while acting — and identifying — as a legal observer on behalf of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG). The employee is an experienced legal observer, and their arrest is not evidence of any crime, but of heavy-handed law enforcement intervention against protesters,” SPLC wrote in statement Monday evening

“This is part of a months-long escalation of policing tactics against protesters and observers who oppose the destruction of the Weelaunee Forest to build a police training facility,” They added it. “The SPLC has and will continue to urge de-escalation of violence and police use of force against Black, Brown and Indigenous communities — working in partnership with these communities to dismantle white supremacy, strengthen intersectional movements and advance the human rights of all people.”