1 of 4 | House Committee of Homeland Security members are demanding answers from top national security officials over their agencies’ response to last month's attack on the future site of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, dubbed "Cop City." Photo courtesy Atlanta Police Department
April 24 (UPI) -- House committee members are demanding answers from Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and FBI Director Christopher Wray over their agencies' response to recent anti-law enforcement violence in Atlanta.
House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green, R-Tenn., and committee members Reps. August Pfluger, R-Texas, and Dan Bishop, R-N.C., sent a letter Monday to Mayorkas and Wray about their agencies' response to what police called a "coordinated attack" on the future site of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, dubbed by staunch opponents as "Cop City."
The letter is asking Mayorkas and Wray to provide a briefing on the attacks by May 4 and to notify the committee if the FBI determines any of the suspects committed federal crimes.
The letter also requests all documents related to the site, including threat assessments and any information DHS and the FBI had before the attack.
Atlanta police said "violent agitators," dressed in black, vandalized and set fire to several pieces of construction equipment at the site last month and threw rocks, bricks, Molotov cocktails and fireworks at officers.
"On March 5, 2023, the Atlanta Police Department arrested 35 suspected violent extremists who carried out the attack. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation later charged 23 of those arrested with domestic terrorism under Georgia state law," the letter said.
"According to the Atlanta Police Department, only two of the suspected anarchists live in Georgia. The remaining offenders traveled from various states across the country, suggesting a nationally coordinated, organized and developed plan of attack," the letter added.
Several weeks after the attack, authorities in Georgia had to close a park near the site of the planned police training center after they said they found dangerous items, including boards with nails in them.
"Unfortunately, these extremist tactics and violent acts resemble the sustained violence by anarchists and violent left-wing extremists in 2020 when they vandalized and destroyed federal property in Portland, Ore."
"Notably, one of the individuals charged with domestic terrorism at the site of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center is an employee of the Southern Poverty Law Center, a biased and partisan far-left non-profit organization," the letter said.
"Following the violent attack, the SPLC released a statement denouncing the employee's arrest and calling for soft-on-crime policies. This statement is concerning as the Department of Homeland Security and FBI have cited and relied upon SPLC's opinions for official products, raising serious questions about those products' objectivity and impartiality," the committee members wrote.
Mayorkas and Wray have not responded to the letter.
