ATLANTA (AP) – The majority of people who gathered Tuesday in Atlanta to protest the Ferguson, Missouri, grand jury decision were peaceful, but a small splinter group caused trouble by blocking an interstate, the mayor said Wednesday.
Students at Atlanta’s historically black schools held a peace rally and a march Tuesday afternoon, and then about 1,000 people gathered in downtown Atlanta for a demonstration in the evening, Mayor Kasim Reed said. It was as that downtown demonstration broke up around 10 p.m. that a group of about 150 people broke off and headed for the interstate, Reed said.
The protests were organized and attended by people frustrated and angry with the decision not to indict the police officer who fatally shot Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old in Ferguson.
Atlanta police arrested 24 people, mostly on disorderly conduct charges, but one person faces a felony aggravated assault charge for pointing a pistol, Atlanta police Chief George Turner said. The Georgia State Patrol arrested two people on the downtown connector, where interstates 75 and 85 come together and run through the city.
Two journalists were among the five people arrested by Atlanta police on the interstate, and Turner said police were prepared to dismiss those charges.
One Georgia state trooper was injured when he was hit in the neck by a lit traffic flare thrown by a protester, according to the State Patrol. The trooper was treated and released from the hospital, and the protester was arrested.
Nine to 11 property damage reports were filed. They included damage to a taxi, windows broken at Meehan’s Public House restaurant and a Wells Fargo bank branch, and rocks thrown at police cars, Reed said.
“I want everybody in our city to understand that I fully support protesting, certainly among our young people,” Reed said, adding that he was proud of those who were peaceful. “But you have to do it in a way that doesn’t place other people at risk. And don’t be mad at the police for preventing you from destroying other folks’ property.”
The group that broke off and headed for the interstate seemed at times to be moving aimlessly through the city, Turner said. Police aren’t sure who most of the people in that group were, and Turner said there didn’t seem to be a clear leader.
Rather than having walls of officers preventing people from going in any direction, including toward the interstate, police tried to place officers strategically with the ability to ramp up if possible, Reed said. The mayor praised Turner’s strategy to “use available force with a light touch.”
“I’m not going to have the city of Atlanta look like it’s under martial law,” Reed said.
Reed said he was disappointed with some media coverage of the protests that he said focused on the relatively small group of troublemakers and didn’t give enough attention to the majority of demonstrators who were peaceful.
Atlanta police are monitoring social media and are ready for any more protests in the coming days, Turner said, adding that officers have had their vacation days and off days canceled and are working 12-hour shifts.