Vandals targeted an Alabama construction company executive’s home in Mountain Brook last week, apparently because the company was hired to build a police training facility in a forested area near Atlanta.
According to reports, the home of Brasfield & Gorrie chairman M. Miller Gorrie was approached by the vandals on Friday morning, targeting two vehicles and some sculptures on the property.
Brasfield & Gorrie is the primary contractor for the 85-acre police training facility in Dekalb County, Ga.
The training facility was approved by the Atlanta City Council last year, and left-wing environmentalists have taken violent measures to stop it due to its location in the forested area southeast of the city.
Police told media that they are conducting a criminal investigation and investigating an initial charge of “harassing communications,” though no arrests have been made.
Activists claimed responsibility for the damage in an anonymous blog post on their site, titled “Scenes from the Atlanta Forest,” dated September 25.
“As you know, some of your jerkface colleagues have been visited by crowds of attractive noisy rabble-rousers during the daytime,” the post read. “We thought you might benefit from a nighttime visit instead … We redecorated just a bit. The walls looked better with a little pink so did that creepy statue. The Lexus and Mercedes in your driveway also screamed poor taste, so we splashed them with a gallon of lacquer thinner.”
The anonymous poster also claimed responsibility for etching genitals on Gorrie’s windshields and driver’s side window. He claimed to leave a message on his driveway, “c u soon,” and threatened to visit again if Gorrie’s company did not drop the contract.
Brasfield & Gorrie released a statement saying the incident was just the latest in a string of vandalisms and acts of harassment that have to do with the training facility.
A group of left-wing environmentalists known as “forest defenders” have been sabotaging machinery at the forested site where the training facility will be constructed.
Another anonymous poster from August 26 took credit for tampering with Brasfield & Gorrie construction equipment, cutting wires, gluing shut locks and filling water valves and exhaust pipes with foam. The post said the vandals wrote “STOP COP CITY” with red paint on the glass walls.
The term “cop city” is frequently used to refer to the training facility.
According to AL.com, the “forest defenders” have also thrown projectiles at contractors and police, including Molotov cocktails.
UPDATE 2:25 p.m.:
In a statement, Mountain Brook Police Department said there was an "active and ongoing investigation" into the vandalism.
"On September 23, 2022, the Mountain Brook Police Department was notified of an act of vandalism to a residence and two vehicles in the 50 block of Country Club Boulevard in Mountain Brook, AL," the statement read. "There, it was found that during the early hours of September 23rd, unknown person(s) damaged the residence, driveway and vehicles by the use of paint and paint thinners. It is believed that the person(s) responsible for the offense are associated with an environmental activist group. It has been reported that a group protesting Atlanta, Georgia’s police and fire training center has claimed responsibility. This is an active and ongoing investigation."
The department added, "Anyone with information pertaining to the crime is asked to call the Mountain Brook Police Department Detectives at 205-802-3856."
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