Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) attorney Thomas Webb Jurgens was charged with domestic terrorism on Monday for violently protesting against the construction of a new police facility in Atlanta.
Jurgens was one of 23 people arrested and charged with domestic terrorism after a music festival devolved into a violent protest against a police training site on Sunday, according to local outlet WSBTV. (RELATED: More Than 20 Charged With Domestic Terrorism After Fiery Police Site Attack)
One of the Antifa members arrested on domestic terrorism charges in Atlanta last night is a staff attorney with the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The FBI has historically used the SPLC as a source for who should be considered domestic terrorists. pic.twitter.com/y5isk5AHaq
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) March 6, 2023
Jurgens is a staff attorney for the SPLC’s economic justice project and obtained his law degree from the University of Georgia, his LinkedIn profile says. He is an active member of the Georgia bar and the Florida bar, based on publicly available profiles, which include his middle name.
Atlanta police say the rioters were dressed in black clothing and threw Molotov cocktails, large rocks, bricks and fireworks at police officers, destroying multiple pieces of construction equipment. Officers deployed non-lethal methods to quell the riot and arrested more than 30 individuals, per authorities.
Multiple people have already been charged with domestic terrorism for since December for violently protesting the $90 million police training site, dubbed “Cop City” by progressive activists, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) reported.
Activists have been protesting against the site since 2020, and some allegedly occupied the publicly-owned forest land for over a year until a standoff with police led to them being cleared out.
SPLC is a left-wing civil rights organization and a watchdog group that monitors alleged hate and extremist groups. The group says its endowment was $731.9 million at the end of the previous fiscal year.
The Southern Poverty Law Center did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller’s request for comment. Jurgens could not be reached for comment.