The Georgia Bureau of Investigation has released information on some out-of-state protesters with histories of prior civil unrest who were arrested during recent demonstrations in Atlanta over police brutality and racial injustice.
But the agency has declined so far to identify specific groups believed to be participating in the protests, despite recent public comments from top officials including Gov. Brian Kemp and GBI Director Vic Reynolds that groups with violent intent have infiltrated protesting crowds.
Most of the roughly 370 people arrested in Atlanta in protests last Friday through Monday were Georgia residents, with 57 people from out of state, according to a GBI analysis released Thursday.
Of those out-of-state arrestees, around 30 had previous arrests and charges potentially linked to past protests, and at least 10 were bonded out of jail by one person who lives in a different state, the analysis says.
The analysis did not disclose whether those arrested persons had ties to any organized extremist groups or information on which groups have attended protests in the state from Atlanta to Savannah since Friday.
“At this point, we’re not ready to release [information] on groups as much is still being verified and analyzed,” said Nelly Miles, GBI’s public affairs director.
Reynolds told WSB-TV the GBI plans to “do a deeper analysis” with federal authorities to pinpoint the presence of groups in the protests before releasing details.
“Anecdotally, we’re confident that there were groups present here that we expected to be here,” Reynolds said.
Largely peaceful protests over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis last week have been marred at times by bouts of property destruction and clashes with police that many top officials have traced to the influence of organized extremist groups and out-of-state agitators.
Officials including President Donald Trump have partly attributed the spurts of violence to “Antifa” supporters, signifying the far-left, anarchist element of the “anti-fascist” movement seen often at protests on police violence and at the removal of Confederate monuments in recent years.
But in Georgia, the only group to be officially identified as protesting in the state is the extremist “Boogaloo” movement, which has been tied to some far-right militia and white supremacist groups.
The term “Boogaloo” is associated largely with some far-right militia groups in favor of armed opposition to government-led attempts at constraining gun ownership, as well as some white supremacists who view the phrase as code for a future race war, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
Meanwhile, many influential public figures have condemned the response by local, state and federal authorities to use tear gas, rubber bullets and other crowd deterrents on protesters across the country. Kemp has defended the practice in Georgia, arguing illegal acts seen in protests “put us in a bad spot” as law enforcement seeks to preserve public order.