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Video of person being dragged by officer during protest surfaces online, APD responds

By Nefertiti Jaquez
By Nefertiti Jaquez

ATLANTA — All Out Atlanta has posted a protest montage on its social media pages. They said it shows Atlanta police assaulting protesters on July 4.

The edited video shows a person being dragged by an Atlanta police officer before being arrested.

The group posted that it had been peacefully protesting immigration policy. APD said there was nothing peaceful about what happened around 9:30 p.m. Wednesday night.

Atlanta police officials said their officers acted appropriately when they broke up what they called a violent protest.

"We did not have to use batons, pepper spray, tasers to make the arrests. It was merely placing individuals under arrest while being resisted as we attempted to do so," Major Darin Schierbaum told Channel 2 Action News.

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Officers said they asked the protesters to move to the sidewalk if they wanted to keep protesting.

They said the confrontation started after 50 people spilled into the streets and blocked traffic on Edgewood Avenue.

Schierbaum, who is also the commander for Zone 5, said as soon as the march started, it was deemed to be unsafe. He said the protesters disregarded traffic laws.

"Then things began to escalate. Those individuals began to throw objects at our patrol vehicles, kick our patrol vehicles. We had one or more individuals set off smoke bombs in the area, adding to our safety concerns," Schierbaum said.

In the end, six protesters were led away in handcuffs.

"Was there any policy violations? We aren't aware of any. If there are, we will address them," Schierbaum said.

The Atlanta Police Department said they are currently pulling footage from city cameras and bodycams from the officers who were there to piece together exactly what happened.

Channel 2 Action News contacted All Out Atlanta for comment and asked to see their raw footage, but they never got back to us.

Cox Media Group

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