ATLANTA — Georgia State Patrol vehicles were escorting state National Guard troops in downtown Atlanta Friday as the nation braced for the release of a video that is said to show the arrest of a Tennessee man beaten by police.
Tennessee Bureau of Investigation was set to release the video of Tyre Nichols' traffic stop on Friday. The footage, captured on Jan. 7, has been described by investigators and Tennessee authorities as disturbing as it reveals the brutal and questionable use of force by five Memphis police officers. Nichols died days after the traffic stop; the officers are now accused of his death and have been fired from the force.
As word of organized protests was said to be planned in downtown Atlanta, troops were headed down Baker Street Friday evening where several businesses shuttered their doors early. The area is near Centennial Olympic Park and World of Coca-Cola.
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Gov. Brian Kemp on Thursday declared a state of emergency before the video's anticipated release. His order made 1,000 Georgia National Guard troops readily available to respond to "unlawful assemblage, overt threats of violence, disruption of the peace, and danger existing to persons and property." It is set to run through Feb. 9 until 11:59 p.m.
Though the order has no mention of how a national case is playing out in the public nearly 400 miles away in Memphis, Kemp's declaration does point to last weekend's protest in downtown Atlanta that left a police car burned and several buildings damaged.
The protesters last weekend initially gathered at Underground Atlanta to demonstrate against the law enforcement shooting death of Manuel Esteban Paez Teran, an individual known as Tortuguita who was among those living in long-term tree encampments in the South River Forest as a protest against a future Atlanta Police training center to be built there.
The site, dubbed "Cop City" by opponents, had been subjected to clearing operations by law enforcement off and on for months before one such operation on Jan. 18 resulted in the shooting of a Georgia State Patrol trooper and the death of Tortuguita.
Last weekend's protests were brief demonstrations of violence, however, several metro Atlanta law enforcement agencies are anticipating the community to have an emotional response to video of Nichols' arrest.