Not long after coming to Portland for a report on the city and its struggles with a “super meth” crisis, the TV series “Vice” again heads to the Pacific Northwest for Sunday’s episode. In a segment called “Charged With Terror,” “Vice” correspondent Vegas Tenold interviews left-wing activists involved with the “Cop City” protest in Georgia, and members of a Washington state branch of the right-wing Three Percenters movement.
(The “Vice” episode, “Charged With Terror & Ukraine’s Stolen Children,” airs at 8 p.m. Sunday, June 25 on Showtime. You can stream the series via Paramount Plus with Showtime, which offers a seven-day free trial.)
In the first part of the segment, Tenold goes to Atlanta, where he reports on the “Stop Cop City” protests that have been going on since 2021. As the Associated Press reports, the dispute involves the proposed construction of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center in a forested area that opponents have dubbed “Cop City.”
According to the Associated Press story, supporters argue that the center is needed to help in efforts to hire and retain police officers. Opponents allege that the center will, as the AP story says, “lead to greater militarization of the police,” and argue “that its construction will exacerbate environmental damage in a poor, majority-Black area.”
In his report, Tenold discusses how Georgia laws have made it easier to charge protesters with domestic terrorism, which he says is “fueling a debate over what separates political dissent from terrorism in the eyes of the law.”
Tenold interviews a protester who is among the more than 40 people who have so far been arrested in Georgia on charges including domestic terrorism. He also interviews Sherry Boston, DeKalb County District Attorney. Tenold asks Boston about the law that relates to domestic terrorism, and points out that it has been criticized by civil rights organizations as having a “chilling effect on activism and protest.”
“We’re not talking about people holding signs,” Boston says. “We’re talking about potentially people throwing incendiary devices, rocks, setting things on fire. There’s a huge distinction between those two.”
Tenold asks her if a domestic terrorism suspect needs to have actually caused harm to face such charges, and wonders when protest activities might cross into an area where domestic terrorism charges are warranted.
“It’s not just about an event and people,” Boston says. “It’s about, is this felonious act aimed specifically to cause economic loss or destroy a government facility or critical infrastructure? And we’re seeing that happen in various places over the country.”
As an update, on June 23, as WABE radio reports, Boston announced “that her office is withdrawing from all cases related to the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center that opponents have dubbed ‘Cop City.’ This includes domestic terrorism and related charges for approximately 42 people arrested during demonstrations against the center.”
In an interview with WABE, Boston cited what she described as “fundamentally different prosecution philosophies” between her and the office of Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, which has concurrent jurisdiction with the county over the cases. As WABE reports, Carr’s office now will be the sole agency to oversee prosecution of the 42 protesters.
After reporting on the cases in Georgia, the “Vice” segment then notes that more states are instituting terrorism statutes.
Discussing domestic terrorism laws developed to combat the rise of ideologically motivated violence which, Tenold says, is on the rise in the U.S., especially from the right, he notes, “The label terrorism often gets used as a political tool. No part of the country has seen more politically charged anger than the Pacific Northwest.”
Tenold cites a bill introduced in the Washington legislature that would create a domestic violence extremism commission, to “strengthen the state’s ability to respond to domestic terror.”
Expanding on that, Tenold travels to Washington state to, as he says, “meet a patriot group that’s concerned that these new laws might get them labeled as domestic terrorists.”
Tenold accompanies Matt Marshall, founder of the Washington state Three Percenters, a right-wing group that, Tenold says, has a history of showing up at protests with guns.
At a camp where other Three Percenters members are gathered, Marshall says a Washington law about domestic terrorism would “put a magnifying glass” over one political side, and ignore the other one.
Tenold closes the segment by noting that the rise of “extremist violence” within the U.S. “deserves a forceful response. But when we use the word ‘terrorist’ about ideological or political opponents, the impact is profound.”
The “Vice” episode featuring the segment, “Charged With Terror,” airs at 8 p.m. Sunday, June 25, on Showtime.
— Kristi Turnquist
503-221-8227; kturnquist@oregonian.com; @Kristiturnquist
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