ATLANTA — Thursday night, a man on a video is seen slashing into tent after tent at a homeless encampment near Ebenezer Baptist Church.
The man yells that he wants the tents out of the street as he takes a box cutter to slice into the fabric, leaving gaping holes.
“They came to instill fear, and they did the right job,” Gus Hendricks, a resident at the encampment, said.
Residents say the man had a gun, and video shows the man wearing a shirt that read “enforcement” but admitted while destroying tents that he did not work for the city.
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“We already have nothing. Then you come in here and tear it up,” Gonzo Johnson, another resident, said.
Police say they are aware of the video, and Channel 2 Action News saw police asking questions to members of the encampment on Saturday.
However, this is far from the first issue this year for residents there.
In January, it was on this very street that Cornelius Taylor was killed by a city truck attempting to clear the encampment ahead of MLK Day festivities.
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“We were known as the city too busy to hate. Right now, we are looking like the city is too busy to love,” Reverend Nolan English said.
On Saturday, a mixture of clergy, attorneys, and advocates called for the man’s immediate arrest and protection for those who sleep on Atlanta’s streets.
“These are Atlanta citizens. That deserves protection. They deserve the right to live in peace,” Attorney Mawuli Davis said.
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