A nonprofit with millions of dollars allegedly raised cash for the militants to buy ammunition and surveillance equipment.
Flock Safety’s business motto is: “To solve crime, you need evidence.” The Atlanta-based “all-in-one” security technology company boasts major police departments as clients for its license plate-reading camera technology.
On Tuesday, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr alleged in a 109-page domestic terror and felony RICO indictment that one of the 61 suspects used his employment at the security company to provide sensitive security information to his violent co-conspirators.
“On June 6, 2022, WILLIAM BUDDEN WARREN, while employed with Flock, did provide locations of future Flock camera installations so that Defend the Atlanta Forest members could avoid detection,” reads the indictment. “This would allow Defend the Atlanta Forest members to further occupy the forest. This is an overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy.”
If true, the implications are serious. Carr alleges that dozens of mostly out-of-state suspects—and at least three known foreign suspects—are members of the “Defend the Atlanta Forest” group, a network of “anarchist, anti-police, and anti-business” violent extremists who have organized acts of violence, intimidation and property destruction in Georgia and other states since 2020 to stop the construction of a future first responder training facility.
Through an occupation of a forested public area south of Atlanta lasting nearly two years, members of the group cut the safety rope of an arborist, torched millions of dollars of construction equipment, held a civilian at gunpoint, set up potentially deadly booby traps, hurled firebombs at responding police and engaged in other acts of violence.
By Andy Ngo
