One of the people arrested last weekend for setting fire to a $90 million police training center has been identified as the transgender daughter of a North Carolina millionaire businessman.
James “Jamie” Mariscano, 29, was among Antifa rioters arrested Sunday night after burning construction vehicles and attacking police officers with fireworks and Molotov cocktails at the site of the future Atlanta Police Safety Training Center. booking documents show.
Mariscano is an outspoken advocate for the police force and is in her first year of law school at the North Carolina School of Law.
Her father, Michael Mariscano, was previously announced as Charlotte, North Carolina ‘most powerful person’ for running a $4 billion foundation.
Jamie is now being held without bail on domestic terrorism charges along with 21 of her cohorts for simply trying to defend the public forest.
James ‘Jamie’ Mariscano, 29, was arrested after fiery rioting at the site of a planned police training facility outside of Atlanta on Sunday
Rioters set fire to construction vehicles and attacked police officers with fireworks and Molotov cocktails on the grounds of the future Atlanta Police Safety Training Center
Jamie has publicly described himself as an advocate against the police dismantling the prison system.
A profile for the nearly 30-year-old at the National Lawyers Guild website describes her as a “queer and trans organizer from Charlotte, North Carolina.”
It says that before she went to law school this year, “Jamie partnered with Charlotte Uprising, a mutual aid collective, to create a community bail fund that raises money to bail people out of prison and support them through the courts, regardless of the charge.
“Jamie believes no one should be caged and dreams of a world where we can prevent and respond to harm in our communities without relying on prisons or police,” the profile continues.
She has previously obtained warrants for her arrests at other demonstrations in North Carolina, where her father is a well-known philanthropist.
Michael Mariscano served as president and CEO of the Foundation for the Carolinas — a Charlotte-based organization that encourages charitable giving and improves communities with civic leadership opportunities — for 23 years before retiring in January.
Michael was so respected by political leaders in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County that they proclaimed “Michael Mariscano Day” last October 24.
In a proclamation at the time, government officials cited his longstanding role as a region-wide fundraiser, raising half a billion dollars since 2019.
He also served on the Duke University Board of Trustees, the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce, and the UNC Charlotte Foundation.
Jamie, meanwhile, serves as a Haywood Burns fellow for the National Lawyers Guild, and works at the law firm of Habekah B Cannon, which she describes as “an explicit abolitionist, of public interest in the defense of criminals.”
Jamie has publicly described himself as an advocate against the police dismantling the prison system
Her father, Michael (pictured), is a respected philanthropist in Charlotte, North Carolina
It’s not clear when she traveled to the Weelaunee public forest outside of Atlanta to join other Antifa protesters for a “week of action” to protest the development of the police training center, which they have dubbed “Cop City.”
The week-long demonstrations would include a Friday night Jewish Shabbat service, herbal workshops, and a “know your rights” workshop.
And when the fiery riot broke out on Sunday evening, a Weelaunee Music Festival was scheduled for the protesters who have descended into the woods in recent months.
But while the music festival was going on, Atlanta police said in a statement, activists protesting the development of the training center in the Weelaunee Public Forest “put on black clothes, entered the construction site and started with large stones, stones to throw. , Molotov cocktails and fireworks at police officers.
“The agitators destroyed several construction equipment through fire and vandalism.
“Multiple law enforcement agencies have been deployed to the area and have detained several people who were committing illegal activities.
“The illegal actions of the agitators could have resulted in bodily harm and clearly do not reflect a peaceful demonstration. Fortunately, officers exercised sound judgment and restraint in conducting non-lethal enforcement and arrests.”
Police also released video Monday showing a mob of about 150 people wearing masks covering their faces marching through brush and forest around the proposed $90 million center before wreaking havoc and setting fire to a power line.
Police officers protecting the site were forced to distance themselves as the attackers overran the site and attacked machines. They were then pelted with stones and fireworks by the crooks.
Video released by the rioters themselves shows the mob setting fire to a temporary building
The violent protesters also set fire to vehicles using Molotov cocktails in the recently released propaganda video
Aerial footage of the riots shows the nearly 150 Antifa thugs marching on the grounds of the city’s Public Safety Training Center, dubbed “Cop City” by activists
The crazed thugs set fire to a power line after gaining access to the site they’ve dubbed ‘Cop City’
In the aftermath, 23 people were arrested, including Mariscano and Thomas Webb Jurgens, 28, a lawyer from the far-left Southern Poverty Law Center.
Jurgens joined the SPLC in September 2021, working on the Economic Justice Project, according to his LinkedIn page. He has also worked as an assistant attorney and as a legal intern at a US law firm in Florida.
Jurgens attended as a “legal observer on behalf of the National Lawyers Guild,” the SPLC said.
Another accused of domestic terrorism turned out to be the son of a New York plastic furniture magnate.
Mattia Luini, 30, whose late father Ivan Luini helped popularize high-end plastic furniture in the United States, was in custody Wednesday night. His mother owns a $2 million apartment.
Luini had told his mother, Martegani, that he would travel to Atlanta this weekend to attend a concert and “protest the development of the forest.”
Others charged include several serial protesters and a young dancer who recently turned to violent activism.
Thomas Webb Jurgens, 28, a lawyer for the far-left Southern Poverty Law Center, was also detained after violent clashes between police and protesters at the construction site. Left: his professional LinkedIn photo, right: Jurgens’ police photo
Mattia Luini, 30, the son of a plastic furniture magnate, was also arrested during the protests
The 23 Antifa ‘terrorists’ arrested after violent clashes at the construction site for an Atlanta police training center dubbed ‘Cop City’
They are now defending their actions, arguing that the 381 acres of Weelaunee Forest where the police training center is being built is “stolen Muscogee land” and that its creation would mean the destruction of wildlife and forestry.
The group even released their own two-minute video showing the mask-clad crowd in combat gear and hoodies, some of whom also wore makeshift shields, swarming the grounds.
It shows the rioters smashing the windows of a metal shack, setting vehicles on fire and hurling flares.
A description for the propaganda video, titled “Cop City Finds Out,” says that “a large group of forest rangers gathered and marched to the police city construction site.
Forest defenders set fire to construction equipment, a police station and destroyed barricades intended to keep people out of the forest.
“As smoke billowed from the smoldering ashes of their new training facility, police sealed off the park and began making arrests.
“As part of their ruthless crackdown, the police charged 23 people with domestic terrorism.”
It ended with the words, “Cop City will never be built.”
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