Fact Check: Protesters Did NOT Steal Tanks In Atlanta During Protests

Fact Check

  • by: Dana Ford
Fact Check: Protesters Did NOT Steal Tanks In Atlanta During Protests Music Video

Did protesters steal military tanks during demonstrations in Atlanta in June 2020? No, that's not true. The armored vehicles seen in a viral video were apparently part of a music video production, unrelated to the protests.

The claim was made alongside a video (archived here) posted by hoodsite.com on June 5, 2020. The title of that video read:

Protesters Steal Tanks And Bring Them Back To The Hood in East Atlanta

This is what social media users saw:

Protesters Steal Tanks And Bring Them Back To The Hood In East Atlanta

Posted by Hoodsite on Friday, June 5, 2020

The claim was also posted on Twitter by conservative commentator Jon Miller, who has close to 80,000 followers. Here is a screen grab of his original post, which has been deleted from his feed.image.png

Miller later apologized for sharing the video on Twitter.

Atlanta authorities similarly say the tanks in the video were unrelated to recent protests, which have exploded in the wake of George Floyd's death. Floyd, an African American man, died after a white police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.

Officer Steven Avery, a spokesman with the Atlanta Police Department, spoke to Heavy, a U.S.-based news site. Avery said that the video in question shows what "appears to be a music production," according to Heavy, which also reported that police are not investigating the incident.

Lead Stories reached out to the Atlanta Police Department for comment. Police have not yet responded to the request.

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  Dana Ford

Dana Ford is an Atlanta-based reporter and editor. She previously worked as a senior editor at Atlanta Magazine Custom Media and as a writer/ editor for CNN Digital. Ford has more than a decade of news experience, including several years spent working in Latin America.

Read more about or contact Dana Ford

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