Paper with Financial Ties to “Cop City” Project Finally Finds an Outside Agitator It Likes: A Far-Right Troll

After years of parroting “outside agitator” narratives about protests against “Cop City” in Atlanta, local news media, including the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, an outlet owned by the James M. Cox Foundation, which has financially contributed to the Cop City project, seems to finally have found at least one outsider that it likes: a far-Right troll. 

On Monday, May 21st, local news channels and the AJC, reported on “dueling rallies” at Atlanta City Hall, and quoted far-Right grifter, Gabriel Nadales, as a supposed example of genuine on the ground support for the controversial facility.

But Nadales isn’t even from Georgia, much less an Atlanta native. A former paid Leadership Institute organizer and activist with Turning Point USA, a group known for pushing the white supremacist “Great Replacement” theory and playing a key role in mobilizing attendance at January 6th, Nadales actually originally hails from California and now works as the National Director of a right-wing foundation based in Virginia. Womp womp.

Nadales and members of his right-wing group held a small demonstration in support of Cop City on the steps of Atlanta City Hall, drawing out only around a dozen people. Without context, the AJC wrote that Nadales and his group “breathed new life into the debate” around the widely rejected counter-insurgency training facility that has faced stiff and continuous resistance from community, civil rights, and environmental groups. On the other side of City Hall, a much larger protest took place against the project, attended by people from the area, actually impacted by the proposed facility.

Starting in the Trump years, Nadales began to brand himself as a former “member” of “Antifa,” despite by his own admission, only attending a smattering of left-wing demonstrations around 2010 while in high school. According to Nadales, by the time of his graduation, he had quickly moved to the political Right and soon got a job with the Leadership Institute and the associated Young Americans for Liberty foundation.

An article by a right-wing website in 2016 makes no mention of Nadales as an “antifascist” or “Antifa,” and instead describes him as a former “progressive leftist activist.” As The College Fix wrote in 2016:

…Nadales, a field representative with the Leadership Institute and outreach director for the California Freedom Project…In high school, he was a progressive leftist activist. He said in an interview with The College Fix that one time he protested his high school’s boys vs. girls day by wearing a tutu and shirt declaring “this is what a feminist looks like.” In retrospect, Nadales said he was being foolish.

According to Left Coast Right Watch, an investigation into Nadales’ past found much of his claims to be dubious:

Nadales uses his supposed anti-fascist history as a means of legitimizing his rhetoric and advocating for greater penalties against leftists, but the proof of his involvement is scant. Nadales claims he was involved in “antifa” between 2010-2012. He uses photos from a single rally he supposedly attended in 2011 where he dressed in black bloc to stand against Neo-Nazis that had gathered in Pomona. Outside of these pictures, LCRW could find no more confirmation as to his involvement in the anti-fascist scene.

There are a few holes in Nadales’ story including his conflicting claims regarding the timeline of his introduction to the leftist movement. In a Fox Newsroom interview, he says he began his left wing activism in 2010 but his profile on The Leadership Institute’s website says he began in 2009, when he would have been 15 years old. Nadales also alleges he was part of the Anarchist Black Cross Federation of Orange County, but they released an official statement denying he was ever affiliated with them and noted that “ABCF-OC did not exist as a chapter until early 2018.”

Another local activist who has been organizing since at least 2011 and took a class with Nadales at Citrus College in 2014 said the same. The activist told LCRW that, by 2014, Nadales was entrenched in the libertarian group Young Americans for Liberty. Nadales was even involved with a lawsuit against the school on behalf of his YAL chapter at the time.

Sources in Southern California verified this information. The long-running anti-racist newspaper, Turning the Tide, stated that they had no knowledge of Nadales or his involvement in any kind of left-wing organizing in the area, as did the long running Anarchist Black Cross (ABC) of Los Angeles.

Nadales has attempted to turn a few months during high-school attending punk shows and left-wing events into a brand as a “former member” of “Antifa,” which has become a term on the Right used to describe a plethora of left-wing and anarchist organizing and activity. This is the same idiot that wrote a book about ‘Antifa,’ and warned, “A society that begins by banning words will end by banning books, and ideas themselves.” Golly gee, you dumb fuck. Several years after this turd of a book was published, the politicians backed by the groups Nadales works for are literally doing just that.

Media outlets, unwilling to both fact-check Nadales claims or even report on his connections to far-Right groups and mega-foundations, are thus treating him as a credible source. In Atlanta, recent reporting also presents Nadales and his latest AstroTurf endeavor as an example of grassroots, local support for Cop City – which clearly it is not.

Nadales has spent most of his political life working for big foundations that are backed by billionaires, pushing an ideology that attacks working people, the environment, and the poor. It’s no surprise then that he’s now attempting to rally support for Cop City, which is literally funded by massive elite foundations and corporations.

It is funny though that Nadales has attempted to pass himself off as a “libertarian” over the years – Milo Yiannopoulos tried to do the same – and now finds himself lock-step with the leadership of the Democratic party, which has even fought recently to squash a massive attempt by the local community to get a referendum on Cop City on the upcoming ballot. Apparently “liberty” means more money for the police state and people having no say over their day to day lives.

It’s also important for movements to understand what Nadales and his current group are attempting to do: mimic actual grassroots opposition to Cop City. By holding rallies and protests, wearing matching shirts, putting out statements to the press, and using neutral language that one normally wouldn’t find at a Turning Point conference – like Charlie Kirk’s recent racist rants against Black pilots – they’re attempting to not only hide their far-Right ideology, but also appeal to the same people those protesting Cop City are. They’re also hoping to come across as credible, grassroots supporters, when in reality they are backed and funded by the same corporate and ruling-class interests which are also pumping millions into Cop City.

What this ultimately shows is that those backing Cop City: the Atlanta Police Foundation, multi-national corporations, and both major political parties, are scared. They know that popular public opinion is against them, so they’re attempting to manufacture the mirage that they actually, do have support. The fact that it is coming from a far-Right troll all the way from California, is telling.