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Transient smacks SLO business owner in the face

April 28, 2015
Benjamin Mich Strickland

Benjamin Mich Strickland

A 39-year-old man allegedly struck a business owner on the 600 block of Higuera Street in downtown San Luis Obispo Tuesday afternoon.

Shortly before 3 p.m., Benjamin Mich Strickland allegedly hit the business owner in the mouth. The attacker then fled the area by foot, according to a San Luis Obispo Police Department news release.

Officers located the Strickland about three blocks away. Police say Strickland is a transient resident of San Luis Obispo who has a history of violent assaults in the downtown area.

On Tuesday, officers arrested Strickland for battery and booked him in San Luis Obispo County Jail. His bail is set at $2,000.

Strickland’s previous encounters with police included charges of assault with a deadly weapon and battery causing great bodily injury in 2013.


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Leeches. Don’t be fooled. They know exactly what they are doing.


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Some do and some are so disturbed that they can’t think beyond the moment if they can think rationally at all. I don’t know where this jerk falls between those options but I do know that reason rarely works with someone who can’t reason well whether due to mental illness or the influence of hard drugs.


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Please continue to cater to these bums,crapslo needs to hurry up and build their 200 bed bum hotel so more will come and share the good life we the taxpayer shell out.How about a bus ticket back to where these people come from,stop catering to them.


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These bums have wrecked downtown, they have wrecked public parks, our neighborhoods are next. Do not give money to these filthy disgusting bums, Treat them with the disgust and disdain they deserve. if they can’t survive here, they will leave.


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I agree that giving money directly to them is usually not helpful and often harmful. That said, not all the people who look like “bums” cause problems. How do you differentiate so that you can get rid of the bad ones? Having assault convictions wouldn’t be a bad start but that is only the nasty tip of the iceberg.


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“Strickland’s previous encounters with police included charges of assault with a deadly weapon and battery causing great bodily injury in 2013.”


So, this begs the question (and unfortunately we already know the answer) why is this creep out on the streets in the first place? Because of realignment and now of course Prop 47, which I believe will turn out to be one of the greatest mistakes the California voters ever made. I foresee that after several years of enduring this type of thing from people who should have been incarcerated, the pendulum will swing the other way with a vengeance, and the voters will demand that these guys be locked up and the key thrown away. If I’m wrong, well then we will all have to accept that the price of going out our doors to conduct normal business is that we will have a high risk of being assaulted by guys like this. And then we all will have allowed ourselves to have our expectations ratcheted down, and when the next bleeding heart brainstorm comes along, like forcing homeowners to house the homeless, the sheeple will just go along. I pray that people will wake up.


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If he has a “history” of violent attacks downtown shouldn’t all the businesses downtown have pictures of this clown? Or are there just too many of them for that to be effective?


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Okay, so you own a business and have his picture up. You recognize him when he walks in. NOW WHAT? Are you going to call the police (who have already released him on multiple previous occasions)? Are you going to (GASP!!) refuse service to him? Some alliance will BBQ your business in the social media circuit and / or vandalize your place. So what, really, would you do?


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Every business should have a nice 45 under their counter! That might be a deterrent.


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No surprise. We have been on the main SF to LA coastal route for “hobos” since the railroad was pushed through town in 1894. However our naive residents encouraged the drug infested transient “cruzers” between Santa Cruz and Santa Barbara when they began feeding them in Mission Plaza. I’m not talking about pigeons.


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With Summer fast approaching he probably just wanted his annual shower at the Slo county’s Bed and breakfast. The homeless version of a free staycation.


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$2,000 bail? Really????????? Uh Hello? Bus ticket to hell.


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Should be one way bus ticket to Mexico!


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uh, hello? BUS TICKET to Santa Cruz. Wake up SLOPD.


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tax, for the SLOPD to wake up, they would have to CARE about quality of life, keeping SLO thugs at bay. Give it up; they don’t appear to give a crap beyond a little, occasional and spotty work.


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I don’t think the police are to blame here. They are limited in what they can do by laws and policies which come from above. I have my issues with cops on some things but handling the homeless is a “no-win” for them in the current situation.


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