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San Luis Obispo protesters smash glass on 4-year-old child

July 22, 2020

Tianna Arata standing on a highway barrier

By KAREN VELIE

Participants in a Black Lives Matter protest in San Luis Obispo on Tuesday turned violent smashing a car window onto a four-year-old child and damaging the hood of the car. Protesters repeatedly refused to let people walk or drive where they wanted to go, at times screaming profanities.

Near the end of the protest, San Luis Obispo police officers arrested 20-year-old Tianna Isis Arata, the organizer of the protest, and 22-year-old Elias Bautista.

After the City of San Luis Obispo learned Arata was planning a protest, Police Chief Deanna Cantrell contacted Arata who claimed the event at Mitchell Park would be peaceful, police said. As a result, the city did not have officers blocking entrances to the highway.

Shortly after 5 p.m., approximately 300 protesters marched through the downtown area. The protesters then walked onto Highway 101, blocking all lanes in both directions for nearly an hour. While on the freeway, protesters smashed the rear window of a car with a 4-year-old child in the back seat. Glass shattered on the boy.

Protesters marched back onto city streets, confronting drivers along the way. Protesters stopped and surrounded a vehicle at Monterey Street and California Boulevard. Protesters also chased several other vehicles as they marched.

The protesters then stopped to watch Arrata toss a partially burnt American flag on the ground and stomp on it.

Tianna Arata, in the center, stomping on a burnt flag

In a video Arrata posted on Instagram, Chief Cantrell texts Arata during the march to tell her about the broken window and that, “Trust goes both ways Tianna.”

“F**K Deanna,” Tianna responded.

Officers arrested Arata shortly after the protest concluded.

 

Officers booked Arata in the San Luis Obispo County Jail on charges of participation in a riot, unlawful assembly, conspiracy, unlawful imprisonment and resisting arrest. The decision to arrest Arata was made in coordination with the District Attorney’s Office, police said.

During the arrest of Arata, Bautista allegedly assaulted a police officer, who suffered minor injuries. Officers booked Bautista in the San Luis Obispo County Jail on charges of attempting to deter an officer from doing his job, and for attempting to take a person from the lawful custody of a peace officer.

The back seat of the car that the 4-year-old child was in

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Emergency vehicles were also prevented from reaching the nearby hospital due to the congestion these selfish protesters created.


Each protester (turned domestic terrorist while blocking public transit) should be personally sued for the harm caused by the delay if it impacted one’s health (or delayed frozen goods, or other time necessary deliveries like human blood, organs, etc).


108

No they weren’t, where’s your proof? Emergency vehicles don’t typically use the freeway in SLO anyway and they’re alerted by the police when there are traffic stalls caused by protests. When the police saw that protesters were heading towards the freeway they informed emergency services so they knew in advance too… Idk where you got that idea from, did you just think it up or something?


-55

Someday these petulant little revolutionary wannabes will look back on this season of life and shake their heads. “How NOT to get people on your side”, yep they are writing the book. On another note, SLO should be getting their act together. These events will eventually evolve into violence and people get hurt. Arrest, prosecute, incarcerate. NO ONE has the right to do what they are doing. I do not care about the “CAUSE”. In the expressions against racism, they are the extreme…in fact THEY ARE RACISTS themselves. And don’t get me started about the Rainbow Unicorn Queen Harmon. The Mayor is in way over her head. This needs to be stopped cold.


250

Spot on Aye! Spot on….


87

Ummmmm, the only instances of violence during protests in SLO were with the protesters as victims or with people not at the protests taking advantage of the busy police department. There’s videos on Instagram and YouTube of the car driving into the protesters probably intending to hurt or kill them. The smashed window was an attempt to get the car to back off, self defense if you will.


-50

Convenient that the video only shows the aftermath of the incident. Feel free to post a video that shows more than the vehicle speeding away. Looked like a reaction out of fear, mobs can cause that. Your right of peaceful protest does not override public access to public roads. Your rights and opinions don’t overshadow the rights of others. Until you and your group come to terms with this your cause will go nowhere.


21

What a crock of jelly, the police should have used their brains and had more on hand to deal with this since the Chief found out about it, these people do not belong blocking our city streets and do not belong on the highway, they should have all been arrested for unlawful assembly and jailed, this city can not turn into Portland, this needs to be stopped locally and now.


122

I mean in the article it even shows that they had tiannas number. I don’t think they “found out about it” it’s more like they were told? Also protests are organized on public platforms online…… It doesn’t really take a lot of smarts to figure it out. Also streets are historically pretty good places to protest. Look at the civil rights movement for example.


-57

Ever do an event downtown? You have to get a permit, do a safety plan ..etc. Didn’t seem like this event did anything like that. I appreciate that SLOPD arrested them after the fact, however, if this was a March For Life or anything else, it would have been shut down before it started marching down streets if there was no permit. If SLOPD had done that, we wouldn’t have a traumatized 4 year old boy right now.This is not a “protest”. This is more a cult meeting.


229

This is purely speculation, but it seems like the SLOPD was exercising their best discretion by waiting until the protest ended before arresting the organizer, because to stop it anytime sooner might have escalated the outrage of some of the more outspoken protesters.


30

Their outrage already knows no bounds. The law enforcement authorities should have used force to immediately break up the protest when it started going bad.


55

Give an inch and they take a mile. Got to nip it in the bud from the beginning. Protest peacefully and lawfully or go to jail period. I’m all for the cause but you’re losing my support when you do things like this.


13

To be fair that 4 year old boy wouldn’t be traumatized if his parent hadn’t tried to hit protesters with their car. There’s videos of the car speeding into the crowd on YouTube and Instagram if you don’t believe me.


-45

Learn the law.


§ 21954. Pedestrians outside crosswalks

(a) Every pedestrian upon a roadway at any point other than within a marked crosswalk or within an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection shall yield the right-of-way to all vehicles upon the roadway so near as to constitute an immediate hazard.


§ 21956. Pedestrian on roadway

(a) No pedestrian may walk upon any roadway outside of a business or residence district otherwise than close to his or her left-hand edge of the roadway.


(b) A pedestrian may walk close to his or her right-hand edge of the roadway if a crosswalk or other means of safely crossing the roadway is not available or if existing traffic or other conditions would compromise the safety of a pedestrian attempting to cross the road.


You had no permit to assemble and march, and yet you want the protection of the law while you are breaking it. The driver of that vehicle had every right to turn through the intersection. Go back and look at that Youtube video, the protesters are in the middle of the intersection not in a defined crosswalk, see 21954. Additionally the main mass of protesters was a city block away from the incident. Those few people ahead of the group as well as the body of the mob itself were breaking the law.


14

Enough already! These so-called “peaceful” protests have devolved into dangerous and damaging riots, whether they be in SLO, Seattle, Portland, ad nauseum. What started as peaceful free speech exercises of democracy have quickly become emblematic of anarchy and mob rule. At a time when our small businesses are already hurting and our public agency budgets are running on fumes to keep up with police overtime, the last thing we need is more of this manufactured chaos. To quote John Lennon “Give peace a chance!”


92

TKG I really don’t understand your comments. Isn’t the world a cheerier place with people wearing masks and starting their autonomous zones and occupied protests? Rioting and looting can been seen as positive, happy, cheerful events if you are inclined. So we have to sacrifice a bunch of middle class businesses and make the whole area look depressing. We are clearly headed in a direction that will America more equal, equal with a third world country.


35

Except this chocolate_addict…..it’s San Luis Obispo. About the only prejudice that may exist is for the poor schmuck with a masters degree who bumps the struggling high school junior out of his burger flipping gig. You CAN’T tell me there’s tons of racism here it just doesn’t exist.


Not to mention our police force. They’re as nice as they can be strolling the streets in their shorts and on bicycles…..are they really scary to you? If so, quit being a worthless criminal and move back to L.A. or some bigger city where you can jump around and complain that you’re tired after 10 minutes of chanting.


19

Yeah, kinda tired of subcommenting everyone but gotta say it. The protesters were peaceful, they made an attempt at self defense by smashing a window when a car zoomed into the crowd hitting several people. There’s videos on Instagram and YouTube if you want to fact check me. There’s not many ways to try and defend yourself against a car. There’s also been protests every single week, all peaceful, but they only make the news now when someone attacks protesters and the protesters are blamed for the violence. There’s plenty of videos of peaceful gatherings too and they’re all on the internet for anyone to view if you would like to


-43

You’re rights end where mine begin and the protestors had no right to block a freeway. From what I understand the person was trying to go around slowly when the protesters started agitating the situation which probably scared the driver since they had their kid in the car. Sorry but if I think my kid is in danger I will do whatever is necessary to protect them including running someone over to get away from the situation.


24

Accountability is a two way street. Tianna wants accountability from law enforcement and the father whose 4 year old child was covered in shattered glass when Tianna’s protestors started smashing car windows wants accountability from the event organizer.


103

Actually I think the protesters that the diver hit with his car probably want accountability too. If you don’t know what I’m talking about there’s videos on YouTube and Instagram of the car driving into the crowd with presumably the intent to hurt people. It sucks that a four year old was dragged into this but it’s more of the dad’s fault for committing assault with his child in the back seat.


-38

You’re part of the problem. If the driver was in the wrong they would be in jail and the cops wouldn’t be looking for the 2 protesters.


18

There is so much wrong here. Looking at the pictures of these losers, wearing a mask under your nose is not really effective, so there’s that for starters. Burning an American flag and stomping on it should be illegal. If these people need to keep protesting their rights while they’re infringing on someone else’s, maybe they need to move to another country. I’m sure they don’t have jobs here to tie them down. And really, if you walk in the middle of the freeway you should expect to get ran over, why would you not expect that anyway?


83

She can assault people and destroy property and terrorize a young child…is this how you want to matter?


110

What a sickening display of a “peaceful protest”. The group of deserves no respect with actions like the ones they displayed. The leader deserved to be arrested for the destruction of private property, the threat to innocent citizens lives, most disturbing that of a 4 year old child. They are not civil at all, and do nothing to promote the importance of “Black Lives Matter”. You divide people further, fail to get your message out, while spewing vile words of hate, intolerance and acceptance of all. They are the exact opposite of what they are trying to promote. And to burn the American flag and stomp on it while those around cheer, show again the total lack of respect for all the lives that gave you the right to your failed “peaceful protest”. All lives matter, especially the ones that gave the ultimate for the freedoms we all have today. Your failing terribly at bringing any real change.


104
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