Front Page  »  

Local Democratic Party supports Tianna Arata, blames sheriff

August 21, 2020

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

Statement from the San Luis Obispo County Democratic Party

The San Luis Obispo County Democratic Party (SLOCDP) is deeply disturbed by the San Luis Obispo Police Department’s recommended charges against Black Lives Matter activist Tianna Arata. We call on District Attorney Dan Dow to drop the unwarranted, heavy-handed felony charges against her, and look to the San Luis Obispo City Council to publicly address the incident directly, as well as to implement corrective action to reverse the political weaponization of the city’s police department.

Our County Sheriff Ian Parkinson’s inflammatory words — which prompted the civil activism of our friends and neighbors — and the injection of incendiary commentary by our district attorney during a First Amendment-protected gathering, violate our democratic principles, divide our community, and corrupt the rule of law.

SLOCDP condemns attempts to use our legal system to stifle free speech and further partisan political agendas. Instead of escalating tensions, SLOCDP demands fair, just, and equitable treatment for all people by our sheriff and district attorney, as well as by the various chiefs of police throughout our county, and calls on all elected officials in our county to provide the robust oversight which will guarantee it.

SLOCDP declares that weapons of war have no place in our community, especially military grade chemical weapons such as those used on protesters during a peaceful demonstration on June 1. Because the possession of such weapons is unnecessary and dangerous, and their use contributes to our county becoming known nationally as a place where law enforcement tramples on the 1st amendment, they must be renounced and abandoned.

SLOCDP will continue to challenge and work to dismantle the structures that generate enduring racial, economic, political, and social inequity. We will promote racial justice through fair, just, and equitable governing of all public-serving institutions and in the formation of public policy. We condemn the disproportionate prosecution of Black, Indigenous, and people of color, evidence of institutional racism. We will continue to push for societal transformation, to make it clear that black lives matter and that there is no place for racism in our country and in our county.


Loading...
Related:


86 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

There are very fine people. On both sides.


-70

@ slophocles,


I’ll repost what I sent to another here whom has your same ideology:


I don’t know if it’s the high heat the past few days, or the smoke that has enveloped our county from the wild fires or both.

But c’mon over to my place as I have a nice iced down 16 oz. glass of sweetened blue koolaid for ya.


Let me know.


5

@ SLOWGROWN

I was making fun of you-know-who and his many koolaiders that frequent this site. I also like to see how many down-votes I can get. There are people who automatically down-vote me no matter what I say. This one must have been confusing because it is a direct quote but it is me saying it which must be wrong, then there are those that thought I was being serious … I don’t know. But an ice cold 16oz glass of something sounds good. But why does it have to be 16 oz and why blue?


-8

@ slophocles,


In Real Estate it’s called “Location, location, location.”


In journalism which is long dead, it’s called:


“Content, content, content.”


Better yet, the Contextual meaning of what was said by “you-know-who.” I won’t get into semantics on the issue because I know that there are many who reply here at CCN that get that concept. Expand your media horizons my friend.


Btw, I like your moniker. slophocles. Greekish me thinks.


-3

If one was a member of the SLOCDP and also a “very fine” person, the above press release would necessarily make me immediately and publically terminate my membership. Unless of course the SLOCDP apologized and clawed the statement back, IF I wanted to maintain my “very fine” person status.


16

The “very fine people on both sides” comment was regarding whether Confederate statutes should be removed, or not.


0

Vandalism, assault and inciting a riot (amongst the other things that Ms. Arata is charged with) is NOT free speech, it’s a crime. SLOCDP needs to find a lawyer that understands criminal law before flapping their uneducated gums. Actions have consequences and the consequences for her actions are exactly what is coming to her right now.


110

SLOCDP or RACE matters SLO? And tear gas for crowd dispersion is not considered chemical weapons. Chemical weapons kill people when used as intended


79

Tear gas is defined as a chemical weapon by International Law. Just because it is used on protestors, even peaceful ones, in this country does not change that fact. Look it up.


Also, should it ever need to be defined in this county, rubber bullets are defined as “less lethal” not non-lethal. They are being fired into the heads and faces of peaceful demonstrators, the press and even innocent non-participants in some parts of the country. There is plenty of video to prove that statement. Such incidents may be what is prompting the SLODC to react to what has happened here, before it gets worse.


You may not see it that way now, but your 1st Amendment rights are not something you want to lose.


-43

Or your 2nd


28

Surprise! LOL!


63

Yeah, they supported Adam Hill also.


126

Ohh to HELL with the SLOCDP for crying out loud! Enough is enough. Is this the “ally of light” Joe Biden was talking about last night?


Me thinks not so much.


117

“Exceptions to free speech in the United States refers to categories of speech that are not protected by the First Amendment. According to the Supreme Court of the United States, the U.S. Constitution protects free speech while allowing for limitations on certain categories of speech.


Categories of speech that are given lesser or no protection by the First Amendment (and therefore may be restricted) include obscenity, fraud, child pornography, speech integral to illegal conduct, speech that incites imminent lawless action, speech that violates intellectual property law, true threats, and commercial speech such as advertising.“


77

Local Democratic Party recommends dropping “recommended charges” far different from the headline “supports Tianna Arata”. Dropping charges does not imply support. Your headline is highly biased.


-157

It is not “far different” and the headline accurately represents the statements made by the SLOCDP. Clearly a recommendation to drop the charges is in support of Arata…it is not to support the rule of law! Oddly enough, they admitted that Dow’s comments are protected free speech, yet claim they violate our democratic principles. No, free speech is a democratic principle! Somehow, certain elected officials can say, or do, whatever they want in the name of social justice, yet others cannot express their opinions! I am all for everyone being afforded first amendment protection, so long as it is done peacefully and legally…which was not the case during the “protest” that Ms. Arata led!


18

The Tribune should comport to your tastes.


34

Just started subscribing. We enjoy a paper.


-42

I enjoy it too.


-22

If dropping recommended charges doesn’t imply support, then what does it imply?


63

That the charges are excessive compared to the deed(s), that they are not helpful in defusing, and that they are unlikely to gain a guilty verdict. Plus the prosecution will be presented by the national media as racially vindictive, fitting a current national narrative that is being exploited as we speak. Plus when the verdict comes through, the protests will increase and expand. We do not need this.

We do not need to make our courts and law enforcement into bad guys, which they are not, nor to protester(s) into hero/heroine martyrs, which they are not also.


-50

Democrats are not running a campaign they are having a hissy fit….democrats tell us what you will do in office not what you dislike….


109

“democrats tell us what you will do in office not what you dislike”


Well, I thought the Democrats laid out quite plainly what they would do during their convention:


• establish a public option so that anyone who doesn’t already have health insurance will qualify for such, and those that lose their jobs—literally millions in the last few months—will not have to worry.


• focus on building infrastructure that will create jobs—while Trump has given lip service to this, he has failed to produce in four years, two of which he had a Democratic House which would have appropriated money for ANY infrastructure projects he would have proposed.


• bring the COVID-19 pandemic under control by providing universal testing, tracing and quarantining, as most other first world countries have already done. We used to be the leader of the world in these things. Now, we sit in the corner with a dunce cap on, primarily because Trump failed to listen to his advisers and continually spouted nonsense, such as this virus would somehow “disappear.”


• acknowledge that climate change is a serious issue—although Trump says it’s a hoax, his company has sued local authorities in Scotland near his Turnberry golf course about building a seawall to MITIGATE THE EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE—and begin addressing it with further investment in green technologies.


•begin to pursue police reform and weed out bad cops, such as those who kneeled on George Floyd’s neck for more than seven minutes.


• restore America’s standing among our allies and stop cozying up to dictators such as Putin, Duterte and Erdagon.


I could go on, but I think that what the Democrats are offering is far superior to the bumbling of our current executive who’s only real argument lately has been that somehow the Obama-Biden administration was more corrupt than his.


Unfortunately, the record does not support Trump’s claims. Under Obama, there was almost zero scandal—if there had been such, wouldn’t Trump’s justice dept. have brought it to light? In contrast, under Trump, we’ve seen wide spread scandal, with several Trump advisors and allies indicted or convicted of fraud, money laundering and other crimes.


My guess is that once Mr. Trump is out of office he will spend the final years of his life in litigation over a variety of scams.


-104

@mercut1469,


I don’t know if it’s the high heat the past few days, or the smoke that has enveloped our county from the wild fires or both.


But c’mon over to my place as I have a nice iced down 16 oz. glass of sweetened blue koolaid for ya.


Let me know.


13

Gee, I haven’t had koolaid since I was a kid, but I don’t doubt that you have an ample supply.


0

You forgot open borders, no air travel, gun confiscation, reparations, etc…


39

Tin foil hats and Alex Jones and Qanon.


-23

So, where’s the part of the story that lists the indictments and convictions of Obama administration officials? Oh yeah, there aren’t any, because NOT ONE indictment has ever been offered, even under the 2 years when the Republicans controlled the House, Senate snd WH. On the other hand, Trump’s campaign adviser, deputy campaign adviser, personal attorney, National Security Adviser and a senior adviser to the WH have all been indicted or convicted. And, I think a case could be made that the failures of the Trump admin have cost the U.S. tens of thousands of lives that could have been saved if they had reacted competently to the pandemic.


-13

Well, mercut1469, from reading the replies to your comment, it becomes crystal clear why America is in so very much trouble. It isn’t even just the educational level here, but I think the ability to apply critical thinking in general, that has completely left the building. And it is presented with such unrestrained self congratulation. Just really, really sad.


-15

So, if one doesn’t conform to the Marxist beliefs of the current progressive Democrats, BLM, and our educational system, they are not of an acceptable education level? What is sad, is that you question one’s intelligence just because they don’t share your view(s). It is also sad that civil discourse is dead. I don’t care if it’s MSNBC, CNN, or Fox News…there are never any civil disagreements. People are so intent on getting their way, or getting the “other side” to see their way, that they get their feeling hurt and resort to anger. Not everyone will see your way, or like you for that matter, but if the conversation doesn’t stay civil there will never be any progress.


22

please reread yourself. Conversation can not be civil with people like you. I am on this side of the line , you are on the other side .


-6

“Not everyone will see your way, or like you for that matter, but if the conversation doesn’t stay civil there will never be any progress.”


I completely agree with you, but it doesn’t help that you open your comments with the “Marxist” label. Both “Marxist” from the right and “Fascist” from the left do not help the cause.


My guess is we have far more in common than we think.


I spent years debating with Republicans—I even gave Bob Lagomarsino a piece of my mind over some ag related issue back in the day. And, although I disagreed with him, I respected him as I did Reagan and Dole and even Bush.


But this Trump guy pushes it too far—the lies, the corruption, the sheer lack of any empathy and the total absence of competence. I hope the day comes soon that the Republicans can move past Trump and once again be the party of common sense and fiscal responsibility. This country needs them.


-7

First, you can relax because CCP Covid 19 infections are down over 40% the past month.


Second, President Trump is the first President since Eisenhower to confront the Chinese, and he brought home over 600,000 manufacturing jobs before the Plandemic.


It was Clinton, Bush Jr., and then Obama & Biden who exported over 6 million jobs to China. Simultaneously, can’t-hold-a-job Hunter Biden received over a Billion into a hedge fund he helos run. But he has no hedge fund experience, doesn’t speak Mandarin, and has severe drug problems.


7

Ah yes, manufacturing. Score one debate point for ml1999. Trump has indeed created manufacturing jobs—my research says about 480,000—but who’s to quibble. He is the first president since Carter to actually have a net gain in manufacturing jobs. He did so through deregulation and a $1.7 trillion tax cut. Unfortunately, the pandemic has wiped out some of those jobs.


The question I would ask, is at what cost were these jobs created? Sure, cutting the corporate tax rate to 21% inspired investors, but it also has created budget deficits—even before the pandemic, the federal govt. was looking at trillion dollar deficits well into the future and only the most optimistic economists believe we could grow out of that deficit.


While the technocratic Obama administration added regulations—mostly to protect workers and mitigate the effects of climate change—I think independent analysts would say they went too far and that a Republican administration should have repealed some of those regulations.


But Trump’s administration has repealed regulations that did protect workers and did help fight climate change. Here’s an example: Chlorpyrifos was a widely used pesticide for agriculture—we used it for years, but as more research was done on farm workers it was found that it caused retardation and cancer in children as well as dizziness and respiratory failure in adults.


This is so obviously a chemical that should be banned—and I tell you this as an old farmer who utilized this chemical on a regular basis for many years. Yet Trump’s EPA refuses to listen to its own scientists and ban the chemical because maybe some farmers will be inconvenienced and forced to spend more money on getting rid of pests. I’ve always believed that workers’ health should be a priority for any employer.


Anyway, as for Eisenhower—I hope you understand that his challenges with China were quite different and far less complicated than today. As for Hunter Biden, if he did anything illegal it should come to light—so far I only hear crickets.


But, good debating with you, and notice I never attacked you with any labels or in an ad hominem way. I generally only deal in facts. So, here’s a couple of interesting articles about manufacturing you might find interesting, one from a right-wing standpoint and one from the left.


https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/479579-trumps-big-reelection-weapon-a-remarkable-manufacturing-jobs-boom


https://www.epi.org/publication/reshoring-manufacturing-jobs/


-3

They apparently approve of rioting, looting, arson, murder, shootings up over 200%, and extreme violence in major urban cities.


13
1 2 3