Hundreds walked in peaceful Five Cities protest — while armed men stood on business rooftops
Update, 4 p.m.:
Arroyo Grande Mayor Caren Ray Russom shared a Facebook video on Saturday afternoon in response to the armed gunmen on the roof of The Pit during Friday’s protest.
In the video, Ray Russom said she “vehemently disagreed” with Hackleman’s decision, but that review by the Arroyo Grande Police Department, Arroyo Grande city legal counsel and San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s office concluded that it was legal.
“I’m personally sorry this business owner did this,” she said. “I think it unnecessarily burdened the community and brought a piece of the conversation in that was maybe unnecessary, but he was within his rights to do that. And it is certainly within your rights to question.”
Ray Russom said that while police were protecting protesters’ rights to First Amendment speech on Friday, they were also required to protect the Second Amendment rights of Hackleman at the same time.
“Those rights clashed yesterday,” she said. “And again I thank everything in this world and God above that clash happened peacefully.”
Ray Russom said she could not say it would not happen again in Arroyo Grande, though she encouraged people to contact Hackleman and voice their opinions.
“Please don’t let this rip us apart,” she said. “Let this reinforce that we have freedoms here that allow us to have this conversation.”
Original story:
While a crowd of more than 200 protesters marched along Grand Avenue in Arroyo Grande on Friday chanting “Black lives matter,” men stood less than a block away atop a rooftop of a local business, holding guns.
A peaceful protest rally began in Grover Beach at the intersection of Grand Avenue and Oak Park Boulevard on Friday afternoon, and was organized by a group of young local activists with the help of the South County Democratic Club.
Several hundred people, from senior citizens to young children, took part as the rally transformed into a march through both Arroyo Grande and Grover Beach.
After more than two hours, the protest concluded with no reported incidents, and no arrests made.
“Everyone showed up and showed out, and I’m just so proud,” co-organizer Nalah Loman of Arroyo Grande told The Tribune after the protest. “I’m so amazed. I thought we were going to have just this corner, but we ended up with all four. We led a march through the streets, which I did not think we would get there.”
“This was amazing,” she added.
Though the protest remained peaceful, down the road at least one business owner said he was prepared to use force to defend his business if things got rowdy.
A photo posted to The Pit Martial Arts and Fitness’ Instagram page shows two men on the roof holding guns and wearing tactical vests while a group of people mill about the business entrance below.
The photo was at first shared with the caption “Protect your life. Protect your home, and business,. As of Saturday morning, the caption had been edited to a lengthier one about why the business chose to have armed individuals on the roof, and the photo itself appears to have been cropped tighter.
Other photos shared on social media show a single man holding a rifle standing on the roof of the gym.
The Pit owner John Hackleman said the people were there as “a visual deterrent” against violence, in light of the looting and vandalism reported at some protests in major U.S. cities.
“You saw us protecting our business,” he told The Tribune in a phone interview Saturday morning. “The Pit’s a family gym, and we’re not a bunch of thugs, but we’re also not the people who are going to let you take our lunch money.”
Hackleman said the guns did not have bullets in them, and are fully legal in the state of California. He said he sent several volunteers to other businesses along the street to protect those areas as well, though they were not armed.
He also added that he did not believe the response was overkill, despite there being no reported incidents of violence at Friday’s protest.
“I don’t think it’s overkill at all,” he said. “This whole thing stayed peaceful because there are cops with guns.”
Hackleman noted that several police officers were present at the gym Friday during the protest, both in an official capacity and some as private citizens.
“A few cops stopped by to check on everything,” he said. “You know, ‘Is everything alright — hey, we’ve got your back.’”
Arroyo Grande Police Chief Beau Pryor told The Tribune on Friday night that an officer responded to The Pit during the protest “and took action without incident.”
“It was determined the owner/operator was possessing a firearm on the private property of the business, which is allowed under the Second Amendment,” Pryor wrote in an email to The Tribune.
When asked for clarification on the action taken, Pryor said the city and the police department were working on a statement to be released later today.
The Pit was not the only business to have armed individuals patrolling.
Another Instagram photo, that has since been removed, showed armed men similarly standing on the roof of Grand Barbers on Grand Avenue.
When reached for comment, Chad Patton, who works at Grand Barbers and originally shared the photo, said that the men were up there “to prevent looting and vandalism from putting our staff out of business.”
“The business was pro protest,” Patton wrote in an Instagram message conversation with The Tribune. “It’s a minority-owned business that just got back to work after being laid off nearly 10 weeks due to COVID.”
“We understand that a picture is worth a thousand words, but in this scenario it was about protecting the business that we feed our families with,” he said.
Patton said he has since removed the photo because people were “flipping the story and we don’t stand by that.”
The photos prompted an immediate response throughout the Five Cities area, with some in Facebook groups such as Five Cities Protest commending the men for “guarding their community,” and others calling for a boycott of The Pit.
In a statement Saturday, Grover Beach City Councilwoman Mariam Shah said she was severing her family’s relationship with The Pit in light of the photos.
“I understand that we’ve all seen violence on TV,” Shah said. “But we are NOT those cities and other Central Coast events have gone off peacefully with zero harm to business.”
“I refuse to accept us becoming a place where we point guns at people we disagree with — friends, clients, community members,” she wrote. “We are responsible gun owners and would never turn them on our neighbors.”
In her statement, Shah said now is a time to come together — especially in light of the difficulties presented by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
“Everyone in this community has been affected,” she said. “We don’t take it out on each other with violence or intimidation. This is the time to band together and that is not what I saw from these business protection groups being rude and disrespectful during a moment of silence yesterday.”
“Looking the other way on things that are morally WRONG to get along has gotten us to this point,” she said. “I just can’t do it anymore.”
This story was originally published June 6, 2020 at 2:43 PM.
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