Demonstrators demand SLO police drop case against protest leader: ‘This is about Tianna’
About 350 demonstrators gathered at Emerson Park near downtown San Luis Obispo to protest police violence and call for potential against a well-known anti-racism protest leader to be dropped Wednesday.
About a dozen organizers and two dozen peacekeepers and medics were on hand before the protest began at 5:30 p.m. As more people arrived, organizer Cavin Stokes asked protesters to remove all signs with profanity ahead of a planned march.
Social media posts leading to the event had stated that protesters would be calling for a recall of San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Ian Parkinson in light of statements he made early last month questioning systemic racism and saying “violent” protests serve no purpose “other than destruction.”
Organizers on Wednesday told The Tribune the focus of the protest is instead on urging the San Luis Obispo Police Department to drop charges against protest leader Tianna Arata and Elias Bautista, a fellow demonstrator.
Both were arrested July 21 following a demonstration through San Luis Obispo and onto Highway 101.
Arata was detained as she was packing up to leave the protest. The San Luis Obispo Police Department later announced she had been arrested on suspicion of participation in a riot, unlawful assembly, conspiracy, unlawful imprisonment and resisting arrest.
Bautista was arrested on suspicion of assault on a police officer, according to the department.
The arrests prompted an immediate outcry from members of the public, who questioned the police department’s decision and claims that the July 21 protest was violent.
Though charges had not yet been revealed while the protest was ongoing, on Thursday morning following the demonstration, the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office confirmed it received a report from the police department recommending eight charges against Arata, including five felonies.
At Wednesday’s demonstration, organizers urged San Luis Obispo police to drop the case.
“This protest is different,” Stokes told the growing crowd at Wednesday night’s protest. “This is about Tianna.”
Arata was not present at Wednesday’s demonstration.
Demonstrators began marching toward downtown San Luis Obispo around 5:45 p.m. chanting “Hey you, Dan Dow. Drop the charges right now.”
Protesters marched a circular route throughout downtown San Luis Obispo for several hours.
As they went past, diners at outdoor eating areas like Woodstock’s Pizza clapped and cheered, while some diners remained unaffected.
As they walked through the area, protesters chanted “drop all charges.”
Around 7:30 p.m., the march returned to where it started at Emerson Park, and organizers offered an open mic to the gathered protesters before wrapping up.
One person, who said she was present when Arata was arrested, said she was traumatized by the experience and urged everyone to speak out against the charges and against racism in San Luis Obispo County as a whole.
“Tianna is seen as a leader in the eyes of all of us here today. She brings all of us together,” she said. “It’s not easy seeing someone you love, someone you respect, your friend, being basically ambushed. ... That shit is not easy.”
Another speaker said it was “necessary that we all step up” for Arata and demand charges be dropped.
“Tianna is the most fearless woman I have ever met,” he said. “And the police thought by arresting Tianna that they were gonna be cutting off the head of the snake and nipping the SLO BLM movement in the bud. But that is not the case. That is the farthest thing from the case. Little do the police realize this movement is like Medusa’s head, and we are all the heads to the snake.”
The demonstration was the latest in a series of protests and other events that began across the nation in response to police violence following the alleged police murder of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man in Minneapolis.
Local protests began in San Luis Obispo on May 31 and have been mostly peaceful.
A June 1 demonstration ended with police shooting tear gas to disperse a crowd on Santa Rosa Street.
On June 4, a rally organized by the local chapter of the NAACP and RACE Matters SLO County at the San Luis Obispo Courthouse drew roughly 3,000 attendees who led a massive peaceful march across the downtown area.
This story was originally published August 5, 2020 at 6:30 PM.
