Hundreds gather for #FREETIANNA rally at SLO Courthouse
An impassioned plea by a mother hoping to save her daughter’s future, a 20-year-old activist’s call for “love not hate,” and her attorney’s demand for the San Luis Obispo police chief’s termination punctuated a #FreeTianna rally Tuesday that drew hundreds of supporters to the San Luis Obispo County Courthouse.
The #FreeTianna Coalition event, which featured several speakers including Tianna Arata, was held to urge that the criminal case be dropped against the 20-year-old racial justice activist who was arrested on July 21 by SLO police after an hours-long demonstration.
As her next court hearing on Sept. 3 approaches and the District Attorney’s Office weighs whether to file charges, the event included leaders from the national Black Lives Matter movement and local racial justice activists.
SLO police are recommending eight criminal charges against Arata, among them four felony false imprisonment charges and an allegation of participating in a riot, a misdemeanor.
Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of Black Lives Matter, said Arata “deserves our praise,” and not handcuffs. “San Luis Obispo, do not let her down. Do not let black people down. ... And if they dare to take this to trial, put your bodies on the line.“
Protesters chanted “Free Tianna” as Curtis Briggs, one of Arata’s attorneys, called for the immediate termination of San Luis Obispo Police Chief Deanna Cantrell, whose “blunder” put SLO in the national spotlight, he said.
Briggs said after the event that Cantrell has “shown her judgment is a threat to public safety more than any other organizer in the community.”
“(Cantrell) has made one decision after another that have been bad,” Briggs said. “She has cost the Police Department esteem, credibility, and here she’s fabricating these charges because she reacted rather than responded to what the protesters were doing. She put SLO on the map with the Black Lives Matter movement.”
Cantrell has previously said that the department based its charges against Arata on probable cause, saying Arata was the “leader and aggressor” of a July 21 rally that saw protesters position themselves in front of cars on the Highway 101 freeway and run to block them on streets in downtown SLO, adding a video shows Arata struck one vehicle with a flag pole. Protesters say drivers advanced on them and struck them first.
In a statement released to The Tribune on Tuesday, Cantrell said: “It’s my responsibility to keep this community safe, and I take that responsibility very seriously. I plan to continue with that commitment.”
She added: “Ms. Arata created significant risk of injury and property damage on the evening of July 21. We recognize the concern over her arrest, but it is our department’s responsibility to enforce the law in the safest way possible.”
A group of counter-protesters with American flags also attended the Tuesday event, yelling “shame” and facing off in tense conversations with activists after the event.
Counter-protesters also could be heard trying to disrupt the speakers with “Law and Order,” “All Lives Matter,” and one man yelling “Liar.”
Derek Johnson, SLO’s city manager, said at a press conference Tuesday that the city understands that people in SLO and beyond have expressed concern about Arata’s arrest.
“We have no intention to prevent Ms. Arata or anyone else’s efforts to fight racism and increase understanding amongst all our community members,” Johnson said. “We support free speech, period. And we also have to be unwavering in our insistence that gatherings are peaceful and safe for everyone in the community.”
Tianna and her mother take the stage
Arata took the podium at about 10:45 a.m., thanking her supporters and saying, “This gives me hope.”
“My devotion to this cause is nothing new,” she said, adding she started protesting at 14 over the death of Michael Brown, an 18-year-old black man from Ferguson, Missouri.
Arata said she moved around often in her youth, and, as the outsider, learned to offer love to all people, especially outcasts.
“I moved to San Luis Obispo when I was 16,” Arata said. “I was so typically cast as an outsider with all communities I interacted with. But I grew to make San Luis my home.”
Leading the attendees in a “Black Lives Matter” chant, Arata said “we must organize” to fight for other people’s lives and being black or a minority in America, “every day we deal with counter-protesters.”
Speaking right before her daughter, Michelle Arata said conversations about race can be “difficult,” but they are vital to fix a “system that has failed.”
“It’s about love not hate,” Arata said, her voice rising to a high pitch. “How dare they take it to a political level. Racism is a human rights issue.”
Michelle Arata, a SLO High graduate, said “my daughter’s life is at stake. Her future is at stake. She is my world.”
“Do not let them take her from me,” Arata said.
Actor Kendrick Sampson, a cast member of HBO’s “Insecure,” said: “I want to be clear here this system is corrupt. Policing is the legacy of slave-catching. But while it’s still here, we demand you take your oppressive hands off our sister. You are on the wrong side of history ... you are on the side that will lose.”
Earlier at the protest, speaker Michael Boyer, a local business owner and SLO County Diversity Coalition founding board member, said he supports the business community and the Black Lives Matter movement: “They are not mutually exclusive.”
Boyer said it’s ridiculous that Tianna Arata was arrested and the 300 white people with her were not: “With that, SLOPD has proven its role in systemic racism.”
Courtney Haile, co-founder of RACE Matters SLO, encouraged District Attorney Dan Dow to “forge a path toward healing and growth” and decline to pursue criminal charges against Arata in connection with her July 21 arrest.
In her comments to media after the event, Cantrell said “Tianna Arata was arrested for her own actions, her own behavior, her own decisions.”
“She broke several laws,” Cantrell said. “She committed several crimes.”
Former MindBody CEO takes the stage
Early in the lineup of speakers, MindBody founder and former CEO Rick Stollmeyer said that he acknowledges that his experience as a white man doesn’t allow him to fully understand the discrimination that black and minority community members feel.
Stollmeyer, a former member of the U.S. Navy, said that after further conversations community-wide, he wants people to know that “these are our neighbors, these are our children, let’s listen to them.”
He saw the video clips of the past protests, adding, “I can’t say I agree with all of it. I can’t say it’s the best way to go about it, but we’re all human beings.”
Stollmeyer said the protest movement represents the principles of “freedom of speech, equality in speech and diversity.”
“We have a real problem in our country,” said Stollmeyer, citing the recent shooting of a black man, 29-year-old Jacob Blake, in the back by Wisconsin police.
“We need to move forward, and I don’t think we’re all ready in this community to have that discussion about race,” Stollmeyer added. “But they’re the minority.”
The event ended with an “Embracing the Joy” rally, including dancing and singing.
Arrata’s arrest after the July 21 protest
The coalition of support around Arata came after she was arrested as she loaded up her car following the July 21 protest. Several hundred protesters marched onto Highway 101 at that demonstration and blocked traffic for a little less than an hour.
The July 21 protest was one of a series of local demonstrations in response to the death of George Floyd while in the custody of Minneapolis police, and was partly motivated by comments from county Sheriff Ian Parkinson appearing to criticize the Black Lives Matter movement and saying systemic racism wasn’t a problem in SLO County.
The San Luis Obispo Police Department recommended that the county District Attorney’s Office file eight charges: four felony counts of false imprisonment; one felony count of conspiracy; and three misdemeanor counts of resisting or obstructing a peace officer, participating in a riot, and unlawful assembly.
The Police Department also recommended prosecutors file charges against a second protester, Elias Bautista, who was arrested during a scuffle immediately following Arata’s arrest. Those recommended charges include two felony counts of resisting or obstructing a peace officer with force, and a count of taking of another person from custody by means of a riot.
#FreeTianna Coalition’s campaign manager Melissa Elizalde said the events of July 21 have had “lasting trauma I don’t wish on anyone.”
“I will never be able to explain the pain and terror I felt,” Elizalde said. “But I have hope for SLO and the nation as a whole.”
The coalition is demanding District Attorney Dan Dow “drop all charges on Arata and any other protester arrested,” according to their social media.
Dow has repeatedly called for patience in his public statements, saying the office will make the decision without consideration of public pressure.
This story was originally published August 25, 2020 at 10:06 AM.
