‘Free Tianna Arata’ press conference, rally scheduled for Tuesday. Here’s what to expect
A “Free Tianna Arata” press conference and rally are scheduled for Tuesday at 10 a.m. in front of the San Luis Obispo County courthouse — and the events will face a competing counter protest across the street.
The news conference and a following “Embracing the Joy” rally with live music are organized by the Free Tianna Coalition, a group of local activists and community members who are “demanding District Attorney Dan Dow to drop all charges on Tianna Arata and any other protester arrested,” according to their social media.
Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of the national Black Lives Matter Foundation, also helped organize the event.
“It is people like Tianna Arata that make this country get us closer to justice and peace,” Cullors said in a written statement to The Tribune. “It is a shame that DA Dan Dow is unable to see the powerful leadership and potential of young people like Tianna and instead is criminalizing her right to take to the streets, to grieve publicly alongside the millions of us who were feeling the loss of George Floyd. Black Lives Matter was founded on the principle that we will protect one another, and that we will not allow the criminal legal system to take another freedom fighter from us.”
The San Luis Obispo Police Department has recommended a total of eight charges against Arata: four felony counts of false imprisonment; one felony count of conspiracy; and three misdemeanor counts for resisting or obstructing a peace officer, participating in a riot and unlawful assembly.
Assistant District Attorney Eric Dobroth told The Tribune that Arata’s charges cannot be dropped because they are just recommended charges from the San Luis Obispo Police Department at this point. Once Dobroth and his office complete their investigation into Arata’s case, they will decide whether to pursue charges.
That decision is anticipated to come before Arata’s Sept. 3 arraignment, according to a statement released by Dan Dow.
Arata’s local attorney, Patrick Fisher, previously told The Tribune that his investigator had uncovered information that the District Attorney’s Office would want to consider before making a filing decision. Fisher said his office filed its investigative report with the DA on Monday.
The Free Tianna Coalition said in a media release that it sees Arata’s arrest “as the SLO County District Attorney and SLO PD using the arrest of Tianna as a political statement to try and suppress the First Amendment right to protest.”
San Luis Obispo City Manager Derek Johnson released a statement to media on Monday regarding the scheduled event, saying that “the city and San Luis Obispo Police Department are fully supportive of the rights for peaceful expression of free speech in a safe and lawful manner at events such as this.”
“Numerous peaceful protests have taken place in San Luis Obispo over the past few months,” Johnson added in the statement. “We are reaching out to organizers and fully expect this event will be safe and peaceful as well. Our community may be in the spotlight on Tuesday, and it’s our collective responsibility to work together to convey our values of respect and inclusion at this important time.”
Johnson and police chief Deanna Cantrell will hold a virtual press availability Tuesday afternoon, the statement said.
Several speakers are expected at the event, including Arata, Cullors, HBO’s “Insecure” actor and activist Kendrick Sampson, Arata’s attorney Curtis Briggs, local organizer Melissa Elizalde, former CEO of Mindbody Rick Stollmeyer, R.A.C.E. Matters’ Courtney Haile, Women’s March SLO organizer Jen Ford, Black Lives Matter LA’s and CSU Los Angeles professor Melina Abdullah and others.
The coalition is asking attendees to bring positive signs and requiring masks at the event.
Following the press conference, there will be live music from artists Sareem, Lorde Sanctus and Six Sev.
A petition asking for Dow to drop the charges, which his office cannot do until prosecutors have fully reviewed the details of the case, has garnered more than 520,000 signatures as of Monday.
And a GoFundMe campaign has raised more than $68,800 for Arata’s legal costs. Only $10,000 of that will cover her legal fees and the rest will go to bail funds for other social justice activists, according to the campaign.
A counter protest in response to the “Free Tianna Arata” events is scheduled for Tuesday at 9:45 a.m. outside the Fremont Theater across from the courthouse, according to a social media post on Facebook.
“This is our time to show our support for our DA Dan Dow and for our Law Enforcement officers,” the flyer on Facebook said. “We also want to show that we care about our city and we will not hide in fear.”
The counter protest is asking attendees to bring American flags, blue law enforcement flags, signs, masks and water. The flyer noted that the counter protesters will not march and will stay on the opposite side of the road from the “Free Tianna Arata” events.
This story was originally published August 24, 2020 at 1:46 PM.
