Tianna Arata defense team just scored a victory — courtesy of SLO County DA Dan Dow
Did District Attorney Dan Dow really intend to hand Tianna Arata’s defense team a win right out of the gate?
That may not appear to be the case with the filing of 13 criminal charges — especially with protesters still demanding they all be dropped — but that’s exactly what occurred, and what happens when a prosecutor gets stuck in a lose-lose situation.
Arata, the young Black activist whose arrest has drawn national attention, no longer faces the threat of a felony conviction. That’s a victory for the defense, since a felony conviction has lifelong consequences and potential prison time.
Yet because she was charged, Arata still gets her day in court, if that’s what she wants. In the larger effort to bend the arc of the moral universe toward justice, that’s a win too.
“With misdemeanors, we still get a jury trial so we can get all of the publicity that we would have gotten with a felony with none of the risk,” said Arata’s attorney, Curtis Briggs, summarizing the defense team’s takeaway. “This is an opportunity to help magnify a problem with police misconduct.”
Granted, Dow was dealt a bad hand when Police Chief Deanna Cantrell recommended he file five felonies in connection with Arata’s role in a July 21 civil rights protest in San Luis Obispo, which included an hourlong blockade of Highway 101.
To his credit, Dow decided against filing felonies — a good move, since that would have been totally unwarranted.
But that’s where the goodwill ends, because he then apparently tried to make up for the lack of felonies by piling on the misdemeanors.
Arata now faces 13 lower-level charges: five counts of false imprisonment, six counts of obstruction of a thoroughfare, one count of unlawful assembly and one count of disturbing the peace by loud noise. (That last count is particularly amusing, because what protest doesn’t disturb the peace with loud noise?)
Thirteen is a big number, and that may appeal to Dow’s law-and-order base, but now this case could drag on for months, and to what purpose?
To teach Arata a lesson? To send a message to other protesters? To appear tough?
None of that is happening. Instead, law enforcement has turned Tianna Arata into a celebrity with her own hashtag and a national following that grows by the day.
And Dow has committed his office to prosecuting a high-profile case that is both not a slam-dunk in terms of winning conviction and by its very nature plays right into the hands of the defense in terms of amplifying the message, drawing out the process and ensuring every turn of the screw will be a media event.
As we’ve said before, this case was bungled from the get-go.
Police were understaffed and unprepared to block protesters from the freeway on the day of the protest.
They not only ignored instances of drivers heading into protesters, they also painted the people behind the wheels of 2,000-pound vehicles as victims quivering from fear of an attack by an unruly pedestrian mob of unarmed young people.
But the biggest mistake was to single out Arata for arrest, because it appeared calculated and targeted a woman of color.
If blocking traffic is such a crime, is not each and every one of the protesters liable for prosecution? Why not arrest anyone else, other than Elias Bautista, whose alleged crimes likely demanded a response due to the sheer humiliation factor alone?
Is it because Arata was the leader? Since when is that how criminal justice works? Do we let accomplices to a crime go free because they weren’t the mastermind? Of course not.
Or is it because Police Chief Deanna Cantrell believed Arata had broken her word by marching on the freeway?
If so, again, this is looking more like a personal vendetta than a criminal case.
Cantrell could have left it at that, the arrest having made its point, but she instead chose to make matters worse by recommending the felony charges.
That effectively painted Dow into a corner, from which the DA was unable to elegantly extricate himself without appearing weak to his supporters.
So instead, he has set the stage for a showcase trial that could leave San Luis Obispo looking like a community that cares neither about Black lives nor free speech.
Meanwhile, downtown SLO will remain a focal point for protests that could get increasingly ugly. We got a taste of that on Wednesday, when a hot-headed motorcyclist drove directly into the path of protesters on Higuera Street.
It’s no exaggeration to say this process could now drag on for months, creating repeated chances for conflict in the streets while also dumping a huge, unnecessary financial burden on taxpayers, who will be footing the mounting bills for policing protests, as well as all the court costs.
This, at a time when local and state governments already are suffering huge revenue losses on account of COVID-19.
And, ultimately, where will it end?
Likely not until we have a verdict in court, at which point two things could happen:
One, Arata is fully vindicated, cementing the farcical nature of this entire effort.
Or two, if she is somehow convicted, it will only further the belief among those in the Black Lives Matter movement that equal justice is a myth.
Where does that leave us now?
Protesters will continue rally and march to demand that Dow drop all charges.
Dow will continue to reject any public influence on his decision-making process.
And Arata’s defense attorneys will happily go along for the ride.
They don’t seem of a mind to agree to a plea bargain — not when they see a jury trial as “an opportunity to help magnify a problem with police misconduct.”
Dan Dow had the opportunity to rise to the occasion and drop this case in the interest of justice and the well-being of the community.
Instead, he chose to join other law enforcement leaders who believe it makes more sense to criminalize protesting than to focus on the injustices that inspired the protests in the first place.
That remains the true crime here, and until it changes, we should prepare for more of the loud voices and feet on the streets, exposing that injustice for what it is.