Video shows irate driver hitting SLO protester — but it’s the driver who’s the victim?

Finally, we get to see police drone footage of a silver BMW heading into a knot of protesters blocking the freeway during a July 21 Black Live Matter march in San Luis Obispo.

Yet it’s the belligerent driver — who reportedly regretted not having his Glock with him — who is labeled the victim by law enforcement.

And it’s the protesters — not the driver who complained there were no “colored people” at the protest — who are facing criminal charges, even though the video clearly shows the driver first tapping a bicycle with his vehicle, then heading straight into protester Sam Grocott, who winds up hanging on to the hood of the car for several seconds.

Another protester throws a skateboard through the rear window of the car “in defense of my client,” according to Grocott’s attorney, Vincent Barrientos.

If this case goes to trial, smart attorneys will no doubt introduce contradictory, frame-by-frame analyses of the video to drive home their points.

Still, this basic fact is incontrovertible: The driver of the BMW kept going, even as protesters blocked his way.

We’ve got to ask, why has it taken nearly six months to release this video — and then by Barrientos, rather than by police?

The city of San Luis Obispo is committed to diversity, equity and inclusion and — we had hoped — transparency.

So why have police been sitting on this drone footage for months?

Protesters ‘attack’ car

The secrecy surrounding this video is particularly galling because the SLO Police Department had no problem releasing a different video from the same protest, which shows a vehicle pushing through protesters — ostensibly to get help in identifying the driver.

In another plea for information, the CHP released still photos of the BMW in an effort to identify protesters who “attacked” the car.

Here’s the report from KSBY: “According to the CHP, a group of protesters circled a motorist who was trying to drive around the protesters and attacked the vehicle. Investigators say one person jumped on the hood of the vehicle and another person broke the back window of the car with a skateboard. A 4-year-old boy was reportedly in the back seat at the time.”

That sounds horrifying. So why not release the video, instead of still photos of the car?

Is it because the video didn’t really show a group of menacing protesters circling the car?

We hope that isn’t the case, but we don’t have much faith there.

If that is why the video was not released, it means law enforcement is selectively releasing photos and video to support the narrative of a violent mob holding frightened motorists hostage — to the point they felt they had no choice but to push their two-ton vehicles into people standing in their path to exercise their First Amendment rights.

‘Frightened’ drivers?

For his part, the driver of the BMW, who has not been publicly identified, didn’t sound frightened at all.

According to a letter to the CHP from defense attorney Barrientos, the driver was, in fact, irate at the inconvenience the protest was causing him.

Here are some of the driver’s statements made to CHP officers:

“I’m about to go 100 miles per hour through that motherf------ retarded stupid-ass crowd.

“These lame f----, I should have brought my Glock.”

“I’m going to fish off the goddamned pier, drink some wine, vape, like f--- these f------ idiots. Not one f------ colored person in the whole goddamned mob. ...”

That doesn’t exactly sound like a “victim” quaking in fear. It sounds like an angry individual who wasn’t about to let a Black Lives Matter protest delay him even a minute.

He could have done what other motorists did and waited it out.

He didn’t.

Besides, even if he were fearful of the “mob,” that’s not a defense for driving into protesters.

Defense attorneys are calling for criminal charges to be filed against the driver.

Yet still, District Attorney Dan Dow isn’t budging.

“The district attorney will not respond to the non-fact-based rhetoric of Mr. Grocott’s counsel,” Dow said in a written statement to the media. “In fact, the California Rules of Professional Conduct prohibit any attorney involved in the litigation of a case from making a statement the attorney reasonably knows will be disseminated to the public and that has a substantial likelihood of prejudicing the case.”

Remember, this is coming from a district attorney who was disqualified from prosecuting several Black Lives Matter protesters on account of expressing bias in public — a ruling Dow is appealing.

So yes, the release of the video and the comments from the BMW driver are just the latest in a string of embarrassing revelations that have put San Luis Obispo County law enforcement in an awful light.

And now we have this: Law enforcement has been so focused on making an example of young people protesting racial injustice on the freeway that they’ve made a martyr out of a driver who deliberately aimed his car into protesters and then spouted intolerant garbage about “colored people” and driving 100 mph through a “stupid-ass crowd.”

If anyone should be made an example of, it’s him.

We strongly urge the CHP to explain why the driver was not arrested — and why the protesters were.

And to the rest of local law enforcement, the next time you want to sit on video that shows one thing while you spin a contradictory tale to the public, maybe think twice.

We expect dispassionate, unbiased and transparent policing, not non-fact-based storytelling.