A woman described as the main organizer of a Black Lives Matter march in California was arrested Tuesday when the event was ending, according to reports.
The detained woman was reportedly identified as Tianna Arata. She was detained and placed inside a police vehicle in San Luis Obispo while other protesters carried their banners and other items in a car, the San Luis Obispo Tribune reported.
San Luis Obispo is the county seat of San Luis Obispo County, located approximately 189 miles from the Pacific coast from Los Angeles.
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Witnesses said Arata complied with the police peacefully, the Tribune reported. They said police officers told them she was being arrested for allegedly inciting a riot.
Several protesters then traveled to the county jail to demand Arata’s release, according to the newspaper.
Earlier in the evening, Dan Dow County District Attorney posted a “public safety alert” on Twitter because a group of about 300 protesters had blocked Highway 101.
“This is illegal and dangerous,” wrote Dow. “It must stop.”
Hundreds of vehicles were delayed when protesters marched along a section of the highway, the newspaper reported.
The glass smashed into the boy
Some protesters damaged the hood of a car and broke the rear window of a vehicle, sending shards of glass to a 4-year-old boy who was sitting inside, KEYT-TV of Santa Barbara reported. It was unclear if the boy was injured.
At one point in the night, a woman who opposed the protest began yelling at the crowd.
Tuesday’s protest was sparked in part by comments made at a local tea party event earlier this month by San Luis Obispo county sheriff Ian Parkinson, the Tribune reported.
“I said the only thing I know about prejudice is when I put on a uniform and someone doesn’t like me because I’m wearing a uniform,” Parkinson said in a video. “I understand in areas that have heavy minority communities, how they might feel that way, but here in San Luis Obispo, we are being torn apart by this problem of something that is not really here in that way.”
“Racism is everywhere,” the sheriff told the Tribune, but said “he has never seen any indication that systemic racism exists in this county.”
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San Luis Obispo Mayor Heidi Harmon attended Tuesday’s protest and told the newspaper that minorities often “feel very uncomfortable and unwelcome” in the predominantly white area, and many residents hoped to change that.
“I think those of us who are white and have the privilege of it all don’t understand how people feel lonely and disconnected,” he said.
