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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsCops Charge Zip-Tie Guys Who Ambushed School Principal Over COVID Rules
All three members of an Arizona trio who barged into an elementary school principals office with zip ties and threatened to place her under citizens arrest for following public health guidelines have instead been arrested themselves, the Tucson Police Department confirmed.
58-year-old Frank Tainatongo was cited and released for misdemeanor trespassing yesterday, Tucson PD spokesman Sgt. Richard Gradillas told The Daily Beast. He would be the third person cited and released related to this incident.
Last week, Tainatongo accompanied marketing strategist and coffee shop owner Kelly Walker, 51, and Rishi Rambaran, 40, as Rambaran accosted Principal Diane Vargo while she sat with another educator at Tucsons Mesquite Elementary School. Rambaran's son had been told by the school to mask up and quarantine after reportedly being exposed to someone with COVID-19. Walker livestreamed the confrontation on his shops Instagram. In the footage, Tainatongo, who remained unidentified until today, could be seen standing in the doorway holding multiple pairs of law enforcement-grade zip ties. The video has since been deleted.
When this kind of coercion and bullying is perpetrated by school administrators, breaking the law, a citizens arrest is an option worth looking into, Walker wrote on Facebook last Thursday.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/cops-charge-men-ambushed-school-212441121.html
Make7
(8,543 posts)2naSalit
(86,765 posts)It is wrong and against our laws and values as described in our social contract as citizens.
empedocles
(15,751 posts)'On Monday, Tainatongo was booked on a charge of third-degree criminal trespass, the same charge leveled at Walker and Rambaran. If convicted, all three face up to 30 days in jail.'
SledDriver
(2,059 posts)"If convicted, all three face up to 30 days in jail."
30 days? How about 30 months?
llmart
(15,550 posts)I only caught part of the clip on this morning's news. I wonder if they'd have done that if the principle was a big, strapping man.
Scrivener7
(50,993 posts)jail. Damn. That was a threat to kidnap that woman. You don't wave zip ties around unless you are threatening abduction. And they're going to get a maximum of 30 days?
What the hell is going on?
lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)WTF? I used to think Tucson was a nice place.
Kali
(55,019 posts)Rita Ranch - big stucco and pink tile roof ugliness on the SE side of Tucson. lots of out of stater repukes.