Though many have continued their peaceful protests amidst the rise in violent confrontations between protesters and police, their actions have not necessarily been received peacefully.
One young woman was sprayed with pepper spray while holding up a sign and chanting "Black Lives Matter!" on a street median strip.
A 46-year-old woman, since identified as Amy Atkisson, from Thousand Oaks in Southern California, came to a stop light while out on Wednesday, June 3rd.
Several peaceful protesters were positioned on the median strip next to her, holding up signs and chanting "Black Lives Matter!" on the corner of Hillcrest Drive and Lynn Road.
Someone from the gathering captured the incident on video and posted it on Twitter, which the Ventura County police proceeded to use as evidence.
At the beginning of the video, we see one of the protesters cuss at the woman through the window of her Lexus SUV for an unspecified reason.
As the chanting continued, Atkisson rolled down her car window enough to pepper spray one of the young women by her car, before rolling up her window and driving away.
The protester who filmed the video also captured the license plate number on the Lexus SUV, which the Ventura County police used to track Atkisson down.
You can watch the video here:
"In California, it is a criminal offense to use pepper spray against another person out o anger or in a way that is not considered self-defense"
This is not right, we should not attack each other!#thousandoaks #BlackLivesMatter #thousandoaksprotest pic.twitter.com/S3L7tKINFP
— weddingpup (@weddingpup) June 1, 2020
Others watched video of the incident and took to social media to share their thoughts.
@VCscanner A minor peacefully protesting was pepper sprayed by an adult driving by, you can clearly see her license plate number too
— yasmine🦋 (@yasminealvvarez) June 1, 2020
@CHPMoorpark @VENTURASHERIFF @TOAcornNews you have your video evidence and license plate....
— J M Hanover (@jhanover33) June 1, 2020
OMG and with those vanity plates, it will be easy to find and prosecute this person. Awful!
— Gloria #StayHome Miele, Ph.D. (@GloriaMiele) June 1, 2020
I was standing with Ava in the median when this woman attacked her. Nothing led up to this video except peaceful protesting. We never touched anyone's cars we were chanting “black lives matter" how is that threatening?
— Mads (@maddy_harman) June 1, 2020
Atkisson was then arrested on suspicion of the unlawful use of tear gas and for attacking the sixteen-year-old protester.
The young woman who was pepper sprayed has remained publicly anonymous, but the Ventura County police confirmed they have been in contact with her to verify the sequence of events.
Ventura County Sheriff's Captain Denise Sliva said of the process:
"It took a little time to track down the victim and interview her, and obviously we were getting a lot of people contacting dispatch who were present or saw the video."
Amy Atkisson was released from custody later the same day she was arrested, but she is expected to return to court on July 31.
