(PresidentialWire.com)- A rioter was charged with criminal assault on a police officer with a dangerous weapon and felony resisting arrest more than four months after the event in August 2020.
The alleged Antifa rioter Joseph Austin Gaskins, who was 19 then, was apprehended on August 24, 2020, during a bloody left-wing demonstration in downtown San Diego, California. According to local news outlets, the number of demonstrators reportedly reached roughly 100 that night.
News reports show the crowd gathered to protest the shooting of Jacob Blake by police the day before in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Some protesters held signs supporting Black Lives Matter. Blake, who was sought for rape and domestic violence, struggled with police and reached for something in his car before being shot. He survived.
Around six o’clock that August 2020 evening in San Diego, San Diego Police Department officers were dispatched to the scene of a “mobile force activation” due to protesters obstructing driveways. The driveways served as the entrances and exit points for patrol cars and emergency vehicles.
Reports show Officer Robert Bustamante of the SDPD testified before a court a year later that he had observed rioters swarming around police cars. The protesters screamed at the officers not to come through. Officer Bustamante reported that one protester struck him repeatedly with a garbage can lid when he came closer after being told to ‘make a lane’ so that emergency vehicles could enter and exit. A different man with a three-foot red metal rod charged the officer from behind and struck him on the head and neck as he attempted to subdue his first attacker.
Officer Bustamante’s statement shows that during the altercation, he took the attacker’s face mask off and could view the attacker’s face. He recognized defendant Joseph Austin Gaskins in court as the attacker.
Gaskins pleaded not guilty at his arraignment on Jan. 7, 2021.
What’s surprising is that Gaskins’ alleged criminal activities ever made it to court, seeing as California treats criminals as victims of the people they assault.
