this post was submitted on 18 Jun 2025
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Free Arturo (lemmy.dbzer0.com)
submitted 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago) by db0@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/anarchism@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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Support Arturo Gamboa An Antiracist accused of murder(photo of Arturo in a leather jacket smiling outside)Write to him atArturo Gamboa 457904c/o Salt Lake County Metro Jail3415 S. 900 W. Salt Lake City, UT 84119

Arturo was providing community defense as he has been known to do for years.(still from a video with a red arrow pointing at Gamboa walking with a gun pointed at the ground and a yellow arrow pointing at "designated peacekeeper" pointing a gun at Gamboa, from a couple feet away)While walking with his gun pointing at the ground a 50501 marshall drew on him and opened fire, killing one bystander and injuring Arturo, yet Arturo is the one facing murder charges

The armed, yellow-vested "peacekeepers" at the Utah 50501 protest in Salt Lake City opened fire into a crowd, hitting two people:A Sāmoan fashion designer with two young kids, who died.A second-generation Venezuelan immigrant and antiracist protester who was legally carrying. Cops charged HIM.(photos of both the fashion designer (Afa Ah Loo) and Arturo below)

The yellow-vested "peacekeepers" at the Utah 50501 event also approached several protesters and asked them to remove their masks and keffiyehs because they looked "too aggressive"(image below of another post that says: Had one of those yellow vest people come up to me yesterday and ask me and my friends to take our masks off becasue it was suspicious. When we said we felt safter and would stay masked she then asked me to swap my keffiyeh for a normal mask because it was "too aggressive". I didn't obviously but wtf)

This morning, the national 50501 account posted a statement on Bluesky praising the actions of their "volunteer member of the protest safety team", calling the shooting victim a "depraved and disturbed domestic terrorist."They have since deleted their post and have not issued a followup statement(4 images from said account with proof. the visible portions of the images say: "any form of violence or advocacy of it. Our hearts go out to the protestors, attendees, residents of SLC, Pacifica community, and most importantly the victim's family as they mourn the loss of a beautiful life." "We're still gathering facts and are in contact with organizers on the ground. From our understanding, this was caused by a depraved and disturbed domestic terrorist who brandished an AR-15 and went into a crowd of peaceful protestors with an agenda to commit what we can only" "stop him, firing 3 rounds, striking the man and prventing a potential mass casualty event. In the process, he also hit an innocent bystander, Arthur Folasa Ah Loo, better known as Afa, before rushing over to give him first aid. Afa later died from his injuries, and the man with the AR-" "Our hearts go out the protestors, attendees, residents of SLC, Pacifica community, and most importantly the victim's family as they mourn the loss of a beautiful life.")

Utah is a permitless carry state. SLC has an open carry ordinance, and protests frequently see AR-15s being carried openly.This environment makes threat assessment more challenging, which is why having armed "security" volunteers who lack extensive training is an incredibly reckless idea.(link to a 2020 article from The Guardian titled "The birth of a militia: how an armed group polices Black Lives Matter protests." The link preview text showing an excerpt from that article says: "In Utah, members of a militia claim their presence deters protesters from becoming ..."

Utah antiracist activists say that Gamboa (the young Venezuelan-American activist who was one of the two shooting victims) has been a fixture at local rallies, has open-carried his AR-15 before, and has never been violent.The police are charging him with homicide despite him never firing a shot.(image of Gamboa doing a Black Power salute among a crowd of also-saluting antiracists)

KSL News Utah legal analyst Greg Skordas a defense attorney and former deputy DA says the recommended murder charge against Gamboa will be "difficult to charge never mind proescute."He says the DA will look at the actions of the "peacekeeper," and doubts his actions will be found "reasonable.(still from a KSL Investigates news clip of a a crowd walking by. The headline says: Murder Charge Could Be Difficult to Prove in Fatal Protest Shooting")

Two days after Salt Lake City Police released a one-sided statement suggesting an innocent man was a mass shooter while praising the actual killers, local news finally reports that police are investigating the "peacekeepers" who fired into the crowd.The killer's name is still not published.

source

Note, I'm neither American, nor heavily in that scene. I'm merely signal boosting what I feel is important information countering lib propaganda.

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[–] Brunbrun6766@lemmy.world 25 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago) (6 children)

Yeah send Venmo money to this random QR code! Clowns.

Edit: reports say he was seen move away from the crowd, hid behind a low wall where he removed his rifle from his backpack, and "assumed a firing position" and moved back towards the crowd. No amount of Open Carry allows you to raise that rifle into a ready to shoot position without repercussions.

[–] Bane_Killgrind@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

The clip shows he's not in a ready to shoot position

[–] Brunbrun6766@lemmy.world -3 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

What clip, nothing in this post is a clip, nothing in the link is a clip its all images.

[–] Bane_Killgrind@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 13 hours ago (1 children)
[–] Brunbrun6766@lemmy.world -4 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Video entirely misses all the context of the moments leading up to the shots being fired. SOLID evidence

[–] Bane_Killgrind@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 12 hours ago

Yeah it's some evidence vs hearsay and speculation....

[–] db0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 20 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

That smells like a "he's coming right for us" bullshit report.

[–] Brunbrun6766@lemmy.world 8 points 20 hours ago

So how do you explain away the whole showing up with your rifle hidden in a backpack, and then hiding to take it out. Open carry all you want, why the fuck would you do that in the middle of a tense protest

[–] PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S@lemmy.sdf.org 11 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago)

Yeah send Venmo money to this random QR code!

Yeah actually, who does this actually get Venmo'ed to? The Mastodon post didn't really clarify that IMO.

Edit: so I haven't tried this myself, but according to Salt Lake County Corrections, you can donate online, but I'm not 100% sure we have enough information to do so. Also I imagine you'd have to give the State your personal info. Link is below for people who trust the cops more than the QR code. (Personally, my trust for the cops is negative so I trust the random QR code more.)

https://www.saltlakecounty.gov/sheriff/corrections/deposit/

[–] 0_o7@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 20 hours ago

Link to the reports? Any actual evidence or is it statement by the police?

[–] Randomgal@lemmy.ca -5 points 16 hours ago

Nooooooo. It's a leftist DO NOT BRING FACTS AND LOGIC just support them blindly and "amplify the message" from somewhere you don't live or know jus because it aligns with your narrative.

Kinda crazy tbh. At least it's not Twitter I guess.