<p>An incident caught on video has resulted in three misdemeanor battery citations against a Fresno City Council member after he got violent with a group of self-described independent journalists pushing back on the city&#8217;s extended &#8220;shelter-in-place&#8221; order.</p>
<p>&#8220;Fresno City Council President Miguel Arias was issued three citations for misdemeanor battery Tuesday evening after a group with strong ties to shelter-in-place protests showed up on his doorstep,&#8221; the <a href="https://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/article242690596.html">Fresno Bee</a> reports. &#8220;Members of the group pursued a citizens arrest after videotaping Arias apparently pushing at least one of them. No one was injured, said Fresno police Lt. Anthony DeWall.&#8221;</p>
<p>The incident took place at the council member&#8217;s apartment building at around 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, where a group of men and women appeared at the apartment to confront him about the damage done to people&#8217;s lives by the city&#8217;s &#8220;shutdown&#8221; orders, which Arias supports and which Fresno Mayor Lee Brand recently <a href="https://www.fresnobee.com/news/coronavirus/article242434251.html">extended</a> to May 31, prompting hundreds of Fresno residents to protest in front of City Hall last week.</p>
<p>As video posted on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/james.hoak.5/videos/3396021393775909/" target="_self" rel="Follow noopener noreferrer">Facebook</a> shows, a handful of men and women carrying cameras and microphones congregated outside Arias’s apartment. The group is &#8220;led by Ben Bergquam, who runs a media Facebook page called Frontline America and organized last week’s Freedom Rally protesting the shelter order,&#8221; the Fresno Bee notes.</p>
<p>Video shows Arias violently shoving Bergquam and at least one other member of the group, an African-American man. Below are two videos posted by Facebook user James Hoak:</p>
<p><iframe loading="lazy" style="border: none; overflow: hidden;" src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fjames.hoak.5%2Fvideos%2F3396058627105519%2F&amp;show_text=0&amp;width=267" width="267" height="476" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
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<p><iframe loading="lazy" style="border: none; overflow: hidden;" src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fjames.hoak.5%2Fvideos%2F3396021393775909%2F&amp;show_text=0&amp;width=560" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
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<p>&#8220;Lt. DeWall said the group of men identified themselves as independent media,&#8221; The Fresno Bee reports. &#8220;Both Arias and members of the group called police, and officers arrived about 20 minutes later. There were three alleged victims. Arias was not handcuffed. A court date for Arias will be scheduled in 90 days, which is standard, DeWall said.&#8221;</p>
<p>“This is over the top,” Arias told the outlet afterward. “This is not the way you engage in civil discourse.”</p>
<p>Arias also accused Bergquam and the other protesters of &#8220;threatening the safety&#8221; of his family, saying his two young children were also in the apartment. &#8220;They went from making a political statement to physically threatening the safety of my own family, and that was not going to be tolerated,&#8221; he said, alleging that Bergquam has publicly threatened him in the past.</p>
<p>As highlighted by the Fresno Bee, Bergquam&#8217;s group posted a follow-up video about Arias getting violent with the group and denouncing claims that they were trying to break into his house, calling Arias a &#8220;liar&#8221; and predicting his position on the council is &#8220;done&#8221;:</p>
<p>https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2026&#038;v=ASSIxCP32cU&#038;feature=emb_logo</p>
<p>Protesters also appeared at Mayor Brand&#8217;s home on Tuesday. Brand says that he had a discussion with the group and they left peacefully.</p>
<p>Along with the Freedom Rally protest, a local restaurant, The Waffle Shop, reopened in defiance of the city&#8217;s mandate, resulting in one of the customers being handcuffed by police, though eventually released.</p>
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WATCH: Fresno Official Gets Violent With Stay-At-Home Protesters; Gets Cited For Battery