A California city councilman was cited for battery after video showed him pushing anti-lockdown protesters who had gathered outside his front door

• The president of the Fresno, California, city council was cited on three counts of misdemeanor battery on Tuesday after a confrontation with anti-lockdown protesters outside of his apartment.
• Video shows members of a conservative group called Frontline America knocking on Miguel Arias' front door to ask him about the city's coronavirus response.
• Another video shows Arias stepping out of his home, and swatting and pushing a couple of the men gathered outside his front door.
• Arias claims the men tried to come inside his home, and that he acted in protection of his children.
• California has issued a state-wide, stay-at-home order since March 19.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The president of the Fresno, California, city council was cited on three counts of battery on Tuesday after getting into a confrontation with anti-lockdown protesters who had gathered outside of his home.

The incident was caught on two videos recorded by members of the conservative group Frontline America, and obtained by local TV station KMPH.

It happened around 4 p.m. Tuesday, with one of the group's leaders, Ben Bergquam, knocking on councilman Miguel Arias' door while other members filmed behind him.

Bergquam is also a member of the Proud Boys, a far-right, men-only organization designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

In the first video, Bergquam is seen trying to ask Arias a question, but before he can get it out, the city councilman is seen stepping out of his home and starting to swat at his camera.

"No. Get out. Do not come to my house," Arias can be heard saying.

A second video shows Arias continuing to try and move the protesters off the stairs leading up to his apartment, at times swatting at and pushing Bergquam and another man.

All the while, Bergquam is heard accusing Arias of "ruining businesses."

Police arrived at the scene after receiving complaints from both the protesters and Arias.

Arias and Bergquam described the event differently in interviews after the confrontation, with Arias saying the men were trying to trespass on his home while the protesters said they were attacked unprovoked.

Bergquam told ABC30 that Arias grabbed him by the arms and "tried to throw me down the stairs."

"He could've just closed the door. He could have said no comment, closed the door. Nothing to say to you, Bergquam added to KMPH. "But for him to come out and grab us, that shocked me first."

Meanwhile, Arias told ABC30: "I asked him to leave, I told him this wasn't the place, this was my home, and he refused to do it, so I moved him out of the way and I escorted him down the stairs."

"Folks didn't want to give way to my private property, so I moved them out of the way."

Police say they are still investigating whether the protesters actually trespassed.

Even if they didn't come into the apartment, they may have trespassed by accessing Arias' gated community, Fresno Police Sergeant Jeff LaBlue told KMPH.

Arias said he had acted in protection of his family, who were inside the apartment when the confrontation took place.

"These are people who are known to be second amendment advocates and who have made threats against my personal safety in the past," the councilman told Your Central Valley, the news site for the local KSEE24 channel.

"So I was not going to take any chance of letting them come within ten feet of my kids."

He described the demonstrators as "paid protesters who portray themselves to be from the alt-right media" and said the protest was "clearly organized and designed to escalate."

Arias said he plans to press his own charges in the coming days, and looks forward to defending himself in court.

California has issued a state-wide, stay-at-home order since March 19 because of the coronavirus outbreak.

On May 8, restrictions in the state were loosened to allow the reopening of retail stores for curbside pickup.

According to Fresno County's website, there have been 984 cases and ten deaths in the county as of May 12.

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