On March 30, the Flagstaff Police Department issued a press release about a March 19 road rage incident that resulted in violence. The incident began at Butler Avenue and Milton Road and continued along Route 66 through the heart of downtown.

Witnesses described erratic driving behavior, honking and disorderly hand gestures that were exhibited by the drivers of both a Chevrolet Cavalier and a Tesla prior to the altercation.

The driver of the Cavalier, 33-year-old Flagstaff resident Robert Artherton, cut in front of a Tesla, stopping both cars. Artherton then exited his vehicle and assaulted the 61- year-old female Tesla driver. Both drivers sustained minor injuries.

Artherton was cited and released for disorderly conduct, assault and aggressive driving and sought medical attention for an injury to his hand. He later skipped an arraignment hearing on the assault charges and has a previous felony conviction for endangerment in Maricopa County.

There have been a recent series of protests and acts of criminal damage against Tesla, a company run by Elon Musk, a billionaire who also owns Space X and Twitter, which he renamed “X” for no good reason. Musk has since become a major supporter of and senior advisor to President Donald Trump and the de facto head of the Department of Government Efficiency, a rebranding of the U.S. Digital Service, which has been on a tear slashing the federal workforce and generally causing chaos in the executive branch.

Prior to Musk’s arrival, the little-known USDS, which still technically exists, had about 230 employees and provided consultation to federal agencies on information technology issues.

Americans upset with Trump, Musk and DOGE have staged protests against Musk’s companies, with some expressing their position by damaging Tesla dealerships and vandalizing privately-owned Tesla vehicles or accosting private Tesla owners. “Protesting” a private person’s behavior over an unknown political stance is not only stupid, it leads to realworld penalties regardless of ideology. When sentencing an offender, a judge doesn’t care person set a car on fire because of its brand — the “set a car on fire” is the crime.

Protesting businesses or whole industries has long been used as a tool to achieve political, social and economic change, from the civil rights movement to environmentalism, with varying success. Inconsistency, lack of organization and lack of focus generally lead to the failure of boycotts and business protests.

• The Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955 and 1956 was sparked by Rosa Parks’ arrest for refusing to move to the back of a segregated city bus. The collective economic pressure applied by black civil rights activists and white allies forced businesses and lawmakers to desegregate public transportation in Montgomery, Ala.
• Google employees staged a protest over the company’s handling of sexual harassment claims in 2018 that led to policy changes. In the 1990s, Nike faced widespread boycotts over its use of sweatshops and child labor overseas.
• The publicity and backlash forced Nike to improve working conditions and establish corporate social responsibility policies. But a boycott against Chick-fil-A over its donations to anti-LGBT groups never really took off and the company is still among the most profitable fast food chains.
• Occupy Wall Street made headlines, but not even the protestors knew what they wanted to accomplish.
• College protests against the war in Gaza after the Hamas attack on southern Israel had the intent of shifting U.S. public opinion through peaceful civil disobedience, but encampments, vandalism, threats to professors, administrators and Jewish students and overt anti-Semitic acts by a handful of agitators who ignored that “peaceful” bit turned public opinion against them.

College administrators did themselves no service by opposing pro-Palestinian protestors on some campuses and pro-Israel protestors on others rather than advocating a middle ground where both factions could protest peacefully and lawfully — they are not synonyms — as long as they followed the same equally-applied rules and left alone the students and teachers who just wanted to go to class.

Most people who bought Teslas prior to the 2024 election did so for environmental reasons. From 2019 to 2022, 38% of Tesla buyers identified themselves as Democrats and 30% as Republicans, according to Strategic Vision.

Electric buyers overall skew 41% Democratic to 27% Republican. While the woman in the Flagstaff incident didn’t identify her political ideology in the police report or news stories, chances are that a woman in her 60s driving an electric vehicle and living in Flagstaff probably didn’t vote for Trump in 2024.

Violence or acts of damage don’t help the cause and can turn public opinion against those who stage protests. Such actions also bring economic harm to workers who are just trying to make ends meet. Tesla factory workers have those jobs because they pay well, not because they unquestioningly agree with the owners’ politics. Did you agree with the politics of every company you worked for? Certainly not.

If you don’t like a company’s politics, don’t support it, but don’t attack or demonize those who do. Remember that consumers make choices based mostly on economics, less so on politics. Protests raise awareness, sure, but if that doesn’t turn into better candidates running for office, votes for them and subsequent legislation, then they’ve ultimately failed.

Statement about March 19 incident from Flagstaff Police Department

The Flagstaff Police Department is aware of a news story circulating from numerous media outlets regarding an incident investigated on March 19, 2025.

On March 19^th, 2025 at approximately 12:30 PM, the Flagstaff Police Department responded to a report of a road rage incident that escalated into a violent encounter. The incident began in the area of East Butler Avenue and South Milton Road, continuing eastbound along East Route 66. The two vehicles involved were a Tesla and a Chevrolet Cavalier.

At around the 2000 block of East Route 66, the driver of the Cavalier, later identified as Robert Artherton, 33, of Flagstaff, drove in front of the Tesla, causing both vehicles to stop in the roadway. Artherton exited his vehicle and approached the driver’s side of the Tesla. A confrontation ensued, with conflicting accounts from those involved as to what transpired.  Both drivers sustained minor injuries. Witnesses also described erratic driving behavior exhibited by both vehicles prior to the altercation.

All parties involved allege that the incident was triggered by driving behaviors, honking and disorderly hand gestures. At the time of the investigation no additional details regarding the motives behind the incident were provided.

Artherton was arrested via a criminal citation for disorderly conduct, assault, and aggressive driving in lieu of detention due to seeking medical attention for an injury to his hand.

For further inquiries, please contact the Flagstaff Police Department at (928) 774-1414.