Rape and the Austin Police Department by Erin Schultz

The USA loves violence, especially when it is directed toward the poor and homeless, women, LGBTQ persons, the mentally ill, and people of color. Our police apparatus exists in order to defend hegemonic power and property. Police are given the power to beat, to invade, to rape, and to kill with impunity, and people love the police because they love violence, subjugation, and control.

One of the most popular and enduring TV shows of our time, Law and Order: SVU, consists of a never-ending sensationalist exhibition of the torture, rape, and murder of women. Its ostensible “feminist” purpose is to illustrate the problem of violence against women and the “heroic” efforts of the paternalistic police to combat it. The detectives decide who is a “good victim” and often engage in victim blaming, exploitation, and worse. It is a nasty, misogynistic, pornographic spectacle that perpetuates the basest attitudes and thoughts about women.

The idea of the good cop makes no epistemological sense. In service to an oppressive system that commits daily assaults, rapes, and murders, being a good cop is like being a good soldier in an immoral war which, like almost all wars, exists in order to abuse the vulnerable.

As a society, we have long ago decided to allow the state, through its policing apparatus, the authority to decide who has freedom and even life. But fascism needs more and more bodies to exploit and to destroy in order to fuel its growth. By definition, the police need the ability to beat, to rape, and to murder.

In this video, Officer Martin of the Austin Police Department publicly flaunts his entitlement to rape young women. He carries the smugness and the nonchalance of the serial rapist and abuser. With all the power of the state behind him, why should he expect any consequences this time? Indeed his own police chief became nationally notorious for minimizing rape by officers, and his fellow officers’ jokes about “un-raping” women were parodied on the international hit Orange is the New Black.

Notice, however, how his demeanor changes when he is held accountable by members of the Peaceful Streets Project. He can’t scurry away fast enough.

It would not be sufficient for Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo to take the badge away from this rapist and to put him in prison. The whole system is deeply diseased. The problems are so insidious and so overwhelming that it can be tempting for members of oppressed classes to turn away into depression, isolation, or escapism.

But social movements throughout history show us that they can beat us, rape us, even kill us, but that when we come together and expose the truth, we still have agency.

 

Antonio Buehler Removed From Q&A Panel; The Influence of The Police State

Peaceful Streets Project founder Antonio Buehler was scheduled to sit on a Q&A Panel with Scott Christopherson, the producer of the documentary Peace Officer, following the Austin “premier” of the film, tomorrow evening. Within hours of the Peaceful Streets Project posting a Facebook event about the documentary, the public relations firm that contacted Buehler to sit on the panel sent him an email telling him that the Q&A Panel was cancelled. (If you purchased tickets and want a refund scroll down to the final paragraph)

When Buehler finally got the PR rep on the phone the next day, she told him that the producers of the movie got cold feet because they had received an email from someone who indicated that they were offended by the views of Buehler, and therefore the producers chose to remove him from the panel (but not cancel the Q&A as she claimed the day before). However, when Buehler talked to the producers of the film, they claimed that they had nothing to do with the change, and that the PR company was the one who made that decision.

Unable to get a straight answer from the PR company and/or the producer, we are left to assume that once again the police have exerted external pressure on someone to prevent us from sharing our message of police accountability, even though the police were able to use the same film at the same venue in advance of the premier to push the lie that Austin Police Department doesn’t use their SWAT team to terrorize and kill people. In the past, the police (who are led by media savvy but ethically corrupt Police Chief Hubert “Art” Acevedo) have pressured three venues to cancel Peaceful Streets Project events, to include Huston-Tillotson University after we paid a security deposit. Additionally, they have pressured local media, to include the Austin American-Statesman and Jeff Ward of the local radio station KLBJ, to stop giving us a voice.

One might ask themselves, why would people allow the police to dictate who can appear at their events, who can host events at their establishments, and who they can give a voice to using their platforms? The answer is that the police state is quite influential and powerful, particularly at the local level.

First, the police are a violent gang of thugs who pick and choose which people they abuse the most. If you’re a person of color, homeless, mentally ill, female, or happen to look or dress the “wrong” way, you are much more likely to be abused than people in other segments of society. Much of society recognizes this, and they don’t want to find themselves in the sights of criminal police.

Second, the police provide subsidized security services for corporations. The notion that the police have a duty to protect you has been disproven by the Supreme Court (Warren v. District of Columbia). Sure, police may murder people at traffic stops or turn their backs on someone who is bleeding out in the poor part of town, but they will eagerly protect private business. Business owners are well aware of the benefits of relying on the police to protect their property instead of having to pay private security. It reduces their expenses, padding their profits, and it removes them from liability should the security (police officers) violently beat or kill someone. Like dealing with the mafia, it often pays to stay on the good side of police who may or may not be able to ensure the protection of your business.

Third, in our backward society, there are benefits to being on the good side of the police. If you’re a business owner, you may get taxpayer subsidized customers such as police conferences held at your establishment, paid marketing such as police recruitment advertisements in your newspaper, or special contracts such as a monopoly on towing services. If you’re media, you even get access to the Chief of Police for interviews. And if you’re really friendly with the Chief, he may even be willing to get you out of jail and have your DWI charges dismissed. Of course if you cross the police, you may get cut off from accessing the police department, which may give you a competitive disadvantage (which may force you to fire someone, ruining their life, and leading them to go to New York to commit suicide outside of the national corporate headquarters).

Because the police are a terrorist gang of cowardly criminals, we understand why so few people are willing to stand up to them. After all, we see how they viciously go after the victims of police abuse, with no repercussions because other cops, prosecutors, and politicians refuse to hold them accountable for their crimes. This is why it is essential that we continue to work to undermine the police state, and to help people come to the realization that we can evolve as a society, and live in peace with one another without paying the worst of society to put on a badge and a gun so that they can commit their crimes behind the protection of qualified immunity.

For those who had planned to attend the “premiere” of Peace Officer, you can email Kayla Williams at kayla.williams@drafthouse.com and provide her with your row number, seat numbers and telephone number. She will have someone from Alamo contact you and ask you for the name on your credit card, your credit card number, and the expiration date on the card in order to cancel the charge. You can also call the following number to have your refund processed: 512-861-7040, box office press 4. You must contact them before 7:00 pm on Friday, October 9th in order to get a refund. In place of the film and panel, we will be meeting at 8:00 pm at the Shake Shack for dinner and camaraderie in advance of our Friday night cop watch. I hope you can join us. All power to all the people! #ACAB

Two Documentaries to See This Week in Central Texas

Tonight (Monday) at 7:30p, a screening of The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution will be played at the Marchesa Hall & Theatre at 6226 Middle Fiskville Rd., Austin. Tickets are still available. The weblink to purchase tickets is:  http://www.austinfilm.org/page.aspx?pid=3040&cgid=5&ceid=4811&cerid=0&cdt=10%2f5%2f2015. For those who don’t know, the Black Panther Party was the original cop watch group. In response to racist policing and police brutality, the Black Panther Party began by going out and observing the police interacting with the public. They didn’t have cameras back then, but they were armed with law books and rifles.

And on Friday at 7p, at the Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar, there will be a showing of Peace Officer with a Q&A afterward featuring Scott Christopherson and Peaceful Streets Project founder Antonio Buehler. Peace Officer won multiple awards this past year at various film festivals, including two at SXSW. There are only six seats remaining so purchase your tickets, today: https://drafthouse.com/movies/peace-officer-w-director-scott-christopherson/austin.  There will be other showings if you can’t make the 7p showing, but no other Q&A panels.

 

Also, we are still looking for volunteers who would like to lead or assist on any of the following efforts we are currently engaged in:

• Cop watch
• Know Your Rights trainings
• Police Abuse Complaint Department
• Research (e.g., historical, public information requests)
• Writing (e.g., blog posts, OpEds)
• Video editing

Please reach out if you would like to engage in any of the above activities.

Hopefully we will see you at these two documentaries!

 

Donor Provides Peaceful Streets Project With New Equipment to Film The Police

Over the past three and a half years, members of the Peaceful Streets Project have collectively gone into the streets thousands of times to film the police in order to help protect and serve the community. Most of these cop watches have resulted in boring videos of typical police encounters, or what we call non-incidents (although to the people detained, ticketed, or arrested they are hardly non-incidents). Hundreds of these cop watches have resulted in videos of cops abusing their power, harassing us or other members of the public, and/or committing crimes against us or other members of the public. And in zero instances have we videoed a “good” cop arresting a terrorist cop who was abusing, violating the rights of, or committing a crime against us or a member of the public–although there have been numerous opportunities for those so-called “good” cops to protect people by arresting terrorist cops.

As a grassroots organization with zero employees and no 501(c)(3) designation, we have never focused on raising money to outfit ourselves with high quality equipment. The bulk of the money that we have raised has been used to fund our two (free to the public) Police Accountability Summits, and the purchase of 100 Sony Bloggies that we handed out to people in our communities so they could also film the police.  Our volunteers have primarily used their own smart phones, flip cameras, and camcorders that they bought using their own funds. Unfortunately, this has resulted in far too many low quality videos.

Fortunately, a benefactor has stepped up to the plate to help us upgrade our technology. This person purchased seven camcorders, three action cameras, a professional camera and a separate lens, a camera for livestreaming, numerous memory cards, multiple battery packs, and various other accessories. Now when we go out cop watching we will be able to capture more video, at higher quality, from more angles.

Our donor has long been frustrated by the tyranny within our society, and had been looking for an organization worth supporting. Their priority was to support an organization that was doing the dirty work necessary to help society move forward, that has the courage to speak truth to power, stand up to power, and to embolden and empower others to do the same.

We are proud of the work that we have been doing. We have not wavered in our pursuit for justice and a society free of institutionalized violence. We will not compromise our work in an attempt to appease our critics. And we will continue to engage in the radical work of calling out terrorism where we see it. Our actions do not win the support of the meek, or those who believe that one must respect their oppressors in order to mitigate the oppression. Our actions do, however, win the support of those who have given up on the fairy tale of “good” cops. They win the support of those who are willing to go into the streets, go into the courts, or donate to help us continue to engage in direct action tactics that shine a light on the abuses of the police state, and that empower others to stand up, as well. Thank you, dear benefactor. We will put your donation to good use.

If you would like to support the Peaceful Streets Project, we encourage you to reach out to us to get involved in some of our volunteer activities (e.g., cop watch, know your rights trainings, jail support, police abuse complaint department, fliering), or donate to help us grow. Contact us at peacefulstreets@gmail.com for more information.

 

EXCLUSIVE: Newly Released Video Show Cops Illegally Arresting Cop Watchers

On September 21, 2012, the Peaceful Streets Project came across a DWI stop on West 6th Street in Austin, TX, during a standard roving cop watch patrol. As you can see in both video that are embedded, the Peaceful Streets Project cop watchers (Antonio Buehler and Sarah Dickerson) quietly approach to film the interaction between the police officer and the suspect, while the police officer is still in the vehicle. That police officer is Patrick Oborski, the cop whose illegal arrest of Antonio Buehler on New Year’s Day 2012 helped spur the formation of the Peaceful Streets Project

By every measure of the law, none of the Peaceful Streets Project cop watchers were interfering with the stop. They were far enough from the stop that they were not impeding the investigation. Oborski calls out Antonio Buehler by name, and tells him to back up several times, to which Buehler responds by asking “how far” he has to move back. Oborski then said, “back up until I tell you to stop, back up.” Buehler backs up, then asks Oborski once again how far he needs to move back, but Oborski doesn’t respond.

SGT Adam Johnson then come on the scene. Johnson is Oborski’s supervisor who helped cover up the crimes of Oborski (and Officer Robert Snider) on January 1, 2012.

Johnson then begins to order Buehler and Dickerson to go in the opposite direction that Oborski ordered Buehler to go. Johnson told Buehler and Dickerson to go to the other end the block, on the other side of Oborski, which would have required them to approach Oborski, walk within feet of him in order to pass him and the suspect, and then continue on to the end of the block.

Buehler, recognizing the danger in walking toward the police officer who had previously illegally arrested him, and feeling that it was a trap, repeatedly asked Johnson why he was giving him such an absurd order, how far he needed to move back to not be “interfering,” and reminded Johnson how he could not be interfering at such a distance.

Despite constantly moving back while asking how much further he would have to move back, Buehler was ultimately illegally arrested by Johnson after Buehler asked Johnson why he was being a “bully.”

Johnson then arrested Dickerson who was further away from the stop than Buehler the entire time.

Despite having criminal charges hanging over their heads, the Austin Police Department and city attorneys prevented Buehler, Dickerson, or their lawyers from reviewing the video or retrieving the cameras the police confiscated from them for two years. The Austin Police Department and the city apparently didn’t want the world to see how their cops clearly targeted cop watchers and violated their civil rights by illegally arresting them for filming the police. It wasn’t until a judge ordered the City of Austin to turn over the cameras that Buehler and his legal team were able to see these video.

Johnson was never disciplined or charged for his violation of Buehler and Dickerson’s civil rights, or his crimes on January 1, 2012. Johnson was, however, celebrated for irresponsibly shooting and killing a mentally ill man with his service pistol on Thanksgiving of 2014, while holding horse reins in one hand, toward a major interstate from a distance of about 300′.

Oborski, likewise, was never disciplined or charged for his violation of Buehler and a San Antonio woman’s civil rights on January 1, 2012. Oborski was, however, awarded the department’s first ever Jaime Padron Hero Award after every cop in Austin found out that Oborski was caught on tape abusing a woman, assaulting Buehler, and then trying to frame him with a felony crime that he did not commit.

Austin Police Department won’t discipline, fire, or arrest cops who are caught on camera committing crimes, but they’ll celebrate cops when they irresponsibly kill people.

 

Without access, body cameras will not increase transparency by Antonio Buehler

On August 2^nd, I was arrested while filming police officers downtown. It marked the fifth time that I have been wrongfully arrested by the Austin Police Department in retaliation for exercising my constitutional right to film the police in an attempt to hold them accountable. Fortunately for me, I do not have to rely on police video to ensure that I am exonerated of the charges pending against me.

APD continues to mislead the public on the well-established right to film the police in public. In addition to being the document that all police officers swore to uphold and defend, the U.S. Constitution is the supreme law of the land. Among the first rights enshrined in the Constitution are freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Contrary to claims by Chief Acevedo, it is impossible for someone to illegally film police officers if they are peacefully doing so in a public space. The pro-First Amendment position that we have the protected right to film the police has been reaffirmed numerous times in Federal Courts, from Glik v. Cunniffe in the First Circuit to my lawsuit against the City of Austin in the Fifth Circuit.

Acevedo tries to confuse the public by claiming that his officers are not arresting people for filming, but merely for their “conduct” while filming. But there should be no confusion—the only questionable conduct is that of police officers illegally arresting lawful people. Acevedo also tries to confuse the public by claiming that the Peaceful Streets Project is interfering with arrests. However, all such claims are baseless. They have yet to provide a single example of a Peaceful Streets Project member physically interfering with an arrest. Legally, one cannot interfere just because they happen to be holding a camera in their hand.

The Peaceful Streets Project is a grassroots initiative that grew out of the community support I received after I was arrested on January 1, 2012. That morning, I witnessed Officers Patrick Oborski and Robert Snider abusing a woman who had not committed any crime. I began to question the officers and attempted to take pictures with my cell phone. Because I had the audacity to exercise my constitutionally protected rights, I was arrested and charged with the felony crime of spitting in a police officer’s face. Fortuitously, half a dozen witnesses were willing to come forward and testify that the police lied about the event, and one took video of the incident.

What I did not have access to for the two years and nine months after the arrest, while APD continued to slander me by claiming I spit in Oborski’s face, were the dash cam videos that also proved my innocence. APD and prosecutors also failed to turn over the 7-Eleven surveillance video they had in their possession, which we fortunately acquired through other means. In subsequent arrests, they also confiscated three Peaceful Streets Project cameras that had video of Austin police illegally arresting us for filming them. It took us about two years to get those videos back from the city. And the city tried to quash our requests for HALO video that show the events leading up to my arrest on August 2^nd.

Acevedo disingenuously claims that they are now rolling out body cameras to increase transparency.  However, body cameras without access will not increase transparency, they will become another tool for the police to abuse people they find undesirable. The opposite of transparency is the status quo in which APD suppresses video of police misconduct while misrepresenting those incidents by referencing videos that they refuse to allow the public to see.

If APD were really interested in transparency, they would acknowledge that the six videos of my most recent arrest prove that the police officers lied in order to justify another illegal arrest. And they would encourage the public to record the police.

* This is in response to their op-ed Body cameras might illuminate right and wrong when recording police.  I tried to have this op-ed published by the Austin American-Statesman but like many media outlets, they choose to let the lying cops dictate the narrative of the story, and to have the final word.

 

Should we slander dead cops? How does the mind of a peace officer work?

It is Peaceful Streets Project’s hope that Acevedo’s reaction of disgust at the slander rhetoric of a slain officer’s character will provide him with some insight into the injustice of a practice so commonplace in the news media, police press conference rhetoric, and bigoted minded individuals, that much of mainstream white America shows a selective impairment in the identification and expression of similar disdain when the equivalent practice is applied to victims of police abuse—particularly when those victims are black men and boys. Indeed, it is our hope that Acevedo might examine his reaction to this injustice and note that others, when faced with a parallel situation, might dare to feel the same way. Indeed, it is conceivable that just like him, others may likewise conclude, “This is how the mind of so-called Peace Officers work and why some members of our community don’t want officers inches from their face.”

The irony here is that Art Acevedo and his supporters are missing the point entirely, yet driving it home precisely: yes, it is offensive, hurtful, and callous to slander a slain victim irrespective of whatever preconceived notions or judgments a complete stranger has about his or her character. The disproportionate outcry when this happens to a slain officer relative to a slain black person is precisely why the specificity that black lives matter is important. The public already understands that officer’s lives matter—that is why these comments ignite such visceral anger. This reaction is all but absent from large segments of white America when the tables are turned, however, and a black person is slain at the hands of police. Indeed, this outrage and empathy gap betrays the ardent protests that “all lives matter.”

This was posted in response to the predictable outrage that resulted from us using the same rhetoric about a slain police officer that the police, their supporters, and the media use to dehumanize a person of color each time a cop kills one of them.

The hypocrisy of the police and their supporters perpetuate violence

Last night a Harris County Sheriff’s Deputy was allegedly shot and killed execution style at a gas station. Like clockwork, while ignoring stories of Texas cops executing an unarmed man with his arms in the air and another who was a patient at a hospital, cops and cop supporters went to social media to declare the dead cop a hero while claiming that there is a “war on police.” Their response to a cop getting killed relative to a cop executing someone highlighted how much they believe cop lives matter, versus how much they believe everyone else’s lives matter.

The usual cop worship sickens those of us who have been struggling to try to get society to evolve to the point where they believe that just because you give a bully a badge, a gun, and qualified immunity, doesn’t mean that they should be celebrated for receiving tax dollars to beat, frame, rape, and murder without consequence. Therefore, we decided to post the story of the cop being killed on Facebook, with a comment that mirrored comments made each time a cop kills someone, especially a person of color.

As is common when a cop kills a young person of color, the cops and their supporters are often eager to claim that the victim was involved in criminal activity, and thus, you should then conclude that the extrajudicial killing of the victim was somehow warranted. When you point out that the police officer shouldn’t have executed the person even if they were involved in criminal activity, the cops and their supporters will quickly argue that the victim made bad decisions that put them in the unfortunate position of being executed by a cop. And particularly when the victim is black, you have the usual suspects quickly claiming that the cop murdering a young person can somehow be blamed on the bad or absent parenting the victim received.

Our Facebook post was meant to serve as a mirror for those who reflexively defend criminal cops while slandering their victims. Instead of helping people come to terms with their hypocritical view of crime and personal responsibility, all we got was a bunch of hysterical responses from the people who are so often eager to slander the dead.

Not surprising, the biggest critics were the police officers who make it standard operating procedure to attack the character, the life, and the families of the people they kill. One of the biggest hypocrite cops in America is Austin Police Chief Hubert “Art” Acevedo who quickly shared a screenshot of our post with the comment, “This is how mind of so-called peaceful activist works & why police officers don’t want him inches from their face.” We couldn’t have asked for a better example of a cowardly, criminal, terrorist cop to respond to our posting that that of Acevedo.

First, Acevedo is either stupid enough to not catch onto the fact that we were using the tactics of cops across America to make a point, or dishonest enough that he pretended to not notice it. Either way, that alone gives some indication to the degree to which he is unfit for his job. Second, the mind of a peaceful activist is obviously beyond the comprehension of a tax parasite violent terrorist cop. We endeavor to call out violence and to encourage people to find the courage within themselves to stand up to it. Acevedo and his fellow cops simply endeavor to dispense violence on the people and to promote the cowardice of the profession of policing (e.g., shooting every time they “fear for their lives”). Thirdly, claiming that his police officers don’t want [Peaceful Streets Project co-founder Antonio Buehler] “inches from their face [sic]” puts an exclamation point on how cowardly and corrupt Acevedo is.

The reason Acevedo references cameras a certain distance from one’s face stems from the illegal arrest of Antonio Buehler and Mike Bluehair Smith (or Film the Police Portland) by Austin Police on August 2nd, 2015. In the lie-filled affidavit written up by Austin Police Officer Aljoe Garibay, it is claimed that Buehler on multiple occasions held a camera within inches of various officers’ faces. That claim was the foundation for their ultimate claim that he was interfering with the public duties of the officers, who just happened to be doing nothing but standing around watching people film them.

The problem with Garibay and Acevedo’s claims are that they were definitively debunked by multiple videos of the arrest. In the videos, it is patently obvious that the only reason a camera was ever in any cop’s face was because the cops kept moving toward Buehler and placing their face in front of his camera. In not one sequence of shots did Buehler ever move his camera and body toward the face of a cop.

The fact that Acevedo would so blatantly lie about someone who was trying to hold his criminal cops accountable, while he has engaged in coverups of his cops illegally arresting cop watchers, highlights that Acevedo and the thin blue line is unconcerned about crime when it emanates from within the fraternity of law enforcement, but that they are all too eager to slander and attempt to dehumanize the victims of police abuse, corruption, and violence.

And that is why at the end of our Facebook post, we pointed out that perhaps the reason that every once in a blue moon someone decides to mimic the violent tactics of the police against the police may be because tens of thousands of people are victimized by police each month. Cops and their supporters love to dismiss the executions of young black men by using the twitter tag #thuglife. So we ended our post with the same. Sadly, the cops and their supporters can’t grasp the meaning of the term.

Press Release: Austin Police SGT Randy Dear Watch

Tonight, August 14th, the Peaceful Streets Project will dedicate our effort and resources to holding Sgt. Randy Dear #4422 accountable. We will be shadowing his operations for the night with banners and fliers, stating his violations of our Constitutional right to film.

On the night of August 1st, Sgt. Dear illegally conspired with his subordinates to threaten and then arrest Peaceful Streets Project founder Antonio Buehler and Film The Police Portland founder Mike “Bluehair” Smith. While Buehler was filming from over 10 feet away, Sgt. Dear #4422 approached Buehler and told him that he would arrest the members of the Peaceful Streets Project the next time there was a “disturbance” and they got “in the way” that they would be arrested. Buehler questioned Dear how they could be interfering if they were just standing where hundreds of other people were also standing. Later, after Dear re-approached and moved within inches of Buehler, he gave Buehler an arbitrary order move claiming Buehler was now interfering with his duties. While Buehler was complying, and protesting the illegal order, Dear and five other paramilitary soldiers* jumped, assaulted, and arrested him, while Cpl. Quint Sebek #3454 turned and assaulted and arrested Mike “Bluehair” Smith. Ofc. Aljoe Garibay #6155 then submitted a lie filled affidavit to support the illegal arrests. The Peaceful Streets Project later released multiple videos of the incident in a public rebuttal, proving that APD lied in their attempts to justify an illegal arrest.

A few weeks prior to this incident, Dear gave an unlawful ultimatum to the members of Peaceful Streets Project requiring them to maintain an arbitrary distance from APD officers. In response to the quoted facts of the law regarding filming, and rulings by both the 5th Circuit and the Supreme Court, Dear stated, “This is not a judicial system. This is the law I’m telling you.”

It has become an obvious reality that there is a disconnect between the ruling of the courts and the actions of the Austin Police Department. If the constitutional right to film is no longer being respected, then we have no choice but to advance our tactics and strategies. We will exercise our constitutional and legal rights to the furthest extent possible to document the illegal actions of Sgt. Dear.

Sgt. Dear, Chief Art Acevedo, and the rest of the Austin Police Department, in three and a half years you have yet to beat us in court. We remain undefeated. You have attempted to murder, hospitalize, imprison and assault members of our community. Yet we remain ever strong, ever fearless. If you seek to end the existence and operations of the Peaceful Streets Project, the only way is to cease wrongfully abusing and murdering members of our community.

You WILL be filmed.

BREAKING VIDEOS: Austin Police Affidavit Proven False by Peaceful Streets Project Videos; Video Proves Illegal and Unconstitutional Arrests

In what many believe was a continued assault on the First Amendment rights of police accountability activists by the Austin Police Department, Antonio Buehler, founder of the Peaceful Streets Project, and Mike Bluehair Smith of Film the Police Portland were both arrested early Sunday morning, August 2^nd, while filming police officers in downtown Austin during an organized “cop watch.”  Fortunately for Buehler and Smith, the videos that members of the Peaceful Streets Project were taking proves that their arrests were illegal, unconstitutional, and that the Austin Police Department issued a fraudulent probable cause affidavit.

Austin Police Officer Aljoe Garibay #6155 was the author of the affidavit for the arrest of Buehler. The affidavit included a series of misleading and false statements. The misleading and false statements are listed below in bullet format, with an explanation of why the statement is misleading and/or false in the subsequent bullet:

•  “Not only did responding officers have to move around crowds to get to the disturbance they also had to move around members of the Peaceful Streets running towards the scene attempting to get there before we could, this delayed our response time to help and assist breaking up the disturbance by adding to pedestrian traffic, blocking my path, at one point I had to move Buehler out of the way.” (Paragraph 3)
  • First, the Peaceful Streets Project members are a part of the crowd, and should not be treated as a separate class of people who are expected to always be mindful of who may be behind them. To argue that only those with cameras have the responsibility of knowing if a police officer is behind them and wants to move in a straight line to an unknown point that would lead the police officer through that person with a camera else they be arrested for interference places a considerable burden on cop watchers. A burden that is a violation of their First Amendment rights.
  • Second, the video of the incident shows that Garibay was in a hurry to get nowhere. Garibay went past the disturbance to push past Buehler, and then stopped and stood around doing nothing.
  • Third, Garibay refers to the scene as a “disturbance” implying that a crime was in progress involving a crowd. The scene was merely a young woman vomiting. The police work performed was in the nature of a welfare check to make sure the young woman was OK and nothing further happened.
•  “It was then that Antonio approached our perimeter and made contact with SGT. Randy Dear. Antonio was holding a video recording device in his hand and was holding it approximately 6 inches from SGT. Dears’ face nearly touching him.”
  • First, the affidavit makes it appear that the police presence at this time was related to an ongoing crime scene incident or disturbance. In fact, there was no incident at this point at all.  The incident with the sick young woman had been resolved, all parties including the police had dispersed, and all Peaceful Streets Project cameras turned off. There was no disturbance whatsoever.
  • Second, Buehler did not approach their perimeter. The police officers formed a huddle where they were all listening to SGT Dear, ostensibly preparing to orchestrate an illegal arrest of Buehler. Buehler was approached by SGT Dear, not the other way around. The video does not reveal any reason for the huddle.
  • Third, the video clearly shows that SGT Dear moved from the huddle approximately 10-15 feet away to within inches of Buehler’s camera. At no point while Dear was approaching Buehler did Buehler advance his body or his arm holding the camera.
• “SGT Dear. Advised Antonio that he was on patrol and asked him to get back as he was in blocking his view, preventing him being able to have a clear line of sight of the large 6^th street crowd. Antonio moved his recording device approximately 2 inches and began arguing with SGT. Dear.”
  • First, the claim is an outright lie. SGT Dear said, “Hey, I’m going to let y’all know, the next time we go to a disturbance and you all get in the way … yes you were … the next time you’re interfering you’re going to be arrested. Alright, thank you. You’ve been warned Sir.” And then he walked away.
  • Second, as previously proven through video, Buehler did not advance toward SGT Dear at all. Buehler’s “arguing” consisted of Buehler asking for clarification on how they could be interfering for standing somewhere.
• “A few minutes went by and I then asked Antonio to step back at least an arm’s length as he was now focused on recording CPL. Sebek. Antonio had his recording device approximately 6 inches away from CPL. Sebek face.”
  • First, no more than thirty seconds went by from the time Dear walked away to the time Garibay told Buehler to stay an arm’s length away.
  • Second, Buehler was at an arm’s length away from Sebek, and further for Garibay, the entire time. The video shows Sebek reaching his arm out ordering Buehler to be an arm’s length away without touching Buehler. Buehler never advances toward either of them.
  • Third, Sebek was filming Buehler as Buehler was filming Sebek. They both had comparable filming positions, although Sebek initially placed his camera closer to Buehler’s face than Buehler did to Sebek’s face. At no point did Buehler stick the camera within six inches of Sebek’s face. The only time Buehler adjusted his filming position was when Sebek placed his camera directly in front of Buehler’s camera.
• “A few minutes went by again, and Antonio kept arguing with us getting closer and closer every time attempting to distract and engage in conversation. I … pointed exactly to him where he needed to be for a safe distance. Antonio kept getting closer and loser, rallying up his crew as he was being loud trying to get attention from the 6^th street crowds and his crew quickly becoming a hostile situation.”
  • First, only seconds elapsed.
  • Second, the video shows that Buehler never advanced toward Garibay.
  • Third, the video shows that Antonio did not say anything to anyone who he knew or motion to anyone who he knew in any way to get them to “rally” or to bring “attention from the 6^th street crowds.”
  • Fourth, the hostility came from Dear and Garibay issuing illegal orders to Buehler.
• “Antonio again refused to maintain a safe distance, again standing very close to officers placing camera phone into the faces of officers trying to watch the large 6^th street crowd.”
  • First, Buehler never advanced toward the police officers. The only reason Buehler was ever “very close to officers” was because the officers advanced toward Buehler.
  • Second, Buehler never stuck a camera phone in the face of any officers trying to watch the crowd. The officers place their faces in Buehler’s largely stationary camera throughout the entire episode. The only time Buehler actively moves his camera is to be able to film Sebek who uses his camera to block Buehler’s. Sebek obviously was not watching the crowd; he was filming Buehler.
• “SGT. Dear approached Antonio and notified him to turn around he was under arrest for interference with public duties.”
  • After SGT Dear approached Buehler and moved to within inches of him, Dear told Buehler that he had to move back because they were about to go on patrol. While protesting an illegal order, Buehler did step away from Dear and moved out of the space that he suggested he needed. Buehler was arrested, anyway. Buehler then turned around and tried to hand off his cameras to other Peaceful Streets Project members.
•  “… he kept resisting by attempting to put his right arm under him.”
  • At no time did Buehler attempt to put his arm under him when SGT Dear was lying prone on top of Buehler while Buehler’s face was being shoved into the street.

When compared to the multiple videos that the Peaceful Streets Project took of the arrest, it is clear that the affidavit written by Officer A. Garibay #6155 is one long string of misleading and fraudulent statements. At no point did Buehler advance toward the officers, at no point did the officers give Buehler any legal orders that would have required him to step back, and at no time did they have probable cause to arrest him. Further, Mike Bluehair Smith was illegally arrested for “interference with public duties” for simply trying to catch Buehler’s cameras as he tried to hand them off to Peaceful Streets Project members to prevent the police from confiscating them and suppressing the video evidence of the arrest.

Buehler said, “This arrest highlights how the Austin Police deliberately uses false arrests to trample on the Constitutional rights of those trying to hold the police accountable. By every measure, they were the only people who committed crimes on Sunday morning. They know that by the law, it is impossible to interfere with public duties simply by standing in a public space and filming cops standing around doing nothing. They also know that the Constitution trumps their belief that they can bark arbitrary orders at people with cameras to prevent them from filming their activities.” 

In a follow up to statements made to the media on Sunday, Millie Thompson, Buehler’s defense attorney said, “I told you all that it was an illegal arrest. I told you so.”

Buehler originally made news on January 1, 2012, when he was arrested on the charge of Harassment of a Public Official, a 3^rd degree felony, for allegedly spitting in Austin (TX) Police Officer Patrick Oborski’s face. Buehler was ultimately cleared of all charges from that arrest due to multiple witnesses stepping forward to testify that Oborski lied about Buehler spitting in his face, as well as multiple videos and audio files that proved that Oborski lied. In the fall of 2012, the Austin Police Department trained their officers how to illegally go about arresting Buehler and other members of the Peaceful Streets Project for filming them using the “interference with public duties” statute.  Over the past three and a half years, Buehler has been arrested five times, has had ten charges levied in the courts against him, and has had dozens of criminal investigations launched against him (including at least three felony investigations by the Austin Police Department). Buehler has beaten every charge. No police officers have been disciplined or arrested for their illegal arrests.

The Peaceful Streets Project and Film The Police Portland are independent grassroots organizations that attempt to promote police accountability through cop watching (filming the police in public), in addition to other forms of direct action such as Know Your Rights trainings, protests against police brutality, and police accountability summits.

Videos:
Antonio Buehler’s video: https://youtu.be/7ktkUingcOs

Steve D’s video: https://youtu.be/qIFItJeCM5c

Julian Reyes’ video: http://youtu.be/kvE8qGIUPm0

Richard B’s video: http://youtu.be/e4mziCp43VI

Lynn F’s video: http://youtu.be/ES04LtfEMCQ

Here are the first four videos synced highlighting how everything APD claims is a lie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiwtuBP7SXw

Antonio Buehler’s video of “disturbance” before the arrest: http://youtu.be/tCGPt0VvZg4

Here are some more videos of SGT Dear harassing cop watchers over the past couple of months: https://youtu.be/ItnODSJjqKE, https://youtu.be/TG_yvl6j2hk