The woman in the video, Breaion King, an elementary school teacher, said Friday she feels the US must come together after the newly released video of her 2015 arrest again raised nationwide tension over police treatment of black people.
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Austin Chief of Police Art Acevedo says newly released dash camera video of how an officer conducted a traffic stop with a black woman will not be tolerated by the department, and he is making a public apology to the victim.
About an hour later, in the back of the cop vehicle, King was lectured by a different transporting officer, Patrick Spradlin, on why white people are afraid of black people.
“The violence we have recently seen against the men and women who serve us in uniform is also deplorable”, she said.
“I can tell you, that those comments are not consistent with the expectations, the mindset the mindset we want of our folks or anyone in law enforcement”, Acevedo said. After watching the video, the Chief says he was taken aback by his officers’ mentality.
Acevedo said he didn’t learn of the videos until Tuesday, when a prosecutor called him after receiving inquiries from the Austin American-Statesman.
“I was embarrassed and I was ashamed and I did not know what I needed to do”, King said.
Richter said in the report that he did not know if King had a weapon in her vehicle, and that she wrapped “her hands and arms around the steering wheel”. Sometimes in Austin after an encounter with police, white trespassers are sent home in a cab, while a nude, distraught, unarmed black teenager goes home in a body bag.
After her arrest, King was driven to jail by a different officer, Patrick Spradlin. But it’s raw racism, and not facts, reality or research, which causes some officers to assign to the whole of black people the violent tendencies of some individuals.
Richter was ordered to undergo counseling and training after the incident, which the Statesman says is the “lowest level of discipline” that can be issued to an officer. There is also a criminal investigation into Richter’s handling of King; Acevedo says that information will be given to the DA’s Office and they’ll make the decision on whether or not a Grand Jury will hear the case. “I want to apologize to Breaion and her family”. A struggle ensues, ending in Richter violently pulling her from the auto and slamming her to the ground while threatening to tase her for failing to comply.
“For those that think life is ideal for people of color, I want you to listen to that conversation and tell me we don’t have social issues in this nation”, said Acevedo.
Mr Spradlin added: “I can give you a really good idea why it might be that way: violent tendencies”. There are some guys I look at, and I know it is my job to deal with them, and I know it might go ugly, but that’s the way it goes.
When asked whether or not he found the statements by Spradlin racist, Acevedo replied, “Yes”. Issues of bias. Issues of racism. “… I’ve asked my own people to look at these videos and ask, ‘Am I approaching a 15 miles per hour speeding ticket like that?”
Although it appears that progress will soon be made when it comes to this case, King still feels extremely emotional and fears that this will forever change the way she views police officers.
Acevedo said he intends to review all instances in which someone is detained for resisting arrest, an oxymoronical charge that many activists say should be unlawful.
“It concerns me that an officer has this notion about a whole group of people, a whole community of people, that he hasn’t met”, King told The Austin-American Statesman.
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“According to various studies”, said Obama, “African Americans are 30 percents more likely than whites to be pulled over”.
