Protestors storm Austin PD, burn American and Texas flags while screaming ‘f- the police’
AUSTIN, TX June 23 2020– On Friday, June 19, 2020, protestors stormed the Austin Police Headquarters bringing down the American flag and Texas flag and proceeded to burn them in front of the station in the street.
The protestors were chanting “Fuck the police!” repeatedly.
Austin Police Department Officer, Joshua Todd, was quoted in a facebook posting as saying:
“Very surreal last night, they stormed the police station but couldn’t make it inside, they took down the flags and burned them…… This country is in a very dangerous place.”
This protest and demonstration of disrespect for our American Flag and our country occurred a few days after the Austin City Council voted on a police defunding program.
According to Houston Public Media, Austin City Council Member Natasha Harper-Madison created a program to reduce the police department’s budget limiting the number of officers the department can hire.
She also requested that money from the police department be used for mental health services and to review police misconduct.
Protestors have been demanding the police department’s budget be reduced by at least $100 million. The city council members are in favor of defunding the police and have no faith in the leadership team of the Austin Police Department (APD) in “making modifications in police practices to end police violence against African Americans and other minorities”.
Some other policies that were banned this past week are the reduction of the use of certain weapons and maneuvers by the police, such as tear gas and non-lethal ammunition during protests. This includes the use of chokeholds as noted by Council Member, Greg Casar.
APD Police Chief, Brian Manley, argues that the reduction of his force has already proved a decreased force increases crime because there is no deterrent effect. Chief Manley was quoted by PJ Media as saying:
“One of the best deterrents to crime is a visible police presence.”
Ken Cassaday, president of the Austin Police Association, agrees with Chief Manley and was quoted by the PJ Media as saying:
“The more vacancies you have, the less safe the city is. You can just look at the crime stats here recently.”
The Texas Department of Public Safety had to come in and help patrol in January due to the APD’s attrition due to retirements.
It appears the Austin Mayor, Steve Adler, is not supporting the APD at this time and the city council is even trying to get Police Chief, Brian Manley to quit because of an activist group, JUST America, demanding Chief Manley be terminated.
There is no legal justification to fire him at this point.
According to KVUE-ABC, some of the policy changes requested be to impose four amendments to APD’s General Orders:
No control or restraint holds around the neck in dealing with suspects, inmates, or detainees. If this policy was violated the disciplinary process would take effect.
The intentional deactivation BWCs during a critical incident would cause the officer to be suspended per the disciplinary process.
If an officer tampers with a BWC intentionally, the officer would be transferred to the district attorney for analysis.
APD is to inform the Austin City Council as soon as the amendments are added to the General Orders with in 24 hours. The new information will also be posted on APD’s website within 24 hours.
