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Violent Arrest of Teacher Caught on Video; Officers Face Investigation

Published on Jul 21, 2016

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - Patrol car video publicly released Thursday shows a white Austin, Texas, police officer violently throwing a black woman to the ground during a traffic stop, followed by another white officer telling her black people have "violent tendencies" and whites are justifiably afraid.

Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo condemned both officers' actions. He called the officer's comments on the video "disturbing" and said a criminal investigation has been opened against the officer who arrested Breaion King.

The traffic stop happened in June 2015 but was not made public until the Austin American-Statesman published the video Thursday. Acevedo called a news conference hours later and said both officers have been taken off street patrol and are on desk duty.

The video is surfacing amid heightened nationwide tension over police treatment of black people.

"For those that think life is perfect 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, who is Hispanic. "Issues of bias. Issues of racism. Issues of people being looked at different because of their color."

In one of two videos, Officer Patrick Spradlin is heard talking to King, who was pulled over for speeding, about race while driving her to jail.

"Why are so many people afraid of black people?" Spradlin asks.

King replies that she is also trying to figure that out.

"I can give you a really good idea why it might be that way," he said. "Violent tendencies."

Texas Police Violently Slam Teacher To The Ground Twice & Say Black People Have Violent Tendencies
 
LowDown said:
Well, of course there's never "anything to indicate" that people are armed until they pull out a gun and stick it in your face.



Which is perfectly true as a point of fact, but I'm not accepting her word that this exchange ever took place.
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No, it's not 'true as a point of fact'. What a quaintly deluded thing to say.
 
countryboy said:
I watched the video again. He never "threw her to to the ground", he lifted her legs off the ground twice, in an effort to gain control of her violent resistance. Was she injured in any way?

So, what should he have done?
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Put his damn ego in check and not treat her like a piece of meat? I'm sorry, you're wrong.

I will almost ALWAYS defend officers. I know several of them and I know the BS they deal with on a daily basis. I know how NO ONE is happy they're pulled over and police are constantly on high alert. Then you have the fact officers deal with the several pieces of trash on a daily basis (many times the same trash), getting called all sorts of insulting names and officers simply have to take that. I'm almost always on the side of the officers.

But what happened here was sickening. The officer abused his authority and assaulted a woman for no reason better than because she dared to not jump instantly at his every whim. She made mistakes too, there's no disputing that, but nothing she did deserved to be treated the way he treated her. The officer deserves to be fired and the city owes the woman money.

What I watched was horrible. Don't defend it.
 
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She tried to throw a punch right when he got her out of the car after trying to stall the officer, she struggles with the officer constantly throughout and then even tries to pull the race card. She brought on her treatment. The officer did nothing wrong, not a damn thing.
 
clownboy said:
The officer did nothing wrong, not a damn thing.
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...you cannot be serious. He had no reason to put his hands on the woman at that time. She even said she would get out of the car, but he STILL physically drug her out of the vehicle, only then to throw her to the ground.

The cop had his ego threatened, because the woman didn't automatically comply with exactly what he said, within a fraction of a second that he said it. He most certainly did something wrong.
 
countryboy said:
I watched the video again. He never "threw her to to the ground", he lifted her legs off the ground twice, in an effort to gain control of her violent resistance. Was she injured in any way?

So, what should he have done?
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He didn't body slam her, but he threw her down, in my opinion. Definitely a takedown.

"Ma'am, We are on camera. Right now, I'm giving you a traffic ticket for speeding. If you don't immediately put your feet in the car and close your door, I will put you under arrest. Let's just get this over with."

Now, if you say, "Wait a minute. He doesn't have enough to put her under arrest," then he certainly doesn't have enough to throw her to the ground. Physical force for a routine traffic stop should be the ZLAST resort. A 250# guy shouldn't be getting physical because a 100 pound lady is recalcitrant.

Where's his body camera?
 
clownboy said:
She tried to throw a punch right when he got her out of the car after trying to stall the officer, she struggles with the officer constantly throughout and then even tries to pull the race card. She brought on her treatment. The officer did nothing wrong, not a damn thing.
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I mean, of course. If an officer tells you to do something, OBEY immediately or expect a beat down. That's the right way for cops to handle citizens stopped for speeding! Besides, the cop might get lucky and this isn't caught on camera, and then she probably gets charged and convicted of 'resisting arrest' which is another fine, maybe some jail time! This should be a training film about ideal ways to interact with the public in a traffic stop!
 
Here's a longer video - from beginning to end.



Interesting conversation she had with the cop as she's sitting in the backseat, handcuffed.
 
JasperL said:
I mean, of course. If an officer tells you to do something, OBEY immediately or expect a beat down. That's the right way for cops to handle citizens stopped for speeding! Besides, the cop might get lucky and this isn't caught on camera, and then she probably gets charged and convicted of 'resisting arrest' which is another fine, maybe some jail time! This should be a training film about ideal ways to interact with the public in a traffic stop!
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Ya' know, that was my thought as well. Nationwide, these caught-on-camera recordings should be used for training purposes. How effective that would be. Not ""Look at this one. Isn't it terrible??" BUt instead, "How might this have been handled differently?"
 
MaggieD said:
Ya' know, that was my thought as well. Nationwide, these caught-on-camera recordings should be used for training purposes. How effective that would be. Not ""Look at this one. Isn't it terrible??" BUt instead, "How might this have been handled differently?"
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And once again, these incidents justify the need for body cameras. They can go a long way in showing how exactly the incident went down.
 
Slyfox696 said:
...you cannot be serious. He had no reason to put his hands on the woman at that time. She even said she would get out of the car, but he STILL physically drug her out of the vehicle, only then to throw her to the ground.

The cop had his ego threatened, because the woman didn't automatically comply with exactly what he said, within a fraction of a second that he said it. He most certainly did something wrong.
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He did indeed. Wait a minute, let me just do X first and other delaying tactics don't work and are just that - stalling. The officer did nothing wrong and the lady's color has nothing to do with the incident.
 
clownboy said:
He did indeed.
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No, he did not. Her refusing to put her feet in the car does not justify him ripping her out of the car.
Wait a minute, let me just do X first and other delaying tactics don't work and are just that - stalling.
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Since when is "stalling" a crime? Since when is "stalling" justification for assault, which is what this was if any other person had done it?

You're wrong. Oh, and you and I have vastly different opinions of how much time passing is considered stalling.
The officer did nothing wrong
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Yes, he did. He should be fired. And I HATE calling for another person to lose their job. But what he did went beyond what is reasonable.
and the ladies color has nothing to do with the incident.
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Then why are you bringing it up when I've not said a word about it?

You're wrong. What the officer did was wrong. He let his pride and ego get in the way of being a decent human being. He was wrong.
 
The incompetence inherent to much of Texas law enforcement never ceases to amaze me.
 
truthatallcost said:
Video is from 06/2015.

Let me guess, she needs a million dollars from Austin now, right?
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She never even filed a complaint.

Chief Acevedo ‘sickened, saddened’ by violent arrest | KXAN.com

"King was originally arrested and charged with misdemeanor resisting arrest search or transport. The case was dismissed in January.

According to the department, King never filed a complaint regarding her arrest. The chief wants to make sure the community knows they can come forward with complaints regarding his officers and department.

“When we don’t come forward, everyone loses and it just saddens me that something I’m not doing or something that I’m doing, for over a year we didn’t hear from Miss King,” says Acevedo.

KXAN News spoke to King’s attorney’s assistant who said King is not expected to speak until Friday. According to court records, no civil cases have been filed with King as the plaintiff."
 
TheGoverness said:
And once again, these incidents justify the need for body cameras. They can go a long way in showing how exactly the incident went down.
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Exactly. Couldn't agree more. $900 a camera. And those who say PDs can't afford them have never priced a SWAT vehicle. And never added up the cost of dealing with bogus civilian complaints and, especially, the real ones. And because I've heard it all before, yeah, it costs money to monitor. Especially if every PD sets up duplicate monitoring facilities. No reason for that. Not with technology today. Put a monitoring facility out forbid. Watch capitalism solve the cost issue. The private sector can do it faster, quicker, cheaper.

Rant off. ;)
 
clownboy said:
The officer did nothing wrong
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Paperview said:
She never even filed a complaint.

Chief Acevedo ‘sickened, saddened’ by violent arrest | KXAN.com

"King was originally arrested and charged with misdemeanor resisting arrest search or transport. The case was dismissed in January.

According to the department, King never filed a complaint regarding her arrest. The chief wants to make sure the community knows they can come forward with complaints regarding his officers and department.

“When we don’t come forward, everyone loses and it just saddens me that something I’m not doing or something that I’m doing, for over a year we didn’t hear from Miss King,” says Acevedo.

KXAN News spoke to King’s attorney’s assistant who said King is not expected to speak until Friday. According to court records, no civil cases have been filed with King as the plaintiff."
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So even the chief of police thinks what the officer did was wrong. I wonder if clownboy will post in this thread again...
 
Bad police training, as usual. This kind of police escalation was totally unnecessary.
 
What a wonderfully gracious woman.

"Breaion King, the 26-year-old Austin teacher thrown to the ground by a police officer during a traffic stop last year, responded Friday morning to a public apology by police Chief Art Acevedo.

“I appreciate it very much, and it’s a step in the right direction,” King said.

She said what happened to her “is an opportunity to make things better and to change things for the better.”

Breaion King responds to Acevedo?s apology for violent 2015... | www.statesman.com

If it were me, I'd still be pretty pissed.
 
Slyfox696 said:
So even the chief of police thinks what the officer did was wrong. I wonder if clownboy will post in this thread again...
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Sure I will. Doesn't change my opinion of the incident as we saw it. The Chief is in lawsuit (and BLM) avoidance mode and the officer has been thrown under the bus.
 
MaggieD said:
Ya' know, that was my thought as well. Nationwide, these caught-on-camera recordings should be used for training purposes. How effective that would be. Not ""Look at this one. Isn't it terrible??" BUt instead, "How might this have been handled differently?"
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I absolutely agree. But I think these guys caught like this know better. They're having a bad day, some woman gets a little smart, and he takes it out on her because he can, and there is no real penalty. The article said this guy's penalty was more training and counseling. Not much of a deterrent.

And let's face it - if some guy in an $80,000 Mercedes smarts off like that, there is about a 0% chance he gets hauled out of the car and thrown to the ground because it's likely he's got friends, and money, and will sue and have a damn good attorney on his side making sure this all gets in the press in a big way. And if that doesn't work the elected sheriff has a guy funding the campaign for his opponent.
 
clownboy said:
Sure I will. Doesn't change my opinion of the incident as we saw it. The Chief is in lawsuit (and BLM) avoidance mode and the officer has been thrown under the bus.
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Listen, CLOWNBOY...

I don't have anything to say, I just love posting that without getting in trouble. ;)
 
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