Statement From Antonio Buehler:

On January 1st, 2012 sometime between 1:00 am
and 1:30 am, I was driving my friend home from
a New Years Eve party. I was the designated
driver and was sober. We pulled into the 7-11 on
Lamar & West 10th in Austin TX to get gas, and
we saw ourselves near a car that was pulled over
with two police cruisers behind it. A black woman
was being given a field sobriety test in the cold.
She seemed to be getting bossed around by the
cops, and we both took notice. They had her doing
the heel to toe test in high heels. In the passenger
seat was a young Hispanic lady who appeared to
be on her phone.
She was doing nothing aggressive.

As we finished pumping gas, a cop had gone over
to the passenger side door and opened it.
Soon after we heard a terrible scream and watched
in horror as the very built cop started yanking this
poor girl from the car. The other cop came up
and joined in on the abuse.

My friend and I stayed within two arms lengths of
the truck, and tried to take pictures and yelled at the
cops to stop assaulting the girl.

After that, one cop came up to me yelling at me and
asking why I was taking pictures. I said it was my
right in public, and he pushed me into the truck and
started yelling in my face. I asked him why he
pushed me, I put up my arms to show I wasn't a
threat, told him to get out of my face, and that I had
done nothing illegal. He then grabbed my arm, and
pinned me against the truck, at which time
he claimed I "spit" on him.

They arrested me, claimed it was for "interfering
with an investigation". By the time I got to their
truck, it was a DUI and they made me blow. It didn't
register, and by the time I got to jail it was then a
"felony harassment" and a "resisting arrest" charge.

The woman was arrested for "public intoxication".
The cops said that she was interfering with their DUI
investigation because she yelled to her friend not to
submit to any tests. Interestingly, neither of us was
charged with interfering in an investigation.

Upvote to circulate - These police seem to like exhibiting their authority.

I still don't know why police always feel they need to assault and arrest anyone who speaks up, as well - unless they were doing something wrong to start with.

GOOD FOR HIM for intervening. The police need to understand they they exist to SERVE AND PROTECT, not to harass and brutalize. The police need to understand, that if you brutalize the people, the people will fight back.

I think cops often take hostile verbal use for physical aggression.

@honkeytonk73

The police are there to collect revenue, not "protect and service".

"Law Enforcement Officers" are nothing more then muscle for the state mob.

after watching this, the main thing that strikes my mind is what if buehler had just been some ordinary joe shmoe and not a west pt grad/army vet/stanford mba...

would he be in more serious trouble? would this have still made the news? if so, to the same degree? and what does that say about our media?

he'll have all charges dropped, i'm sure, if the police dashcam doesn't show him intentionally spitting on the officer... but i doubt he'll have any tortious legal claim

aside from all of that... this whole snafu just highlights for me again how aggressive us police officers can be -- i've spent close to two decades as an american living in asia, thirteen of those years in taiwan... the difference between the police at home and those here is night and day...

patrol cars here actually drive around, very slowly, with their police lights lit at all times - this struck me as odd initially, but i came to realize that it acts as a deterrent to lawlessness - there're also no speed traps, and if you're stopped by the police, they're always very courteous... almost apologetic

there are a few downsides to this though... they're slow to respond to calls for help, and practically do backflips in order avoid any sort of paperwork on their part

i often wonder about what the cause of such differences (i.e. aggressiveness / discourtesy) between the two might be -- part of it is certainly the fact that everyday americans have ready access to firearms, whereas the only armed taiwanese are gangsters -- another aspect i suspect is the level of officer empowerment by the local government (e.g. us officers are given an enormous amount of power to be used and/or abused, while taiwanese police for the most part act as society's shepherds in uniform)

how to reconcile these differences, and perhaps reach a happy medium?

testosterone +/- untreated mood disorders +/- adrenalin + authority = this

If he spit on him it had to be on his face or neck cuz that dudes face was right up against him. So why didn't he ever wipe it off in the video? Most people would jerk their head or raise their hand up if someone spit in their face as a involuntary reaction to it.

I believe him 100%. I'm a Canadian photojournalist in Montréal, Québec. I deal with cops arresting people and dealing with aggressive riots more often than most people. Not that often, but still.

I once happened to be off the job and take pictures of an arrest which looked fishy with a cellphone. The cops quickly turned to me and became very aggressive and provocative with me, they tried to intimidate me to stop shooting. They hate having people film them and they'll intimidate you to stop. That's just wrong and against our rights, both in Canada and in the USA.

I have less and less respect for cops. Keep shooting... Shooting video that is.

>> ^GenjiKilpatrick:

@honkeytonk73
The police are there to collect revenue, not "protect and service".
"Law Enforcement Officers" are nothing more then muscle for the state mob.


The current way most police are managed these days, I'd have to say this is quite true. The town neighboring mine is a very tiny town. The police are notorious for pulling people over for the sake of earning cash. 1 mph over - pulled over. Not white - increased chance of pullover (very white town). Drive a truck - avoid main street if possible. They love to ticket big trucks, especially semis (delivering goods to local businesses by the way). One cannot even try passing by a car, even slowly, if they are turning right or left in front of you. If you try to go by, even with no other traffic, you'll get pulled over. In my town. You are lucky if you see a cop. Town has budget problems. Town hall has spiders and maybe one person (the clerk to pay off parking tickets). Meters are most definitely monitored very closely. Of course.

YOU WILL RESPECT MY AUTHORITAH!

Cops do as they please and then lie about it. Then their reps go on TV and lie about it. Often, some bullshit internal or "citizen" review board will eventually release a statement justifying an officer's actions as reasonable. I love when videos surface that prove otherwise. Hopefully, they'll demonstrate to some people that their initial inclinations to trust authority and defend the police is just pre-programmed and unwarranted deference.

Question authority and keep those cameras rolling. I keep a small HD Flip camera in my car specifically because the Clackamas County Sheriff's department here is absolutely filled with lying, dirty, ego-driven jackholes.

Regardless of what anyone says this is a top down problem. Instead of covering for each other at all times and maintaining an "us and them" attitude they should be concerned about the integrity of their reputation as an organizational whole and make an example of those among them who are found to have violated the people that they are meant to protect.

That being said I would hate to be a cop. I have no interest in spending one second with the human trash that have to constantly be involved with. I assume that there must come a point where you start to lose the ability to differentiate between the citizens you are sworn to protect and those you are meant to protect them from.

It is my first hand experience cops will say anything to get an arrest. They will also say anything on the stand to back up what would be a false arrest. I almost went to jail for a crime committed while I was at home with my folks. I am not a war vet, nor mba grad either. Cops lie - I assume that all cops are evil until they prove otherwise.

If we ever see a massive reduction in civil liberties it will be the cop/thugs that are breaking down your doors. There was a time where the cops watched over the people - now they watch the people.

"After kneeing the suspect in the groin, he doubled over and struck me on my shoulder with his face. I then drew my weapon and shot him in response to that attack."

"Well... my partner and I were double-teaming this little girl in high heels, when all of a sudden this guy comes along and spits in my face, which completely justifies my actions."

I think my favorite part of the video was when the officer couldn't take the guy down, even though he was standing behind him with his arm around his neck, using the truck as leverage. I hope all of the officers friend's see this and tease him relentlessly for being such a complete butterfinger.