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AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN VIA AP
Breaion King is overcome with emotion as she describes being pulled from her car and thrown to the ground by an Austin police officer during a traffic stop in 2015, during an interview at her attorney, Erica Grigg’s office in Austin, Texas on Tuesday.
AUSTIN, Texas » Patrol car video publicly released today 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 today. Acevedo called a news conference hours later and said both officers have been taken off street patrol and are on desk duty pending new internal investigations, which he said will include both officers’ conduct in the year since the incident.
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.”
Spradlin goes on to say that “I don’t blame” white people for being afraid because of violence in the black community. “Some of them, because of their appearance and whatnot, some of them are very intimidating,” he says.
The newspaper identified King as an elementary school teacher. Her attorney did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
Acevedo said that King did not file a complaint after the arrest and that he did not know about the traffic stop until this week, saying his subordinates should have previously alerted him to the video.
King told the newspaper the encounter changed how she views police. Acevedo said she was pulled over for driving 15 mph over the speed limit when Officer Bryan Richter ordered her out of the car. The video shows him nearly throwing her into an adjacent truck while trying to place her under arrest in a Wendy’s parking lot.
“I’ve become fearful to live my life,” King told the newspaper. “I would rather stay home. I’ve become afraid of the people who are supposed to protect me and take care of me.”
Richter can be heard in the video ordering King to “stop resisting” as he orders her out of the car. The angle of the video doesn’t fully show King while she is inside the car.
Richter orders King to put her hands behind her back while the two struggle on the ground.
Richter has been a police officer since 2010 and Spradlin since 2001, according to Austin police. Listed phone numbers for the officers could not immediately be found.
Acevedo said he reviewed the video Wednesday with black community leaders for nearly 3 ½ hours. He said they included Fatima Mann, an activist with the Austin Justice Coalition, who told reporters outside the police station that she didn’t understand how no one in the department had previously raised concerns about the video.
“If that was a white woman, would he have yanked her out … and slammed her on the ground? Most of us could say absolutely not,” Mann said. “But for reason, for some strange reason, when people look like me, we’re more of a threat, and that means we get treated and thrown around as if we don’t matter.”
The Austin police union said in a statement that it understands the public’s reaction to Richter’s response and that Spradlin’s comments were “wrong and not reflective of the values and beliefs of the men and women who serve this community.”
Donald t Rump will certainly be recruiting some of these psychos…!
Actually, there is some truth in the notion that black people have “violent tendencies”. It’s not PC to say so but those who have been in areas like South Central L.A. and Harlem N.Y. and even in the military know it’s there. Extending it further, Hispanics also have “violent tendencies” – ever been to East L.A.?
There are violent people among all races but blacks and hispanics have more than their share.
You’re truly pathetic.
Let me take a wild guess …. Trump supporter?
Pathetic imbecile.
What your are saying may be true, but the statement seems to imply that this is an inherent racial factor.
The higher levels of violence may be correlated, for example, with the disintegration of family in the black community.
I think a model for improving this situation was given in Stand and Deliver.
What better place for scholarship in social science than the movies?
Well said. There is a culture of violence and criminality in certain pockets of black American culture. I’m talking about poor, economically depressed neighborhoods, not middle class blacks. But you’re right in that it’s not inherently racial. After all, just look at history. A prime example is the American South during the period of slavery.
I hope you wrote this as some kind of ill-advised joke.
@klastri, I’m dashing your hopes.
That’s a prime example of what? That there wasn’t much violence within an population of enslaved, unarmed people who were sold at auction, kept under lock and key every night and hunted down like animals if they tried to escape? Wow, I guess your people should be so lucky.
@Tigereye, I’m not talking about the black population at the time, I’m talking about the white population. Besides violence directed at slaves, there was also a lot of violence directed at whites by other whites whenever disputes arose. It was just part of the culture back then, hence me saying that propensity for violence isn’t inherently racial, but due to culture at the time. Look at the “Wild West” days in our own country. Were those black people doing all that violence?
You’re an first class mor0n. It has nothing to do with race, and everything to do with income level. Poor people, no matter the race or creed, tend to have a higher rate of violent offenders. It’s related to opportunities, education, and stability. There’s just as much violence in predominantly white trailer parks as there are in predominantly black projects. And even income isn’t a predictor of violence. It’s a percentage increaser.
It’s really hard to argue with a racist. You’re appealing to logic and reason that appear to be in very short supply.
Police departments really need to weed out the racist imbeciles in their ranks.
Clearly these two “Rogue Rookies” are the 1% of LEOs who do not belong in the uniform, are unfit to serve. If Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo has any cojones, he would immediately fire these two bozos so they can find jobs they are qualified for – Walmart Door Greeters.
They’d likely shake down customers leaving the store and forgetting to show their purchase receipts.
It’s easy to prove those officers wrong by moving into their neighborhood and writing some peace, love, and understanding tweets of your experiences.
Can you be open minded in a gated community?
Police deal with the reality of responding to criminal actions. When 6% of the population accounts for half of the violent crime it’s hard to blame them for noticing a pattern. You can scream “racist” all you want, but it won’t make politically inconvenient facts go away.
Seems that if people don’t LIKE facts they tend to resort to emotion based statements for cover.
That’s all that matter. Win by any guise. Stats like over 80% of the black births are by unwed mothers are being ignored. The purpose is entitlements. Would like to see comparison stats on other racial groups?
And this, in your mind, probably has some tortured connection to the fact that there are racist police officers.
You are a remarkable thinker.
You keep lying about the 6% of the population thing. Can’t you just write truthfully?
You totally miss the point. People need to be treated as individuals, not one entity based on race. If an ordinary citizen said something like this, I wouldn’t be too alarmed, but when it’s a law enforcement officer, it’s a great cause for concern. They are rightfully held to a higher standard. I sure wouldn’t want this officer patrolling anywhere near where I live.
Police officers are under so much criticism lately. Wonder what our society would be like without them? All in favor for a police force move to your right, all dislike or don’t need them move to the left! Chaos vs law and order! In addition, in our present world where political incorrect names, titles and what have you are easily taken as offensive and sometimes create destructive “reactions” – so who needs cops? Well, people like me. We were brought up to treat others as we want to be treated. We strived to fellow that basic golden rule and when some of us step out of line we were glad for our police force.