Austin Cops Do a Good Job Because at Least They Don’t Rape Jaywalkers (Video)
by Bob Cull
Austin, Texas police chief Art Acevedo wants you to know that if you are arrested while jaywalking in his city you are lucky because at least you won't be raped by his officers.
While
the chief has since apologized and admitted that his remarks were out
of line he did make them after the arrest on Thursday of 24 year old
Amanda Jo Stephen, a jogger who had crossed against the light at an
intersection. She has been charged with "failure to identify" and
"failure to obey a pedestrian control device" after being handcuffed and
booked at the Travis county jail. She was released Thursday evening.
The
incident began when officers called to Stephen who was wearing
headphones as she jogged and requested that she stop. When she did not
stop they approached her and one grabbed her by the arm at which time,
according to Acevedo she sat down, "officers didn’t sit her down – and
she did the limp routine.”
Acevedo also said that he didn't believe her claim
not to have heard the officers calling to her to stop and that she
simply chose to ignore them. Apparently he has never sat across the
aisle on a bus from a twenty something wearing a headset -- even wearing
your own with the music at a reasonable volume you will be able to hear
theirs.
At a press conference
on Friday to address the issue Acevedo noted that the area had seen 96
fatalities and 1,757 injuries involving pedestrians in the last five
years.
“I’d
rather have everybody angry at me and my officers, then to see a young
person lose their life needlessly,” he said. “I’d rather be up here
talking about this, than going to our 97th fatality involving a
pedestrian or 1800th injury involving a pedestrian.”
If
he had left it at that there would have been little controversy
surrounding the arrest but unfortunately the chief felt the need to
insert his foot into his mouth.
“Thank you lord that it’s a controversy in Austin, Texas
that we actually have the audacity to touch somebody by the arm and
tell them ‘oh my goodness, Austin Police, we’re trying to get your
attention,’” he continued. “Quite frankly, she wasn’t charged with
resisting, and she was lucky I wasn’t the arresting officer because I
wouldn’t have been quite as generous.”
"In other cities there's cops who are actually committing sexual assaults on duty, so I thank God that this is what passes for a controversy in Austin, Texas," he said just to put the icing on the cake.
On
Saturday Acevedo apologized for the rape remark saying that it was the
result of a long rough week and that he probably shouldn't have said
that she should consider herself lucky that she was not raped by his
officers.
"I
attempted to place the arrest into context by bringing attention to the
fact that law enforcement deals with many acts of serious misconduct,"
he said. "In hindsight I believe the comparison was a poor analogy, and
for this I apologize."
The incident was recorded by Chris Quintero, a student at the University of Texas. You can see the video below.
h/t: Raw Story
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