APD Infiltrates Occupy Austin in the Name of “Public Safety”
Our friends at the
ACLU-MA are as appalled as we are, and have already provided the linear version
of events here. A more detailed account by Jordan Smith
of The Austin Chronicle is here…and
the first to break the news is an active Occupy Austin participant, Kit
O’Connell, blogging here
at FiredogLake.com, which includes the most relevant portions of the transcript
of the hearing in Houston last week that brought to light these activities.
Today in a Harris
County court, a judge will rule to proceed forward or move to dismiss,
essentially by suppressing much of the prosecution’s evidence against the
Occupiers. We Austinites also
happen to be in the midst of passing our city budget, including
the proposal for more patrol officers to be hired.
CointelPro –
Coming to a City Near You!
Across the United States, urban police departments
prioritize the drug war and the so-called “war on terror” over simply rooting
out violent criminals. The war on drugs targets non-violent, low-level users
for the most part, in an effort to log higher arrest numbers such that it appears they are doing their job. The
war on terror, formerly the purview of federal entities, and now being done in
conjunction with them, takes many forms including: data-mining, spying on
people with no prior cause, infiltration into activist groups (many times
acting as provocateurs) and the use of military tactics to chill free speech:
all in the name of oppression of dissent.
The average violent crime clearance rate is under 50% nationwide,
while non-violent people account for over 60% of the
nation’s jail and prison population.
Seven
of ten non-violent offenders end up back in jail, while the white-collar
drug lords sit confidently back and count their money. Expert groups like the Police
Executive Research Forum recommend an increase in investigator pools, as well
as increasing civilian support, as opposed to increasing field officers.1
Police chiefs and sheriffs – and their respective law enforcement unions, on
the other hand – convince their respective purse holders that they must fund
more beat officers, lest they be seen as “soft on crime.”
This dynamic occurs even when violent
crime goes down: police claim responsibility for the downturns, yet cite
external factors when there’s an upswing. They can’t have it both ways.
Politicians still go along with building up police presence on the streets (but
not necessarily patrolling neighborhoods) despite knowing that perpetuating the
cycle does nothing to reduce crime. For police to justify their largesse, they
must keep a steady flow of crime happening…or at least keep up the appearance
that it is.
Meanwhile, outrageous acts by police against the population
seem to be on the rise (based on YouTube evidence), yet district attorneys
refuse to prosecute cops and police chiefs refuse to fire them. We “reward”
this pattern by throwing more money at them with no accountability strings
attached.
Let The Sun Shine In!
So when we get a “rock star”
police chief as in Austin, an energetic charmer with the gift of gab and a
love for the camera, it’s hard not to get caught up in his promises of change. A
little over five years ago, Chief Acevedo stormed our liberal enclave in an
otherwise conservative state and promised to clean house and bring the
department into the 21st century. He produced results in some ways:
a few bad apples were fired, some policy was cleaned up, a long-awaited
“disciplinary matrix” was instituted (he even joined us at the legislature to
oppose “secure communities” which targets undocumented workers) and he eagerly began
building bridges with the community. 2
But those bridges were made of straw. On one hand, he worked
with us to pass “cite and
release,” 3 but
then he turned right around and proposed officers get trained as phlebotomists
to draw blood in DWI cases – sacrificing the public safety in the name of
collecting evidence (ACLU-TX
helped squash this effort). His handling of the first major police shooting
death under his watch (Nathaniel Sanders, II) proved there would be no real change. Then it was cinched that he
would protect his officers in any
deadly shooting, no matter how atrocious, after the shooting death of Byron
Carter, Jr.
While there is no comparison between unjust killings and
curbing of free speech, our last bastion of hope rested on his many promises of
protecting the 1st. He made great speeches
before Occupiers — even raising his fist in solidarity! He also got himself in a spot of
trouble with the nationwide blue shield when he
posed for a photo with a gentleman holding a “Shame on NYPD/God Bless the
APD” sign, alluding to the
nasty actions of NY officers during Occupy events…and crediting APD’s
promises of not doing the same.
Empty Words
Then he showed his true colors by using excessive force in shutting
down the food tables at the occupation, and at the
questionably-legal eviction last February (a federal court ruling is
pending that will inform what happens with the eviction arrests and possible
civil action).
As if that wasn’t enough, despite his promises to ACLU-TX
representatives and other community leaders, he ordered infiltration of the
occupation (he had previously promised, “I’m not going to waste precious resources…”). No, it’s not
surprising, as it’s the model nationwide4 and he’s not one to buck
the system in any meaningful way, but it is disappointing; our last glimmer of
hope sizzling out.
The Buck Stops -???
The big question is: did Acevedo order or approve the
entrapment? There’s no doubt that it happened…one of the undercovers4
proudly admitted it in a court hearing last week. He pushed for activists to
“step it up” and suggested building lock boxes – a riskier action than simply
linking arms to block a roadway. The problem is, participants didn’t know it
was “felony” risky! Never before had this action brought more than a
misdemeanor charge, but some “clever” assistant district attorney in Harris
County found a way to bump it up by claiming the lock boxes could have been
hiding explosives (these are people committed to non-violence, or at least the
non-police officers were).
As farfetched as that claim is, lockboxes can, in fact, be
harmful to the participant depending on how public safety officials choose to
remove them.
So, those in charge of our public safety not only lied about
who they were and encouraged
riskier actions than were being initially
planned, but they bought the materials, assembled them and delivered the
“criminal instruments” to the activists: “instruments” that would put them at
risk. 5
It would also, in APD’s mind, quell the public’s fortitude
in dissenting against its government in the future. People would think twice
before attending another action – or even a protest. In doing so, they hope
many would wonder, could I end up with a felony charge…putting my future at
risk in a very serious way?
In no way did this activity by APD protect anyone from harm.
In fact, it created it.
This is what we are paying the highest-per-capita
salaries in the nation for?6
Notes:
1Most violent crime isn’t
pre-meditated, but of that that is pre-meditated, they are perpetrated
by the same, small handful of offenders. “Best Practices” emphasize this,
but police lobbyists downplay it.
2Aptly summed up, on
Acevedo’s day of hire in 2007, Jim
Harrington, director of the Texas Civil
Rights Project, said: "Today, the sun has shined on the city of
Austin, with the hopeful promise of a new era for relations between the police
and the city's minority communities…The selection of Chief Acevedo honors the
many good officers in the police force and honors Austin's diversity and
Austin's efforts to respect the human rights of all its people."
3a policy in conjunction with
a state law passed meant to encourage participation – which provides for not
spending the night in jail for minor offenses (like small marijuana possession,
driving with an expired license, etc), in exchange for showing up in two weeks
to “walk through” a booking, facing the same legal consequences)
4For more, watch the
documentary, “The Miami
Model”
5 Dowell, the only APD
infiltrator currently named, is a $95,000/year narcotics detective. The war and
drugs and the war on terror are inexorably linked; not that they are looking
for drugs at peaceful protests –and not that free speech should be treated as
terrorist activity, but that they treat peaceful protestors like hardened
gang-banger/drug dealers (which is how they view all potential arrestees in a
narcotics investigation). Narcotics is where some of the most questionable
police tactics, and police
corruption, can be found in any department.
6Why spending money elsewhere
in the city’s budget improves the public safety: “Bloated
Police Budgets Do NOT a Safe Community Make”
