APD's Budget: What would you get rid of?

While Manley's gotta go...and the budget's gotta give...Cronk's job is teetering in the balance.

With some unanimously-passed and unprecedented Council resolutions as a guide, the City Council's first meeting of the Public Safety Committee * -- made up of the "Fab Four" members: Flannigan (chair); Harper-Madison; Casar & Garza -- took place a week ago Thursday to flesh out the groundwork in preparation of the city's budget season.  Normally, Council would be taking vacation now, showing back up in time to start worksessions and meetings the last week of July, but between COVID and all the big changes on the table, they are staying in to dig deep.  

The first official councilmeeting for the budget is July 30th (with a hearing July 23rd & a worksession July 28th) and final passage of the budget comes down mid August.

That Thursday, they also broke into executive session to discuss Cronk's job--as it's near-time for his annual review.  Cronk comes to us from Minneapolis as an Asst. City Manager, but he didn't oversee police. He talked a good game, but we didn't know how he'd be when it came down to brass tacks or balls with the police union. Unfortunately, he's been as weak as any manger before him.  Cmbr. Alison Alter noted he's not taking initiative in reigning in APD...not doing or saying anything. "Your silence is deafening."

Then he broke his silence only to say he's keeping Manley. Whether this is to buy time because there really aren't any viable choices for a replacement out there right now (see "Police Chief Resignations..."), or a flat out slap in the face to Austin, will become more apparent by the draft budget he submits to Council in a few weeks. If it doesn't reflect the big changes needed...demanded by the community and council alike, then Cronk's presented his last budget.

A visionary city manager, one that Austin needs right now, wouldn't wait for the right chief or former chief to come along to get rid of Manley/install an interim. There are plenty of other options out there that aren't sworn officers in the upper echelons of management of an LEO (law enforcement organization). But that's another blog...

 

What Goes Up...Must Come - UP?

Grits explains the "catch-22" of police budgets: if crime goes up, we're told we have to increase budgets to combat it, if crime goes down - and it's down as far as it has been in 30 years - we have to increase budgets to not have crime go up. It's counter-intuitive, but then...cops.   

MEANWHILE...APD's budget. We need to get busy as a community and identify where we want to slash the proposed $100 million and what it should be diverted to...so we can share our suggestions with Council as they prepare their own proposals.

So here's the whole 2020 budget for APD - click on the arrows to dig deeper into each department/sector/category, etc.  (IM me on FB for the file-microsoft won't allow the embed) Go to p. 155 to look at the whole city budget for reference. 

As a secondary source, here's an open source compilation someone did of many of APDs budget areas by category, spanning the past 12 years (which also captures things like $3000 for CheesyPoofs).

For those that don't want to take a couple of hours out of their day for this -- go HERE to manipulate the overall departmental budgets within the General Fund, and this community tool is explained further in the KXAN coverage of it.

Add your suggestions as to what should go away/and where it should go, in the comments. 

Keep in mind that we have, by all accounts, one of the fattest police budgets, and the best paid officers, per capita. It's 10.5% of our city budget and just shy of 40% of our general fund. NYC's police budget is 8.5% of it's city budget; LAPD, 7%; and San Antonio, 5.5%.   From 2000 to Marc Ott's arrival in 2008, APD's budget increased 40%...under Ott (2008-2016), it went up $147 million - 60%...while our population growth was 19% (and we gained NO quantifiable accountability measures).

Under Manley, since 2017, it's increased another $50 million...and accountability seems to be sliding backwards.  

Meanwhile, over the last 20+ years, Fire and EMS have barely kept up with population growth, if that. 

Another measurement: the APD budget is $426 per resident. Houston and LA are $385 per resident...we certainly don't have MORE of a crime problem than those cities. $354 is the average across the US.

A major question, being posed in a series from the New York Times, is how much time/how many resources are dedicated to dealing with actual violent crime:

So hack away, Austinites...leave your ideas below.

* The committee was created through a council resolution to broaden the purview of an existing committee that oversaw municipal courts to also include policing issues.

Open Letter to Spencer Cronk: 36 Reasons & Counting - Why Manley Must Go

Spencer:

I'm stumped. There is overwhelming support for new leadership over APD, yet you dug your heels in. Your backing Manley means you are backing his so many wrongdoings during his tenure, including the literal war crimes he committed upon Austinites.

If you didn't read my long and growing list of reasons why Manley MUST go, please, PLEASE do today.

Perhaps you dispute some, or many of these reasons. 

Even if you dismiss the 10 other critical incidents that should have resulted in 14 officers' firings; even if you take out all the ones where witness testimony disputes officer's versions or the several that should have definitely been handled with less lethal force, esp. two small women, one of which had just crawled out from crashing her car into a light pole (Salazar & Rankin)...it is absolutely indisputable from witness video that Taylor should have been fired - as well as Pieper for shooting bean bag rounds while Ramos' hands were up (not complying with verbal orders is not justification for that level of force, by law, by policy).

And it should be asked of YOU: have you seen any/all of this video the public was long ago promised in critical incidents but has not seen? If Manley had not broken this policy over and over, then we'd all be clear which ones were indisputably WRONG. 

It's also VERY clear Wall should have been fired, not just suspended, for not only NOT patting down a suspect (properly or at all/whatever) before putting him in his squad car, but for making fun of him when he relayed he was suicidal. As much as any shooting of an unarmed person posing no threat, THIS DEATH IS COMPLETELY ON APD. And you since you back Manley, therefore Wall...it's on you.

Even if you dismiss all those, how can you dismiss the officers not being fired that initially lied about Parish firing on them? (Did he even raise his gun to them? We'll never know). When the community interviewed APD chief candidates in 2007, that was our #1 question. "Will you fire an officer for lying (esp. in a critical incident)?" Acevedo answered yes. You didn't give us a chance to have Manley commit to that - but it's POLICY. 

Even if you dismissed ALL those avoidable deaths...there's still all the many 100s of officers that fired on protestors that bloody weekend - cinching our status as one of the top USA PD's that routinely violate human rights. How about the officer that did the knee on neck chokehold? NOT fired. No one WILL be fired, as APD's only investigating just a handful of incidents from that weekend and Manley already said he "didn't know of any policy violations." (REALLY???) Many other US PD chiefs fired officers within 24 hours of such abuses. It's been over three weeks. 

EVEN if you dismiss ALL THAT, there's still 25 reasons to boot him-- a few of which - ON THEIR OWN - should have been reason enough like the many policy violations; the blocking of an external investigation and his lies: like in the Ramos report to the AG (2nd bullet), and if you believe what he told you last week during the Public Safety Committee meeting, that EMS never informed him ALL WEEKEND of the many injuries - well, I got some land in Florida. 

....And IF what he said was true, then shouldn't both he and Rodriguez be fired for not doing their jobs; seeking/relaying critical public safety information across entities?

Good gawdess, Spencer. What WILL it take to make you see this is completely beyond an untenable situation?

Please. Act. Now.

A "stern talking to" AIN'T cutting it.

Things WON'T be different this time. 

LEAVE HIM!

Debbie Russell

The Many Reasons Manley Must Resign

Today the Austin City Council crafted historical resolutions, all passing unanimously, calling for a serious shift in policing in Austin - something activists have been begging for FOR YEARS.

It took the trigger of the horrific murder of George Floyd, coupled with our own police-murder of an unarmed man of color in late April - Mike Ramos; then people taking to the streets for 13 days straight, where APD committed countless atrocities to suppress dissent. Police violence perpetrated on people protesting police violence...cuz cops. :-(

The images of the injured were splashed EVERYWHERE and forced the hand of our mayor and council, while the city manager and police chief are pretending to care. If they actually did, a whole lot of people would have been fired by now.

APD has drawn a line in the sand and cannot be surprised that the vast majority of people, privileged and oppressed alike, are finally banding together to say "no more!" Liberal Austin, which usually lets Austin Police Association's outrageous lies seep in as some measure of truth for comfort's sake, just isn't buying their current hype that defunding APD will be the end of civilization as we know it.

“Reform is no longer enough: What is needed is liberation…but the forces that would hold back a tsunami of transformational change – be it removing APD leadership, whacking $100 million or more from its bloated budget, or more – are probably, right now, not strong enough to do so.” – Mike Clark Madison

But this transformational change CAN NOT / WILL NOT happen with Manley at the helm. I seriously doubt it can with Cronk at the helm since he's shown no leadership in booting him out, TX Local Government Code be damned. 

One of the resolutions passed today included a full-council vote of 'no confidence' in Manley. Yet he's seemingly still wanting to keep the top cop spot. (Shame much?)

REASONS MANLEY MUST GO:

• Christopher Taylor, who murdered an unarmed Mike Ramos, has not been fired - it's been 48 days. See other cities' chiefs in the past two weeks firing officers within hours of an incident.
• We know he won't fire him because he LIED on the report to the TX AG about what happened. He checks "unknown...unknown...unknown" in the boxes, yet in the press he admitted Ramos didn't have a gun...didn't have drugs...didn't threaten the officers.
• He didn't fire Taylor nine months earlier for shooting Dr. Mauris De Silva, where his two partners thought Tasering would do.
• He didn't fire Eduardo Pineda or Spencer Hanna for their Tasering to death Enrique Quiroz in March of this year for the crime of trespassing, yet it looks like he had permission to be there. The family held a press conference describing how he was beaten and tazed, then dragged down the stairs in handcuffs 'like an animal.'

• He didn't fire Matthew Judd, who shot an unarmed Hugo Alvarez in March of 2018.

• He didn't fire Hugh Butler & William Bertelson for what may well be lying about Carlos Dodero having a gun/attempting to shoot them, as witnesses say otherwise. But he did DEMOTE another officer at the scene, but won't say why. Was it for telling the truth?

• He hasn't fired Thomas Brown for shooting/killing, instead of using less lethal force, Leslie Yolanda Salazar.
• He didn't fire Ivan Wall who it simply cannot be disputed violated policy in not properly searching Zachary Anam, who had a gun, and shot himself in the back of Wall's squad car. Wall also teased Anam when he admitted his suicidal state, video the Chief has seen, but not us. < This is as much an APD murder as a cop pulling the trigger himself.
• He didn't fire Benjamin Rogers for the shooting/killing of Morgan Rankin, when less lethal force would have obviously been the better option - she had just been in a car accident (that he caused by laying down spikes) and hit a utility pole - how could she possibly been a physical threat even with a knife, stumbling out of the car, disoriented?
• He didn't fire Richard Egal and Max Johnson for likely lying about Landon Nobles having a gun/firing at them (many witnesses said no gun). Lying on a police report is an immediately fireable offense.
• He didn't fire Bianchi, Johnson, O'Neill and Wagstaff for lying about Lawrence Parish firing on them before they shot and killed him. 
• All of the above are detailed here.
• New info just came in; it also may be that Paul Cantu didn't have a gun either...so more officers there in question
• ALL THE OFFICERS who shot people running away during the protests, all unarmed, the medics rending aid (violation of Geneva Conventions, as was the tear gas)...he has NO intention of firing them, much less any hand-slaps. Guaranteed. (He said in the Monday press conference following that even though it looked bad, it was by the book: "there were no policy violations that I know of.")
• By not firing any, much less, all of the above, he is complicit in these murders & assaults & actively covering them up...which would actually be a crime, or a multitude of them.

AND SO MUCH MORE...

• Rolling back progressive policy: Acevedo, in 2012, said "no more shooting at fleeing vehicles," but Manley decided that was okay, hence allowing Taylor to get away with murder (if you ignore the fact Ramos wasn't fleeing, because it was a dead end he was turning into)
• Refusing to institute training reforms long called on by the public, with city council backing via a resolution.
• Ignoring racism allegations among top brass and the entire department and obstructing the independent investigation looking into it (which DID turn up quite a bit, despite local media coverage presenting it as otherwise).
• Blaming sexual assault survivors when APD was caught fudging sexual assault stats ("teargaslighting" - when cops gaslight)
• Undermining transparency, the complaint process and reforms in the police contract
• Downgrading bodycam vioations/hiding them from the public despite policy
• Snubbing the Office of the Police Oversight
• DNA-Lab-Gate: bungling any chance at fixing it
• Returning medication that was ordered to counter effects of overdosing victims
• His harmful drug war policies/thumbing his nose at local policy to cease arrests on low level marijuana charges
• All of the above are detailed here.
• 2015/16's APD budget was $390M...this year it's $440M - under Manley, it's increased $50M - and FOR WHAT? We have NO more accountability than we ever did, since he's chipped away at what little we did get. 
• Hasn't issued the 2018 or 2019 Use of Force Reports ("Response to Resistance" they call it, assuming all use of force only occurs due to resistance); hasn't issued the 2019 Racial Profiling Report. AND CHECK OUT THE 3 YEAR OLD BUDGET NUMBER ON THE FRONT PAGE OF APD's WEBSITE!
• According to the recent Community Policing audit, between 2016 and 2018, resident satisfaction with police services decreased, even though crime went down - Manley took the helm in Jan., 2017. (Staying stagnant/not improving would have been bad enough).
• Besides the racism allegations, there was an internal complaint filed that Asst. Chief Troy Gay was forcing his family member into "conversion therapy" with Chief Manley's support. This was one of the many parts of the Tatum investigation that Manley blocked, so the investigator couldn't interview/corroborate with the complaintant. (BLOCKING AN INVESTIGATION SHOULD BE CAUSE ENOUGH FOR DISMISSAL)
• Forced out the head of the Sex Crimes Unit because she wouldn't fudge statistics as ordered. 
• While Acevedo promoted the truly abhorrent Jason Dusterhoft to Assistant Chief, he would have done so with then-Assistant Chief Manley's approval as he oversaw promotions/human resources, despite Dusterhoft's despicable past and reputation. Manley also didn't arrest/charge him for what he said were crimes. 
• Fanning the flames of discontent nearly as vigorously as Gov. Abbott, around council's softening of the city "quality of life" ordinances to lessen the criminality of being transient. Testified that crime was going up downtown after this happened, but couldn't offer statistics to prove it was due to an increase in the transient population. He took advantage of the chaos, of the focus being on those in visible spaces to crack down on those living in the shadows (private empty commercial lots, woods and greenbelts) to arrest them and confiscate what little they had.
• For 15 months, covering up/not investigating WilCo Sheriff Deputies Zach Camden & JJ Johnson's murder of Javier Ambler. APD was on the scene where he was apprehended (as it was then in Austin city limits) and a live tv crew was filming it and somehow media/the public never heard about it? Williamson County Sheriff Chody says they gave their body camera footage to APD/DA in April 2019 and they never were contacted again. Live PD says they never got a single request for the footage from anyone, and now says they can't find the footage? (*cough*) Now Sen. Whitmire has to step in to call for an actual investigation.
• Increased militarization and the Bloody Weekend...where from Friday night to early Sunday morning, after ordering they get out ALL their riot gear, tanks, weaponry, ammunition..then over and over giving the orders to attack protestors, seeing the results in media, social media and straight up reports from EMS and Fire, continues to give those orders to press on...and has the GALL to say Monday afternoon, "We didn't set out to do that."  (see the "TIMELINE")
• THEN, Monday, after getting a spanking from Mayor and Council, instructs his officers to kill us protestors with kindness instead; which is a whole police psy-ops tactic in and of itself..."engaging" them at HQ...passing out cookies...throwing up ASL "love" hand signs for pics. Cuz that whole past weekend? NEVER HAPPENED. Teargaslighting
• THEN...omg...THEN has the GALL to say at the end of that completely disingenuous speech, "Now is the time to come together."  Now? Really? NOW?
• Then the desperate measures to buy public sympathy by writing their own thank you cards and touting them as being from the some kindergarten kids.

"Regardless of the origin of these cards, it speaks volumes that whoever runs APD’s social media outreach thought this was a positive moment worth highlighting rather than an incredibly tone-deaf reaction to a moment in history when the necessity of police as an institution is on referendum." 

- Gizmodo

• Then, today, in further desperation, having a press conference on top of the council meeting talking about him and his department (VERY bad form), posing with some group that may well be their own infiltrators into our protests (they just created their FB and Twitter accounts earlier this week), as if they are their "community backing."
• Veteran activist Kathy Mitchell described the press conference message as: "...a threat to City Council: 'with respect to all those use of force reforms you've passed today, I will do what I want and then I will tell you about it. Within 24 hours. I promise.'"
• THEN, APD performed a chokehold/knee on throat hold on a protestor Friday night (6/12) after, ONE DAY EARLIER, the Chief said, "we never do those/we won't do those," and council passing a resolution banning them.  NO ONE FIRED.
• Then we find out a long time 'bad apple' who's had his share of discipline, including for assaulting a protestor in 2012, causing her to have a seizure, Shane Housmans, #6083, tell three black female activists "white power!"  NO ONE FIRED.
• LYING during the first Public Safety Committee meeting on June 18, when he said he he hadn't gotten any reports from EMS about injuries during the (that) weekend. If that BS is true, EVERYONE needs to be fired. 
• AND...violating policy by withholding APD's video of the shooting death of Mike Ramos from the Office of Police Oversight, and while Cronk FINALLY ordered Manley to do this at the 11th hour the video was to be released, this violation further delays its release to the public.   

Despite throwing some random reformist lingo around in council meetings and in the press to feign acceptance of the new order of things, it's obvious he's just not up to the task of what's ahead, since he couldn't handle the baby step-changes asked of him in the past.

Meanwhile, councilmembers say they've gotten well more than 10,000 unique emails each-- calling for Manley's head; more than 300 speakers today calling for Manley's head; nearly 20,000* people showing up for the march last Sunday, when they are scared to be in crowds because of COVID19 -- a CLEAR sign of support for the #BLM movement, the calls the organizers, Austin Justice Coalition, have put forth including firing Manley, and for a new dawn in public safety.

Photo by: Christopher Neely

It's never easy to cede power, but there comes a time when you have to quit while you're behind.  

RESIGN, Manley...do yourself, and us ALL, a favor.  And take Assistant Chief Troy Gay and Assistant City Manager Ray Arrellano with you. 

*Based on my experience in organizing large marches and because the march reached the Capital before the last of the marchers left Huston-Tillotsen!

YOU CAN WATCH THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNAL ON MANLEY NEEDING TO GO HERE.

Council Meeting Speech: Defund the Police

Thank you to the Councilmembers who have shown incredible leadership on this; I hope this consensus on the dais continues into September so we can achieve TRUE public safety in Austin.

The police did this to themselves---in APA’s zealousness to increase their power, their numbers, their influence on elections and the budget…police have managed to turn themselves into more than police officers, more than they want to be, or SHOULD be.

As Councilmember Flannigan wrote: “It’s a system that’s crumbled under its own weight.”  You can’t reform broken.

We must decide, not how police do their jobs, but what their jobs should be.

Research shows: police officers are two or three times more likely to abuse drugs & are 3-4 times more likely to have perpetrated domestic violence than the general population.

And we KNOW their history of excessive force and racial profiling.

Austin has the highest per capita rate of fatal mental health-related police shootings.

These are not the folks we need dealing with our communities’ mental health issues, domestic disputes, the challenges associated with homelessness, much less being in our schools or monitoring peaceful protests. … Please note attacking medics and using tear gas are violations of the Geneva Convention.

We’ve spent the last 20-30 years jacking up APD’s budget BY starving out other essential services: EMS and Fire budgets have stayed stagnant or merely increased a tiny fraction.

From 2000 to 2008, APD’s budget increased well over 40%. During Marc Ott’s 8 year reign, he increased it another 60%...which FAR OUTPACES POPULATION GROWTH at 23% -but with a stagnate crime rate.

NYC’s police budget is 8 ½ % of their entire city budget (not just a “general fund”)

LAPD is 7% …

San Antonio PD is 5 ½% …

AUSTIN’s is 11% of the city budget!

More then 50 countries have a military budget SMALLER than APD’s budget.

We must seriously reverse course and reallocate at LEAST $100 million to the appropriate services that are pennies on the dollar; which allows APD to focus on intervening in - and SOLVING actual crime.

Asst. Chief Troy Gay and Assistant City Manager Ray Arellano must be fired. And for a multitude of reasons, not the least of which is he hasn’t fired Christopher Taylor or the fact that what we saw 2 weekends ago was TERRORISM, not policing (and no one’s fired from that yet?)…WE MUST GET RID OF MANLEY NOW. …  NOW!

Despite his words, he’s has made it clear through his actions - NO reform is welcome. AT ALL. He is an OBSTACLE. Not a change agent.

Resign Manley!

As community cries reached a fever pitch for our police chief, Brian Manley, to be fired, we learned today our City Manager, Spencer Cronk, can't do that. Because TEXAS.

Fine--then let's use "resign" as a transitive verb to mean: make him resign. Because that's what he'll obviously do if given the choice between that and demotion from the top cop job (although I do relish Grit's imaginary titles for him). 

Photo by Jana Birchum, AChron

The fact that he's saying there were no policy violations that he knows of, that it all fell within policy guidelines, tells us where the "investigations" are going to end up. 

Question is: is Cronk ready to accept his share of the blame in ALL that is wrong with our police force under Manley, and accept that ONLY a change in leadership can trigger the change we need in Austin?

THIS is "by the book"?

There were PLENTY of reasons to resign him well before the atrocities of this past weekend (do watch this short video summary), not the least of which is his failure to fire Christopher Taylor who not only shouldn't have killed Michael Ramos, but 9 months earlier, had no business shooting/killing Dr. Mauris DeSilva, "holding" a knife while having a mental health episode - since his two partners chose to Taser him. The fact that he has now LIED in order to protect his killer officer is another reason to fire him.

But do please take the time to read all the other reasons, including the deaths on his head, and the lies/manipulation to avoid responsibility for them. 

We also can't forget Manley was Chief Acevedo's right jackboot after David Carter took the top cop job at UT-Austin, so he had a direct role in much of the militarization of APD; from securing grant after grant for the equipment to the training tactics for "riot control," and amping up the slow boil behind the blue shield that cooks up the notion all protests are riots. Or all protests against the police anyway. Because OF COURSE it makes sense to respond to people protesting police violence with police violence!

So, this past weekend falls, in part, on Acevedo & former city manager Marc Ott - but while Acevedo used provocateurs and riot cops, there was very little "non-lethal" force involved. THAT's on Manley & Cronk.

Firing upon medics rending aid CANNOT possibly be in accordance with any policy, much less the law.

ALL of the academic analysis out there say that these militaristic tactics only increase the conflict; as people run for their lives or try to defend themselves, cops come down harder.  

Shooting people in the back multiple times as they run for their lives is NOT POLICING. ... It's TERRORISM.

Disgusting in a different way is the about-face merely for optics sake: trying to kill us one day, then the next, passing out cookies and throwing up ASL “love” hand signs for photographers. "Now is the time to come together," Manley said. N.O.W.???????????

His tearful “apology” saying “this is not what we set out to do,” was a BLATANT LIE. It is ABSOLUTELY what they set out to do. They got all dressed up in their riot best, donned their "non-lethal" rifles, loaded their pepper spray guns, had arsenals of ammo at the ready, placed LRADs around threateningly, planned and trained; and he gave the orders, and continued to give the orders after seeing the initial results.

Let’s look at the timeline of last weekend and who ordered what and when, and who didn’t order any cessation of the atrocities committed on peaceful protestors that posed no ACTUAL physical threat to police (water bottles don’t count when you’re in full riot gear and you’ve just hosed down a crowd with pepperspray):

TIMELINE - AUTHORIZATION of USE OF FORCE 
& CRONK's RESPONSE:

• Manley authorized use of all force except live rounds on FRIDAY, or before then in preparation.

• Whether Cronk was informed, we don’t know. 

• FRIDAY: both almost certainly watched our live video of their shooting gallery from the elevated APD HQ platform/if not, they were getting reports. There were dozens of rounds fired at protestors on the other side of the street/40' away yelling, flipping them off & MAYBE 1-2 water bottles (I went down halfway through, had a beanbag round fly 6" past my face--NEVER saw anything fly from the protestor towards their direction)

• Cronk didn’t tell him to stand down, obviously

• Manley said “yes…this is what I want; so SATURDAY, give them about an hour and a half” (Saturday’s protest started at noon) “…and if they don’t obey orders to disperse – let’s shoot them from the platform, from I-35 down on them, oh, and on the east side of I-35. We cannot have them on the east side of the feeder watching what we’re doing.”

• If Cronk wasn’t informed prior, he should have asked, “Hey, boo…you gonna fuck up more people today?” And perhaps, maybe said, “yeah, don’t do that.”

• Manley saw video/pics in media/on our social media of that & by Sat. afternoon said…”Yes, let’s keep doing THAT,"  so it stretched into the wee Sunday morning hours.

• Again, nothing with the Cronk-man or any orders to stand down.

• By now, Manley and Cronk both would have been receiving information on serious injuries/EMS transfers to hospitals, INCLUDING medics shot by police while rending aide!

• SUNDAY AM: Manley saw a whole lot of video/pics from the night before and said, “yes—let’s do more of that; again, give them about an hour and a half and then go CRAZY guys!"

• Cronk at this point should have said, “not today, or I will resign you!” 

• SUNDAY afternoon: after seeing MORE video/pics…Manley’s all, ”thumbs up—keep it up!” Then he had cops use TEAR GAS on protestors, lied to the media about it, saying it was just “some kind of smoke device” THEN was told, “oops, they announced it was ‘tear gas’ from the helicopter before dropping it on them, Chief" - so he was forced to send a ‘correction’ but said it was a mixture of tear gas and smoke. As if that’s okay in a respiratory-based pandemic (and it's prohibited by the Geneva Conventions…perfectly fine, though, to use on protestors!!)

• Cronk at THIS point should have been: “MANLEY STAND THE FUCK DOWN. I’M TAKING CONTROL OF YOUR DEPT!” But since he hasn’t done ANY of these things at this point, we can only assume HE’S FINE WITH IT.

• SUNDAY night: more and more and more of the same.

• Cronk, on Monday am: it would have been his prime chance to resign Manley for not obeying orders if he HAD given those orders – or at the very least, a good moment to realize, “OH FUCK, in totality for the whole weekend, this looks REAL bad, now MY job is on the line – I better throw Manley under the bus to save it.”

Instead, Cronk orders Manley to have cops "engage" the protestors: "That ought to make up for this weekend."

We know this “ban” on non-lethals can be lifted any moment, on a whim - because nothing's changed. Still the same culture, still the same leader in charge.

Manley is old school; he’s obviously too entrenched in the militaristic culture.  He’s had plenty of time to “learn,” to change policy, to try progressive recommended approaches…instead he’s reversed progressive policy, including transparency gains made in his own reign, covered up for deadly cops and ordered excessive force on protestors over and over again throughout a long weekend, despite all the horrific optics, much less outcomes.

He has proven time and again, that he’s not willing to change, much less capable of changing. He’s lied, time and again, about being the change agent we need. Don't believe him NOW!  Allowing him to stay puts us all in jeopardy.  

If Cronk and Council don't have the will of other cities moving to #DefundThePolice - essentially restructure it completely - then they HAVE to realize that at the very least, we must get new leadership over APD. 

Cronk must accept his failures in this and resign Manley ASAP...or he's next.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TELL CRONK TO RESIGN MANLEY & FIRE Asst. City Manager REY ARELLANO 

(over Public Safety) & FIRE APD Asst. Chief TROY GAY: 

512-974-2200  spencer.cronk@austintexas.gov

Unarmed & Questionable Deaths Under Chief Manley

NAME            ETHNICITY/Age     Killed     Officer/s who Killed         Weapon on victim

(UNARMED)

Michael Ramos     Black-Hispanic/42     4/2020      Christopher Taylor**                 none
                                                                        (Mitchell Pieper fired beanbag rounds prior)

In response to a call about someone in a car doing drugs/holding a gun, officers surrounded Ramos, although it wasn't the right car/right person. He got out of his car as ordered and put his hands up, showing his waistband was clear; regardless, one of the officers chose to fire at him with a beanbag rifle, hitting him in the stomach, causing him to fall to the ground.  Ramos ducked in his car and proceeded to drive away from officers but towards a dead end of the parking lot - very very slowly, not making it 20' before Taylor fires a lethal round 3 times. APD used to have a policy not to use lethal force on a fleeing vehicle unless the person is a danger to himself or others, but Manley quietly reversed this policy prior to this. Since Ramos aimed to drive to what was the end of the parking lot/parking spaces--he couldn't have have been "fleeing" anyway. Chief Manley has taken no steps to discipline/fire Taylor, and in fact, has shown he is fine with the whole thing.

VIDEO: There are 3 witness phone videos known, while APD withholds the in-car/bodycam videos.  

**Christopher Taylor shot a mentally unstable man "holding" a knife (no mention of threatening officers with it) 9 months earlier/see below: DeSilva

Enrique "Henry" Quiroz      Hispanic/40    3/2020   Eduardo Pineda & Spencer Hanna       none

In response to a trespassing call, officers used their Tasers on him and he died shortly afterwards of a "medical episode" (code for their bogus term "excited delirium" - something the AMA says is NOT a thing - to help exonerate the officers and/or the weapon in the victim's death) -- he died at the scene. Investigation under way. Family speaks out three months later...because the media didn't pick it up. First off, they say he had permission to be there, so there was no "trespassing," and they described that "he was beaten, tazed, and dragged down the stairs like an animal." However, this was described by APD on their in-custody death report as the officers "helping" him down the stairs. But a little critical thought, media..."help" isn't a red flag to you on an APD report?

VIDEO-should be body cam video, unlikely we'll see it, cuz MANLEY.

Hugo Alvarez        Hispanic/28      3/2018       Matthew Judd (SWAT team member)   none

Alvarez called 911 because he thought people were breaking into his home. With obvious mental health issues, it seems Alvarez didn't believe it was the cops who were trying to "break into his home" after he called them to respond to a break in. No experts were called in to handle communications, so it devolved quickly with him firing a shot inside the home after they sent a robot to breach the front door. No one inside was hurt, but then he fired externally and injured an officer. They finally convinced him to put his weapon down and come out. APD claims he came out with his mother in front of him/using her as a shield, so they assumed he was armed and shot him. Two weeks later, Manley admitted Alvarez was NOT armed when he came out of the house. The Grand Jury deliberated 16 hours, a very long time for an officer indictment, but cleared the officer. His brothers AND mother (who was supposedly being held hostage) are suing APD over this, mainly because they want the video from the robot to become public to prove Alvarez left his gun inside.

VIDEO: from the robot if not cars and body cams...as per usual, the DA hasn't released it despite her case being closed

(ARMED/but could have handled differently/with less lethal force or REPORTEDLY ARMED or THEY LIED)

Dr. Mauris DeSilva, PhD  Southeast Asian/46   7/2019                                     knife

                   Karl Krycia & Christopher Taylor shot him while Joseph Cast deployed his Taser

Having a mental health breakdown while "holding a knife" when fired upon by two APD officer and Tasered by another (really bad cop form). Questions still linger about whether he actually threatened the officers with the knife since all we get is that he was "holding" one, and if one officer thought a Taser was enough, why did the other ones shoot? No discipline and the DA says she doesn't have enough resources to bring an indictment to bad cops (one of many reasons she's about to lose her incumbency to a relative new-comer.) 

VIDEO: Never released

Carlos Dodero          Hispanic/45      4/2019    Hugh Butler & William Bertelson        gun (?)

The man had his issues, for sure, and he definitely showed violent tendencies...but did he have a gun? Eyewitnesses who temporarily restrained him say no.  And curiously, an officer on the scene but nowhere near the shooting was not just disciplined - but DEMOTED - for something--APD's not saying. 

VIDEO: should be some body camera video/ DA hasn't announced she won't indict officially, but obviously not

(The remainder have all had the DA officially decline to indict officers):

Paul Cantu               Hispanic/27       1/2019         Luis Camacho & Robert Mattingly    gun (?)

The family is suing, saying he didn't have a gun - the whole APD story is strange, so this remains under 'community investigation' as it were. Until we can see video, the onus is on APD to prove Cantu had a gun.

Aquantis "Ajay" Griffin        Black/18            8/2018                                                      gun

                    8 officers, including Joseph Cast who was present in the DeSilva case

For two years, there wasn't solid reason to doubt that Griffin pointed his gun at officers (but NOTHING excuses the 30 rounds sprayed into him -much of which was AFTER he was on the ground - AND being tasered), but as of 9/2020, a lawsuit reveals the existence of evidence suggesting Griffin never pointed his gun and instead turned to run away from officers, as explained by his family's attorneys.  VIDEO: nothing has been publicly released until now with the bystander video.

Leslie Yolanda Salazar       Hispanic/20       6/2018       Thomas Brown                    knife

Responding to a call that she chased her cousin with a knife, officers came into the home and she "walked around the corner with a knife" - and they order her to drop it and she "continues walking in their direction" as Chief Manley explained. She was a 95 lbs. young woman, obviously in need of mental health care, but why not less-lethal force?  

VIDEO: Likely. Have we seen it? hah.

Zachary Khabir Anam        Middle Eastern/19     1/2017       Ivan Wall           gun (WHY??)

College student suffering from mental health issue was arrested after a store robbery. Wall supposedly patted him down before putting him in his car, and on the way to HQ, Anam alerted Wall he was feeling suicidal to which Wall poked fun at, according to the in-car video. Anam pulled a gun out of his waist band and told the officer he was holding it to his own head. Wall stopped and got out of the car (and what, unsure--pointed his gun at him?), and FIVE MINUTES LATER, Anam shot himself. Wall was suspended for 20 days, which is a lot in cop-world, but was not indicted.  I CONSIDER HIS DEATH ENTIRELY ON APD's HEAD.

VIdeo:  In-car video but the public hasn't seen it  

Morgan Rankin          Black/30             2/2017           Benjamin Rogers                    knife

Another tragic mental health call. While we have video at the front end of the encounter showing her coming close to hitting 2 officers as she speeds off; we have NOT seen video of the actual shooting. They set spikes to stop her, which sent her crashing into a pole and they the report described that she got out and "approached him" (Rogers) with the knife. She JUST had a major car accident. She couldn't have possibly been threatening enough for deadly force ..."approached?" like a zombie???  Again...why not less lethal?

SEE THE OFFICE OF POLICE OVERSIGHT's 2018 CRITICAL INCIDENT REPORT specifying some more cases from that year; none of which at face value appear overtly questionable, but it does magnify the amount of APD caused deaths of mentally ill people (according to the TX Observer, Austin has the highest per capita rate of this).  It also magnifies that lethal force is used in very specific, POC-heavy parts of town.

Landon Nobles          Black/24          5/2017         Richard Egal & MaxJohnson       gun (?)

Police claim they heard gunshots on Sixth St., and on social media, saw video of a 24 year old man firing shots into the air. When they found the accused shooter, a foot chase ensued, and cops said they saw that he had a pistol and allegedly turned and fired shots at the officers so they fired back, killing him. Witnesses to the shooting (2 of whom I happen to know) who say they never saw a gun in Nobles hand during the chase and never saw him shoot;  that Egal threw his bike in front of him, causing Nobles to fall, then shot him in the back. It should be noted that immediately following, officers rounded up all the Sixth St. partiers they could muster in a 2 block area and made them sit and wait for an hour or more...not asking for names and contact info as witnesses, but telling them WHAT HAPPENED (this was relayed to me by different parties who did not know each other).

VIDEO: Of the actual shooting...sadly, no bystanders have turned over any video (the people I know were working security and didn't think to pull out their phone). No bodycam footage--that we know if. There may be tho from Egal. 

Lawrence Parish       Black/31        4/2017                                                                   rifle

  Paul Bianchi, Marcos Johnson, Dane O'Neill (all fired rifles) & Jordan Wagstaff (fired pistol)

He had a rifle, and the first few days of the story, we were told he fired at officers. THEN, it turns out, whoops - he didn't actually fire. They contend he pointed it at them - but who knows? How can we believe anything? District Attorney Moore said she'd release the evidence, including dash and body camera video, after the criminal case is closed, and it has been, but nothing. Crickets.