Eleven Austin police officers have been disciplined now that Chief Brian Manley has completed his review of all police misconduct reported after the May 30 and 31 Austin protests against police brutality, according to city officials.
Additionally, seven other officers are on administrative duty, awaiting the Travis County district attorney’s review of their reported incidents, city officials said.
Officials declined to release information about the specific incidents that led to discipline, including names of the officers, whether any of these officers injured protesters or what policies these officers violated. Additional updates will be forthcoming, city officials said.
Claims of excessive force have dogged Austin police since the start of the demonstrations. Austinities joined protesters across America who took to their local streets in May and into June to protest the killing of George Floyd, a Black man who died after a white Minneapolis police officer pinned him down with his knee on Floyd’s neck, as well as other deaths at the hands of police. Many in Austin also demonstrated for Mike Ramos, who was shot and killed by an Austin police officer in April.
Back-to-back protests in Austin continued for several days after May 30, and by June 6, at least 33 people had been hospitalized during the protests, Austin-Travis County EMS officials said. Multiple Austin protesters had to have surgery after police shot them with beanbag rounds, and Manley later apologized for those injuries, saying, “”That is not what we set out to do as a police department.”
The Austin Chronicle first reported news of the discipline Wednesday, which marked 180 days since the protests. Police agencies in Texas are required to review police misconduct 180 days after it happened, and the Austin Police Department has historically used the full six months before handing down discipline in most investigations.
Manley has written to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to seek some extensions on disciplinary reviews, a city spokesman said.
Additionally, the majority of charges filed against protesters have been dropped. In total, 178 Austin protesters were charged with misdemeanor crimes, and the Travis County district attorney’s office dropped 104 of those.
The county attorney’s office dropped most charges if people did not commit other crimes several months after their initial arrest or citation, which is how Travis County has handled protest arrests for years, County Attorney David Escamilla said.
“Travis County is a very progressive community and is very tolerant of people’s First Amendment rights,” Escamilla said. “Protests are nothing new to Travis County or to our office. We have a pretty standard way of dealing with these.”
Most nonviolent offenses are typically deferred, and as long as the defendant is not arrested for another crime in the following months, the charge is dropped, Escamilla said.
The remaining cases involve violent offenses or felony charges, or Escamilla’s office is still reviewing them, he said. He did not share details about what kind of misdemeanor charges are still pending.
George Lobb, an Austin attorney who represented several protesters who were arrested, said that policy doesn’t treat all protesters fairly, he said.
“What that tells me is that the county attorney’s policy is, ’Well, you’ve now got a criminal history, so we’re not going to drop this case,’ ” Lobb said. ” ’We’re going to continue on, because obviously you didn’t learn your lesson.’ “
Prosecutors in Travis County should discourage police from arresting people at protests in the first place, Lobb said.
“They need to stop arresting people for exercising their First Amendment right,” he said.
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