A progressive district attorney in Austin, Texas, dropped charges against 17 police officers involved in quelling the Black Lives Matter riots in 2020, in a move Austin police officers past and present tell Fox News Digital that was a political smear from the beginning by a top prosecutor determined to demonize the police. regardless of the effect on the lives of the authorities.
Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza announced Monday that his office dismissed 17 indictments against police officers after a grand jury indicted 19 of them in February 2022 for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after Non-lethal rounds will be fired into the crowd.
“Our community is safer when it trusts law enforcement. When you believe that the authorities comply with that law and protect the people who live here,” Garza said at the time. “There can be no trust if there is no accountability when law enforcement breaks the law.”
The charges came even though the officers were cleared of wrongdoing by the Austin Police Department and critics of Garza, who is backed by liberal megadonor George Soros, pointed to his campaign promises to prosecute police officers. and his progressive ideology that accuses him of launching a “war.” against the police.”
“This has nothing to do with justice, this has nothing to do with any crime,” Austin Police Officer Justin Berry, one of the accused officers whose charges were dropped, told Fox News Digital in 2022. last week. “This is simply about politics and a political agenda that has taken place with these radical liberal district attorneys.”
Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza announced Monday that his office dismissed 17 indictments against police officers. Travis County Prosecutor’s Office
Dennis Farris, president of the Austin Retired Police Officers Association, told Fox News Digital that it’s “stupid to think that those officers came out with the idea that they were going to hurt people.”
“That was not the intention. The intent was to protect the police station and protect themselves from rocks, bottles, frozen water bottles, bottles with bodily fluids thrown at them, some bottles had bleach in them, hell they even had a guy trying to light a molotov cocktail. .”
The city has paid more than $18 million to settle civil lawsuits related to the protests and eight civil lawsuits remain pending, FOX Austin reported.
Past and present members of law enforcement who spoke with Fox News Digital said Garza’s decision to prosecute these officers caused “irreparable harm” to their lives.
“What Garza did to those officers is a travesty,” a current Austin police officer who wished to remain anonymous told Fox News Digital. “Most will never understand the psychological, physical, financial and other impacts of going through such an unfair nightmare. They will never be the same. More broadly, it had a huge negative impact on police morale, played a role in the exodus of APD officers, and consequently made our city much less safe.”
“The sooner Garza leaves, the better. It’s time to get back to true public safety in Austin.”
The allegations involved quelling the Black Lives Matter riots in 2020. AP/Ricardo B. Brazziell
Berry issued a statement after charges against him were dropped saying Garza prosecuted him “not for facts” but “for unfiltered emotions to support his personal agenda.”
“Their quest for political power resulted in my and 20 other officers’ civil rights being violated, our liberty and constitutional rights infringed, and our reputations tarnished.”
“José Garza has known for a long time that none of us broke any laws, but he continued with his personal punishment,” Berry continued. “As I was told at the beginning of this, ‘the process will be the punishment.’”
In total, more than 20 Austin police officers were indicted by Garza’s office and four officers remain charged by Garza’s office.
Austin-area attorney Doug O’Connell, who represented 9 of the officers who had charges dropped, told Fox News Digital that prosecuting the police officers is Garza’s “highest priority” and that the evidence never supported the charges.
The allegations were filed even though the officers were cleared of wrongdoing by the Austin Police Department. AP/Ricardo B. Brazziell/Austin American-Statesma
“We recognized from the beginning that the evidence did not support a substance charge or conviction,” O’Connell said.
“The firing of 17 of 21 underscores and supports what we’ve been seeing all along, which were political allegations,” O’Connell’s colleague, attorney Ken Ervin, told Fox News Digital. “We don’t think they really had any interest in carrying them out.”
In total, more than 20 Austin police officers were indicted by Garza’s office and four officers remain charged, including clients of O’Connell and Ervin.
Despite dropping the charges, Garza’s office asked the Justice Department to open an investigation into the officers’ actions and the “pattern or practice” of the Austin Police Department.
“No parent should fear that if their child decides to assert their First Amendment right to peaceful assembly, they will walk away with serious bodily injury caused by the very person called upon to protect them,” Garza said.
“We hope the Department of Justice takes our request seriously and look forward to working with Mayor Watson, APD Acting Chief Robin Henderson, and the City Council to ensure full cooperation with the DOJ investigation. “We will also continue to hold law enforcement accountable who break the law.”
More than 20 Austin police officers were indicted by Garza’s office and four officers remain charged. AP/Eric Gay
Ervin told Fox News Digital that the letter to the Justice Department was simply an attempt by Garza to “save face.”
“They needed some kind of reason why they were getting rid of most of the cases and that was it, so they said, well, we think it’s a systemic problem. It’s in the Austin Police Department, so we’re going to address it.” “Austin’s problem.” Police Department as a whole,” Ervin said. “But that could have been done four or three years ago, two years ago, a year ago. That is why it is a false reason.”
“I think the political move was to throw out 17 every once in a while, find another reason why they’re throwing out more than that. It will be very difficult to prove them and get convictions [them] because of what the officers were doing. You know, using less-than-lethal munitions against rioters, more than half the department was doing that for three days.”
Farris agreed, telling Fox News Digital that Garza “has to be very embarrassed.”
“Every time they want to say we’re doing something, they hand it over to the feds,” Farris said.
“Even though it’s a good day and these 17 officers have been acquitted, that doesn’t save them,” Farris said. “It has been almost two years living under this black cloud of accusations. The idea that they were going to be convicted and possibly sent to prison for life for doing their job. That doesn’t save these officers. They will never be complete. They were basically used as political pawns by the district attorney.“
Regarding the investigation and charging decisions against the police officers, Garza’s office told Fox News Digital in a statement that “the process for these cases unfolded like all criminal cases in Travis County.”
“Throughout the two-year investigation into the Austin Police Department, it was evident that there is an urgent need for systemic reform to prevent this from happening again in our community. “The most effective way to achieve systemic change within the Austin Police Department is through an investigation by the Department of Justice,” the district attorney’s office said.
Categories: Trending
Source: vtt.edu.vn