Peaceful Streets Members Curse Out APD Officers for Violations of Dept. Policy

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Peaceful Streets Members Curse Out APD Officers for Violations of Dept. Policy

December 19th, 2015

Awake Goy

An unknown member of the Peaceful Streets Project confronted Officer Dawn Leonard, of the Austin Police department, about an incident caught on video back in June of this year. In that interaction – in June – members of the Peaceful Streets outfit in Austin, Texas were filming Austin Police officers who appeared to be breaking up some sort of disturbance.

During the June interaction Officer Dawn Leonard can be seen grabbing the phone of an individual who seemed to be recording the officer’s aggressive tactics. See video below.

According to the YouTube description for the confrontation video of Leonard:

During a Peaceful Streets Project cop watch in Austin we came across the vile Austin Police Department Mounted Patrol, also known as the Goon Squad.

The Goon Squad is run by a violent thug cop named SGT Adam Johnson and is filled with violent thug cops such as Officer Dawn Leonard. It should come as no surprise that these two thug cops star in this cop watch video.

While roaming downtown filming the police, we saw who we thought was the thug cop who grabbed a phone out of the hand of a man who was trying to film the police about three weeks earlier (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UamMI…). When we approached Officer Dawn Leonard #4395 to ask her to clarify for us if she was indeed the thug cop, she played coy and refused to simply tell us whether or not she was the thug cop.

As if it wasn’t bad enough that this filthy equiswine failed to answer a simple question from the people who pay her bloated salary, she then began to demand that we move away from her. Although we were in a public space; although we were engaged in the legal and Constitutionally protected activity of filming the police, although she clearly had no problem with people not asking her difficult questions being close to her; and although she claimed she wanted us to step away from her, indicating that we were too close to her, she moved toward the cop watcher and began to push him. It seems she wasn’t really concerned by how close he was to her.

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By deliberately interfering with his ability to film the police she violated APD policy. Just like she broke APD policy and the law when she violated the rights of someone trying to film the police three weeks earlier.

Then, SGT Adam Johnson #3979, her thug supervisor who has a long history of harassing cop watchers and engaging in violence against people, came over and continued to interfere with our ability to film the police. He began to bark unlawful orders for us to move out of a public space where we were not interfering with any legitimate police activity. By threatening us with arrest, pig Johnson also violated APD policy.

Adam Johnson and Dawn Leonard have previously violated APD policy and our rights when we tried to film them (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fKBi…). You wonder why they violate our rights? It is because they can. The pig chain of command at the Austin Police Department has not disciplined, fired, or arrested these scum bag cops. In fact, they spend their time celebrating the crimes of pig Adam Johnson.

Then another pig also violated APD policy by shining his lights at the cameras of the cop watchers to interfere with our ability to document the thug police in action.

These three pigs will continue to violate APD policy and Texas law because there are no consequences for such actions. In fact, swine like Chief Hubert Arturo “Art” Acevedo fully back the actions of these thugs.

So we will keep filming these pigs and we will continue to organize so that these pigs’ children, spouses, parents, and neighbors all know what vile scum they are. They can threaten us with arrest, they can assault us, they can illegally arrest us, but they cannot stop us. We are stronger than them. #ACAB

While some might find irony in someone associated with “Peaceful Streets” speaking to police (or anyone) in such a way not very peaceful. I would note what the videographer did in the video (above title or at end of this post) that the man wasn’t speaking ‘rudely’ until touched by the officer. It should also be noted that Leonard broke the law, violated a man’s rights and failed to own her mistake. While most will disagree on the quality of this “CopBlock” I find it to be valuable, especially with officers who routinely violate their oath and the law. Which seems to be the case for the “Goon Squad.”

What do you think? Was this an effective way to get accountability from the APD? Does shaming work on public officials? What would you have done differently? Let us know in the comments below.

Additional links provided by Peaceful Street’s YouTube Channel.

Links:
APD Policy – https://www.austintexas.gov/sites/def…

Additional videos of Officer Dawn Leonard acting like a bully
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5j8q9…
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0Kmf…
– http://www.rawstory.com/2015/06/what-…

Additional videos of SGT Adam Johnson acting like a bully
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X57Rn…
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdlqs…
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_u9qM…
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFHdY…

Lawsuits against SGT Adam Johnson
– http://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2…
– http://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2…