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Antonio Buehler steps up his campaign on APD with Peaceful Streets Project

| July 30, 2012

Is former Army Ranger Antonio Buehler a provocateur or a concerned citizen fighting perceived abuses by the Austin Police Department?

That depends on who you ask.

Buehler is facing charges for resisting arrest and harassing a public servant stemming from a controversial New Year’s Eve DWI arrest. Buehler had a run in with police officers after witnessing two women being arrested for DWI. Cops say Buehler interfered with the arrest. Buehler claims he was protecting the women who were being physically abused by the officers. Buehler and others photographed and recorded video of the arrest. Police have not released the dash cam video of the event. The case has yet to go to a grand jury.

Since then, the war veteran has marshaled a large group of supporters via social media. He has started a organization called the Peaceful Streets Project. He and volunteers take to the streets at night with video cameras in hand, taking videos of police making stops and arrests.

On Saturday, Buehler and a volunteer took video of an arrest outside of the Wendy’s at I-35 and 7th Street. The video shows an officer walking up to Buehler and clearly trying to antagonize Buehler by blinding his camera with a flashlight. He also takes a condescending tone with Buehler.

“I didn’t consider the flashlight a threat. I saw it as a move meant to intimidate and antagonize me,” Buehler said.

The officer is out of line. He had every right to walk up and question Buehler if he thought that he might be involved in whatever the suspect was being stopped for. He also has a duty to make sure his fellow officers are safe while conducting a stop.

But the officer didn’t do that. When Buehler spoke the officer’s name into his camera, the officer raised his flashlight and tried to interfere with his right to record the scene.

“There is a culture issue within the APD where some cops believe that they have the right to toy with or bully around those who dare to exercise their most basic civil liberties,” Buehler said.

Whether or not this is an issue of APD culture is open for debate. What isn’t open for debate is Buehler’s right to record the event. The city and police have set up a system where it is difficult to go anywhere in public without being surveilled by their security cameras. But police can be surveilled with cameras by the public as well.

Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo has said publicly that his officers have to accept that citizens armed with smartphones have the right to take pictures and record them on video while in public. But some of his officers have not received the memo and play directly in Buehler’s hand.

Earlier this year Buehler pulled his camera on Acevedo while he was out on patrol on 6th Street. Buehler tells Acevedo his officers are liars, but Acevedo doesn’t take the bait. He was friendly and professional with Buehler. Acevedo was fully aware that the person behind the camera was one his most fervent critics in the community. The camera didn’t shake him a bit.

Acevedo needs to make sure the rank and file are able to the same thing.

austin polie stop Antonio Buehler steps up his campaign on APD with Peaceful Streets Project

An Austin police officer interferes with Buehler from recording a police stop with a flashlight.

About Jack Hambrick

Publisher and Editor-in-Chief, The Digital Texan
Jack is Editor-in-Chief at The Digital Texan and writes about news, gossip and lifestyles in Austin. He's a former television reporter with KPRC TV Houston, WFTV TV Orlando, WFOR TV Miami, and WSFL TV /Sun-Sentinel Fort Lauderdale.
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  • ElizabethConley

    Antonio Beuhler is a good citizen performing an enormous public service.  Public servants who prefer thuggery to service, take notice:  over the top malfeasance will result in closer monitoring and accountability.

    It’s time the bad apples on the police force grew up or found another job.  We want our children to grow up in safe, decent communities.  A trustworthy police force is part of the program.  Get with the program.

  • http://twitter.com/512bioX Jack Hama

    I was on the fence about this until I actually saw the interaction. The officer clearly attempts to interfere with him recording with his flashlight. It seemed almost like an involuntary reaction to being recorded, which to me, speaks volumes. They like to say “If you don’t have anything to hide, whats the problem?” Guess it doesnt go both ways.

  • AustinObserver

    Concerned citizen, obviously.

  • Brad Walters

    It is very disheartening that our government (police departments) can get away with withholding videos by claiming that they are part of an ongoing investigation. Problem is that it is so obvious that the videos damage the credibility of the police version of the story, so they won’t turn them over often unless they help their case. They are of course committing a “Brady Violation” by withholding exculpatory information, but nothing can be done about it unless it goes to trial and they still have not turned exculpatory information over. So we have a catch 22. You don’t want to go to trial without it, but you can’t do anything to them unless you can prove it was exculpatory and they withheld it prior to trial. If they claim it is not exculpatory, the recorder malfunctioned or it was inadvertently lost you are screwed short of proving bad faith. The legislature needs to cure this snafu in the law because law enforcement is using the current bad case law to withhold video important to the defense of many people and video that shows violations of the Constitutional rights of suspects.

    The idea that the police can just “lose” video that damages their case or proves civil rights violations is intolerable. This is what happens when voters keep electing prosecutors as judges. In my town officers who stop people and then turn the investigation over to DWI task force never turn their video in without a fight for it. If it helps them we get it; if not there was a “malfunction”. Protect and serve…yeah right!