On January 1, 2012, I saw two Austin cops assaulting a woman who had not committed a crime. When I tried to take pictures and question the cops, I was assaulted and charged with a felony crime of spitting in a cop’s face (2-10 year prison sentence).
Fortunately, numerous witnesses came forward, including one who took video of the incident. Every witness said the cop lied, and the video proves it. However, the Austin Police Department pushed forward with their charges against me.
A few months after my assault and false arrest, I joined with local activists to launch the Peaceful Streets Project, a grassroots movement dedicated to stopping police abuse. We began to educate people on their rights (Know Your Rights trainings), document police activity (cop watches) and we held a Police Accountability Summit.
We recently found out through a Freedom of Information request that the Austin Police responded to my standing up for my rights, and our attempts to hold them accountable, by colluding to arrest me and others for filming them. I was subsequently arrested while filming cops three more times, as were other Peaceful Streets Project members.
We also found that they’ve tried to bring forward additional bogus charges against me. We’ve confirmed that they’ve taken charges of online impersonation and child endangerment (both felonies) to the District Attorney, and we are told they’ve also tried to get me indicted on a felony charge of racketeering. All because I dared to stand up to their lies, expose their crimes, and tried to hold them accountable.
We’ve also found that they’ve produced internal documents and emails claiming that we are “domestic terrorists” in an apparent attempt to lay the groundwork to justify using violent force against us in the future … for filming them committing crimes.
I need help fighting back. We have filed a civil suit against the city and the cops who victimized me. We need to raise money to win this suit so that we can expose the Austin Police Department for their crimes. They are using tremendous taxpayer funded resources to derail my life, please help me stand up to them by donating.
All donations will go to my lawyer, Daphne Silverman. Funds will pay for depositions, private investigators and experts. Any funds raised in excess of our legal costs will be donated to the Peaceful Streets Project.
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