City leaders respond to Travis Co. DA's announcement regarding multiple indictments
After the Travis County District Attorney made the announcement regarding anticipated indictments of several APD officers involved in the May 2020 protests, the Austin Police Department held their own press conference in response. (Photo: CBS Austin)
AUSTIN, Texas — After the Travis County District Attorney made the announcement regarding anticipated indictments of several APD officers involved in the May 2020 protests, the Austin Police Department held their own press conference in response.
Police Chief Joseph Chacon started by saying he is disappointed to hear what Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza had to say.
Police Chief Joseph Chacon describes the 2020 protests as riotous and violent.
"As a department, we asked these officers to work under the most chaotic or circumstances in May of 2020 and to make split second decisions to protect all participants," Chacon said.
He said the size and scope of the crowds was underestimated by management.
"Officers were prepared for hundreds when instead they faced thousands, placing them in potentially the worst possible circumstances to manage escalating crowds," Chacon said.
Chief Chacon said property destruction and looting took place over several days, rocks, frozen water bottles, commercial-grade fireworks among other objects, were thrown at the officers and into crowds in an attempt to seriously injure.
RELATED: Austin Council approves $10M settlement for two men injured in 2020 George Floyd protests
"Additionally, the weapons provided to our officers did not perform an all instances in the manor anticipated. APD recognized this and now prohibits the use of less lethal munitions in crowd control situations," Chacon said.
Chacon said he is not aware of any conduct that given the circumstances that the officers were working under, would rise to the level of a criminal violation by these officers.
"As we move forward, these officers must be afforded all of the same protections of any defendant including the presumption of innocence and the right to a speedy trial," Chacon said.
Chief Chacon said this is just the beginning of the criminal justice process and he expects the evidence of hundreds of hours of body camera video will be shown in court.
CBS Austin also received statements from other current and former city leaders.
Austin City Manager Spencer Cronk:
We wish that there had been no injuries during the May 2020 protests, and the City is taking responsibility to compensate those who were injured due to actions of police officers.
However, any indictments will heighten the anxiety of our officers and will impact the staffing shortages we are experiencing. We are disappointed to be in this position, and we do not believe that criminal indictments of the officers working under very difficult circumstances is the correct outcome.
Regardless of our perspective on this matter, we respect the District Attorney and the Grand Jury process and we will continue to work in partnership with our sister agency.
Mayor Steve Adler:
The judicial process, now moving forward, needs to be respected. Something went wrong here because no one should be injured merely exercising their constitutional rights. Our police department said, right after that weekend, that never again would we use such weapons for crowd control. I wish that city policy had been in place before the event.
Former Austin Police Chief Acevedo:
Highly unusual, but not surprising considering you have an activist DA who is more interested in coddling violent criminals and believes the police are criminals and the criminals [are] saints. Having said that, I respect the Grand Jury process and will withhold final judgement until we see the evidence in each individual case.
