Our guest tonight is Antonio Beeler, a local Austin activist, and he'll be joining us to
talk about his recent indictment for filming police.
He joins us now in studio.
Thanks for joining us, Antonio.
My pleasure.
Thank you.
Okay, now tell us about your recent indictment.
Well, so I was arrested last New Year's Day, 2012, and it took them over a year to take the case to the grand jury, and then about four weeks ago, the grand jury finally convened, and it took them four weeks for them to finally come out with a decision, and the grand jury ultimately decided not to indict me on the felony charge, basically every charge that they initially threw at me, and they ended up indicting me on four Class C misdemeanors, each one for failure to obey a lawful order.
Okay, now for our viewers who may not be familiar with your case, can you go through the specifics of that?
Sure.
On New Year's Day 2012, I was the designated driver.
I was driving my buddy home.
We were going to fill up with gas and we pulled into a 7-Eleven in downtown Austin and we saw a DUI stop in progress.
We observed the DUI stop in progress, but there was no reason for us to stick around once we were finished filling up.
And so we were getting ready to leave, and that's when Robert Snyder yanked the woman, who was a female passenger in the car, out of the car and threw her to the ground.
She had committed no crime.
And then Patrick Gaborski joined in.
They started twisting her arms behind her back in a torture move.
I tried to take pictures with my BlackBerry, she saw me, and then she begged me to please record it, and so I started yelling at the cops, stop assaulting her, she didn't do anything wrong.
And Patrick Aborski then assaulted me, and ultimately claimed that I spit in his face, which is a third degree felony, carries two to ten years.
Now about how far, when you first saw the incident, how far were you when you first observed it, and then when you started to engage the officers verbally, about how far do you think you were?
Maybe 30 feet away.
Okay, so you weren't in direct interference, like maybe you were, you know, shouting at them, but you weren't directly, physically interfering with the investigation.
That's right.
We were there.
They took no issue with us being there filming, or filling up the truck, and it was only once I started yelling at the cops that they took issue with it.
Okay.
And you said she was being tortured.
Can you explain the torture move?
Yeah, it's called strapito.
And that's basically when you twist someone's arms behind their back and lift them up from the wrist area.
And it tends to rip the rotator cuff.
And they've done this throughout history.
The Spanish Inquisition, for example, they do this as a way of torturing people.
Okay.
Now, how did you first hear about the indictment?
I got a call from a local radio station and they wanted to do an interview.
So is there any protocol?
Are you supposed to be contacted by the police or the state or any way that you're supposed to be contacted?
Yeah, I don't know.
I don't know the answer to that and this was a pretty high profile case so I was able to be contacted.
Most people find out through their lawyer after the fact.
And the reality is, is most people get indicted, right?
Most people, you know, they don't ever have their charges no-billed, so my case was unique in a lot of ways.
So what do you think the response has been, you know, public perception?
Well, it's interesting because I think that the public has been supportive of me and what we've been doing through the Peaceful Streets Project.
Most people were pretty happy that I wasn't indicted on a felony, but they were pretty upset that I was indicted on a bunch of misdemeanors.
And that Norma, who was the one who was assaulted that night, was indicted on resisting arrest, even though it was an illegal arrest.
But most people were pretty supportive.
One local newspaper did write their article in such a way which It made it look like I was the criminal and they even put a mug shot up of me.
Wow.
But most people aren't taking that seriously.
People are really supportive of us and people really don't like what's going on with the Austin Police Department.
And speaking of the Austin Police Department, I believe the police chief addressed you directly in a press conference, is that correct?
Yeah, he issued a press release, and his press release was essentially, well here you go, you can't go around breaking the law, you're going to be held accountable for it, and he referenced me supposedly failing to obey lawful orders and Norma resisting her legal arrest, but of course he didn't say anything about the fact That he knows that he has two cops that night who lied in their official affidavits, who perjured themselves on the stand, who assaulted two peaceful people who had committed no crime, but he doesn't want to hold them accountable.
Has any action been taken against those two officers?
No.
We filed our complaints through the Office of the Police Monitor.
We've done everything that we were supposed to do to respect the system, to play by the rules as they've set up.
And they've been completely covered for, even though there's glaring evidence of their criminal activity.
It's been long decided that they're not going to face any punishment for what they've done.
So we'll continue and we'll go ahead and file lawsuits against them and we'll continue to engage in direct action to expose them for their criminal acts.
But the thin blue line has essentially rallied behind these guys and they're going to protect them.
Let me ask you this, Antonio.
Did you have any prior criminal record?
No.
Before New Year's Day 2012, I've never had a negative incident, you know, with regards to law enforcement.
Since New Year's Day, I have had multiple instances where cops have gone in my face, pushed me around, and even arrested me.
So, seeing that you have no prior offenses, why do you think that you were indicted on these charges?
Well I think, well this is interesting and people may disagree, but there was a case here in Austin two years ago where a young man named Byron Carter was murdered by cops and he had done nothing wrong.
He was a passenger in a car and he was leaving downtown and the cops claimed that the driver of the car had assaulted them with their car so they had to shoot and they ended up killing this guy.
Well, the driver of the car was not indicted.
They took that to the grand jury.
He was indicted.
And then the police were not indicted for killing this kid.
And so all of a sudden, everyone's like, well, if no one's been indicted, why is there a dead kid?
Right?
And so I think that they took that lesson and carried it over into this one.
And they didn't want to indict me because there's a half dozen witnesses that say the cops lied.
There's video and there's audio.
And there's the proof that the cops lied through his own affidavit.
They didn't want to indict the cop, because cops never get indicted in Travis County because the police officers union is so strong.
But they still had to have something.
And so that something was misdemeanor indictments, Class C misdemeanor indictments.
You said you witnessed the DUI or DWI check stop.
Do you know that they're having these More frequently here in Austin, at least around the holiday times, your Fourth of July's and so forth, they have the no refusal DUI weekends where you can have your blood drawn without your consent.
Now I do believe they take you to some type of medical clinic or whatnot, but you can have your blood drawn without your consent.
What do you think about that?
Well, it's just a perfect example of the police state, right?
If they can kidnap you and draw blood out of your system against your will, are you really free?
And the thing about it is, the no refusal weekend, that's every single day of the week.
They can do that every single day of the week.
I had a friend who I was driving with, he was a driver, he got pulled over on Wednesday.
It was not a no refusal.
Oh yeah, I know they do that.
I believe it's year-round in places like San Antonio as well as other places of the U.S., not just Texas.
Yeah, and Austin, they can get the warrant if they want, and he blew a zero point, or when they drew his blood against his will, it was a zero point zero zero.
And so they dropped it, but they do this to people all the time, and we don't live in a free nation if you can be kidnapped and you can have your blood drawn against your will.
Exactly.
So I had a chance this weekend to meet the police chief himself, Art Acevedo, and we were talking about guns.
He was at a, I don't want to say an anti-gun rally, but a pro-gun restriction rally, I guess you could say.
And he was talking about things such as universal background checks.
Now this is a little off topic, but what are your thoughts on things such as universal background checks, banning high-capacity magazines, and so forth?
Well, what people don't realize is that when they take away your rights to some portions of, you know, your right to defend yourself, is that they're just chipping away at it.
And when I was actually arrested for my so-called felony of spitting in a cop's face, I lost my Second Amendment rights.
I was trying to get a concealed handgun license and I lost it.
and it wasn't until the grand jury finally came down with their no bill against me on the felony
that now I can go ahead and try to finish that process and get my my handgun but they do this
with people if you've had been convicted of a felony they're going to do it if you end up on
some list just like a no-fly list they're going to do it if you went to war and you had and you
got PTSD they're just slowly chipping away until we get to a point where where massachusetts or
new york where the only people who get weapons are politicians yes the extraordinarily rich
and the criminals who don't abide by the rules I'm glad you mentioned that list because military veterans are not on that list.
And you have military experience yourself, don't you?
That's right.
I'm a veteran, and it's really sad the government wants the veterans to go overseas and fight wars, to take over resources, to try to control other nations, and then when they come home, all of a sudden they become the enemy.
Right.
You're viewed as the new terror threat.
Veterans, people who have religion, people who homeschool.
You're viewed as the new threat.
Right, and the reason that you're a threat is because you are a danger to the government.
And even when the government is wrong, it doesn't matter.
They don't want anyone who's going to question them.
That's why homeschoolers are a threat.
Because homeschoolers learn to question authority.
You know, well what's the truth?
And they're willing to try to dig down and find out what the truth is.
They can't have that.
They want people who are socialized and indoctrinated through their own government schools.
Exactly.
Now you're involved in homeschooling, correct?
That's right.
Can you tell us a little more about that?
Yeah, so I'm a homeschooling advocate and a consultant.
I'm a huge fan of it.
I used to be into education reform, school vouchers, and charter schools.
And then I realized that I could have put my entire life into those endeavors and all I was going to do was move the needle a little bit and maybe save 10,000 kids' lives.
But through homeschooling and other alternatives, we can take tens of millions of kids out of the public school system and improve their lives.
So I decided to put my effort behind homeschooling.
Is there any other big issue?
We're getting off topic of your particular case, but what is the big issue to you right now in the United States of America?
For me, a big one is definitely the police state that we live under.
And I'm trying to convince people that They don't have to accept what's going on.
They don't have to bow down before the police.
And they don't have to buy into the rhetoric that the police are here to protect us, and that we must listen to them for our own good.
I want people to start questioning them, start challenging them, recording them, and calling them out.
And when they commit crimes, intervening to stop those crimes.
Because if we wait too long, it's going to be too late.
Just like in Nazi Germany.
Some people have a problem with references to historical things that happened.
But in Nazi Germany, they slowly chipped away at people's rights.
And then they were putting people in boxcars.
I don't want people to have to wait until then.
I want people to start standing up.
Because there's millions of people who've been victimized in this country because of the corruption within the Thin Blue Line.
But that's the big thing for me, homeschooling and police abuse, but in general, anything
that promotes liberty, I'm supportive of.
Anything that allows people to live freer, more voluntary lives, finding solutions, systems
outside of what the government provides, I'm supportive of.
Exactly, exactly.
So you've been arrested, you've been brutalized.
What tips do you have for somebody, you know, an activist, they may see a, you know, an act of police corruption, they want to tape the incident, and they want to speak out on it, what would you recommend to somebody?
Well, the first thing that I always recommend to everyone is to think about it beforehand.
So think about it right now as you're listening to this broadcast.
Don't wait until the thing happens to say, okay, well now is an appropriate time for me to do something.
And you have to take into account your lot in life, you know?
And so between you and me, the two of us, everything being equal, we go out and try to film cops.
they're going to hone in on you much quicker just because of your skin color.
And people who have tattoos, people who are Hispanic, the way people dress, if you have a wife
or kids or a mortgage or a job where if you don't show up the next day you'll get
fired.
All these things should be taken into consideration when you're trying to
figure out what will I do.
But assuming that you're willing to go ahead and record the police and try to stand up for people, the number one thing you can do is don't wait until something happens to record.
Record the police as soon as they start interacting with someone, because if you try to record after the cop pulls a gun or after the cop assaults someone, you just missed the most important part.
Exactly.
Now, Antonio Beeler, I want you to look right there in that camera and give us your final thoughts.
I would just encourage people to stand up to authority, to start questioning, start challenging your friends and family on what their preconceived notions of what structure in society is supposed to be, and try to look for alternative solutions, try to look for ways to Protect and serve and defend one another.
If there's a problem in society, figure out, well, is there something I can do to help my neighbor without having to call in the government to help me?
And by seeking out alternative solutions and not relying on the people with badges and guns, hopefully we can minimize the abuse of government and empower voluntary communities to do what's best for everyone.