Antonio Buehler

Antonio Buehler
Antonio Buehler
Born	(1977-06-11) June 11, 1977 Fayetteville, North Carolina
Residence	Austin, Texas
Alma mater	United States Military Academy at West Point Stanford Graduate School of Business Harvard Graduate School of Education
Known for	Abrome Peaceful Streets Project
Website
http://peacefulstreets.com/

Antonio Buehler is an American educator, entrepreneur, and activist known for his work on police accountability and his defense of the constitutional right to photograph, film and document the police.^[1][2] In 2012, Buehler was arrested in Austin, Texas, for recording the police after he allegedly witnessed a woman being abused by officers. After the arrest, Buehler co-founded the Peaceful Streets Project, an organization that trains the public to record police activity.^[3] Buehler has been arrested a total of five times, has had ten criminal charges filed against him, and has had dozens of criminal investigations initiated against him.

Early life, education, and experience

Antonio Buehler was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina in 1977. He attended Pottsville Area High School in Pottsville, Pennsylvania where he was an All-Anthracite football player.^[4] Antonio graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point and later from the Stanford Graduate School of Business^[5] and the Harvard Graduate School of Education.^[6] Buehler also served in the Iraq War. ^[7]

Alternative Education

Buehler has given numerous talks on college admissions, alternative education, homeschooling and other education topics at schools, libraries, and conferences across the country.

In 2014, Buehler launched Abrome,^[8] an online education company. Abrome provides high-end education consulting to families who want their children to gain admission into the highly selective universities. Abrome claims to have gotten over 50% of their clients into Harvard and/or Stanford.^[9]

Buehler sits on the Educational Choices Advisory Council^[5] for the Our America Initiative that is associated with former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson. Buehler is also a member of Startup Learning,^[10] a private consultancy for alternative education.

New Year's Day 2012 incident

In the early hours of New Year’s Day 2012, Buehler, the designated driver that night, pulled into a 7-11 in Austin, TX for gas.^[11] While fueling up, he and his passenger observed a DWI stop in progress, with a woman in high heels, the driver of the automobile, being subjected to a field sobriety test being conducted by an Austin police officer; according to Buehler, they then heard a female screaming and turned in time to see officer Robert Snider forcefully pulling another female from the passenger side of the vehicle,throwing her to the ground and pinning her arms behind her back in a painfully abusive manner.^[12] Buehler yelled out to the police, asking them why they were assaulting her.^[13] After twisting her arms behind her back, the officers arrested her. Then officer Patrick Oborski approached Buehler, pushed him forcefully several times in the chest, and arrested him.^[14][15] Oborski later claimed Buehler spat on him,^[16] a felony charge that carries up to a 10-year prison sentence.^[16][17] However, witness video evidence does not show Buehler spitting, Oborski did not wipe his face, and APD spokesman Corporal Hipolito admitted to KEYE news that he could not see Buehler spitting on the officer.^[18][19]

“I don’t feel vindicated, nor do I think I ‘won.’ The cops who committed crimes that night were never tried, arrested, fired, disciplined, or even reprimanded. Instead, Norma and I were charged with a total of six crimes we did not commit, and it took nearly three years to make them disappear. And I still have three more trials coming up for the ‘crime’ of filming the police. The city had eight prosecutors in the courtroom trying this case, and about a dozen police officers were in there to intimidate the jury. When cops and prosecutors are willing to expend such tremendous resources to prosecute a Class C Misdemeanor for political purposes, all Americans should fear their government.”

—Antonio Buehler, following his acquittal on October 29, 2014, "after four days of proceedings and more than five hours of jury deliberation" [20]

After an online appeal by Buehler to find witnesses to the event, several witnesses came forward^[21] and a videorecording^[22] of the incident surfaced.^[23] APD has yet to release the dashcam videos from Oborski or Snider's vehicles to the public. Nearly 8,200 people have joined the Free Antonio Buehler^[24] Facebook page, with supporters flyering the city and organizing rallies in support of Buehler, and posting daily stories of American and international police abuse.^[25][26]

Despite a half dozen witnesses, two videos and audio evidence of what happened on New Year's Day, the District Attorney did not convene a grand jury in 2012. His grand jury date was then postponed numerous times.^[27] The grand jury finally convened on March 5, 6 and 7, 2013. Four weeks later, the District Attorney finally informed the public that the grand jury failed to indict Antonio Buehler on any of the crimes with which he was charged.^[28][29][30]

They instead indicted him on four Class C misdemeanors. Three for "failure to obey a lawful order" related to his New Year's Day incident, and two follow on arrests. The fourth indictment was for "interfering" in an incident in which he was never arrested. The grand jury also indicted Norma Pizana for resisting arrest. Pizana is the woman that Buehler felt was being abused on New Year's Day 2012.^[31]

October 29, 2014, after an unprecedented four-day Class C Misdemeanor trial that spanned a full calendar week, Buehler was acquitted of charges and found not guilty of failing to comply with the order of a police officer on New Year’s Day 2012."^[32][33][34] The trial was unique not only in its duration, but also in the resources invested into it by the state; the state had eight prosecutors in the courtroom and over a dozen police officers.^{[35][36][37][38][39]}

Civil rights lawsuit

On December 31, 2013, Buehler, while awaiting trial, sued the Austin Police Department, Police Chief Art Acevedo, Officer Patrick Oborski, Officer Robert Snider, SGT Adam Johnson and Officer Justin Berry for allegedly violating his civil rights beginning with his January 1, 2012 arrest and two additional arrests which occurred on August 26 and September 21, 2012.^{[40][41][42][43]}

“We’re in this for the long haul. And we’re hopeful that it will eventually set a precedent that will prevent people from losing their right to hold the government and police accountable just because the prosecution convinces the grand jury to indict the individual on a bogus misdemeanor that the prosecution can’t even win.”

—-Antonio Buehler, after announcing plans to appeal the dismissal of his civil lawsuit [44]

On June 2, 2014 the National Press Photographers Association filed an Amicus Brief^[45] in support of Buehler's civil lawsuit.^[46]

On July 24, 2014, Federal Judge Mark Lane denied motions by the City of Austin to dismiss the case, finding that private citizens have the right to record officers in public places as they perform their official duties.^[47][48] Lane also said the officers were not personally immune from allegations that they had arrested and searched him without probable cause.^[49][50]

On February 20, Judge Mark Lane dismissed the lawsuit based on a Fifth Circuit precedent which stated that an indicted defendant lost their standing to sue.^[51] In response to the dismissal, Mr. Buehler stated, “We have waited three years for justice, and we are willing to wait even longer to expose APD for the crime they have covered up.” He also noted that the Fifth Circuit precedent provided an incentive for prosecutors to protect corrupt and criminal law enforcement officers through the simple expedient of indicting an otherwise innocent defendant.^[52] Buehler and his attorney appealed the decision on February 25, 2015.^[53]

Peaceful Streets Project

In the months following the incident, a group of activists from a range of backgrounds joined Buehler to start the Peaceful Streets Project, an all-volunteer, nonpartisan, grassroots effort for police accountability.^[54][55][56] The group holds free community trainings on knowing your rights during police encounters, and held a day-long Police Accountability Summit in Austin, TX on July 14, 2012 where they handed out 100 handheld videocameras to trained activists who now actively film police encounters with residents of Austin.^{[57][58][59][60][61]} The Peaceful Streets Project has also stepped up efforts to work with and ally with other community organizations, and have participated in protests in solidarity with victims of police abuse nationally.^[62][63] The Peaceful Streets Project has a strong social media presence with over 2,200 followers on Twitter^[64] and 12,000 likes on Facebook.^[65]

Buehler's efforts to expose what he considers to be police violence and the inherent corruption of the justice system^[66][67] have resulted in numerous bloggers taking up his cause.^{[68][69][70][71]} In addition, numerous cities around the country have reached out to Buehler and the Peaceful Streets Project looking to set up local franchises. Peaceful Streets Project chapters now exist in nearly a dozen cities to include Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, New York City, Manchester, Honolulu, San Antonio and Eunice, LA.

Buehler has continued to wage a public fight against his criminal charges. He has claimed that the city and the Austin Police Department are intentionally engaged in a cover-up and that corruption runs throughout the city government and the police department.^[66]

On June 24, 2013, Fox 7 ran a piece on Antonio Buehler wherein the President of the Austin Police Association alluded to possible violence in the future should Buehler continue to escalate his cop watching tactics.^[72] The Peaceful Streets Project responded by organizing several more public cop watch events, Know Your Rights Trainings and a national police accountability summit in Austin on August 17, 2013.^[73]

On April 12, 2014, Buehler spoke about the Peaceful Streets Project and police abuse at a TEDx event at Harvard.^[74]

Subsequent arrests and charges

August 24, 2012

In the early morning hours of August 24, 2012, while cop watching with members of the Peaceful Streets Project in downtown Austin, Buehler recorded an undercover officer, Justin Berry, helping uniformed police officers arrest women for underage drinking. Although Buehler wasn't arrested for filming Berry, he was later indicted on a Class C Misdemeanor charge of "interference with public duties." Buehler was scheduled to stand trial on January 6, 2015. On January 2, 2015, the City of Austin requested the trial judge dismiss all charges against Buehler.^[75]

August 26, 2012

In the early morning hours of August 26, 2012, while cop watching with members of the Peaceful Streets Project in downtown Austin, Buehler was arrested by Officer Justin Berry for "interfering with public duties" while recording an arrest.^[76][77] He was released about 17 hours later. Austin Police Department claims that he refused to back away from an arrest, causing the suspect of the arrest to become uncontrollable. Buehler claims that APD was targeting him.^[78] APD refused to return Buehler's camera to him after the incident, claiming that it was of evidentiary value. However, another member of the Peaceful Streets Project was able to videorecord the arrest and posted it online before Buehler was released from jail.^[79] Buehler was scheduled to stand trial on February 23, 2015. However, on February 19, 2015, the City of Austin requested the trial judge dismiss all remaining charges against Buehler.^[80]

September 12, 2012

In the early morning hours of September 21, 2012, while "cop watching" with members of the Peaceful Streets Project in downtown Austin, Buehler was again arrested, this time with fellow police accountability activist Sarah Dickerson^[81] Video indicates that both Buehler and Dickerson were silently filming and were further back than APD's self-described desired distance from a scene. According to Buehler and other witnesses, after refusing an order to walk toward the arresting officer and the suspect in order to join other members of the Peaceful Street Project, and despite continually asking how far he needed to move back, and continuing to move back away from the scene, Buehler was given an ultimatum to either join other members of the Peaceful Streets Project, or leave. When Buehler said he was leaving, he was arrested. As Dickerson filmed Buehler's arrest, she too was arrested. Both were charged with "interfering with public duties."^{[82][83][84][85]} Austin Police Department confiscated both Buehler and Dickerson's cameras and have not yet returned them. This most recent arrest has drawn the ire of the National Press Photographers Association which sent a letter to Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo criticizing the actions of APD toward those who film police.^[86]

March 13, 2013

On March 13, 2013, Buehler was arrested for Disorderly Conduct in Gonzales, Texas, for telling a police officer to "go fuck yourself."^[87] On June 5, 2013, Buehler defended himself pro se. After a seven hour trial, the jury found him guilty and assessed a $1 fine.^[88] Buehler was awarded a trial de novo which will begin on February 23, 2015 at Gonzales County Court. A mistrial was declared on February 23, 2015 due to an error on the judge's part, which was "caught" by defense counsel. A new appeal trial was scheduled for March 30, 2015. In a statement, Buehler stated, " “It has become clear to me that in order for people to see justice within the system, they need to have tremendous resources in terms of connections, finances, and time.” ^[89]

“I think this would have been a great opportunity for people to once again see how the Austin Police Department and city prosecutors use city ordinances to victimize people who have already been victimized by the police. It also would have opened people’s eyes to how corrupt the grand jury process can be.”

—Antonio Buehler, following the first dismissal on January 5, 2015 [90]

All remaining Austin, TX charges dropped

Between court cases scheduled for January and February 2015, all of the remaining criminal charges against Mr. Buehler were dropped. On January 5, 2015, the state's motion to drop one set of charges was accepted.^[91] The final set of charges pending against Buehler were similarly dropped on February 19, 2015, "clearing the way for a meeting between city prosecutors and the police accountability activist in federal court" on March 2, 2015.^[92] On February 20, one day after the last of the charges were dropped, "Judge Mark Lane dismissed Buehler’s federal civil lawsuit against the Austin Police Department and its officers." ^[93][94]

Accolades

In July 2012, Buehler was chosen to receive the Texans for Accountable Government annual Activist of the Year award.^[95] In November 2012, Austin Chronicle readers voted Antonio Buehler as Austin's Best Activist and the Peaceful Streets Project as the Best Grassroots Movement for 2012.^[96][97]

References

External links

• Official website
• Is Filming a Police Officer a "Domestic Threat"? Austin Activist on Trial for Videotaping an Arrest - video report by Democracy Now!, October 29, 2014