By: Delilah Alvarado.

 

Amid a Black Lives Matter protest following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, two videos posted to Twitter showed separate young men, Justin Howell and Brad Levi Ayala, being shot and critically injured by the Austin Police Department on May 31. The videos came from bystanders at the protest where a mix of peaceful and riot protestors was met with pushback from police. 

 

One video, captured 20-year-old Howell, unconscious, being carried by other protestors towards APD for medical help. The protestors and Howell were then met with "less-lethal” ammunition in response on May 31. Another viral video showed 16-year-old Ayala observing the protest on a hill, and then falling limp after being shot with a “less-lethal” bean bag round May 30. Both victims suffered critical injuries to their head. An investigation into the incidents ensued after the videos gained attention from civilians and political figures. 

 

"When you have police you have an unchecked system of superiority, especially out on the job, you know you don't have your  higher in command at all times when you're out on duty,” said Texas State senior Joshua Gonzalez who was at the Black Lives Matter protest in Austin May 31. “So, police are left with a lot of discretion, and that is unchecked, very much.”

 

APD had multiple press conferences to address the possibilities that led to the outcome of the  Ayala and Howell, being critically injured. Meanwhile, the Austin City Council held multiple meetings to discuss possible changes and police force reforms.

 

"Enough is enough,” said Paige Ellis, District 8 councilwoman at the Austin City Council meeting on June 11 through Zoom. “I along with the rest of this council need to do a better job…This is just the beginning.” 

 

David Frost, a protestor who took the viral video of Justin Howell being carried, was well aware that if he did not take video, there might not have been any evidence as to what happened. 

 

In the case of Justin Howell, it took a few days before he was identified and his family was contacted. His brother, Joshua, found out through a press video from APD’s Chief Brian Manley and by reaching out to Frost. 

 

"It took three days after Sunday, and almost, you know 2 million views on the video on Twitter and people demanding answers as to before we even got his name,” Frost said. "The reason I started to document was because I thought I’d see another George Floyd. But I started recording because, you know, it could’ve simply been slipped under the rug if nobody demanded answers.”

 

A call for Manley to resign and for the city council to defund the police were stated at city council meetings and through social media posts from Austin residents after the incidents became viral. Manley told the press that there would be overview of use of force, crowd-control and that all body-worn video would be looked into. 

 

In 2015, Austin passed the Body-Worn Camera Program to improve police interactions and strengthen accountability. The cameras automatically activate via Bluetooth when they exit a vehicle, and officers can deactivate the cameras after an incident or when off-duty. Officers are not allowed to tamper with videos and footage is kept for 90 days unless there is a cause for concern. Videos are uploaded into a database and must be categorized properly. And on June 1, APD implemented a new policy that footage must be released within 60 days of a critical incident. Manley said there would be an investigation into the incidents of the two victims, but so far, nothing has come from APD. 

 

In 2019, a city audit found several shortcomings in the body-worn camera program. Out of 151 videos reviewed between Aug. 1, 2018, and Jan. 31, several videos were categorized incorrectly or not at all. According to the audit, 4% of videos examined had the camera lens obstructed at some point, 3% did not start at the beginning of an incident and 4% stopped before the end of an incident. The audit also found police supervisors were not conducting quarterly reviews of footage and the department was not keeping track of public information requests for footage. 

 

"I don't think that anyone would be able to see exactly what's going on If there weren't any type of civilian documentation, because the police are covering up their steps,” Gonzalez said. 

 

The brother of Brad Levi Ayala spoke through sobs at the Austin City Council Meeting on June 4. He demanded answers as to what actually happened, and for responsibility from APD.

 

"We really do just want as much transparency and the footage to be released,” said Ayala through a call to city council. “And I am asking anyone that was there to contact us, to provide us with the footage, from the police as well. We wanna know the truth. We just want to know what happened.”

 

Despite calls both from citizens and the council, Manley will keep his job. But budget cuts for the next fiscal year within APD were decided unanimously by the council. Aspects of reform include a ban of “less-lethal” munitions, use of deadly force and giving the extra funds to social services. 

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"I really think it needs to be about police reform,” said Dwonna Goldstone, associate professor at Texas State University. "And I think it needs to be about shifting more money, not to militarize the police, but to help people live life. I think more social workers need to go into the police. That it shouldn't just be the big tough strong person who wants to enforce the law but people who know how to deal with people.”

 

All over the country, many other cities are following suit to reform or defund their police forces due to the exposure of police brutality from civilian documentation. 
 

"I think that the need for civilian recordings has become more prevalent not due to social media, not due to the pandemic or the presidency, but due to the police,” Gonzalez said. "The police are the whole reason why all of this is starting. There wouldn't be a new civil rights movement against police brutality and systemic racism if there wasn't police brutality and systemic racism. There wouldn't be a need for civilian recordings of police brutality if there wasn't police brutality. They are the ones who created this problem”
 

The exposure of police brutality and the saying "I can’t breathe,” is nothing new to the Black Lives Matter movement. Demands for accountability have been called for since Eric Garner's death at the hands of a police officer that was documented by a bystander's cellphone camera in 2014. But the movement is starting to resonate more with people, six years later.

 

"I think even white people in denial couldn't deny it anymore,” Goldstone said. 

 

Simply, the sheer volume and raw footage or police brutality caused a shift in attitude. Users on Twitter are actively becoming watchdogs while in a pandemic. And according to a study from Soumyajit Mazumder who is studying for a doctorate in the Department of Government at Harvard University, BLM protests decrease racial prejudice. The study was conducted in 2019 using “data on over 140,000 survey respondents combined with locational data on BLM protests in 2014 following the police killing of Michael Brown and Eric Garner.”

 

And a graph from CBS News Polls shows that there has been an increase in agreement that anti-black discrimination is a serious problem from 2014 to now. 

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In trying to keep accountability, Lawyer T. Greg Doucette and mathematician Jason Miller started a Google Docs sheet along with a Twitter thread that was made tracking incidents of police violence caught on camera. Miller told Vice News that he wanted to make a Google spreadsheet so other people could access the evidence without having to use Twitter. The sheet includes location, story and audio or visual recording. There are over 800 incidents with the earliest one being May 30.  

 

"I think all of those recordings have forced white people to finally see that we weren't making it up,” said Goldstone. "I’m glad people are, at least they are saying, ‘no, we've been telling you that this has been our experience, and you didn't believe us but now you can't ignore it anymore.”

 

As of May 28, Twitter told a New York Times Reporter more than eight million tweets tagged with #BlackLivesMatter were posted, compared to Dec. 4, 2014, five months after Eric Garner died at the hands of a police officer where the number #BlackLivesMatter tweets peaked at 146,000.
 

"I think it's (social media) giving people a chance to unite,” Goldstone said. “I don't know if it makes people behave better, and clearly it's not because these videos are surfacing of people saying and doing racist things in public but, I'm glad that there are starting to be consequences.” 

 

The officers involved in the shootings have been identified and are being investigated. Austin City Council Member Greg Casar thanked the community and said this process would have taken much longer without the push from them.

 

"Because of how many other people I’ve talked to, there's enough outside pressure that somebody is gonna have to give answers, whether it be from the city of Austin or whether it be from the state of Texas, or whether it be from an international watchdog,” Frost said.