Justice

Texas Police Violently Arrest Men for Jaywalking

November 6th 2015

Three people accused of jaywalking were violently arrested by Austin police early Friday morning in a scene that was captured on video. After spending a night in jail, two of the three were released and their charges were dismissed, sources say.

Jeremy Kingg, one of the three arrested, told ATTN: that the group was uncertain if they were allowed to cross the street at about 2:30 a.m. and called out to Austin police officers who were standing nearby. When the officers didn't respond, they proceeded to cross.

Several officers then approached and aggressively arrested three of the five people who had crossed the street. In the video, officers can be seen kneeing and punching the alleged jaywalkers. Kingg says that Matthew Wallace and Lourdes Glen were also charged with "walking against the light."

Glen was taken to an emergency room while in custody "because her heart was beating too fast" and was being denied her asthma medication, according to Kingg. She was released Friday and her charges were dismissed. Wallace, who was reportedly charged with resisting arrest, remains in jail.

Kingg says that he believes race was a factor in the arrests because the person filming and the woman heard yelling in the video—both of whom crossed the street alongside Kingg—were not arrested.

"We were just walking," Kingg told ATTN:. "I wasn't doing anything to be a threat and they started using extreme force."

He alleges that the officers did not read him his rights or offer an explanation as to why he was being taken to jail.

RELATED: Black Drivers Are More Likely to Be Arrested in Texas

In a statement, the Austin Police Department said that it "has been made aware of the incident," and that "the Chain of Command will review the Response to Resistance and the incident to determine what led up to the events captured in the video and whether the officer’s actions were in compliance with APD policy."

The department declined to comment further on allegations included in this article.

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