Austin Police Chief Apologizes To Schoolteacher Roughed Up By One Of His Cops

AUSTIN, TX — Austin Police Department Chief Art Acevedo publicly apologized to an African American school teacher whose forceful arrest by a policeman during a traffic stop was recorded on video.

Video of the June 2015 incident was just recently obtained by the Austin American-Statesman and its news partner KVUE-TV. The footage shows Breaion King, 26, being forcefully removed from her car and thrown on the pavement by a police officer after what began as a routine traffic stop for speeding.

The officer, Bryan Richter (who is white) is seen in the video giving King a command to close her car door only to forcibly remove her from the vehicle a few seconds later.

The police officer later wrote in a report that he acted quickly to remove King from her car (within seven seconds of asking her to close her car door) because she had demonstrated an "uncooperative attitude" and was "reaching for the front passenger side of the vehicle," the Statesman reported.

But in the same report, King admitted he was unsure if the woman — who is slight in build — had a weapon.

A charge of resisting arrest against King was later dropped after the Travis County attorney dismissed the case after watching the police dashcam video, the newspaper reported.

As if the video weren't disturbing enough, another police officer, Patrick Spradlin, who transported the schoolteacher to jail, is heard explaining to King that police are wary of African Americans for their "violent tendencies" and that they appear "intimidating."

Acevedo staged a press conference Thursday to address the controversy swirling after the video came to light. During the briefing, he apologized personally to the schoolteacher and repudiated the racially insensitive comments made by the other officer.

"There’s a way to do this job, and that day we did not approach it anywhere near where we should have approached it,” Acevedo said.

The officers involved weren't fired but received additional training and counseling.

The incident comes at a time of heightened tension between members of the black community and police throughout the country. That tension has escalated following a string of killings of unarmed black men at the hands of police nationwide, many of which have been videotaped.

As part of their press conference, police released video of the arrest gone bad. Watch it below, but be advised it might be difficult to watch:

Watch Acevedo's full press briefing here:

Read the full story at Austin American-Statesman >>