Live PD television show captures the death of a Williamson County man
Big allegations were aimed at Williamson County, specifically the sheriff’s department. Back in March of last year, a man named Javier Ambler refused to stop for a deputy and sped away in his car, reportedly crashing three times before coming to a stop in North Austin. At that point, in Travis County, he reportedly refused commands again and was then tazed by Williamson County deputies. Travis County District Attorney Margaret Moore says Ambler was pleading with deputies about having congestive heart failure, but was tazed anyway and then died. She claims Williamson County Sheriff’s Office captured it all on network cameras for the Live PD television show. She says they will not produce that footage for investigation. The Williams County Sheriff’s Office is not yet commenting.
City Council discusses police budget
The Austin Justice Coalition is asking the City Council to pledge to eliminate $100 million from the next police budget. Mayor Pro Tem Delia Garza says she’ll take the pledge, adding $100 million could do a lot for local health needs. Council Member Natasha Harper-Madison adds the Austin Police Department’s budget could also do with an analysis.
“I think that would help us to determine a number that would be less or even more than the proposed $100 million,” says Harper-Madison.
Harper-Madison adds ADP’s budget for a city the size of Austin is already larger than most and can see the department working with less.
Austin Police Department reforms underway
The Austin City Council is just a couple of days away from a vote that could cut the Austin Police Department staffing level by 190. Austin Police Association President Ken Casaday believes it would behoove everyone to delay that vote.
“What we’d like to see is for cooler heads to prevail. In no way are we saying that changes don’t need to be made,” Casaday says.
As the council moves forward on reforms, Casaday does support some current police responsibilities, like mental health calls being delegated to other organizations. As the city is yet to finalize the next budget, much more time should be made for these discussions.
Texas State professor says de-funding the police leads to chaos
Some criminal justice experts are weighing in on the growing call to defund cops. Dr. Howard Williams at the Texas State University School of criminal justice says there’s no reason to believe de-funding police departments would do anything but cause widespread unrest, and he doesn’t believe the public will stand for it.
“I think it would be an unmitigated disaster. I think it would just invite chaos,” says Williams.
Williams says one glaring side effect would be the increase in response time in the event of an emergency. He says real change will only come when both sides open up to mutual dialogue and not one sided shouting matches.
Man who made a molotov cocktail at the protests has been charged
A federal charge has been filed against an Austin protester. Cyril Lartigue is charged with possessing an unregistered destructive device for allegedly making a molotov cocktail next to the Austin Police Headquarters. The U.S. attorney’s office says he was captured clearly on surveillance and has now officially been charged. Lartigue faces a decade in federal prison.
COVID-19 testing expanded
Governor Abbott has expanded COVID-19 testing where protesters have been gathering. Health officials across the state of said hospitals should prepare for an increase in cases within about two weeks following the beginning of the protests. Two weeks is the incubation time for COVID-19. Abbott says Texas is still taking a wait-and-see approach to the overall numbers
“Our hope and our focal point will be that everybody will be doing what is necessary to minimize expansion of COVID-19 and allow us to continue to open up Texas for business,” Abbott says.
The expansion of testing will include more walk-up and drive-through testing sites in urban areas.
COVID-19 Update
Travis County has found 3,815 cases of coronavirus since March. 98 of which have been fatal. As Austin Public Health continues focusing on demographic breakdowns, the vast majority of the deaths have involved caucasian men above the age of 60. As of this morning, 89 people are hospitalized, and 3,098 have recovered.
Williamson County’s hospitals remain well equipped to handle COVID-19 patients. Only seven people are hospitalized in Williamson County this morning because of the virus, four of whom are on a ventilator. 54% of hospital beds are still available. 507 people have made recoveries. Of Bastrop County’s 251 confirmed cases, Elgin has 77. That’s exponentially more than either the city of Bastrop or Smithville, which only have 18 cases among the two of them. The Elgin Nursing and Rehabilitation Center says 31 of the positive cases in the city have come from there, including 20 of its residents.
This news and more on News Radio KLBJ:
https://omny.fm/shows/klbjam-flash-briefing-1/am-newscast-6-9-20
