“I’d rather be up here talking about this, than going to our 97th fatality involving a pedestrian or 1800th injury involving a pedestrian,” reported Austin Police Department Chief Art Acevedo, according to the Huffington Post. Chief Art Acevedo claims his officers did nothing wrong, when a video filmed by eyewitness Christopher Quintero, a student at the University of Texas, shows Amanda Jo Stephen sitting on the ground, struggling to stand while an officer pushes her on the ground.
Amanda Jo Stephen 24 was arrested in Austin, Texas after police caught her jaywalking. Jaywalking is illegal or reckless pedestrian crossing of a roadway. The video shows police officers forcibly holding the 24-year-old woman on the ground while arresting her. Stephen can be heard saying in the video, “I was doing nothing wrong; I was crossing the street.”
According to the Daily Texan, Amanda Stephen refused to give authorities her name and she was charged with failure to obey a pedestrian control device and failure to identify herself.
Police Department Chief Art Acevedo also added that he’s not “buying” theories that Amanda Stephen, who was jogging with her ear buds in, didn’t hear the officer the first time he tried to stop her.
Jaywalking could include a pedestrian crossing between intersections without yielding to drivers and starting to cross a crosswalk at a signalized intersection without waiting for a permissive indication to be displayed. Officers stopped 28 people for jaywalking and gave 7 citations, that Thursday.
Image Credit: www.dailymail.co.uk