Dramatic video of suspect charged with resisting arrest goes viral
Another Austin arrest caught on camera. This one happened Friday afternoon. Police were called to an apartment complex, where three people were arrested: the person shooting the video, the person in the video, and his younger brother.
The person in the video, Louis Aguilar, was charged with resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer. He says he fought back before being hauled away because an Austin Police Officer pushed his mother down.
The video is generating millions of hits on social media and it's also stirring up a controversial debate. Should the law be re-written to fit the public's definition of resisting arrest or is it time to learn how Police expect you to comply when you are arrested? It depends on who you ask.
"If it's an illegal arrest, you fight that later. You file an internal affairs, a complaint with the Texas Rangers, the FBI, a civil suit, whatever," says Kevin Lawrence. He heads up the state's largest law enforcement union.
"There's a significant portion of our population who somehow one way or another has got it in their head that they don't have to obey a police officer, a lawful command from a police officer."
FOX 7 showed him the video. In it, you can hear Aguilar asking Police to let him walk out on his own.
Lawrence's reaction? "That video right there about the conversation we are having, he keeps saying I am not resisting arrest. He is actively resisting arrest. The officer is telling him to put his hands behind his back and he's consistently refusing to."
Another arrest video is also getting social media's and national television's attention. It was shot last Friday morning in downtown Austin on East Sixth.
A group of friends crossing the street after a night out. Police say they were jaywalking. Court records show police also motioned for them so they could talk. But one of them, according to police dismissed the request.
That's when things got tense and when the person who shot the video started rolling.
"I invite people to look at that video. Does that make you proud to be a citizen here in Austin," asks defense attorney Joe Turner. "Even if he's guilty of jay walking, at the end of the day does a jaywalking deserve this sort of result?"
Three people were arrested. But Matthew Wallace is the only one being charged. His arrest warrant alleges he illegally crossed and then resisted arrest. He is facing up to a $4000 fine and/or up to a year in jail. Turner is representing him. "The law says the officers must use reasonable force in making an arrest , if they use excessive force you can resist excessive force/"
Kevin Lawrence offers his take, "The statute is very clear, you cannot resist an arrest even if you believe it's illegal."
Both cases and their videos will eventually play out in court. And regardless of who you believe, these arrests caught on camera, are already playing out in the court of public opinion.
The Austin Police department says they are reviewing both incidents as that is their standard protocol.
FOX7 asked Lewis Aguilar if he would be willing to comment on his arrest. He said he would like to but has to clear it with his lawyer. During his arrest, a dog can be seen biting a police officer and being removed from the officer's leg. That dog has been taken to a shelter.