American police accountability activist
Antonio Buehler is an American educator, entrepreneur, and activist known for his work on police accountability and his pursuit of a more widely recognized constitutional right to photograph, film and document the public activities of police. In 2012, Buehler was arrested in Austin, Texas, for video-recording police after he allegedly witnessed a woman being abused by officers. After the arrest, Buehler co-founded the Peaceful Streets Project, an organization that trains the public to record police activity. Buehler has been arrested a total of seven times, has had twelve criminal charges filed against him, and has had dozens of criminal investigations initiated against him.
Early life, education, and experience.
Antonio Buehler was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, in 1977. He attended Pottsville Area High School in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, where he was an All-Anthracite football player. Buehler graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point and later from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Buehler also served in the Iraq War.
Alternative education.
Buehler has given numerous talks on college admissions, alternative education, homeschooling and other education topics at schools, libraries, and conferences across the country.
In 2014, Buehler launched Abrome. Initially, Abrome was an online education service, but as of 2016 it is now an alternative, progressive school in Austin, TX, that operates free of teachers, classrooms, testing, homework, or grades. Abrome claims to have gotten approximately 50% of their clients into Harvard and/or Stanford Universities, and 75% of their clients into a top ten college.
New Year's Day 2012 incident.
In the early hours of New Year's Day 2012, Buehler, the designated driver that night, pulled into a 7-11 in Austin, TX for gas. While fueling up, he and his passenger observed a DWI stop in progress, with a woman in high heels, the driver of the automobile, being subjected to a field sobriety test being conducted by an Austin police officer; according to Buehler, they then heard a female screaming and turned in time to see officer Robert Snider forcefully pulling another female from the passenger side of the vehicle, throwing her to the ground and pinning her arms behind her back. Buehler yelled out to the police, asking them why they were assaulting her. After twisting her arms behind her back, the officers arrested her. Officer Patrick Oborski then approached Buehler, pushed him forcefully several times in the chest, and arrested him. Oborski later claimed Buehler spat on him, a felony charge that carries up to a 10-year prison sentence. Witness video evidence does not show Buehler spitting, Oborski did not wipe his face, and Austin Police Department (APD) spokesman Corporal Hipolito admitted to KEYE news that he could not see Buehler spitting on the officer.
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I don't feel vindicated, nor do I think I 'won.' The cops who committed crimes that night were never tried, arrested, fired, disciplined, or even reprimanded. Instead, Norma and I were charged with a total of six crimes we did not commit, and it took nearly three years to make them disappear. And I still have three more trials coming up for the 'crime' of filming the police. The city had eight prosecutors in the courtroom trying this case, and about a dozen police officers were in there to intimidate the jury. When cops and prosecutors are willing to expend such tremendous resources to prosecute a Class C Misdemeanor for political purposes, all Americans should fear their government.
—Antonio Buehler, following his acquittal on October 29, 2014, "after four days of proceedings and more than five hours of jury deliberation" 
After an online appeal by Buehler to find witnesses to the event, several witnesses came forward and a videorecording of the incident surfaced.
APD has yet to release the dashcam videos from Oborski or Snider's vehicles to the public. Nearly 8,200 people have joined the Free Antonio Buehler Facebook page, with supporters flyering the city and organizing rallies in support of Buehler, and posting daily stories of American and international police abuse.
Despite a half dozen witnesses, two videos and audio evidence of what happened on New Year's Day, the District Attorney did not convene a grand jury in 2012. His grand jury date was then postponed numerous times. The grand jury finally convened on March 5, 6 and 7, 2013. Four weeks later, the District Attorney finally informed the public that the grand jury failed to indict Antonio Buehler on any of the crimes with which he was charged.
They instead indicted him on four Class C misdemeanors. Three for "failure to obey a lawful order" related to his New Year's Day incident, and two follow on arrests. The fourth indictment was for "interfering" in an incident in which he was never arrested. The grand jury also indicted Norma Pizana for resisting arrest. Pizana is the woman that Buehler felt was being abused on New Year's Day 2012.
October 29, 2014, after an unprecedented four-day Class C Misdemeanor trial that spanned a full calendar week, Buehler was acquitted of charges and found not guilty of failing to comply with the order of a police officer on New Year's Day 2012." The trial was unique not only in its duration, but also in the resources invested into it by the state; the state had eight prosecutors in the courtroom and over a dozen police officers.
Civil rights lawsuits.
On December 31, 2013, Buehler, while awaiting trial, sued the Austin Police Department, Police Chief Art Acevedo, Officer Patrick Oborski, Officer Robert Snider, SGT Adam Johnson and Officer Justin Berry for allegedly violating his civil rights beginning with his January 1, 2012, arrest and two additional arrests which occurred on August 26 and September 21, 2012.
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We're in this for the long haul. And we're hopeful that it will eventually set a precedent that will prevent people from losing their right to hold the government and police accountable just because the prosecution convinces the grand jury to indict the individual on a bogus misdemeanor that the prosecution can't even win.
—Antonio Buehler, after announcing plans to appeal the dismissal of his civil lawsuit
On June 2, 2014, the National Press Photographers Association filed an Amicus Brief in support of Buehler's civil lawsuit.
On July 24, 2014, Federal Judge Mark Lane denied motions by the City of Austin to dismiss the case, finding that private citizens have the right to record officers in public places as they perform their official duties. Lane also said the officers were not personally immune from allegations that they had arrested and searched him without probable cause.
On February 20, 2015, Judge Mark Lane dismissed the lawsuit based on a Fifth Circuit precedent which stated that an indicted defendant lost their standing to sue. In response to the dismissal, Buehler stated, “We have waited three years for justice, and we are willing to wait even longer to expose APD for the crime they have covered up.” He also noted that the Fifth Circuit precedent provided an incentive for prosecutors to protect corrupt and criminal law enforcement officers through the simple expedient of indicting an otherwise innocent defendant. Buehler and his attorney appealed the decision on February 25, 2015.
On June 2, 2016, the Fifth Circuit Court in New Orleans upheld Judge Mark Lane's decision to dismiss Buehler's lawsuit against the City of Austin and four Austin Police officers.
On December 2, 2016, Buehler filed a petition for a writ of certiorari to have the case heard by the Supreme Court of the United States.
On January 4, 2017, the National Association for Public Defense, Cato Institute, National Press Photographers Association, and five media organizations filed Amicus briefs in support of Buehler's petition to the Supreme Court.
On February 2, 2017, SCOTUSblog, the leading Supreme Court news site, listed Buehler's lawsuit as the Petition of the Day.
The Supreme Court ultimately did not grant a writ of certiorari for Buehler's suit.
On August 2, 2017, Buehler sued the City of Austin and Austin Police Department employees Randy Dear, Aljoe Garibay, Quint Sebek, Wesley Devries, John Leo Coffey, Monika McCoy, Ryan Adam, Allen Hicks, and Reginald Parker for allegedly violating his civil rights and stemming from his August 2, 2015, arrest in downtown Austin.
Peaceful Streets Project.
In the months following the incident, a group of activists from a range of backgrounds joined Buehler to start the Peaceful Streets Project, an all-volunteer, nonpartisan, grassroots effort for police accountability. The group holds free community trainings on knowing your rights during police encounters, and held a day-long Police Accountability Summit in Austin, TX on July 14, 2012, where they handed out 100 handheld video-cameras to trained activists who now actively film police encounters with residents of Austin. The Peaceful Streets Project has also stepped up efforts to work with and ally with other community organizations, and have participated in protests in solidarity with victims of police abuse nationally. The Peaceful Streets Project has a "Strong" social media presence with over 5,100 YouTube subscribers, over 4,300 followers on Twitter and over 20,400 likes on Facebook.
Buehler's efforts to expose what he considers to be police violence and the inherent corruption of the justice system have resulted in numerous bloggers taking up his cause. In addition, numerous cities around the country reached out to Buehler and the Peaceful Streets Project looking to set up local franchises. Peaceful Streets Project chapters were set up in nearly a dozen cities to include Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, New York City, Manchester, Honolulu, San Antonio and Eunice, LA. Buehler and the Peaceful Streets Project decided to stop supporting Peaceful Streets Projects in other cities due to concerns over the politics of the people leading those efforts.
Buehler has continued to wage a public fight against his criminal charges. He has claimed that the city and the Austin Police Department are intentionally engaged in a cover-up and that corruption runs throughout the city government and the police department.
On June 24, 2013, Fox 7 ran a piece on Antonio Buehler wherein the President of the Austin Police Association alluded to possible violence in the future should Buehler continue to escalate his cop watching tactics. The Peaceful Streets Project responded by organizing several more public cop watch events, Know Your Rights Trainings and a national police accountability summit in Austin on August 17, 2013.
On April 12, 2014, Buehler spoke about the Peaceful Streets Project and police abuse at a TEDx event at Harvard.
On January 22, 2015, CBS News highlighted Antonio Buehler and the Peaceful Streets Project as one of two copwatch groups patrolling in Texas.
On May 9, 2015, Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting and The Texas Tribune released collaborative pieces on the direct action tactic of Filming the Police, with a focus on the Peaceful Streets Project.
On August 20, 2015, CityLab from The Atlantic released a piece centered on Antonio Buehler and the Peaceful Streets Project about the risks of filming the police, despite the legality of doing so.
On November 25, 2015, Playboy did a longform article on cop watching, which opened and closed with Antonio Buehler and the Peaceful Streets Project.
On February 26, 2016, Pivot.TV's Truth and Power docuseries built an episode around Buehler's history and work with the Peaceful Streets Project.
On March 10, 2016, Showtime's DarkNet docuseries featured Buehler and the Peaceful Streets Project.
In December 2017, The Progressive featured Buehler and his work with the Peaceful Streets Project and Abrome in a three-page feature.
Subsequent arrests and charges.
August 24, 2012.
In the early morning hours of August 24, 2012, while cop watching with members of the Peaceful Streets Project in downtown Austin, Buehler recorded an undercover officer, Justin Berry, helping uniformed police officers arrest women for underage drinking. Although Buehler wasn't arrested for filming Berry, he was later indicted on a Class C Misdemeanor charge of "interference with public duties." Buehler was scheduled to stand trial on January 6, 2015. On January 2, 2015, the City of Austin requested the trial judge dismiss all charges against Buehler.
August 26, 2012.
In the early morning hours of August 26, 2012, while cop watching with members of the Peaceful Streets Project in downtown Austin, Buehler was arrested by Officer Justin Berry for "interfering with public duties" while recording an arrest. He was released about 17 hours later. Austin Police Department claims that he refused to back away from an arrest, causing the suspect of the arrest to become uncontrollable. Buehler claims that APD was