AUSTIN -- The Austin Police Department's chief spoke out Tuesday about a blog post that’s gone viral and is making the department look bad.
The blogger's name is Scott Henson. For years he's written about law enforcement tactics and problems. Henson is white, and a post about being stopped by officers while walking with his African-American granddaughter is getting attention around the world.
On Feb. 11, a panicked woman called 911 from the Millennium Youth Complex parking lot in East Austin. She claimed a white man had chased a young African-American girl into the woods near the entertainment complex.
Henson's blog says that same night, he and his granddaughter were walking home when nine APD officers with tasers drawn surrounded them. He wrote he felt threatened, and his five-year-old granddaughter was terrified.
Days later, Henson posted he'd made a mistake, and that the tasers were never out of their holsters.
However, by that time, his story had already gone viral around the world.
“I cannot think of a crime that would raise the alertness of a police department more than a report of a young child being kidnapped,” a visibly upset APD Police Chief Art Acevedo said.
Tuesday afternoon, Acevedo released the 911 call, along with videotape of police responding to the incident. He also showed video of Henson being stopped by officers.
“When Mr. Henson described that our officers jumped out, a gaggle of officers, and I'm paraphrasing, with their tasers pointed at him, when you see this video you will see that's simply not the case,” Acevedo said. “Had that been a real, legitimate kidnapping, and we would have responded with one or two officers in a nonchalant manner, the same critics that are criticizing us now would be saying that the Austin Police Department did not care about an African-American girl being kidnapped from the youth center.”
The chief hopes that by getting the police response video out, he can help correct the negative image the world may have after reading the initial blog post.
“After reviewing everything, I personally feel he owes an apology to the men and women of the Austin Police Department,” Acevedo said.
Before Henson was stopped by APD, he was stopped by a Travis County Constable. Acevedo says 23 seconds after the constable told dispatchers that the little girl was Henson's granddaughter, APD officers were on the scene.
Henson did not want to speak with KVUE on camera, saying everything that he wanted to say was posted on his blog.
Acevedo says APD's quick response shows that race was not a factor in this case, but the safety of a child was.
