In what's perhaps Austin's most notorious recent incident of police misconduct, 84 Austin police officers descended on a children's Valentine party on Cedar Avenue in East Austin on February 11, 1995, macing or assaulting more than 30 children (ages 10-16) and six adult chaperones.

The story began when one of the adults called the police after he had expelled an uninvited gang member, asking the APD to send a police car to drive by a time or two to demonstrate their presence. Instead, four officers showed up and tried to shut the party down even though the gang member was long gone. Finally, the officers resorted to force, throwing one of the adult chaperones to the ground and macing others.

At this point, accounts get muddy. The APD claims the officers were merely talking to the adults when someone attacked officer Carlos Cardona out of the blue, hitting him on the head and injuring him. Adults and children at the party say Cardona must have been hit after the fracas started. Either way, no one, neither cop nor brutality victim, claims to have seen who committed the alleged assault on this officer.

Whoever hit Cardona out in the street, it's the police overreaction to this unhappy incident that warrants attention. According to police policy, if an officer is injured he or she must be taken from the scene as quickly as is feasible to receive medical attention. But rather than follow those guidelines, Cardona and his associates went on a rampage, storming into the house where most of the children were, shouting racial epithets and searching for Cardona's alleged assailant. Officers slammed children to the wall, pointed guns at their heads and hollered to Cardona, "Is this the nigger that did it?." About 30 children were maced, and several more were hit with batons or flashlights. None of the children resisted, which is likely why injuries weren't more significant.

One of Cardona's fellow officers radioed an "officer down" call (though Cardona was not really "down," but was already storming through the Bedford home like a wounded bull elephant). Within a few minutes, an astonishing 84 officers, more than two-thirds of all APD officers on duty that night, responded to the call. Many participated in the rioting and macing, or later assisted in the coverup. Of these 84 officers, none have come forward forthrightly to admit any police misbehavior.

Since no one inside the house knew what had happened in the street, the children responded with confusion and fear. Some tried to run away and were struck from behind, including an 18-year old pregnant woman who was knocked unconscious with a blow to the back of the head. More than 30 children were maced, several of them twice. The matron of the house, Charmaine Bedford, called 911 stricken with tears to report an incident of police brutality, but the call abruptly ended as the noisy chaos in the background approached and overwhelmed her. (The Hall of Shame hopes to install an audio file with this 911 tape here soon.)

In one of the most bizarre twists to this tale, Officer Roy Henry, according to witnesses perhaps the only black officer on the scene, was attempting to help two maced and injured women away from the house when a white cop approached and maced him square in the face. Henry was later treated at Brackenridge hospital, along with several of the children.

No officers were disciplined for their actions that night, and two police chiefs and the Justice Department have said the officers all acted appropriately. In the case of the Clinton Justice Department, that conclusion was reached without investigators interviewing any victims.

In a civil suit that followed, jurors split on whether police had used excessive force that night, but ruled against the plaintiffs on the grounds that they hadn't proven a "pattern and practice" of police misbehavior. But that verdict was thrown out after it was shown that a veteran court officer (the bailiff) had used racially derisive terms like "junglebunnies" to describe the plaintiffs, and told the jurors that if they would "just vote no" they could all go home. At the time of this writing, plaintiffs are in settlement negotiations with the City of Austin, hoping to avert a second racially divisive and painful trial.

by Scott Henson, July 1998

Sources: press accounts, interviews with victims

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