JUST America organization says it supports resignation of APD Chief Manley

JUST America recently held a news conference with Chief Manley saying it had proposed changes to the police department that needed to be implemented to reform the department and that Chief Manley had agreed to them.

AUSTIN, Texas - Less than a week after holding a press conference with Austin Police Chief Brian Manley to discuss police and police reform, the group who was working alongside him, is now calling for his resignation.

JUST America announced Tuesday afternoon that they are now calling for Manley to be fired or for him to resign. Prior to the news conference, the group sent out a release saying:

"After talks with Chief Manley and his team, JUST America was able to address issues within the department regarding accountability in the language. JUST America has maintained a middle strategic ground as a means of exposure. We have faced tremendous backlash from the community regarding our organization. In reality, the entirety of our strategy will be revealed here today. We have attempted to establish communication with Manley's office again. Unfortunately, our demands are no longer being met. This entire situation has been a tough journey for us. However, even in the face of criticism we remained strong and remained true to our plan."

The group said since meeting with Manley, nothing has changed.

APD Chief Manley agrees to police reform changes proposed by JUST America

The organization says it has drafted four points and it says that Chief Manley believes it is time for change and is willing to open his agency to change by adopting these four amendments for his department to the current general orders.

The group said they first started out by asking Manley for small changes, such as re-writing policy that would explicitly ban chokeholds and neck restraints, stricter punishments for officers found intentionally turning off body camera video in critical incidents, and reporting department changes to mayor and council.

Manley said APD has not used or taught these tactics in decades, but adding the wording to policy makes sense. “So we’re taking that extra step so the community understands where we stand on that issue,” Manley said in the June 11th press conference.

JUST America said even though they did not think their demands would be met by Manley, they decided to meet with him. Adding that being one of the only groups not immediately calling for his resignation or firing, opened the door so they could have those conversations to sit down and talk about what is going on.

And, as of last week, both groups seemed to be onboard as during the press conference agreed that more conversations would be beneficial.

However, on Tuesday, JUST America said as protests continue, they've reached out to further discuss more plans of action, and said their requests were denied.

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So now, they're calling for Manley to be fired or for him to resign.

“I think it’s important to understand there is no other situation right now more important than addressing police brutality and the issues with addressing policing policies,” said co-president Eric Brown. “So the fact that he could not reserve that time on Monday after we had reached out over the weekend to address those issues, it just shows his stance on making sure he is timely on addressing these issues."

FOX 7 Austin has reached out to APD for comment and are awaiting comment.

JUST America said whether or not Manley resigns or is fired, whoever is in charge needs to be open and available to the public.

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