Leon Valley, Texas—On Saturday, June 23, 2018, around a dozen people, including credentialed reporters, were arrested after gathering for a late-afternoon press conference announced by Joseph Salvaggio, Chief of Police of Leon Valley, a suburb of San Antonio.
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“First and foremost,” said Salvaggio as he walked out of city hall and approached the crowd that gathered. “Bao come over here, you’re under arrest.”
“Thank you for coming to Leon Valley. I totally, totally support your right to put something online, your First Amendment right,” said Salvaggio.
Salvaggio then arrested Green, seized Green’s video phone, and continued to live stream the arrests from his perspective.
“Everybody else, you are not free to leave… you are witnesses, every one of y’all are witnesses to the crime. Every one of your cameras, your devices, every one of them are going to be taken, every one of y’all, sit down right here.”
Salvaggio ordered officers to arrest everyone in the vicinity of the press conference. “Go back and get the rest of them, get every one of them.”
“Leon Valley launched a war against citizens who are attempting to hold them accountable,” said Jack Miller, Vice President of the National Association for Individual Rights. “They arrest people regardless of what the law says they can and cannot arrest them for. They go outside of the law to retaliate against people who are protesting them.”
Bao Nguyen, the first person arrested at the press conference, was charged with Retaliation, a Third Degree Felony. Texas hate crime laws criminalize the act of publishing public information about police officers, such as a home address. The law also criminalizes speech that threatens police or public servants.
Salvaggio explained the arrests at the press conference: “What you don’t have a right to do is be streaming things where police officers’ or anybody else’s family is being threatened… If you stream something, you are responsible for its contents. There’s death threats on y’alls YouTube Live, and every one of y’all will be held accountable for those death threats.”