A heroic police officer in Austin, TX, is about to go on trial for his life. A Soros prosecutor is seeking a life sentence against Officer Chance Bretches for the “crime” of punching a burly drug dealer in the face as the guy was resisting arrest and fighting off two officers. The drug dealer did not die from that punch, by the way. He just got punched. But because the musclebound drug dealer was black, Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza wants to put Officer Bretches in prison for the rest of his life.
The incident happened back in 2019 in a drug-infested part of Austin. There had been a gang-related shooting the day before, so officers with the Street Narcotics Unit were out in force. They didn’t want a turf war heating up between rival drug gangs. While they were on patrol, Officer Bretches and his partner, Officer Greg Gentry, observed a hulking drug dealer named Paul Mannie selling crack from the trunk of his Chevy pickup. Mannie was out in broad daylight and passing out crack to every junkie that approached him.
A third unidentified officer was also in the patrol vehicle with Bretches and Gentry. All three officers rolled up on Mannie and a junkie he had just sold some crack to. They identified themselves as police officers and told the two suspects to put their hands behind their backs so they could be handcuffed.
The junkie complied. Paul Mannie did not.
Mannie is 6’1” and has 200 pounds of solid muscle. A toxicology report later revealed that Mannie had PCP in his system, which gives druggies superhuman strength and inhibits the body’s pain receptors. Paul Mannie decided at that moment that he was going to fight the cops.
Bretches and Gentry were unable to get Mannie’s hands behind his back so they could cuff him, but they did manage to wrestle him to the ground. Mannie had his hands underneath his body and was reaching for his waistband while refusing to cooperate with the officers. At that point, Bretches and Gentry realized that Mannie could be reaching for a gun or knife.
To finally subdue him, Officer Bretches punched Paul Mannie in the face. After he was handcuffed, Mannie was taken to the hospital to be treated for getting punched in the face, but also to make sure he didn’t OD on whatever he was high on. (The officers didn’t know he was on PCP at the time.)
The Austin Police Department conducted a full investigation of the arrest. Everything that Bretches and Gentry did was well within department guidelines. They were both cleared of any wrongdoing. When a suspect is resisting arrest while high on drugs and might be reaching for a weapon, officers are allowed to punch him. No sensible person would object to a policy like this.
Soros prosecutor Jose Garza is not a sensible person, though. Two years after Bretches and Gentry were cleared of any wrongdoing, Garza empaneled a grand jury and indicted them for aggravated assault by a public servant. Garza, by the way, was elected in 2020 thanks to George Soros’s cash. Because Paul Mannie is black and the two officers are white, Garza is trying to throw the book at them.
The charges were eventually dropped against Officer Gentry because of insufficient evidence. Officer Bretches, who has a wife and two beautiful young children at home, is facing life in prison. He didn’t even commit a crime. He took a violent drug dealer off the streets using the least amount of force possible. His trial is set to begin on April 8th.
