Austin, Texas Policing Crisis

Good for Austin. There is nothing more dangerous to citizens and costly to tax payers than a cop that loses his shit because he feels "disrespected". To paraphrase the Trumpsters ... fudge your feelings.

 

While I don’t doubt Austin has some problems, any supposed news article that has woke in the first sentence disqualifies itself.

 

All kinds of stuff going on in Austin. Came across this while reading about Austin's police shortage (the staffing has been a growing issue since they closed the police academy in 2020, and the first new class just went through last year, the shortage in police officers matches the lack of new officers produced locally during the time the academy was closed). FPL would be so proud.

Petition imitating the Austin Police Oversight Act may appear on the May ballot

Austin voters may face two nearly identical propositions concerning police oversight in May. Despite having the same name, one of these propositions would increase oversight while the other intends to maintain the status quo.

The Austin City Council put the Austin Police Oversight Act — the proposition that would increase oversight — on the upcoming May ballot in September after Equity Action, an Austin based non-profit, reached the 20,000 signature minimum on their petition over the summer. Chris Harris, the board president of Equity Action, said he noticed a petition imitating the act in November.

“The name is identical,” Harris said. “The caption, which is what will appear on the ballot, is nearly identical. But once you dive into the content, it actually would set up a far weaker system of oversight than our ordinance and in some ways, even weaker than today’s very weak system of police oversight.”

Voters for Oversight and Police Accountability turned in the petition to the Austin city clerk on Dec. 19. It is unclear what group is behind Voters for Oversight and Police Accountability, but Harris said canvassers for the petition falsely claimed to be members of Equity Action.

 

Wait, so they defunded the police but still have police? So in what way did they "defund" them?

 

yep that was unfortunate. Obviously not unbiased.

 

An addition to the timeline- 3 years they shut down their police academy and the police force started decreasing in size as they were having to recruit more officers from out of the city and out of the state.

 

That doesn't really answer the question I asked now does it? Want to try again?

 

Must be a volunteer force

 

BTW, name a city of more than 200,000 people in Texas, and I will provide an article talking about their police shortage, likely dating back years. Any city. I'll start with known liberal hotbed, Amarillo.

The Amarillo Police Department is 34 officers short

 

Yes but it is more costly when a criminal loses his or her shit. Much more costly.

 

caveat: I acknowledge that I am using Forbes data based conclusions rather than pseudo-intellectualism, feelings & meta-narratives

Report Ranks America’s 15 Safest (And Most Dangerous) Cities For 2023
15 Safest Large Cities in the US (with a population over 300,000)

1. Honolulu, Hawaii
2. Virginia Beach, Virginia
3. Henderson, Nevada
4. El Paso, Texas
5. New York City
6. San Diego, California
7. Mesa, Arizona
8. Charlotte, North Carolina
9. San Jose, California
10. Boston, Massachusetts
11. Raleigh, North Carolina
12. Arlington, Texas
13. Santa Ana, California
14. Omaha, Nebraska
15. Austin, Texas

 

This list has New York City and El Paso on it. Can’t tell if this list is serious.

 

El Paso has long had one of the lowest murder rates in the entire country (it has often been the lowest in Texas, although the latest data had them surpassed by that horribly dangerous...Austin) and New York is quite safe.

 

strangely silent on Gaetz’s comment just yesterday about defunding law enforcement nationally. You know something actually relevant to your life. Now who’s peddling meta narratives