Texas capital Austin, City Council has voted to defund it's police force by $150 million dollars. "Governor Greg Abbott today issued a statement following Austin City Council's decision to cut $150 million from the Austin Police Department's budget: "Some cities are more focused on political agendas than public safety," said Governor Abbott. "Austin’s decision puts the brave men and women of the Austin Police Department and their families at greater risk, and paves the way for lawlessness. Public safety is job one, and Austin has abandoned that duty. The legislature will take this issue up next session, but in the meantime, the Texas Department of Public Safety will stand in the gap to protect our capital city." Austin city Council's top dog is Steve Adler (D) and his #2 is Delia Garza, also a Democrat. If it can happen in our state's capital, what is to stop Sylvester Turner (D) from doing it here? What possible good can come from defunding the police? All I see is a drastic spike in violence and crime the likes of which we have never seen. Is this the America we really want? Scary times people.
I don’t agree with the defunding and would be more inclined to see the disbanding of public sector unions, civilian review boards, and addressing qualified immunity.
Since OP is a lazy ****er. Here you go. https://www.texastribune.org/2020/08/13/austin-city-council-cut-police-budget-defund/ I dig it.
I agree with you.... I would prefer the money went in to more training and better training.... But this is interesting.... https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/25/camden-newark-new-jersey-police-reform T_Man
Let's not make the perfect the enemy of the good. All these things can still be a part of law enforcement reform.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said the Austin City Council's decision to reduce the police department budget was a "political haymaker driven by the pressures of cancel culture" as Austin continues to combat violent crime. "Unfortunately, the targets of this ‘cancelling’ are the brave men and women who selflessly put their lives on the line to keep our families safe," he said in a statement. "The city council’s action to slash funding disregards the safety of our capital city, its citizens, and the many guests who frequent it." The council's budget proposals continue to become more ridiculous and unsafe for Austinites,” the group tweeted. “They are going to ignore the majority who do not want the police defunded.” The Austin Police Association tweeted its opposition to the council’s plan.
https://www.statesman.com/news/20200813/austin-council-oks-budget-with-150m-in-police-cuts The Austin City Council on Thursday unanimously approved a $4.2 billion budget that includes about $150 million in planned cuts to Austin police, but only $20 million or so will be immediately removed from the department’s funding. Before the City Council’s revisions, the initial proposal for the police department’s budget called for about $434 million in funding. Of the $150 million the council has earmarked for reinvestment in other areas, about $21.5 million will be immediately cut from the department’s funding by canceling three upcoming cadet classes; slashing overtime costs by nearly $3 million and pulling more than $3 million from commodities and contractuals, $1 million from records management and more than $220,000 combined from license plate readers and vacancies to the department’s mounted patrol. That money will be redirected to a wide variety of community programs and city departments, including Austin-Travis County EMS for COVID-19 response, mental health response, violence prevention, a family violence shelter and victim services. Funds have also been shifted to parks and trails, abortion access, food access, substance abuse care and others. Aside from the $21.5 million in immediate funding shifts, the council also moved about $128.8 million into two transitional funds, one to remove primarily civilian functions from the police department and another to divert dollars from police to alternative forms of public safety over the next year. The Decouple Fund includes about $80 million, separating forensics, communications, support services, strategic support, community partnerships and victim services out from under Austin police. The Reimagine Safety Fund contains $49 million from overtime, mounted patrol, K-9, explorers, traffic enforcement, intelligence, training, recruiting, park police, lake patrol and nuisance abatement. With Thursday’s vote, Austin has joined cities including Seattle, Minneapolis, Portland, Ore., and others that have taken steps to rethink police operations. The Associated Press this week reported that the Seattle City Council cut the salary of Police Chief Carmen Best by $10,000, and voted to cut 100 officers from the department. Best resigned Monday, saying she was fine with a pay cut, but refused to fire young officers. Unlike in Seattle, Austin leaders did not approve any layoffs for officers, only cuts to positions that were already vacant or scheduled to be added later. In June, city commissioners in Portland, Ore., voted to cut $16 million from that city’s $245 million police budget, despite calls for cuts of up to $50 million. Gov. Greg Abbott and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Thursday expressed their disagreement with the decision to cut the police budget. Abbott said he would use state troopers to “stand in the gap to protect our capital city.” Paxton called the council’s action an “unwarranted attack” on the Police Department’s budget that was motivated by “cancel culture.” https://www.kvue.com/article/news/l...fund/269-9041efe4-5055-4eb0-aa21-dada5b8f4aec These are some of the police department units that were cut or reduced during the budget approval: 911 Call Center - $17.7 million Forensic Sciences - $12.7 million Support Services - $14.1 million Community Partnerships - $2.5 million Victims Services - $3.1 million Internal Affairs - $4.5 million Special Investigations - $1.8 million Special Events - $4.4 million Mounted Patrol - $2.1 million Traffic Enforcement - $18.4 million Austin Regional Intelligence Center - $2 million Park Police - $5.8 million Lake Patrol - $1.4 million Organized Crime/K-9 - $1.2 million Nuisance Abatement - $312,000 Canceling 3 Cadet Classes - $2.2 million this year Officer Overtime - $2.8 million License Plate Readers - $133,000
I dunno - seems counterintuitive to me. When people realize it is Democrats doing this, do you think that will make them less or more inclined to vote for them - especially if violence spikes?
Why is it counterintuitive? Does it make you feel less safe? Do you think crime will increase? Why do you believe crime will increase? Do you not see value in instituting mental and social programs that help those that police calls are made for the most? We are always looking for ways to fund mental and social programs. Police budgets are bloated, just as is the military budget, so why not divert some of those funds and target the actual issues? Why not create programs where individuals that are re introduced to the general population have a legitimate chance to not be looked down on and rather have a chance to succeed in life. Why must every ****ing thing be met with police force? Why not have a mental counselor that shows up with police presence, rather then sending the whole ****ing force to deal with the problem? Etc etc.
Dang! Many of the areas tapped for reduction have nothing to do with police officers - 911 call center $17.7 million? The stupid - it hurts.
Yes, it hurts to read your stupidity. I've lived in Austin the last 40 years and fully support the effort of the budget to direct the funds where they are most needed. Paxton is a liar and you seem to be taking lessons.
Half of this is moving things out of the purview of the police department itself, not eliminating it. I haven't found a great description online/graphic so I wish there was better clarity. The benefit is moving things that really shouldn't have cops and allocating resources to prevention instead of just more police officers (i.e, mental health, domestic issues, etc). Leave cops to answering calls that really require their abilities. Some places already do this with things like parking enforcement officers - i.e., use a less expensive civilian instead of a police officer. Hopefully the funds towards homelessness/mental health make a real impact on the issue. As a society, we have really neglected those areas (and really in so many ways it is one large area). If they legalized mar1juana, we'd probably need less cops/jails too. But that is probably still 5 - 10 year away in Texas.
I wonder the same thing. I thought they were law abiding citizens that own guns and live in affluent neighborhoods with little crime. In theory they don't need the police. Hell, I live in the city, don't own a gun and I've rarely needed a cop in my life. I'm glad to have them there and happy to have a PD, but it doesn't need to be overly funded.
Do you think the people of Austin aren't aware that the City Council is largely made up of Democrats?
