And it’s not in a state you’d expect.
The city of Austin, Texas is liberal enough that they chose to abandon the brave men and women in blue last year. They defunded their police dept by 30% and this year surprise, surprise, homicides have doubled…
“Dramatic population growth has brought with it skyrocketing house prices and an increase in homelessness. And then there is the homicide rate. 88 people have been murdered in the city so far this year, beating the previous record of 59 in 1984 — and almost double last year’s total of 48 (which was in itself a 28% increase on 2019).
This jump in homicides follows last August’s vote by Austin city council to defund the police, reallocating 30% of the budget — some $150 million in all — to areas such as food access and something called “violence prevention.”
“Although it is true that many American cities have seen an increase in murder this year, even the slightest digging shows that not all homicide jumps are equal, especially in Texas. No other city has come close to seeing the murder rate almost double in 2021, and only Austin defunded the police. Dallas, in fact, has seen a decline in homicides, so it’s not as if we are looking at an immutable law of nature.”
“Gov. Greg Abbott and state Republican lawmakers pounced on Austin, passing a law earlier this year that punishes large cities that cut their police spending by forbidding them from raising property taxes.”
In response, Austin City Council reversed the cuts this year and raised the city’s police budget to a record $442 million — more than a third of the city’s $1.15 billion operating budget. The council didn’t restore the 150 positions, but paid for three new cadet classes.”
Abbott is just putting Libs in their place left and right. It’s pretty clear that the city needs the 150 officers back on patrol ASAP. It was foolish to defund them in the first place, and now they can see the ramifications of their actions. You know the sad thing here is that the Dems likely would have let that homicide rate climb without funding the police, had it not been for Gov Abbott trying to force some common sense on them.