Another democrat-run American city heading for chaos.
Austin, Texas hasn’t had a republican mayor for over two decades.
During 2020, during the height of the “St. George” BLM-led protests and the Defund the Police movement, the Austin City Council “cut or reallocated a higher percentage of money from the police budget than any of nearly two dozen other cities nationally that significantly altered law enforcement funding at the time.”
Austin cut $150 million from their police budget. How’d that work out for the citizens of Austin? From the NY Post: “Compared to 2020, Austin has had a 77% increase in auto thefts, an 18% increase in aggravated assaults, and a 30% increase in murders.”
The Austin Police Department has also lost 800+ officers since 2017. Although the police budget has since been refunded, mass retirements and the slashing of cadet classes caused a police shortage where the department is hundreds of officers short.
Here’s the result of the elected bureaucrats actions (from the NY Post):
Short-staffed Austin police urge robbery victims not to call 911 as crime ravages city
From the story:
“The Austin Police Department posted a graphic in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, to urge residents to call 311 or make an online report if they’re robbed – 311 is a number usually used for non-emergency requests, as opposed to 911.
“Even if you are cautious & follow all the safety advice, you may still become the unfortunate victim of a robbery,” the Austin Police Department wrote on X.”
Read the whole story here.
Austin became a blue city that many attribute to the presence of a university and the influx of left-leaning high-tech workers from the two coasts. Their votes destroyed the likes of Seattle, San Francisco and New York. They didn’t learn an obvious lesson:
DCG