Interim Chief: Austin Police Department in ‘Dire Crisis’ after Defunding

The city of Austin faces a crisis of rising violent crime after the City Council voted last year to drastically reduce the police department’s budget, interim Police Chief Joseph Chacon says.

Last summer, the Austin City Council voted to defund the police department by $150 million, which resulted in canceling multiple cadet classes and disbanding multiple units responsible for responding to DWIs, domestic violence calls, stalking, and criminal interdiction.

Instead, the council redistributed the money to other city programs and suggested that community organizers respond to 911 calls, instead of the police department.

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Texas Attorney General Sues the City of Austin over Mask Mandate

Ken Paxton (R-Texas), the Attorney General of Texas, has filed a lawsuit against the state’s capital city of Austin on Thursday after the city refused to rescind its mask mandate, as reported by The Hill.

The lawsuit names Mayor Steve Adler (D-Texas), Travis County Judge Andy Brown, and interim Medical Director Mark Escott. The suit comes after Governor Greg Abbott (R-Texas) announced on March 2nd that he would be officially and completely reopening the state of Texas via executive order, rescinding all mask mandates and allowing all businesses to reopen to 100 percent capacity.

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Commentary: LARPers Lament as Real-Life-and-Death Consequences Come to Austin

There’s a term, and an acronym, that every American interested in following the rank stupidity of this summer’s occurrences in America’s blue cities ought to be familiar with.

The term is Live-Action Role Playing, and the acronym is LARPing. What you’re seeing on the streets of Portland, Seattle, Chicago, Austin, and other cities are textbook examples of this phenomenon playing out.

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Austin: Roadway Confrontation Between Antifa/BLM Protester and Driver Ends in Gunfire

A protester allegedly armed with a rifle at a demonstration against police violence in the Texas capital was shot and killed by a driver after a witness says he confronted a vehicle that attempted to drive through a crowd blocking a downtown Austin intersection. 

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Commentary: Will the Renaming Game Hit Leftist States and Cities?

You might call it being hoist on your own petard.

The move is on, as is known, to change the names of American military bases that are named for Confederate generals. The New York Times, among many others on the Left, was furious. The Times headline:

Trump Rejects Renaming Military Bases Named After Confederate Generals

By dismissing an idea under consideration by the Pentagon, the president positioned himself firmly against the movement to remove racist symbols and combat racism touched off by George Floyd’s death.

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Apple Is Dropping $1 Billion to Put 5,000 Jobs in Texas With Expansions Planned in Major Cities

by Tim Pearce   Apple is investing $1 billion to nearly double its workforce in Texas and is hiring thousands more employees in offices across the U.S., the company announced Thursday. Apple is adding 5,000 positions to its Austin, Texas, campus on top of the 6,200-strong workforce already there. The…

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