Outcry against Austin anti-law enforcement policy getting louder

Casar: Not exactly our idea of turning Travis County "red."

"The City of Austin's latest use of taxpayer resources to protest the Trump Administration, Gov. Greg Abbott, and the will of the voters of Texas is not only an exercise in futility but a risky policy that puts Austinites in danger:"

That was the opening salvo in the latest press release from the Travis GOP. And it's no exaggeration.

Here's what happened for those of you who aren't tuned into the wonderful world of municipal politics:

The Austin City Council last week unanimously approved two so-called "Freedom City" resolutions which defy the new law banning sanctuary cities (SB 4, passed last year). The resolutions, according to the Travis GOP, "instruct Austin Police Department personnel to refrain from arresting members of racial minority groups for drug possession and theft. The thought behind the new law, according to radical leftist Austin City Council member Greg Casar, is to keep more illegal immigrants out of jail."

The newly approved resolutions "further require APD officials to slow down requests from federal immigration authorities by adding unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles. This comes as no surprise as Austin has been, at city taxpayers' expense, suing the federal government to overturn portions of Senate Bill 4 ..."

Chairman Matt Mackowiak joined a growing number of voices, in addition to local law enforcement, decrying the new resolutions:

"How many lives will be put at risk and how much will be spent on futile lawsuits before the Texas Legislature meets to shut down this ill-conceived City of Austin policy? ... Our safety must come before political posturing. We call upon Council member Greg Casar and other supporters of this impractical policy to work to come up with a more realistic, less costly solution which does not tie the hands of our law enforcement community and which respects the rule of law."

Meanwhile, Martin Harry, the Travis County Republican standard-bearer for Justice of the Peace for Precinct 3, said based on a review of the data relied upon by the city council the council members have "unjustly condemned APD of racism." According to a press release from Harry on Tuesday (June 26), he considers the charge of racism to be unfair for the following reasons:

(1) The data considered is incomplete and does not include all misdemeanor cases involving discretionary arrests; 

(2) The data considered imprecisely distinguishes between discretionary and nondiscretionary arrest cases; 

(3) For discretionary arrest cases, arrests made for legitimate public safety reasons are not identifiable; and 

(4) Disparities between races established by the limited data considered are attributed to racial bias without evidence to support that conclusion. 

According to Harry, “the rhetoric surrounding the city’s resolution, regardless of the merits of its purpose, has been dishonest, prejudicial and inflammatory.” Few journalists, academics, politicians or other opinion leaders in the community have questioned the validity of the rhetoric or the data on which it is based. Although the city council’s action does not directly relate to his campaign for justice of the peace, Harry says he felt compelled to defend APD, stating,

“Prejudice against the police is no better than racial prejudice. Unfounded charges of racism unnecessarily generate more distrust and disrespect of police and make their work more difficult and dangerous. The men and women who safeguard our community deserve to be treated better than that.”

We'll gladly include any other prominent statements against this awful city of Austin policy in this blog post as they're received.

Read also: KVUE interviews an Austin Police Association spokesman who took Casar's "race baiting" policy to task.

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Image credit: Empower Texans.