cityagboy said:

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I have seen that ladies speech on this and other things. She obviously makes points but I don't think it's as clear as she states. She is an instigator and bends things to fit her way

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But I am sure the Soros funded group behind Prop A plays everything completely straight and isn't bending things to fit their narrative at all.

The "little Jewish man" is a former NAZI (as a boy) and made a huge fortune by short selling the British pound combined with organizing a mass selling of the pound so that the government was not able to save it.
Soros himself is very old, but his organization is strong and active.
The Kochs made a lot of their fortune in Texas and made it honestly.
Last I saw, on a list of the 50 biggest corps in the USA, only 2 gave primarily to Republicans.

So when someone says Austin has a Soros backed DA, and that DA is instituting in Austin the same policies that Soros advicates and has succeeded in installing in many large cities wordlide, I take it seriously.

Potcake said:

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Zelenskyy and Soros are both Nazis, right?
Good grief.

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I clearly wrote "former NAZI" about Soros and have expressed no opinion about Zelensky although I will venture that the Russians calling him a NAZI is to be expected - it's like conservatives in the U.S. expect to be called racist by liberals.

Martin Cash said:

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Rongagin71 said:

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The "little Jewish man" is a former NAZI (as a boy) and made a huge fortune by short selling the British pound combined with organizing a mass selling of the pound so that the government was not able to save it.
Soros himself is very old, but his organization is strong and active.
The Kochs made a lot of their fortune in Texas and made it honestly.
Last I saw, on a list of the 50 biggest corps in the USA, only 2 gave primarily to Republicans.

So when someone says Austin has a Soros backed DA, and that DA is instituting in Austin the same policies that Soros advicates and has succeeded in installing in many large cities wordlide, I take it seriously.

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I hate Soros with a passion, but he was 14 years old when the war ended.

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He apparently was hidden with a German family by his parents during the war and went along to help with one of the teams that was cataloguing the art and valuables that were being stolen from the Jewish families sent to the concentration camps. I don't hold it against him for doing what he had to do to fit in and stay safe, but I do hold it against him that when asked about it many years later, he said he didn't feel any remorse about what he did.

I have known Lynn Issak for about four years. I met het her a few months after I started working at TxDOT in January 2019. I completely agree with Lynn Issak that Antonio Cordero-Rios got off too easy for assaulting her and other women. This is another example of the Travis County giving too lenient sentences.

There's a lot of confirmation bias in this thread. I'm an Austin cop and have engaged in productive conversations with several folks on similar threads in the past.

A common theme I'm seeing from some folks here are that they don't see the crime/aren't impacted by it so it's not as real/violent/high-crime as others say it is.

Every shift I work, I interact with "average middle class" people (someone referenced this class specifically as having nothing to worry about) who are having the absolute worst day of their lives. And minutes prior to their incident, they would have told you Austin is the "safest big city" similar to some folks here. An Aggie who posts on this site became one of those stats. He was shot at while interrupting someone breaking into his vehicle and I was one of the responding officers.

Austin is not the city it used to be. Folks are getting stabbed and shot in the street on a weekly basis meanwhile others are getting killed in traffic collisions due to lack of traffic enforcement. I have stopped bringing my family to Austin due to the volume of crime and aggressive driving.

And due to a lack of sworn and non-sworn staffing, there's a chance you'll be put on hold while calling 911 and stuck waiting for an extended period to speak with a police officer if/when your call does get answered. I routinely respond to crashes where folks have been waiting on the side of the road for hours to speak with an officer.

Every year since all this defunding/reimagining nonsense started, violent crime and traffic fatality records have been set. Anecdotally, the cause is due to lack of enforcement and prosecution. When folks aren't held to a standard, chaos will inevitably be a result.

Educate yourself on the ordinances and the groups who support them. One of the ordinances is supported by a gentleman who wants to abolish all police and abolish the prison system. He's been quoted as saying someone convicted of murder should be sentenced to "cleaning the victim's family's house for a few weeks" as a form of rehabilitation in lieu of any formal prison sentence. You cannot have any meaningful conversation with this level of disconnect with reality.

There is not a single officer in the department who is assigned to proactive traffic enforcement anymore. The motor unit was disbanded, the highway enforcement unit was disbanded, and the nighttime DWI enforcement unit was disbanded and all were reassigned back to patrol and answering 911 calls in 2021. Traffic fatalities have been record setting year after year as a direct result.

No one patrols school zones anymore and no one works traffic on the highways. Sure, officers are still responsible for enforcing traffic laws but there is rarely time to do it. If you do see a police officer driving around, there's a decent chance he's not "patrolling" but rather responding to a call for service. Standard patrol cars aren't equipped with radars so even speed enforcement is difficult while randomly patrolling. Officers have to be stationary and actively target a vehicle with a handheld radar or laser.and due to the call volume, that rarely happens.

There are some folks who work "STEP" overtime, which is grant-funded traffic enforcement overtime. Even then, only a fraction of officers continue to do it. Officers are reluctant to do anything proactive; most criminal charges are dropped with no prosecution and the DAs office is actively targeting officers for prosecution. Officers are reluctant to stick their necks out and be forced into a bad situation. When I signed up to be a cop, potentially being sent to prison for doing my job wasn't part of the agreement. It has been years since I've worked any extra patrol shifts as a result.

Rongagin71 said:

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I've got a question for you, officer, if you would...
It seems to me that there is a lot more very loud acceleration events on Austin streets - is that just Austin getting bigger and young men wanting to show off, or is this also due to less police on the street?
Racing cars on city streets is not new but, man, do they make their cars noisy nowadays...sometimes I want to throw a rock at them but figure they would probably stop and beat my old --- and if they didn't the DA would.

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100% due to less manpower and folks being emboldened due to lack of prosecution. There have been ongoing "street take over" events that continue due to lack of consequences. Austin doesn't have the staffing to deal with it appropriately so instead a limited number of officers just show up and run them off.

I know of one street takeover event that occurred since DPS has been assigned to Austin and the Troopers handled it correctly. They surrounded the entire event with several dozen troopers and started impounded vehicles that were obstructing the roadway. These events aren't just "kids being kids". Not only do pedestrians get struck and seriously injured, but it's an open air market for drugs and stolen guns.

I was downtown during the riots/protests. Lack of enforcement emboldened their behavior which led to all the fires and vandalized property. As soon as the department started allowing us to enforce the law, folks straightened up. They'l protests continued, but it was immediately more peaceful and organized. The "loudest" of the groups were targeted and as soon as they violated an ordinance or law, arrest teams moved in and dealt with it. It didn't take long for others to see they didn't want any part of that and it all fizzled out.

Two of my friends are State Troopers. They are working in Austin supporting the city police due to a shortage of officers. They spend one week in Austin every other week working 12 hours a day.

That's like your opinion man, I haven't been murdered yet so it's cool, any increase is just growing pains in the prelude to the emerging metropolis.

op_06 said:

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There is not a single officer in the department who is assigned to proactive traffic enforcement anymore. The motor unit was disbanded, the highway enforcement unit was disbanded, and the nighttime DWI enforcement unit was disbanded and all were reassigned back to patrol and answering 911 calls in 2021. Traffic fatalities have been record setting year after year as a direct result.

No one patrols school zones anymore and no one works traffic on the highways. Sure, officers are still responsible for enforcing traffic laws but there is rarely time to do it. If you do see a police officer driving around, there's a decent chance he's not "patrolling" but rather responding to a call for service. Standard patrol cars aren't equipped with radars so even speed enforcement is difficult while randomly patrolling. Officers have to be stationary and actively target a vehicle with a handheld radar or laser.and due to the call volume, that rarely happens.

There are some folks who work "STEP" overtime, which is grant-funded traffic enforcement overtime. Even then, only a fraction of officers continue to do it. Officers are reluctant to do anything proactive; most criminal charges are dropped with no prosecution and the DAs office is actively targeting officers for prosecution. Officers are reluctant to stick their necks out and be forced into a bad situation. When I signed up to be a cop, potentially being sent to prison for doing my job wasn't part of the agreement. It has been years since I've worked any extra patrol shifts as a result.

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This confirms my suspicion about traffic enforcement. In NW Austin we RARELY see black and whites driving around much less parked on the side of, say Hwy 360, with their radar guns up.

op_06 said:

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There's a lot of confirmation bias in this thread. I'm an Austin cop and have engaged in productive conversations with several folks on similar threads in the past.

A common theme I'm seeing from some folks here are that they don't see the crime/aren't impacted by it so it's not as real/violent/high-crime as others say it is.

Every shift I work, I interact with "average middle class" people (someone referenced this class specifically as having nothing to worry about) who are having the absolute worst day of their lives. And minutes prior to their incident, they would have told you Austin is the "safest big city" similar to some folks here. An Aggie who posts on this site became one of those stats. He was shot at while interrupting someone breaking into his vehicle and I was one of the responding officers.

Austin is not the city it used to be. Folks are getting stabbed and shot in the street on a weekly basis meanwhile others are getting killed in traffic collisions due to lack of traffic enforcement. I have stopped bringing my family to Austin due to the volume of crime and aggressive driving.

And due to a lack of sworn and non-sworn staffing, there's a chance you'll be put on hold while calling 911 and stuck waiting for an extended period to speak with a police officer if/when your call does get answered. I routinely respond to crashes where folks have been waiting on the side of the road for hours to speak with an officer.

Every year since all this defunding/reimagining nonsense started, violent crime and traffic fatality records have been set. Anecdotally, the cause is due to lack of enforcement and prosecution. When folks aren't held to a standard, chaos will inevitably be a result.

Educate yourself on the ordinances and the groups who support them. One of the ordinances is supported by a gentleman who wants to abolish all police and abolish the prison system. He's been quoted as saying someone convicted of murder should be sentenced to "cleaning the victim's family's house for a few weeks" as a form of rehabilitation in lieu of any formal prison sentence. You cannot have any meaningful conversation with this level of disconnect with reality.

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Thank you for this post. There will still be some previous posters eye rolling that have ZERO connections to peoples that are close to the situations this town deals with.

First much respect to OP_06 and the adult voice he brings to the discussion.

I am not bothered by the lack of traffic enforcement and in fact I'm in favor of it. Traffic law including DWI was always selectively enforced if not by the police by the judicial system. If you through enough money at a traffic ticket or DWI it generally went away. On flip side if you couldn't afford to pay the fines it could land you in actual jail

Now when idiots take over the streets or wreck while drunk or texting they should pay for the damage and if someone is hurt they should pay in the same way as any other crime of Negligence

I would however appreciate the police force being fully funded and supported with appropriate governance. It's a shame how broken the relationship has become between politicians, the police and the citizens

I can also support ideas and measures proposed by people whose platform I may disagree with

Democrats support legalizing marijuana which I support but I disagree with defunding the police

Republicans historically have atleast pretended to fiscally conservative which I support but I disagree with making laws about anything two or more CONSENTING ADULTS do in their bedroom

Keeper of The Spirits said:

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First much respect to OP_06 and the adult voice he brings to the discussion.

I am not bothered by the lack of traffic enforcement and in fact I'm in favor of it. Traffic law including DWI was always selectively enforced if not by the police by the judicial system. If you through enough money at a traffic ticket or DWI it generally went away. On flip side if you couldn't afford to pay the fines it could land you in actual jail

Now when idiots take over the streets or wreck while drunk or texting they should pay for the damage and if someone is hurt they should pay in the same way as any other crime of Negligence

I would however appreciate the police force being fully funded and supported with appropriate governance. It's a shame how broken the relationship has become between politicians, the police and the citizens

I can also support ideas and measures proposed by people whose platform I may disagree with

Democrats support legalizing marijuana which I support but I disagree with defunding the police

Republicans historically have atleast pretended to fiscally conservative which I support but I disagree with making laws about anything two or more CONSENTING ADULTS do in their bedroom

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Agree with a lot of your post. I don't care if you shove rodents up your bhole or WHATEVER. Just keep it within the walls of your home or your deviant club. Leave the kids alone.

Keeper of The Spirits said:

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First much respect to OP_06 and the adult voice he brings to the discussion.

I am not bothered by the lack of traffic enforcement and in fact I'm in favor of it. Traffic law including DWI was always selectively enforced if not by the police by the judicial system. If you through enough money at a traffic ticket or DWI it generally went away. On flip side if you couldn't afford to pay the fines it could land you in actual jail

Now when idiots take over the streets or wreck while drunk or texting they should pay for the damage and if someone is hurt they should pay in the same way as any other crime of Negligence

I would however appreciate the police force being fully funded and supported with appropriate governance. It's a shame how broken the relationship has become between politicians, the police and the citizens

I can also support ideas and measures proposed by people whose platform I may disagree with

Democrats support legalizing marijuana which I support but I disagree with defunding the police

Republicans historically have atleast pretended to fiscally conservative which I support but I disagree with making laws about anything two or more CONSENTING ADULTS do in their bedroom

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Not to start a whole other rabbit hole of bickering, but the biggest thing to me with traffic enforcement is that there is a large percentage of people on the road driving without insurance, and if they get in an accident with you, it's up to you making sure you covered uninsured motorist, even though they are required by law to have insurance. Traffic enforcement at least gets these people ticketed and aware of issues potential with their car that lead to more accidents.

As a side note, If your state requires insurance to drive, then uninsured motorist coverage shouldn't be an available option. It should be up to the state to reimburse you for not catching an uninsured driver on the road. The current situation is a damned if you do, damned if you don't, that just makes it more expensive for people trying to follow the rules set down by the state. But I'm sure there would be unintended consequences with that set up as well, so any discussion is welcomed.

cityagboy said:

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two years in a row the Austin Police budget has been increased to higher levels than it ever has. I support that.…. Austin Police have problems and many come from within their own department. They have the money they need, or are at least not far off. People act like they were defunded of all resources. 3 years ago they had 30 million dollars (out of over 400 million) that was taken from their budget which has since been given back plus a lot more.

Austin does have problems, I won't deny that, but for a city that has increased in population as quickly as it has we are doing pretty well.

What large city should we look at as an example to follow? Most hate on Austin is simply cause it's the cool thing to do despite it still being the safest large city in Texas.

I live in austin. I work in austin. My kid goes to AISD. I have never seen a violent crime. None of my neighbors, friends, family or co-workers have personally been the victim of violent crimes. People act like it's just some lawless free-for-all and it just isn't but I understand it is the political whipping boy for some.

http://www.usa.com/rank/texas-state--crime-index--city-rank.htm?hl=&hlst=&wist=&yr=&dis=&sb=DESC&plow=&phigh=&ps=

https://www.kxxv.com/story/31935851/new-report-ranks-two-central-texas-cities-among-most-dangerous

https://propertyclub.nyc/article/most-dangerous-cities-in-texas

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Just because you don't see or know anyone who has been in a violent crime doesn't mean it's safe.
There is more to Austin than pasty white suburban neighborhoods .

It was just 3 years ago that the Austin City Council did this
https://www.texastribune.org/2020/08/13/austin-city-council-cut-police-budget-defund/

Quote:

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The Austin City Council unanimously voted to cut its police department budget by $150 million on Thursday, after officers and the city's top cop faced months of criticism over the killing of an unarmed Black and Hispanic man, the use of force against anti-police brutality protesters and the investigation of a demonstrator's fatal shooting by another citizen.

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iirc, one of those council members suggested we should blow up the police department (that dunce lost the next election)

Then earlier this year the city settled with the rioters.
The city and the police agreed on a long term contract. Then the city reneged, because they want to see the outcome of Prop A

PropA which states, and I quote:

Quote:

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Shall the voters of Austin adopt an initiated ordinance, circulated by Equity Action, that will deter police misconduct and brutality by strengthening the City's system of independent and transparent civilian police oversight?

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Prop A will pass, and no one is going to want to work for the police.
Why the **** would a cop want to work in Austin? It's a city that ****s on its cops. I haven't seen a cop stop anyone for a traffic violation on Mopac in about 2 years. Traffic goes at 80 (during non-rush hours)

In addition, this is a city that also just prosecuted a man for the crime of self defense in the middle of a riot. Can't have people defending themselves, especially against BLM. And the DA has a history of letting criminals go free, because equity. Ask any cop in Austin and they will tell you this. Assault someone with a knife? You're out the next morning.

The result is predictable. Austin is middle of the pack in crime, but is trending in the wrong direction. And a lot of the crimes aren't even being reported. You should absolutely carry if you are anyplace other than inside your suburban house