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FIRST ON FOX: Nineteen officers in the Austin Police Department have been indicted by the city’s Democratic district attorney on felony assault charges exacerbating already enflamed tensions between law enforcement and city leadership.
Austin set a new record for homicides in January 2022 – 11 – building on the record-shattering 89 homicides the city suffered in 2021. Violent crime has been on the rise in the Texas capital since the early stages of the COVID pandemic, and accelerated when the Democrat-controlled city council voted unanimously to slash the Austin Police Department’s funding by about $150 million, or about a third of its budget, in August 2020.
Police Chief Joseph Chacon(Austin Police Department)
AUSTIN DA GARZA CREATES CONFUSION WITH ANNOUNCEMENT OF IMPENDING INDICTMENTS AGAINST MULTIPLE POLICE OFFICERS
The cuts prompted a wave of retirements and departures from APD over the course of 2021.
By the time Mayor Steve Adler and the city council gutted APD’s budget, the violent riots had already come and gone. Police had cleared roads protesters had illegally occupied and faced more than one attempt by large groups of people who threw bottles and rocks at them and attempted to storm police headquarters.
Other cities such as Seattle and Minneapolis had had police precincts abandoned by leadership and occupied, and then destroyed, by rioters. Austin police had quietly stopped a breakaway section similar to Seattle’s CHOP/CHAZ from forming in the Texas capital.
Austin on Monday reported 88 newly confirmed coronavirus cases — its highest single-day increase since the pandemic began.
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Activist Jose Garza ran for Travis County District Attorney on the Democratic ticket in 2020 on a platform of prosecuting police officers and is following through on that. To date he has indicted at least 25 officers in 14 months, many on accusations on which they have…
Source : foxnews
