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How quickly times change.A little over a year ago, Austin, TX was at the forefront of a group of liberal American cities that wanted to defund their police departments. As the story went in places like the Texas capital, criminals weren’t the problem, the police were.After more than a year of watching violent crime rates go up, the voters of Austin will soon have a chance to re-fund the very police that they took money away from last yearCity Journal:QuoteIt was a decision made in the dead of the night: on June 20, 2019, at 2 A.M., Austin’s city council legalized homeless camps and panhandling. A year later, in August 2020, the council voted to defund the city’s police budget by more than a third. These decisions sparked immediate consequences for public order—and eventually a fierce backlash from a not-so-silent majority that rejected the council’s progressive agenda on homelessness (though the effects of these policies linger in parts of the city).This November, Austin voters will have another chance to vote in favor of restoring order. Pending the outcome of Proposition A, Austin could become one of the first major American cities to have its citizens vote to “refund” and restaff the police.
It was a decision made in the dead of the night: on June 20, 2019, at 2 A.M., Austin’s city council legalized homeless camps and panhandling. A year later, in August 2020, the council voted to defund the city’s police budget by more than a third. These decisions sparked immediate consequences for public order—and eventually a fierce backlash from a not-so-silent majority that rejected the council’s progressive agenda on homelessness (though the effects of these policies linger in parts of the city).This November, Austin voters will have another chance to vote in favor of restoring order. Pending the outcome of Proposition A, Austin could become one of the first major American cities to have its citizens vote to “refund” and restaff the police.
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Topic: Buyer's Remorse—Re-fund the Police on Ballot in Austin (Read 584 times)
