On Nov. 2, Austin voters will decide on a ballot initiative requiring the hiring of two officers per 1K residents
America-hating billionaire George Soros is stepping up his efforts to personally increase the violent crime rate in America’s cities. Not content to just sponsor pro-crime DA’s who release and/or fail to prosecute criminals, Soros is now pouring money into defund the police efforts.
As cities, some of them on the down low, have been refunding police they previously defunded or are increasing hiring due to police forces being decimated by low morale fueled by lack of local support, ridiculous pro-crime policies, and various WuFlu-related mandates, Soros is busily shelling out money to keep crime up, criminals on the streets, and fewer police to keep communities safe.
His latest target is reportedly Austin, Texas. Last year, Austin gleefully leapt on the defund the police bandwagon and cut its police budget by nearly a third. “Unexpectedly,” violent crime skyrocketed to the point that the city recently told citizens not to call 911 unless they really really needed to.
The Wall Street Journal reported last week:
Beginning this month, the Austin Police Department has asked the public not to call 911 for “non-emergency situations” if “there is no immediate threat to life or property,” “where crimes are no longer in progress,” and “when the suspect(s) are no longer on scene or in sight.” The directive applies to burglaries, thefts, prostitution, vandalism, and several other crimes. The police urged victims and witnesses to call 311 or file a report online instead.
The police department says this will reduce contact between police and the public amid a pandemic. But the new policy is also in large part “a result of recent staffing challenges that we have had, and as we are working through those, we are looking to see how we can deploy staff in the most appropriate manner” and respond “to those calls that need them the most,” said Chief of Police Joseph Chacon in a news conference in late September.
In fiscal 2020-2021, the Austin police budget was $292.9 million, down from $434.5 million the previous year. The City Council slashed $31.5 million directly from the police budget last year.
It also put $121.7 million in a reserve fund that was intended to “decouple or reimagine some public-safety functions” from the police department but which ended up funding police operations, says Alicia Dean, a spokesperson for the city. The City Council also canceled three cadet classes and cut 150 officers from the budget last year, says City Councilor Mackenzie Kelly, an outspoken supporter of the police.
Apparently, the city tried to hire back at least one officer for a $5k “signing bonus” type deal plus extra benefits. He was livid.
A former Austin, Texas police officer who left the force amid the city’s move to defund the police sent a scathing letter to the department rejecting their offer to hire him back.
“I am personally offended by your offer,” the former officer wrote in a letter obtained by Fox News in response to the city’s offer of $5,000 plus extra benefits for returning to duty. “I did not leave APD for money. I suspect my peers did not either. No amount of money could make me return. The offer from the chief shows just how out of touch he is with his officers. What we crave is leadership. The one thing that has been consistently withheld.”
The former officer, who identified as a military veteran, went on to explain in the letter that failed leadership is the reason for the decision to leave the department.
“The working environment within APD is one of the most dangerous in the nation,” the former officer wrote. “Not because of the hazards each officer faces in the streets, but because of the senior leaders that have no formal professional development leader training, do not value each officer as a person, push all responsibility to the patrol officer level, and holds them to unrealistic expectations.”
As the city of Austin struggles under increased crime and angry citizen backlash, Soros poured $1M into efforts to stop them hiring more police.
The Washington Free Beacon reports:
Left-wing billionaire George Soros is throwing at least a million dollars behind an effort to stop the hiring of hundreds of new police officers in Austin, Texas, according to campaign finance documents reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon.
The Hungarian-born political activist gave $500,000 through the Soros-backed Open Society Policy Center to a political action committee in opposition to a ballot initiative that forces the city to employ two police officers per 1,000 residents.
Soros’s donation, made on Oct. 12, is his second of the month and comes as Austin experiences a decades-high spike in violent crime. The city has seen at least 67 homicides this year, the highest since at least 1981. Aggravated assaults are also up at least 10 percent, following a 26 percent spike in 2020.
On Oct. 1, the Open Society Policy Center cut its first $500,000 check to Equity PAC, a Texas-based political organization that backs left-wing causes. The donation is the latest example of Soros’s involvement in various left-wing causes at the local level. In 2020, Soros donated over $600,000 to a Texas-based left-wing group that backed the election of José Garza, who now serves as district attorney for Travis County, where Austin sits.
Since 2015, Soros has spent more than $17 million on various local races, including donations to left-wing prosecutors and state legislators. Virtually every candidate backed by Soros and the Open Society Foundations has supported a dramatic reduction in or elimination of cash bail and other policies critics say lead to higher crime.
. . . . Voters will decide on the ballot initiative at the polls on Nov. 2 or via early voting from Oct. 18 through Oct. 29. Estimates for the cost of hiring new officers range from $54 million to $120 million a year, per the city’s chief financial officer.
It’s not clear how the vote will go, but Austin is blue. Really really blue. It’s chock full of tech and other industries that fled California after their leftist voting choices made the state an uninhabitable hellhole. They’re voting the same way in Austin. Go figure.
