Boots & Sabers

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Category: Crime

America’s murder rate soars

by | 0712, 30 Sep 21 | , , | 0 Comments

Yes, I’m using the word “soars” a lot when it comes to bad things happening under our Democratic regime. It is accurate. Here is my full column that ran in the Washington County Daily News earlier this week

According to FBI statistics, America experienced the highest annual increase in the murder rate last year since the FBI began tracking national crime statistics. In 2020, America’s murder rate increased by about 29% over 2019. That is over twice the increase of the previous record-setting year, 1968. The increase in murders is not accidental. It is the direct result of bad policies being implemented across America as the bloody tip of the Democratic Party’s agenda.

 

Statistics are always dry and do not convey the true horror that they tabulate. For every “1” entered into a database, there is a life brutally ended, a family in mourning, and a community in anguish. But statistics do help us understand the scale of the problem.

 

In 2020, there were about 21,500 murders across the nation. That is the equivalent of the entire population of Germantown being slaughtered in a single year. There were about 5,000 more people murdered in 2020 than were murdered in 2019.

 

Milwaukee was even worse. While the nation experienced an average murder rate increase of about 29%, Milwaukee’s murder rate increased by 93%. More people were murdered in Milwaukee in 2020 than in any other year on record.

 

The reasons are plain to see. There has been an organized effort to demonize and demoralize the police for several years. In reaction to the sometimes real, often contrived, abusive behavior of some police officers, anarchist and Marxist organizations have seized the opportunity to demand collective punishment for individual transgressions. Not content with America’s judicial system that protects individual rights and liberties, these groups have waged war rhetorically and violently in the streets of our communities.

 

With the police’s traditional defenders cowed into silence, many police took a noticeable step back from aggressively enforcing the law. As the blue line faltered, empowered criminals pushed the boundary.

 

The real changes started to happen when Democrats — particularly those who run America’s largest cities — converted anti-police rhetoric into pro-criminal policies. They took the “defund the police” slogan to heart and cut police budgets. They changed policies to make it more difficult for officers on the streets to do their jobs. They gave criminal advocates a seat at the table to oversee police actions. They replaced the bars in the jails with turnstiles with destructive ideas like no-bail policies.

 

We are now all suffering the results of those policies. Democrats will try to claim that overall crime is down even though the murder rate is up. That is a lie. Just because they are intentionally arresting and prosecuting fewer crimes does not mean that they did not happen. If an antifa rioter punches you in the throat and the police do not arrest her, does that mean that the assault did not happen? Of course, it did, even though the assault will not show up in any crime statistics. When the police are prevented from enforcing the laws by policy and lack of resources, that does not mean that crimes are not occurring. In fact, more crime is happening.

 

That is why the murder rate is a key indicator. There is no way to sugar-coat or hide a murder. There is a corpse and someone has to explain why it is there. It is one of the few crimes that is recorded that does not require any action on the part of the police or prosecutors.

 

What can we do about the exploding crime rate? First, we have to collectively decide that we want to do something about it. Politics trail culture and there is a significant cultural movement that not only accepts more crime, but views its destabilizing effect as necessary to drive social change. Until our culture rejects that movement for the cancer it is, there will always be political support for the policies that empower criminals.

 

Second, assuming we actually want to change it, we must drive change in local elections. Most of the decisions about funding law enforcement, use of force policies, prosecutions, etc. are made by local governments, elected district attorneys, elected sheriffs, and elected judges. People make policy and we must elect people who will make policies that protect our communities.

 

Most things that happen are not the result of some mysterious force. They are the result of decisions that we make. Until we decide that we want to have less crime, it will not happen.

America’s murder rate soars

by | 0712, 28 Sep 21 | , , , | 9 Comments

My column for the Washington County Daily News is online and in print. Here’s a slice:

What can we do about the exploding crime rate? First, we have to collectively decide that we want to do something about it. Politics trail culture and there is a significant cultural movement that not only accepts more crime, but views its destabilizing effect as necessary to drive social change. Until our culture rejects that movement for the cancer it is, there will always be political support for the policies that empower criminals.

 

Second, assuming we actually want to change it, we must drive change in local elections. Most of the decisions about funding law enforcement, use of force policies, prosecutions, etc. are made by local governments, elected district attorneys, elected sheriffs, and elected judges. People make policy and we must elect people who will make policies that protect our communities.

 

Most things that happen are not the result of some mysterious force. They are the result of decisions that we make. Until we decide that we want to have less crime, it will not happen.

 

Wisconsin Government Schools Called Police About Students at Above Average Rate

by | 0818, 27 Sep 21 | , , | 2 Comments

I honestly don’t know if this is a problem or not. We don’t want teachers and administrators enforcing discipline if a student is truly committing a crime like assault or theft. It would be appropriate to call the police. So are Wisconsin’s school employees quicker on that trigger? Is there a higher degree of criminal behavior in Wisconsin’s schools? Is anyone actually doing anything wrong or is this just reflecting the reality?

Public schools in Wisconsin referred students to police twice as often as schools nationwide in 2017-18 — nine students were referred to police for every 1,000 students enrolled compared to the national rate of 4.5, a Center for Public Integrity analysis of U.S. Department of Education data found.

 

Just three states — New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Virginia — reported higher rates of referral than Wisconsin.

 

The analysis of data from all 50 states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico found that school policing disproportionately affects students with disabilities, Black children and, in some states, Native American and Latino children. Nationwide, Black students and students with disabilities were referred to law enforcement at nearly twice their share of the overall student population.

 

In Wisconsin, students with disabilities and students of color also bore the brunt of school policing. In 2017-18, Wisconsin was more likely than any other state to refer Native students to law enforcement, reporting a rate over three times higher than the rate of referral for their white peers.

Violent Milwaukee

by | 1902, 20 Sep 21 | , | 4 Comments

Frankly, until the people in Milwaukee start caring, it’s hard for me to get up the energy. I’ll just avoid going there.

Milwaukee is in the grip of the worst violence in its modern history. There were 189 killings here last year, a 93% increase from 2019 and the most ever recorded.

 

The jump reflects a nationwide trend. In one study, researchers from the nonprofit Council on Criminal Justice looked at 34 cities and found that 29 had more homicides last year than in 2019. The overall rise was 30%, though in most places killings remained below their peaks in the 1990s.

 

Among the 19 cities with more than half a million people — including Los Angeles, New York and Chicago — none saw a bigger surge than Milwaukee. With 127 killings through the first half of September, the city is nearly on pace to match last year’s record. Hughes was the 78th person killed this year.

 

[…]

 

Black officers now make up 18% of the force, which has downsized considerably over the last two decades and become much less diverse. The homicide unit has shrunk to two dozen detectives.

 

[…]

 

Milwaukee police have solved 58% of the homicides committed last year, down from 68% in 2019. The rate so far this year is 34%.

Lawmakers Introduce Anti-Riot Bill

by | 0711, 17 Sep 21 | , | 0 Comments

Meh. The problem with preventing/punishing riots doesn’t have anything to do with the laws. There are plenty of laws against destroying property, assaulting people, disrupting traffic, etc. The problem is that they happen in liberal cities where the politicians and local police lack the will to aggressively enforce those laws.

Remaining at a protest that turns violent or destructive could result in felony charges in Wisconsin under a proposal from Republican state lawmakers.

 

Sponsors say the plan is partly in response to last summer’s violence and destruction in Kenosha following the police shooting of Jacob Blake. It would create a definition of “riot” in state law and impose new penalties.

 

Under the bill, a riot would be defined as an unlawful assembly of three or more people that includes an act or threat of violence by at least one person that poses a risk or would result in personal injury or property damage, or an act that “substantially obstructs law enforcement or another governmental function.”

 

The proposal would make it a felony to participate in a riot that results in “substantial damage to property or personal injury,” with a minimum penalty of 45 days in jail and a maximum penalty of a $10,000 fine and up to three and a half years in prison. It would also make it a misdemeanor crime to attend or incite a riot or to block a thoroughfare while participating in a riot, with a minimum penalty of at least 30 days incarceration and a maximum penalty of up to a $10,000 fine and 9 months in jail.

Evers Accelerates Pardon Pipeline

by | 1244, 8 Sep 21 | , | 1 Comment

Lovely set of priorities.

Evers announced 71 additional pardons Tuesday, bringing his total since taking office less than three years ago to 263. He’s on pace to issue more pardons in three years than the nearly 300 that former Gov. Jim Doyle did over eight years. Evers has already surpassed the 262 pardons issued by Govs. Tommy Thompson and Scott McCallum over the 16 years before Doyle took office.

Evers, a Democrat, revived the dormant pardons board and made issuing pardons a priority after former Republican Gov. Scott Walker didn’t issue a single one during his eight years in office before Evers defeated him in 2018.

 

[…]

 

Evers signed an executive order on Monday creating an expedited process for pardon applicants. Under the process, the pardon board chair may send an application directly to the governor without a hearing if the person committed a non-violent crime and sufficient time has passed since the conviction.

Also, application pardons can now be sought for multiple felony convictions. Previously, pardons would only be considered for the most recent felony and earlier ones would not be considered.

Schumer Calls for Crackdown on Fake Vaccine Cards

by | 1847, 15 Aug 21 | , , | 0 Comments

So the same people who want to empty prisons, defund the police, and are cool with fake papers for illegal aliens want to throw you in federal prison if you get a fake vaccine card. I guess that says where we are…

NEW YORK — The Senate’s top Democrat says federal law enforcement officials need to crack down on fake COVID-19 vaccination cards being sold online.

 

Sen. Chuck Schumer’s announcement Sunday comes after The Associated Press reported how people are cheating the system and buying counterfeit COVID-19 vaccination cards online, worrying officials at colleges and universities across the country that are requiring proof students received the vaccine to attend in-person classes.

Victims ignored in defund the police movement

by | 0625, 10 Aug 21 | , | 0 Comments

My column for the Washington County Daily News is online and in print. Here’s a part:

Bob’s story is the kind of story happening all over America and in Wisconsin in cities where politicians and activists are tearing down civil order. Under the destructive belief that crime is a symptom of social ills in which the criminals are the greatest victims, the leftist push for deincarceration, no bail release, decriminalization, record expungement, and, most recently, defunding the police is rotting the core out of America’s cities.

 

The crime issue is not about the criminals. It is about the victims. It is about the vast majority of good people who get up every day, follow the rules, go to work, raise their children, volunteer in their neighborhoods, and write out their story in the history of their community. These are the people who suffer when criminals are loosed to savage cities. These are the Bobs who are the heart and soul of their cities and are being forced to consider leaving their beloved cities to the free-range criminal horde.

 

These are the people who Governor Tony Evers forsook when he vetoed the “Fund the Police” bill passed by the Legislature. In a move to push back against the “defund the police” movement, the bill would have simply reduced state aid to local governments that choose to defund their police by the same amount and redistributing the money to other local governments. While it would not have prevented local governments from defunding their police, it would have discouraged it and prevented state taxpayers from subsidizing local government leaders who are actively turning their communities over to criminals.

 

Wisconsin needs strong cities, but no amount of money or public policy can fix a city that has been eviscerated by crime. When the social fabric is rended and civil order collapses, the good people that Wisconsin’s cities need to thrive will simply leave. All that will remain is a wasteland of missed opportunity.

Media Begins Push to Normalize Higher Crime Level

by | 2036, 21 Jul 21 | , | 7 Comments

Here we go. This is a good example of how the media works to shape the narrative for the express purpose of swaying elections to Democrats.

A clear majority of Americans believe there is more violent crime in the U.S. today than in the 1990s, according to a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll — even though today’s violent crime rate is much lower than it was 30 years ago.

 

This common misperception doesn’t come out of nowhere: U.S. homicides rose by about 25 percent between 2019 and 2020 — the largest single-year increase since reliable tracking began in 1960 — and 2021 has seen a similar year-over-year jump, due in large part to gun violence.

 

Yet as disturbing as it is, America’s pandemic-era murder spike has not yet lifted the overall violent crime rate to anything approaching its early-1990s peak, or even the level to which it fell by the end of that decade. The fact that 56 percent of Americans now believe otherwise, according to the poll, underscores how challenging it has become to keep crime rates in perspective at a time when viral media and political polarization are making valid concerns feel like unprecedented emergencies — and how quickly and easily the politics of crime could become untethered from reality in the run-up to the 2022 midterm elections.

 

[…]

 

The question now is whether such misperceptions are getting worse — and how that widening gap might distort the politics and policy of crime going forward.

 

[…]

 

The Yahoo News/YouGov poll supports the notion that concerns about violent crime are outpacing its actual prevalence. A majority of Americans (52 percent) now describe “violent crime” as a “very big problem” in the United States — far more than the share who said the same last month about the coronavirus pandemic (36 percent), race relations (39 percent) or the economy (41 percent).

 

Make no mistake: After decreasing for decades, violent crime is up substantially and has become a major issue in a number of places in the U.S., particularly in communities of color. But we’re still far off from the level of violence seen 30 years ago.

There is nothing factually incorrect in the information presented. But ask yourself, “why is this in the news?”

Crime – particularly violent crime – has risen dramatically in the last year or so. This is a problem for Democrats who are up for election this year and next. Not only are they on record supporting idiotic mantras like “defund the police,” they have a decades-long history of supporting soft-on-crime policies, open borders, and the decriminalization of various things. The polls are showing that crime is becoming a serious issue for voters and they largely see Republicans as better on crime issues than Democrats.

In jumps the media to the rescue… the entire point of this poll and the story is to try to tell us that crime isn’t really that bad. After all, it was much worse 30 years ago. We just don’t remember it right and are blowing the issue all our of proportion. Right? You are overreacting if you think crime is a real problem. You should really be more worried about things like global warming, race issues, or any other issue that Democrats like.

No, you are not nuts if you are worried about crime. Yes, crime has risen dramatically. Yes, it was worse 30 years ago, but that doesn’t make it OK. The fact that crime is so much worse than it was 3 years ago is a huge problem. We are going in the wrong direction and we do not need to wait for it to reach the proportions of 1990 before being concerned about it.

Detroit Woman Takes Action Against Crime

by | 1213, 16 Jul 21 | | 8 Comments

This lady is my new hero.

Detroit boutique owner Bianca Chambers took action herself this week after her Mercedes-Benz vehicle was allegedly stolen.

 

Two days after the car went missing, Chambers spotted the suspect inside a local barbershop – so she went in and dragged the man along the shop’s floor by his dreadlocks, FOX 2 of Detroit reported.

 

“At that point, I was like, ‘I’m not letting this man walk again,’” Chambers told the station.

Customers at the barbershop helped Chambers make a citizens’ arrest until authorities could take over, the station reported.

 

Prior to confronting the suspect, Chambers slashed the tires on her own vehicle, parked outside the barbershop, to prevent the suspect from driving away, FOX 2 reported.

 

Before tracking down the suspect, she had called police several times about the allegedly stolen vehicle’s whereabouts – only for it to be gone by the time police arrived, the station reported.

Who Shot Ashli Babbitt?

by | 0744, 13 Jul 21 | , | 20 Comments

The veil of secrecy is thick for reasons that nobody is willing to explain.

Bartiromo asked Trump who he thought shot her.

 

“I will tell you they know who shot Ashli Babbitt. They’re protecting that person,” he replied. “I’ve heard also that it was the head of security for a certain high official — a Democrat — and we’ll see, because it’s going to come out. It’s going to come out.”

 

[…]

 

That is false, according to a senior law enforcement official briefed on the matter.

 

The official said the officer who shot Babbitt, 35, was not a member of a security detail provided to a specific member of Congress, adding that the officer has not yet returned to duty.

I reordered the linked story to make it make more sense. Here’s what happened… Trump, when asked about Babbitt, made the allegedly false claim about who did it (without naming a name). An anonymous law enforcement officer (again no name) claims that Trump is wrong, but still does not say who did it (still no name).

How insane is it that we are five months removed from the killing and we still do not know who did it? In what other circumstance would we allow this to be concealed? When an officer shoots anyone in the country – justified or not – we know the officer’s name within hours. Why are we allowing them to keep the name secret in this case? Why are we allowing them to cover up this killing? Why isn’t there an inquiry or a trial to get to the bottom of whether or not the killing was justified?

Juvenile Prison in Crisis as Evers Eats Ice Cream with Biden

by | 1315, 6 Jul 21 | , | 3 Comments

Thee is a lot of detail at the link, but the summary is below. Thank goodness for Matt Kittle and Empower Wisconsin for following up on this. We had a problem under Governor Walker and it has gotten substantially worse under Governor Evers. It has been two-and-a-half years since Evers took office promising to fix this.

Gov. Tony Evers campaigned on shutting down Lincoln Hills School for Boys, the state’s serious juvenile offender prison, The Democrat hammered his predecessor, insisting Republican Gov. Scott Walker had failed to take action. On the campaign trail Evers declared Wisconsin needed “responsible leaders who are more focused about solving problems and protecting lives than winning elections.”

 

Two and a half years after Evers took office, things have gotten a lot worse inside the walls of Lincoln Hills, according to documents obtained by Empower Wisconsin in an open records request, and the governor has repeatedly argued to delay the closing of the juvenile detention centers.

 

While Evers and Republicans have fought over funding to replace Lincoln Hills and the Copper Lake School for Girls with regional detention centers, the governor is ultimately responsible for the safety and security of the institutions. Lincoln Hills staffers say Evers’ Department of Corrections has swept worsening conditions under the rug.

 

Under Governor Evers:

 

* Sexual misconduct incidents soared 75 percent at Lincoln Hills.

 

* Youth-staff battery increased 177 percent.

 

* Group disturbances up 158 percent.

 

* Staff injuries up an astounding 4,700 percent.

 

* Staff vacancy rates are at 32 percent

Kenosha City Council Votes Unanimously to Reject Paying Damages to Blake

by | 2046, 28 Jun 21 | , | 12 Comments

It’s just the first step before the lawsuit, but good for the City Council. Justified means exactly that… justified. The police have nothing to apologize for and the city taxpayers do not owe Blake a thing.

Kenosha, WI – The Kenosha City Council voted 17-0 on Monday night to reject a $50,000 damages claim by 29-year-old Jacob Blake for his officer-involved shooting in August of 2020.

 

A claim filed by Blake’s Chicago-based legal team at Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard P.C. on March 11 sought to recover damages for medical expenses, lost wages, and “pain and suffering and disfigurement,” the Kenosha News reported.

 

Attorneys also submitted an itemization of “special damages” totaling $776,614.67, but Wisconsin state law caps the claim at $50,000.

Churches Being Burned to the Ground in Canada

by | 1613, 27 Jun 21 | , , | 2 Comments

Religious persecution in Canada.

Two more Catholic churches burned down in indigenous communities in western Canada early on Saturday.

The fires at St Ann’s Church and the Chopaka Church began within an hour of each other in British Columbia.

 

Officers said both buildings were completely destroyed, and they were treating the fires as “suspicious”.

 

Last Monday two other Catholic churches in the province were destroyed in fires, as Canada marked National Indigenous People’s Day.

“The investigations into the previous fires and these two new fires are ongoing with no arrests or charges,” Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sgt Jason Bayda said.

Hero Gunman Accidentally Killed By Police

by | 0831, 26 Jun 21 | | 2 Comments

Tragic.

John Hurley used his concealed carry pistol to shoot dead an AR-15 wielding gunman in Arvada, Colorado.

 

The gunman, Ronald Troyke, ambushed and murdered police officer Gordon Beesley on Monday.

 

Hurley was shopping nearby and heard the shooting and rushed to the scene with his concealed carry pistol.

 

He confronted and shot Troyke dead, and picked up his assualt rifle to disarm him.

 

But moments later responding police officers arrived and shot Hurley dead in a tragic case of mistaken identity, the force admitted today.

 

Police hailed Hurley as a hero for sacrificing his life to confront the shooter.

 

Witness Bill Troyanos told The Denver Channel it was Hurley who shot the gunman after making sure bystanders in the area were safe.

 

Troyanos said he was working at a store when Hurley walked in just before 1.15pm on Monday.

 

After just a few minutes of looking at the merchandise, Hurley heard gunshots and saw the gunman outside. Troyanos said Hurley then drew his gun that he had in a holster, rushed out of the store and ran toward the gunfire.

 

‘He did not hesitate; he didn’t stand there and think about it,’ Troyanos told the station. ‘I just want to make sure his family knows how heroic he was.’

Portland’s Riot Squad Resigns in Protest

by | 2055, 17 Jun 21 | , | 3 Comments

Mayhem

Portland‘s 50-person riot squad resigned in protest Wednesday in solidarity with one of their colleagues indicted for striking a photographer they claim was a rioter.

 

The resignations were effective immediately, according to the Portland Police Bureau, and come after the indictment on Tuesday of Officer Corey Budworth, for assault during and incident in which he allegedly struck photographer Teri Jacobs in the head during a riot last August.

 

‘Unfortunately, this decorated public servant has been caught in the crossfire of agenda-driven city leaders and a politicized criminal justice system,’ the Portland Police Association said in a statement Tuesday.

Here’s my favorite part:

Jacobs says she was attacked despite carrying a press card. She was not charged with any crime, and received a $50,000 settlement from the City of Portland as a result of the baton strike. Cops have continued to insist she was part of a riot which set the a government building alight with a petrol bomb.

Notice that there’s no mention of what news organization she is allegedly a part of – nor did her behavior that night indicate she was conducting journalism. She is an identified activist who was participating in the riot and she got $50k in taxpayer money for her troubles. Yet she seems to think that she should be allowed to riot at will because she was “carrying a press card” – whatever that means. She’s just another entitled urban malcontent who is happy to use the system to cash in as she rails against it.

Deadly Weekend in Milwaukee

by | 0843, 14 Jun 21 | | 4 Comments

Summer in the city.

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) — Eighteen people were shot, including six fatalities in 14 confirmed shootings throughout Milwaukee this weekend.

 

The following shootings span from 10:00 p.m. Friday, June 11 through 4:05 p.m. Sunday, June 13. UPDATE: One of the shootings was later determined by police to be self-inflicted and is no longer reflected in these numbers.

Biden, Inc. is Good Business

by | 2239, 7 Jun 21 | , , | 3 Comments

Does anyone really think that this has ended now that Papa Biden is in the White House?

The hiring was revealed in 2019, but DailyMail.com can now reveal the extensive propaganda and persuasion campaign planned by Hunter for the Romanian criminal, all while Hunter’s father was Vice President.

 

Emails on Hunter’s abandoned laptop reveal how Joe Biden’s son and his colleagues leveraged their US government connections and plotted a propaganda campaign for the grafting Romanian tycoon.

 

The arrangement raises more questions about Hunter’s dodgy business deals that threatened to compromised his father  – the vice president.

 

[…]

 

Emails show Hunter’s colleagues, partners in law firm Boies Schiller Flexner, Christopher Boies and Michael Gottlieb, seeking to set up meetings with the US Ambassador to Romania, after discussing among themselves whether he would intervene in Popoviciu’s case.

 

Hunter brought in political heavyweight and family friend Louis Freeh, the former director of the FBI, to use his US law enforcement contacts for Popoviciu’s advantage, and was offered a referral fee as a result.

 

Hunter and his colleagues also discussed a media campaign, including to major U.S. publication the Wall Street Journal, to support their client who was later found guilty of bribery.

Minneapolisians (is that a word?) Suffer After Defunding Police

by | 1839, 4 Jun 21 | , | 3 Comments

What a shame.

Welcome to Minneapolis, a city well on the way to eclipsing the violence that once saw it called Murderapolis.

 

One year after the death of George Floyd saw this city become ground zero for the defund the police movement, its people are paying for it with their blood.

 

Last night the city erupted in violence and flames once more as news that police had shot dead a black man wanted on a warrant was met with yet more looting and riots.

 

[…]

 

There have been 36 homicides so far this year, more than double the number at this point last year and more than four times that seen in 2019.

 

Car-jackings are up a staggering 222 per cent. Shootings have risen 153 per cent. Eighty per cent of the victims are black.

 

At time of writing, 211 people had suffered gunshots wounds so far this year. This time last year that figure was 81.

 

Gun theft from vehicles is up more than 100 per cent while the police department has seized 100 fewer guns this year than they had at the same point in 2020.

 

And while crime soars Minneapolis Police Department has lost one third of its force.

 

Disenfranchised and de-humanized, more than 200 police officers have either permanently left the already stretched department or signed off on disability.

Republicans Stand Up for Police and the Voters Reward Them at the Polls

by | 2202, 24 May 21 | , | 2 Comments

Something to learn here. Despite the radical rhetoric of a few, the vast majority of Americans support their police.

Eleven Democrats in the Texas House of Representatives, most of them from the Rio Grande Valley, voted with Republican lawmakers last Friday to approve a bill that was crafted in response to the City of Austin’s police budget cuts last year.

 

HB 1900 would trigger disannexation elections in parts of any city with a population of more than 250,000, in the event that the governor’s office designated the city a “defunding municipality.” The bill would also allow the state comptroller to withhold sales taxes owed to a “defunding” city and redirect it to the Department of Public Safety.

 

Those measures would make it difficult for Austin to move forward with aspects of its ongoing Reimagining Public Safety process, and could even pressure the city council to roll back cuts made to the police budget last year.

 

Politically, the vote on HB 1900 signals an emerging divide between Progressive Democrats in the larger cities of Texas and more centrist Democrats in south Texas. Republicans made significant inroads in the Rio Grande Valley in the 2020 election, improving their standing in national races, though state legislative seats in the region are still held by long-serving Democrats.

 

[…]

 

Looking ahead to the 2022 midterm election, Republican leaders are hoping to use police funding again as a wedge issue. During floor debate, Rep. Craig Goldman (R-Fort Worth), the lead author of HB 1900, described it repeatedly as “the pro-police, Back the Blue bill.” Likewise, Raymond framed the bill as an election issue, cautioning fellow Democrats, “Understand, politically, that if you don’t vote for this bill it could be misinterpreted that you are not strong on law enforcement.”

 

“Absolutely, I’d use it against you. I’d use it against you in a heartbeat,” he said. “So expect that if you (vote against it). It’s a redistricting year. Some of the districts are going to change up. And issues will come up, they just will. So think about that a little bit.”

 

Judging by the vote counts on HB 1900 and a similar bill in the senate, SB 23, that message seems to be sinking in. Democrats in both chambers of the legislature—particularly those who represent majority Hispanic constituencies in the Rio Grande Valley, San Antonio, and Houston—increasingly appear wary of falling into a GOP trap  by opposing so-called “Back the Blue” legislation.

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