February 22, 2021
While cities like Baltimore and Denver cut police budgets by 3% or 10%, Austin cut its by a third $150 million.
SHOW TRANSCRIPT
Over the summer, chants to “defund the police” rang out across the country. But hardly anyone cut their police budget by as much Austin, Texas. While cities like Baltimore and Denver cut their budgets by 3% or 10%, Austin cut APD s budget by a third $150 million.
And they ve already started spending that money on other programs buying two hotels with plans to convert them into permanent supportive housing for the homeless. The Black Lives Matter movement really ascended in our cities, it created an opportunity for us to move the dollars that so often are used to police homelessness to throw people in jail for a night and then to send them back onto the streets to take those same dollars, and use them to actually operate the hotels, Austin city council member Greg Casar said.
KUT
The Texas Department of Public Safety closed the state Capitol grounds and increased security from Saturday through Inauguration Day on Wednesday in response to warnings of armed protests.
Anticipating violence from armed demonstrators, the Texas Department of Public Safety said it will close the state Capitol grounds ahead of Inauguration Day.
The grounds will be closed Saturday through Wednesday.
In an announcement Friday evening, DPS Director Steve McCraw said the agency was acting out of an abundance of caution and that it had been made aware of events planned by violent extremists ahead of Joe Biden s inauguration Wednesday.
“The Texas Department of Public Safety is aware of armed protests planned at the Texas State Capitol this week and violent extremists who may seek to exploit constitutionally protected events to conduct criminal acts,” McCraw said. “As a result, DPS has deployed additional personnel and resources to the Capitol and are working closely wit