Rick Cofer
@rickcofer
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Partner at Cofer & Connelly Law Firm. Trial lawyer practicing criminal law.
Austin, Texas
Joined June 2009
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In more than 200 courts across 60 counties, my law firm won over 430 criminal case dismissals in 2023, on top of dozens more reductions and acquittals. Cofer & Connelly, PLLC
#WeCanDoMore
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If you have a friend who got arrested by DPS for protesting at the Capitol today, call my law office. We’ll go get them out of jail pro bono. 512-200-3801.
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Gov. Abbott issued 8 pardons in 2021, mostly for cases like low-level theft.
In 2022, Gov. Abbott granted 2 pardons.
These are incredibly rare. What was announced today is so outside the norm of pardons in Texas as to be unimaginable.
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Garrett Foster was killed protesting the killing of George Floyd.
In 2022, the Texas Board of Pardons unanimously recommended that Floyd be pardoned for a drug charge, in which a crooked cop planted drugs.
Facing pressure, Abbott got the board to yank the recommendation.
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I spoke with a twenty-year old UT student client of mine today. She was trailed by a DPS Trooper for five blocks on E. Pleasant Valley and then got pulled over. Guess what the stop was for? "Middle brake lights did not fully illuminate." 🧵
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Wtf, mate? This is not the rule of law. Texas pardons and commutations must follow strict procedures and generally apply in only narrow cases.
This is verdict nullification by Governor. Unbelievable.
BREAKING: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he is working “as swiftly as Texas law allows regarding the pardon of Sgt. Daniel Perry.”
Perry was convicted of murder Friday in Austin in the shooting death of protester Garrett Foster.
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DPS arrest data in Austin. Shocking. Horrible. End this program.
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I’m not sure what soft on crime and tough on crime even mean anymore. I was taught to follow the rules, obey my oath, and litigate through due process of law. This proposed pardon shows that politics counts more than all that.
Wherein the Governor of Texas comes out against convicted murderers serving their sentence….
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Now the man who killed Garrett Foster, while Foster protested George Floyd’s murder, will be pardoned.
George Floyd’s pardon is still stuck with the Board of Pardons.
If a fiction author wrote this, no one would believe it.
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DPS Capitol protest update: One person was arrested on two misdemeanors & one felony. The charges were reviewed by the County Attorney and District Attorney. All charges were rejected on the basis of insufficient evidence. The individual was released from jail before midnight.
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Got a report last night on the DPS patrols in Austin. Lots of garbage arrests including marijuana possession and less than a gram POCS. No one discussed with the Sheriff, so Central Booking was a cluster this weekend. A lot of the DPS arrests are rejected by prosecutors up front.
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And that's what happening in Austin. DPS Troopers, who don't care about community values, voter-approved policies, or prosecutorial guidelines, are citing and arresting people for piddly charges. Austin can do better.
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Let's talk about who DPS is arresting for possessing marijuana in Travis County.
49% - Hispanic
34% - Black
17% - White
1% - AAPI
Let's talk about the racial makeup for Travis County:
48% - White
34% - Hispanic
8% - Black
7% - AAPI
courtesy of
@daustinsanders
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Justin Nelson is the Texas lawyer behind the $787 million settlement in Dominion v. Fox.
But did you know he came *this* close to becoming Texas Attorney General in 2018? And had one of the best performances of a statewide Democratic candidate in three decades? 🧵
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This could be serious juror misconduct and result in the guilty verdict against Daniel Perry being overturned or a motion for new trial being granted.
From Daniel Perry's Motion for New Trial today:
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You don’t have to get too far east of Austin to get *really* far from Austin.
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DPS troopers patrolling Austin don't have to follow City of Austin policies protecting individual rights, due process, and our values. Example: DPS troopers can arrest people for pot, aren't subject to Police Monitor oversight, and follow DPS, not APD, rules for use of force.
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I’m back at the Austin jail helping release a UT kid from custody. People who works here are complaining about DPS creating busy work and making it harder to process actual criminals. 🧵
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Y’all dump on Blanco County, but you can still get a breakfast taco here for under $3. And the tortillas are handmade. Enjoy your $6.99 tacos in Austin. 🌮
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This statement is incorrect. DA
@JosePGarza
had ZERO to do with charges being dropped against
@AdriPerezTX
. A Municipal Court Magistrate rejected the felony charge for lack of Probable Cause.
The Judge rejected the case because DPS lacked sufficient legal basis to arrest Adri.
Statement From Attorney General Ken Paxton on Recent Violence at Texas State Capitol:
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Enjoyed visiting tonight with NBC Nightly News about the proposed Daniel Perry pardon. It's almost certain to happen, and it's wildly inconsistent with Texas law, precedent, and procedure.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott called for the pardon of United States Army Sgt. Daniel Perry, who fatally shot Air Force veteran Garrett Foster during a Black Lives Matter protest in July 2020.
@DanaGriffinNBC
has the latest.
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“How can we fix public safety in Austin?”
“Can we find someone the cops dislike, the union hates, and the public mistrusts?”
“Art Acevedo is available, and he only wants $271,000.”
“Hire him!”
“Should we have a public process?”
“God no. This won’t survive public scrutiny.”
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Why does the City of Austin need to pay McKinsey & Co $2,000,000 of taxpayer money to review City spending on homelessness? Shouldn't the newly created Homeless Strategy Office do that work? I just don't understand continuing to throw good money after bad.
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Mayor Watson: "I think everyone understands why certain areas are chosen" for directed patrols.
I don't think everyone does understand or agree with that.
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And Travis County citizens don't care about 21-year-old UT kids with dim middle brake lights and a joint in the car. But, for some reason, DPS cares about it.
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Meet APD’s partner for the special DPS “targeted enforcement” program. DPS does not share Austin values.
DPS officers took down and handcuffed a few demonstrators after they were removed from the House Gallery. They were escorted out of the Texas Capitol. I was asked to leave too, but I identified as press.
@SpectrumNews1TX
@TXCapTonight
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@atxwildcat1
No pearl clutching, just annoyed by what passes for “law enforcement.” DPS should investigate criminals, not send six cars to harass a UT kid with some weed.
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@JulieNowlin
Arresting people who possess a plant (cannabis sativa) that's legal to possess for a majority of Americans is stupid and a waste of resources. What message do those arrests send?
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Terrible, terrible idea. DPS troopers, especially in Austin, are notoriously bad cops. Insensitive to community concerns, uninterested in de-escalation, and ignorant to Constitutional protections.
Get ready for a ton of illegal detentions, searches, and seizures.
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Guess what happens next? The paperwork will get processed at JP5 and then
@DeliaGarza
will reject the case. Just like all of these cases are rejected.
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Sixty years ago today, President Kennedy was to deliver these remarks at an evening fundraiser in Austin. He intended to settle discord between liberal and conservative factions of the Texas Democratic Party. The speech was never given. His remarks began:
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50% decline in tickets issued by DPS in JP3, the Whitest precinct in Travis County. Only 6 citations issued by DPS.
50 times more tickets were issued by DPS in Hispanic Precinct 4 than in Anglo Precinct 3.
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Please reach out to
@GregCasar
,
@chitovela3
,
@joseforatx
,
@VanessaForATX
, &
@ZoForAustin
and thank them for raising their voices against DPS in Austin. No one can hide behind the excuse of "I didn't know" anymore. The facts and data are public. This program must end.
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The Texas legislature approved a law for the removal "Rogue Prosecutors" yesterday. The law is likely unconstitutional and will prove ineffective at the primary goal of supporters: removing progressive prosecutors, like Travis County District Attorney José Garza, from office. 🧵
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I mean, really, who decided to unleash DPS on Austin's mainly Black and Hispanic neighborhoods without even having a goal or a plan? Idiocy. And arrogance.
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DPS issued 250 more tickets in heavily Hispanic JP4 in 2023 compared to the same dates in 2022. That's a 631% increase.
The data in heavily Anglo JP3 will surprise you.
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APD analyst won't answer which specific neighborhoods DPS is patrolling. Why not?
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Because, maybe, just maybe, the Trooper had Probable Cause to issue a citation. But the Trooper failed to gather sufficient evidence to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt.
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Shocking. DPS Col. McCraw: "We operate the in the area that APD wants us to."
In other words, despite their denials, it was Chief Chacon and APD who sent DPS into largely Hispanic and Black neighborhoods.
APD has known since day one what they were doing and what was happening.
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Naturally, this freaked out my client, because she'd never been in trouble before and had no idea why six troopers/cops showed up and surrounded her vehicle.
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The trooper had my terrified client get out of her car, and then he proceeded to search the vehicle. He didn't ask for her consent. He just searched it.
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Good Evening
@TxDPS
, may I please schedule a ride-along with the targeted enforcement program in Austin? My phone number is 512-200-3801. Thank you.
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He just assumed it was illegal marijuana instead of perfectly legal hemp. Whether it's called marijuana or hemp, it's all the same plant: cannabis sativa. The only difference is THC content.
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It's past time to acknowledge that Austin's approach to homelessness has failed.
The 2017 Point-In-Time Count found 2,197 people experiencing homelessness in Austin. By 2023, that number was 5,530.
That's a 152% increase in 6 years. Whatever Austin is doing, it's not working.
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A DPS trooper claimed her vehicle smelled like marijuana. Then he called for backup, and three additional squad cars showed up.
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He found "a green leafy substance that had the texture and smell of marijuana." He did NOT field test the substance to determine if it was indeed marijuana. He did NOT weigh the substance.
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The Statesman editorial board gets it. DPS and Austin City Leaders - please release your data. Please stop stonewalling requests for public information. If you have nothing to hide, just be transparent.
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So with no field testing, no weighing, and no way to determine if the green plant was legal or illegal, the DPS Trooper issued a Class B misdemeanor citation to my client.
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Here's what the DPS program in Austin means in the real world. It's just a dragnet to stop people, do lame searches, and arrest them for low-level charges that the Prosecutors reject anyway. 🧵
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Community groups call for an end to APD, DPS partnership - Austin Monitor
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Less than 0.3% THC content is perfectly legal hemp. More than 0.3% THC content is illegal marijuana.
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I’m at the jail begging a judge to reject this BS arrest and charges so my pro bono undocumented client doesn’t get slapped with an ICE hold and deported for driving while Hispanic
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DPS isn't running a public safety program in Austin. DPS is running a dragnet in heavily Hispanic and Black neighborhoods. People will be shocked when the data comes out. I'm hearing 90% of folks arrested by DPS through this program are people of color.
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A guy stopped us on the trail today and asked, “What’s Town Lake?”
Don’t forget that Austin has a lot of newcomers. They bring heart and energy. And it behooves old-timers to be kind, welcoming, and patient.
That’s the approach my Austin-native sweetie takes at least.
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With great affection and admiration for my wonderful friend
@KatieNaranjo
, I think we may now have the best County Chair in Texas serving Blanco County!
Welcome
@GloriaCampos
! I grew up in Plano watching you nightly on WFAA.
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@TX_Libtard
Remember, DPS pulled troopers off of I-35 between Waco & San Antonio so they could drive around Austin and stop people for expired registration.
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Really important issue raised today: We don't know how the City of Austin got into the DPS enforcement program. And we don't know how the City of Austin can get out of it.
Is there an exit strategy?
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The fentanyl bust that Gov. Abbott crows about has no connection in any way whatsoever with the DPS traffic enforcement program in Austin.
Some low-level DPS troopers were assigned months and years ago to a DEA-led task force. It's completely unrelated to the DPS dragnet in ATX.
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The Austin City Council meets in work session today at 9:00 AM. The first agenda item is a briefing on the DPS enforcement program. You can view it here:
What do thoughtful citizens need to know about this meeting and the DPS program? 🧵
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I don’t think everything was better 30 years ago and I don’t think everything is better today. But I had to go to South Congress to buy a necktie. And, my lord, that place is a soulless den of consumerism and retail now. I don’t hate Hermes, but I’d rather have Lucy in Disguise.
@rickcofer
Complete BS. If you can’t live the good life in Austin, my hunch is you ain’t capable of living the good life. So many amazing pockets of people and places. Spend some time off Twitter.
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Let's talk about cowardice and courage among Austin City Leaders in regards to DPS and the Texas legislature. 🧵
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Folks - you can go into any Austin neighborhood, detain 10,000 people, and make plenty of arrests for drug possession, warrants, and parole violations.
Surprise, surprise, if you target only minority neighborhoods, you'll arrest only people of color.
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Four people have called me about an important meeting today amongst the key players on the DPS program. The truth about how bad this has been is about to come out. Get ready.
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Hearing several reports about yesterday's meeting with CA Delia Garza, DPS, & County/City leaders that City Manager Garza was prickly and defensive when confronted with data showing disparate impact on minority Austinites, and refused to acknowledge a problem with DPS in Austin.
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"DPS says its officers on the task force conducted over 1,570 traffic stops."
I'd love to see the racial breakdown of these stops. DPS doesn't follow the same racial profiling policies as APD.
@AutulloAAS
has a great piece up on this issue right now.
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@romor6425
I don’t have a dog in that hunt. I’m shocked by the pardon proposal. It flies in the face of due process of law.
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Where's APD and DPS data on the DPS enforcement program in Austin? Travis County leaders have been forthcoming and transparent in making real data available to the public. APD and DPS are stonewalling. 🧵
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Travis County early vote turnout is awful at 2.88%. Small electorates can do weird things.
4.56% - Denton
4.55% - Hidalgo
4.52% - Comal
4.20% - Hays
4.13% - Collin
4.02% - Lubbock
3.85% - Williamson
3.36% - Tarrant
3.15% - Bexar
2.97% - Harris
2.94% - Dallas
2.88% - Travis
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@yourminuteisup
@JulieNowlin
But who cares? It's a dumb law. It's like arresting people who have a six pack in the back seat. What's the point? The problem in Austin isn't people driving around with CBD flower in the car. The problem is we don't have enough homicide, child abuse, and sex crimes detectives.
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Are any Austin Democratic elected officials supporting the DPS enforcement program? The issue deserves a real dialogue, not just yelling on twitter.
Let's have a thoughtful discussion at a forum. Your time is valuable, so I'll donate $10,000 to the charity of your choice.
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Another DPS in Austin supporter. About 50% of the pro-DPS comments have this type of racist language.
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Exercising your constitutionally protected right to refuse a police officer consent to search you, your car, or your home does not give police reasonable suspicion to search. 🧵
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If Paxton hadn’t called for Phelan to resign, would impeachment proceedings have moved forward? This seems like a huge FAFO moment.
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Courthouse security, pretrial services officers, judges, and jail staff say that DPS arrests (the majority of which are rejected by judges and prosecutors) are making work more difficult and distracting from addressing actual criminals.
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Here's what people aren't getting about the DPS targeted enforcement program, and why bringing in DPS doesn't address the major problems causing increased crime in Austin. 🧵
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Howdy to Texas’s newest resident, Elizabeth Holmes, who today starts her 135 month sentence at FPC Bryan in Brazos County.
Under the old good time credit system, she’s looking at release in about 9 years. Under new “earned time credit,” she’s facing about 8 years at BOP.
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Here are the Austin jail bookings from 3/30 to 4/2:
APD - 222
DPS - 61
TCSO - 38
DPS is arresting 27% of what APD alone was doing. Are these drug cases? No Driver's license? Marijuana? How many of the gun arrests are for gun + marijuana, when the gun is otherwise legal?
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Prof. Laurin knows criminal justice backwards and forwards. The self-congratulatory back-patting won’t age well when it comes out that about 50% of these DPS charges are getting rejected. DPS is doing law enforcement theater, and little more.
@KUT
I am one of your biggest fans. But please don't report a story about a month-to-month crime drop without making clear that it would be sheer speculation to attribute that drop to DPS's presence rather than, oh, the weather, no SXSW, uptick in seersucker . . . .
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Are DPS and Austin leaders hiding information and data about the DPS enforcement program?
I'm aware of at least a dozen Open Records Requests pending with DPS and the City of Austin. Both entities are stonewalling at this time. 🧵
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Today a client died by his own hand. I've lost three clients to suicide during my career. All were veterans. All had been previously deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan. All were charged with low-level offenses. The tragedy of war lasts long beyond when a solider returns home.
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@MartinHarryFL
@TexasStateBar
All prosecutors prioritize different offenses and statutes. How many Driving While License Invalid (DWLI) cases are prosecuted compared to Driving While Intoxicated (DWI)? As a taxpayer, I absolutely want the hammer dropped on DWI. I don't care so much about DWLI.
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I think Martin is saying the quiet part out loud. Again we see the canard from DPS in Austin supporters that wealthy Anglo neighborhoods have minimal traffic violations and drugs, and that minority neighborhoods are crime-ridden.
@rickcofer
You are implying that innocent people of color get ticketed and guilty white people do not. Unless you can produce an example of either, you should be more careful. Another possible explanation is that there is a different rate of offending in these communities, which you ignore.
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Add in the hundreds of garbage DPS arrests, and our downtown jail is overwhelmed. That hurts public safety and makes it harder to focus on people who commit violent crime.
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Justin Nelson is already a proven vote-winner. He's one of the most brilliant attorneys in the United States. And now he's worth a large fortune. If he chooses to seek state office again, he will instantly be the most likely Democrat to win in Texas.
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Tony's front page story today perfectly captures what's really going on with the DPS enforcement program in Austin. Thanks for getting to the truth
@tplohetski
.
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Tonight my law firm sponsored Justice & Drag, the Austin Bar LGBT Section's annual event. Good times by all. What's one of the dumbest, cruelest, (and most unconstitutional) laws on the books in Texas? Tx. Penal Code 21.06. It's still never been repealed by the Lege.
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Currently, the County has starting pay for Deputies below the starting pay for a Cashier at Buc-ee’s. That makes it incredibly difficult for the Sheriff to staff central booking.
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Breaking: DPS arrested 714 people between 3/30 and 5/6. Guess how many of those arrests were for marijuana possession? 242. That's right. Over 1/3 DPS arrests during "Targeted Enforcement" were for marijuana.
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City Manager Garza says that "we need to admit that targeted patrols make people safer."
Yes, if you turn East Austin into occupied territory à la East Berlin, you'll see crime go down.
But who wants to live in a police state?
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@dieworkwear
Struggling to find an appropriate belt for these shoes. Worn with dark blue travel suit. Thoughts?
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Shhh. No one tell DPS. There might be marijuana at Eeyore's!
Heading to Eeyore's Birthday Party this Saturday? There is no parking at Pease Park, so here are the best ways to get to the party:
🚐 Take the free shuttle from downtown
🚌 Ride
@CapMetroATX
Route 5 or 18
🚴🚶♀️ Bike or walk the Shoal Creek Trail
More info:
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Mayor Watson notes that APD has more than 300 vacant officer positions, which is causing real impacts on the City's ability to respond to calls for assistance.
Important point: the DPS traffic program has nothing to do with responding to calls for service. Not one thing.
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This DPS Program is going to blow up on the City of Austin just like Greg Hamilton’s ICE cooperation blew up on him and got him forced out of his job.
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During those exact same dates, the total number of tickets in heavily Anglo JP3 (West Austin) dropped from 12 to 6. That's a 50% reduction.
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Why did the City of Austin partner with Gov. Abbott's DPS instead of Sheriff Sally Hernandez's TCSO for enhanced traffic enforcement?
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The Commissioners Court really needs to approve increasing base wages for corrections and law enforcement deputies to address the staffing issue.
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