SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT:

IDEAS HAVE CONSEQUENCES – OVERNIGHT – FROM FOX:   Hundreds of convicted sex offenders are no longer being monitored by sworn police officers in Austin, Texas due to the city’s move to defund the police and cut police academy classes.  As of 2019, there were about 1,600 registered sex offenders in Austin according to the state's sex offender database. There is no law preventing any of them from living near schools or other places where children tend to congregate, according to a local news report. About 650 of those cases were handled by officers who checked in on the registered sex offenders weekly to ensure they were where they reported themselves to be. But three of those officers were sent back to patrol as a result of the decision to defund the police, including slashing three cadet classes at the police academy, in August 2020. Defunding the police forced the department to cut the Sex Offender Apprehension and Registration Unit (SOAR).  Those cases once handled by sworn police officers are now being monitored by civilian employees, including two who only work part-time. The civilian monitors lack arrest authority and some question whether they are able to keep up with the increased caseload.  We now know from bitter experience that defunding the police has catastrophic consequences.  The question in Austin is whether the leftist establishment in that very un-Texas-like city actually cares.

January 8, 2022