Texas Gov. Greg Abbott told Newsmax TV his state is the first to announce punishments for any city that defunds its local law enforcement agencies.
"Any city that defunds law-enforcement is going to lose their source of revenue that keeps their city open. Understand this, the reasoning behind this strategy is it makes it so the city otherwise would be incapable of operating,"Abbott told Wednesday's "The Chris Salcedo Show."
He said giving over a city to rioters has caused some of the country's best cities to devolve into disaster areas. But that won't happen in any city in Texas, Abbott said.
“We've seen what's happened in Portland with like 200 days of protest, we've seen Seattle, we've seen Chicago, New York, and you can never forget that couple in St Louis … we’re not going to allow anything like that here in the state of Texas,” Abbott said.
On Tuesday, Abbott announced he would push to freeze property tax revenue in cities that defund their local police departments.
“The city of Austin passed the budget that defunded law-enforcement …at a time when the city of Austin was rated as the city in the United States that ranked number one for the fastest increase in the number of murders this year in a year-over-year basis. If you have an increase in murders the last thing you should do is to reduce law enforcement in your city”
Abbott added, “We’re making it financially … impossible for a city to defund law enforcement in Texas.”
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