Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Chaos in the Streets of Austin
There was a little kerfuffle in downtown Austin early this morning, resulting in several people being rushed to the hospital:
Authorities zero in on 2 suspects involved in downtown Austin shooting that left 14 injured
This is just one more incident in the parade of atrocities occurring in Demoncrat-run cities throughout the country, and will be quickly forgotten. Heck, this wouldn’t even make the news in Baltimore or Chicago. This sort of thing used to be pretty rare here, but that appears to be changing. I’m sure the city council cutting the police budget has nothing to do with it. Why, The UT Football News never even mentions that in the story linked above.
Because, of course, the reason is guns. Some random snippets from the story:
“But what we have seen in recent months and over the last year or so is an increase in gun violence,” he said, “and so this is just emblematic of that, it continues, and it’s something we’re trying to work to decrease.”
PREVIOUS COVERAGE:Austin police see troubling trend after 3 fatal shootings in less than a week
MORE:As city marks dozens of homicides in 2021, Austin police to target gun violence
If guns are the real problem, what has changed in the last year, in regard to guns, to make it so much worse?
More:Gun violence on the rise in Austin; city to accelerate prevention, intervention programs
Yeah, those “prevention, intervention” programs work well. My favorite “prevention, intervention” program is having cops on the streets who aren’t afraid of hassling criminals.
The best part of the story is the editor’s note at the very end:
Editor’s note: Police have only released a vague description of the suspected shooter as of Saturday morning. The Austin American-Statesman is not including the description as it is too vague at this time to be useful in identifying the shooter and such publication could be harmful in perpetuating stereotypes. If more detailed information is released, we will update our reporting.
Let’s see how many of you can guess what that vague description entails.
Published in Policing
Amen to that. But with the likelihood of being charged for murder when a suspect who resists arrest dies in your custody, you can say goodbye to cops that want to hassle crminals, much less arrest them. “A 911 call in that neighborhood? I’m not answering it” . . .
Then there are those leaving the force, retiring early, or not joining the profession in the first place.
Ding Ding Ding!
Right again. Here’s from KXAN, who apparently don’t care about being harmful in perpetuating stereotypes:
Vague, is that like was the suspect was wearing a green t-shirt with white stripes, or was it the suspect was wearing a white t-shirt with green stripes.
Maybe the Austin police department would like a description of skin color to go out to the public. That lowers the pool of suspects. Even though the police will have to sort out tips from the public, that’s what they do, the newspaper is not helping the process.
Gun crimes are rarely committed by lawful gun owners. They are committed by felons in possession of a firearm. The recidivism rate for felons that have possessed a firearm in prior crimes is around 73%. Guess who won’t commit gun crimes if they get the 10 year minimum sentence for just the possession of a firearm, in addition to the time for the specific crime that they committed. I know that Ricochet readers know what the answer is.
Or if they do commit additional crimes, they’ll be committed while in prison.
Politicians bleat endlessly about stricter gun control laws, but what is the first thing they trade away in plea bargains? The gun charges.
That’s so they can cry about all the “non-violent” drug offenders in prison.
Weasel-words, anyone? Trying to. Work to. Nothing!
So, like, not a skinny white kid with blonde hair? That would be a description they’d print, even though that could apply to even more people. So freakin obvious what they are afraid of!
I think they made it perfectly clear in what they printed:
They’re not worried about skinny white kid stereotypes. It’s the same thing as when French papers would describe Muslims burning cars as ‘youths’ and the ones here refer to black flash mob robberies as being perpetrated by ‘teens’. You learn to read between the lines pretty quickly on this stuff.
Once again a reminder of the “unarmed black teen” Michael Brown, the 6′ 4″, 292 lb 18-year old adult who attacked a cop and tried to take his gun.
You just blew my guess out of the water. I was thinking Irish-Chinese LBGTQ+ female.
One of the reasons I moved to Amarillo this week. I’m sickened by what’s happened to Austin. Amarillo is almost like Austin was when I moved there 24 years ago. It was time to move.
Oregon is finally getting bad enough for my youngest brother to consider leaving. I left 30 years ago.
The linked article… two things jumped out at me: 1. They’re keeping score and Chuck Whitman is narrowly in the lead. 2. Pubic safety, “gun violence”, and “Police statistics show that gun crimes went from 689 in 2015 to 1,054 in 2020” – who was President during most of that time? Hmmmmm.
once the perps are found and the real, most accurate story -hoping for truth here- gets out, it will most likely point to a series of crimes committed necessary to reach this final output. That is, I wouldn’t be surprised if this incident was the result of some illegal deal gone wrong and unlawfully-possessed firearms were drawn, etc.
the story may then go away, unless this was a Pride event for bikers and some hate-filled Mennonite arrived, armed-to-the-teeth and out of bubble gum.*
*clever, no? I am not mocking the incident; I’m mocking the news coverage and its spin that implicitly and explicitly points the finger at citizens who enjoy their rights as protected by the US Constitution as somehow being responsible for these sorts of things.
It’s more likely not that, from my guess. The city’s encouragement of “camping” anywhere in the city has resulted in downtown being over run with homeless gangs. These aren’t your normal homeless people, though those numbers are up too. The “homeless” are dominated by unelected ruffians who dictate who can camp on what spot, and they probably do shakedowns for that spot too. The “camps” consist of large and small tents, illegal fires (overpasses were twice set ablaze the past few months), and strong young men standing around who are clearly enforcers.
My point is that it needn’t have much to do with drugs, though I’m sure most are using drugs. It might not have to do with mental illness, per se. It could be just run of the mill violence that results from anarchy. A drug dealer wouldn’t shoot up 13 people. Typically they are businessmen and they only shoot enough to bolster their business. They want discrete shootings that enhance their reputation and not draw police attention.
This should be made illegal. And then let it be widely known.
Of course they don’t care, and it makes perfect sense. KXAN is awfully close to KLAN . . .
It’s always those people with you, isn’t it? Hehe . . .
Even if you want to claim that the president has more to do with what happens, in any given city, than the local police forces and mayors etc, keep in mind that Trump was being opposed and backstabbed etc by even those who were supposed to be on his side.