The Texas Municipal Police Association (TMPA) has set up two billboards along Interstate 35 entering Austin after the city council voted last month to reduce the local police budget. "Warning! Austin defunded police. Enter at your own risk!” one of them reads, whereas the other says: "Limited support next 20 miles”.
The billboards, which also feature the hashtag #BacktheBlue, are meant "to raise public awareness that Austin is a defunded city”, the association explained, as cited by CBS News.
Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick backed the campaign, calling the visual materials "great new billboards" in a tweet on Wednesday, with Texas Governor Greg Abbott likewise tweeting his support under the hashtag #TexasBacksTheBlue.
Abbott has called on every Texan and candidate for public office to sign a pledge against defunding the state's police departments, warning of what he sees as the imminent consequences, namely a threat to public order:
"Defunding our police departments would invite crime into our communities and put people in danger", reads the pledge. "That is why I pledge to support any measure that discourages or stops efforts to defund police departments in Texas”.
Calls to defund the police have gained momentum in recent months as a result of mass BLM protests triggered by the death of African-American man George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police during his detention in late May. The racial injustice protests have across-the-board grown into anti-police brutality rallies at large, with protesters calling to cut law enforcement budgets as they have clashed with officers scrambling to restore law and order across the US.
Supporters have said that "defunding" doesn’t boil down to axing all funding for police departments, but rather implies a reallocation of funds from law enforcement to other services that may also effectively help the community.
For instance, in Austin, the city council approved a $150 million cut in funding to the Austin Police Department last month, with the majority of the money being redirected to other social assistance departments and services. Austin Mayor Steve Adler and other council members have argued that the changes will boost public safety.
Meanwhile, he explained the changes on Twitter:
"This budget responds to concerns expressed all over the community and embodies our values as a city. New investment is focused on the underlying causes of crime", he wrote.