Gov.ย Greg Abbottย signed into law a slate of legislation Tuesday that targets protesters and restricts citiesโ abilities to reduce police budgets.
In a ceremony attended by state law enforcement associations and bill authors, Abbott signed four Republican-backed bills aimed at widespread protests over police killings of Black and Hispanic Americans and calls toย reduce spending on law enforcement.
House Bill 9, a priority bill for the lower chamber, requires jail time for people who knowinglyย block emergency vehicles or hospital entrancesย after a California incident last September in whichย the sheriffโs department saidย protesters blocked a police car with two injured officers from entering a hospital.
Similarly,ย House Bill 2366ย makes it a felony to use fireworks to interfere with official police activity or use laser pointers to cause bodily injury to officers. Prior to the bill, using a laser pointer was only a misdemeanor offense.
Critics have decried both bills asย overly punitive, while Abbott and other supporters have called them necessary to keep law enforcement safe.
The other bills create two new barriers to big cities that wish to reduce their law enforcement budgets. Abbott called police budget reductions โdownright dangerousโ and a โreckless decisionโ in a press release after signing the legislation.
Although calls to โdefund the policeโ can mean several things, they usually include reallocating money to other social services or investing in alternative public safety programs.
Last August, the Austin City Council voted toย cut and reallocateย a third of its police departmentโs then-$434 million budget. Some of the money was redirected to violence prevention and food access programs, while other funds were reduced so duties like forensic sciences and victimsโ services could be moved to other departments.
Abbottย criticized the decision, saying at the time that it โpaves the way for lawlessness.โ
Underย House Bill 1900, if a municipality with a population over 250,000 reduces its law
enforcement budget, the state would deduct money from its sales tax and ban the city from increasing property taxes or utility fees. Any areas annexed within the last 30 years could vote to de-annex, and the municipality would be banned from annexing any further areas.
Senate Bill 23ย applies to counties with a population over 1 million, requiring them to hold elections before reducing or reallocating their law enforcement budgets. Counties that do so without voter approval would have their property tax revenue frozen.
Both bills make exceptions for budget reductions in the face of disaster declarations, and HB 1900 also exempts municipalities that only reduce their law enforcement budgets at the same percentage that they reduce their overall budgets.
Still on Abbottโs desk are bills thatย ban unnecessary police chokeholdsย and require officers toย administer first aidย andย keep their body cameras onย for the entirety of an investigation.
This article was written by MEGAN MUNCE of The Texas Tribune.ย The Texas Tribune is a nonpartisan, nonprofit media organization that informs Texans โ and engages with them โ about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.ย This article originally appeared at:https://www.texastribune.org/2021/06/01/texas-abbott-defund-police-protest/ย