(Headline USA) “Squad” Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas, is under fire this week for requesting additional security in his neighborhood from the Austin Police Department after he voted to defund the department back in 2020.
Casar reportedly made the request through the U.S. Capitol Police, which forwarded the request to the Austin Police Department, according to Fox News.
He did not specify what threat or reason that justified the additional security, and U.S. Capitol Police said in a statement that it would not comment on “any of the potential security measures that are available to all of the members of Congress.”
Casar’s request comes just days after he sent a letter to the Justice Department accusing the Austin Police Department of racism and discrimination against people with mental health issues.
There is a “need for systemic reforms to the Department’s policies and practices of excessive and lethal use of force, racial discrimination, and discrimination against people with mental health conditions,” Casar wrote.
He was also a prominent advocate of defunding the Austin Police Department in the wake of the Black Lives Matter riots. At the time, Casar was a member of the Austin City Council and celebrated the budget cuts that he helped push through.
“We did it!!” Casar tweeted in August 2020. “Austin City Council just reduced APD’s budget by over $100 million *and* reinvested resources into our community’s safety and well-being.”
We did it!! Austin City Council just reduced APD's budget by over $100 million *and* reinvested resources into our community's safety and well-being. Tens of thousands of you have called, emailed, and testified. You made the impossible into a reality. #blacklivesmatter pic.twitter.com/trrYSDEOK6
— Greg Casar (@GregCasar) August 13, 2020
Former Austin police officer Dennis Farris, who also serves as president of the Austin Police Retired Officers Association, blasted Casar as a hypocrite.
“A week ago, he was calling the Austin Police Department a racist department that targeted black and brown people, and this week he’s asking the exact same department to do enhanced patrols around his house,” Farris told Fox News.
Farris added that the department takes seriously its responsibility to keep everyone— including Casar—safe, but noted that there may not be enough resources available to the police because of Casar’s policies.
“It doesn’t matter what political party they’re in. If they ask us for our help, we will give it to them. The last thing we want is something happening to them,” Farris explained.
However, “My issue with it … [is] the whole, ‘We hate the cops, we hate the cops, we hate the cops. Oh, please, come help us now,'” Farris added. “He is the architect. He is the architect of defund the cops in Austin. He started this whole mess.”
