[ad_1]
Do you remember those exhilarating days in early July when it looked like everything was about to get back to normal? Restaurants were booming, shops were open, people were hugging, music was playing, the cover of the Chronicle was “Live Is Live Again!” … Ah, the good old days.
Well, we’re still in the weird pandemic time warp, folks, where a year can go by while you’re sitting on your couch or the world can turn upside down overnight. Live was live last week, but by the time you’re reading this we will likely be back in phase 4 of the COVID lockdown: indoor masks, take-away food, essential travel and shopping only, elbows instead of handshakes … not because it’s one Government mandate, but because that’s how we get to the other side – unfortunately at the time when all the unvaccinated got as sick as they get and either recovered or died.
Wow, that got dark quickly. Read more about this week’s pandemic news here.
So this makes it a difficult time to start a petition campaign, especially if you need “20,000 signatures by July 20th” and didn’t announce the initiative until July 2nd. But there it is: the Austin Freedom Act, which aims to get a decriminalization ordinance for the town pot on the November ballot. The move is the first initiative by Ground Game Texas, a new Democratic organizing group founded by Julie Oliver and Mike Siegel, both two-time Dem-Congressional candidates in two of the Austin counties that have been designated as safe Republican. So you know that they are not averse to facing steep battles.
The proposed regulation to create Title 16 in the City Code, entitled “Austin Freedom Act of 2021”, contains two chapters:
• Eliminate the enforcement of marijuana
• Prohibition of no-knock warrants
The first part, decriminalization, is the catch – the main item in the press releases and leaflets – but the second part may be the bigger deal for police reform advocates and the police themselves. The “no knock arrest warrant” is a major target for police reformers nationwide.
The full text of this Chapter 16-2 is remarkably short and categorical: “No Austin police officer may solicit, execute, or participate in an enforcement warrant that does not require the officer to knock and announce his presence and wait at least 15 seconds before execution . “And,” Any violation of this chapter could result in disciplinary action against an Austin police officer under the terms of the Texas Local Government Code, Chapter 143, or city guidelines. “And in that short, you can’t, and you will punished if you do – is a clear message: this time-tested police tactic, which has been used by the good guys in action films and cop shows for decades, is fundamentally wrong and needs to be removed from the playbook.
As such, it would be an interesting counterpoint to the November vote on the SAN Pro Police proposal, which among other things uses more police officers (more on this here). Whether it will come to that is unclear, but if you’d like your support you can sign the petition and get more information about GGT at groundgametexas.org/austin.
[ad_2]
