Elon Musk warns in opposition to turning Austin, Texas right into a ‘San Francisco copycat’
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has warned Austin, Texas, of becoming a “San Francisco copycat” while an upcoming city election is set to upgrade the city’s police infrastructure in response to an earlier budget cut.
The city council decided last August to cut $ 150 million, or a third of the city’s police budget. This was the biggest cut of any major city in the US.
“Austin should be his city, not a copycat of San Francisco,” Musk said in a tweet on Sunday.
The tweet comes as local elections are held in the city on Tuesday to vote on “Proposition A,” an ordinance that includes a number of measures to increase the police force and provide them with additional training.
Mr Musk also announced last month that Tesla’s headquarters were moving from Palo Alto, California, to Austin.
“I am pleased to announce that we are moving our headquarters to Austin, Texas,” he said during Tesla’s annual shareholders’ meeting on October 7th.
“It’s hard for people to buy houses, and a lot of people have to come from far away. We’ve taken it as far as we can, but … there’s a limit to how big you can scale it in the Bay Area, “he added.
“Here in Austin, our factory is about five minutes from the airport and 15 minutes from downtown, and we’re going to create an ecological paradise here because we’re right on the Colorado River. It is going to be great.”
Save Austin Now, an organization that claims to be a “non-partisan civic group,” opposed the measure to cut the city’s police budget and supported Proposition A.
On Monday, the group tweeted a response to Mr Musk’s tweet.
The group wants at least two policemen for every thousand inhabitants, which is mentioned in the ordinance.
Proposal A aims to encourage additional training of police officers and provide several incentives to police officers who speak additional languages, among a number of proposed actions.
According to the Austin government’s official website, the ordinance also required police officers to “complete an additional 40 hours of compulsory education and training per year.”
Austin City Council voted to cut $ 150 million, or a third of its police budget, in August last year following the assassination of George Floyd, which sparked massive nationwide protests and calls for the defunding of law enforcement agencies.
Austin city councilor Greg Cesar, who spearheaded the police budget cut, said the vote was a moment to “celebrate what the movement for security, racial justice and democracy has achieved”.
Austin City Council decided to invest that money in other public services.
However, a Fox News report claimed that Austin murders had increased nearly 71 percent since the vote.
