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Originally Posted by migol24
I never said there are cartels in Austin. But Austin is strategically vital for cartels to transport drugs to other parts of the country. There was a huge article on this last year in the Statesman when they busted that house in Pfluggerville that had loads of drugs there. It specifically claimed that Austin along with San Antonio were vital to transport the drugs to Houston, Dallas and even Atlanta because of the closeness to the border. The article also claimed that gang crime has been increasing because of this. Typically, cartels make befriend local gangs to distribute drugs.
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See, but here's the thing. People love to bash Austin for being a "sanctuary city" and for having a liberal policy on drugs (excuse me?) - but, it's usually the suburbs here that turn up POUNDS of cocaine, heroin and whatever else. Believe me, drug dealers and manufacturers LOVE the advertised image of squeaky clean suburban neighborhoods filled with people who are mostly clueless to the process of making those drugs and the clues/signs to look for it happening. It's funny, though, and actually angers me because those drug houses in Round Rock, Buda and Pflugerville are the ones harboring that stuff, but it's Austin that gets the bad label. The City of Austin and APD have no authority over what's going on in those other cities and towns.
Quote:
Originally Posted by migol24
I've only heard about S. Congress being notorious for that in the 80s and 90s.
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I've said this before, but a friend of my dad years ago used to own the house where the Great Outdoors is on South Congress. I remember going to her house and seeing prostitutes standing on Congress in front of her house. And this was at like 8 pm in the evening.
By the way, I think the campaign to stomp out prostitution on South Congress during the 90s lead to the rise in crime in other areas of the city - namely in the form of the highest murder rates the city ever saw. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad they ran the prostitutes out of there and made the place habitable again, but it came at a cost.
It's funny though that Art Acevedo gets irritated at the idea of APD having to enforce a tougher immigration policy by checking for someone's immigration status when they are being pulled over or checked out for something. His complaint is that it takes police officers off of other cases and turns them into immigration enforcement officers - something that local law enforcement is not officially tasked with doing. He doesn't like that it takes officers away from other crime happening. I find it funny, though, because while he's saying that he's tightening the grip on alcohol related cases and has been doing so for a while. Remember all the stories about the clubs in downtown that were on the list of having the cops called out to them the most? While they're making an issue of that, our crime rate has increased. Violence in downtown for the last 10 years has been largely unheard of besides a few drunk idiots dueling it out. But to hear of someone being shot or being murdered is unheard of. While every other area of the city has had murders happen year after year, downtown and Central Austin have not.