Gov. Greg Abbott asks Texas politicians to sign ‘pledge’ not to support defunding police

Updated at 5:06 p.m. to include developments in Dallas City Council’s debate of police overtime budget cuts and tweets by Republicans, Democrats reacting to Abbott’s move.

AUSTIN — Emphasizing a Republican theme in this fall’s election, Gov. Greg Abbott is calling on Texans — and especially candidates for office — to take a public pledge that they will oppose “defunding police departments.”

In a video Abbott released Wednesday, he urged residents and candidates, “regardless of political party,” to go to his campaign website and sign the “Texas Back the Blue Pledge.”

“Sign the pledge and post it on social media at 2 p.m. this Thursday, Sept. 10, using the hashtag #TexasBacksTheBlue to show your support for our brave law enforcement officers,” the Republican governor implored.

Abbott is scheduled to hold a news conference in Austin at that time Thursday at the offices of the Austin Police Association. He and other state leaders will sign the pledge and “also announce a new legislative proposal to protect police funding in communities across the state,” according to an advisory from Abbott’s campaign.

The move comes as President Donald Trump has been seeking to put Democrats on the defensive by baselessly saying his opponent Joe Biden and many Democrats support defunding the police.

Biden opposes the idea, as do many Texas Democrats, such as state Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston.

Coleman, who is the fifth-most senior House member and heads its County Affairs panel, said it’s an “idiotic” and misleading GOP attack — because neither he, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner nor Biden supports defunding the police.

“There is no definition for that,” he said. “In Houston, we need more patrol officers. We’ve never had enough per capita. Do we need — and I would say on the state level too — alternative forms of public safety? You’re damned right we do. But that doesn’t mean you have to take it away from police budgets.”

Still, Abbott, who seized on a recent vote by the Austin City Council to cancel three upcoming police cadet classes and shift a small portion of its police budget to alternative forms of policing, has threatened to push through the Legislature a bill that would decrease property tax revenues for any city cutting police budgets.

Some have criticized the proposal by Abbott and other state GOP leaders as an unnecessary move that could hamstring local governments as they adjust to economic downturns.

On Wednesday, Democrats criticized Abbott for allegedly trying to distract voters from his and Trump’s mishandling of the coronavirus outbreak and his own, nearly decade-long resistance to a class-action federal lawsuit over Texas foster care, which has exposed state failures to provide for abused and neglected youngsters.

Many Democrats noted Abbott acted on the same day that CNN and The Washington Post reported that Trump acknowledged to journalist Bob Woodward that he played down the virus earlier this year, despite being aware it was “deadly” and far more of a threat than seasonal flu.

“Abbott doesn’t want Texans to focus on the 13k+ #COVIDTX deaths on his watch or the foster kids abused & dying from Abbott incompetence,” tweeted Matt Angle, a North Texas strategist and veteran of Democratic campaigns.

Coleman and House Democratic Caucus chief Rep. Chris Turner of Grand Prairie issued a joint statement in which they said, “We oppose defunding the police. In fact, we’re not aware of anyone in the Legislature or running for the Legislature who does not hold the same view.”

Meanwhile, some Republican lawmakers rushed to sign the pledge. Rep. Jeff Leach, a Plano Republican who again is facing an expected strong Democratic challenge on Nov. 3, tweeted that he was proud to “join @GovAbbott in full support of our brave men and women in law enforcement.”

Backdrop: A law and order campaign

Heading out of the two major parties' August conventions, Trump and his top political adviser in Texas, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, have emphasized law and order. At the same time, they’ve assailed Democrats for downplaying or ignoring persistent disorder in Portland, Ore., Seattle and some other cities since George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police in late May.

“The Democrats won’t even talk about it,” Patrick said last month.

But in a messaging war about defunding the police, imprecision and confusion abound, one expert said.

The “defund the police” slogan is easy to wield against political opponents because it means different things to different people, said Michael Lawlor, an associate professor of criminal justice at New Haven University.

“If you ask 100 people what they mean by defund the police, you’ll get 100 different answers,” he said. “There’s no pamphlet or handbook or curriculum defining that. It’s a slogan.”

Most politicians who sympathize with supporters of an overhaul of police procedures and practices do not support getting rid of police, said Lawlor, once a Democratic House member in the Connecticut General Assembly. They talk about shifting resources to social services that address homelessness, substance abuse and mental illness, which too many cops encounter on a daily basis, he said.

Still, political opponents easily caricature that stand as anti-cop because the slogan is so controversial. Responsible candidates would take the time to explain to supporters the policing changes they support and where they draw the line, Lawlor said. But on the campaign trail, nuance is a challenge.

“It’s very effective campaign-wise,” he said. “Time will tell.”

In his 77-second video about the “Texas Back the Blue Pledge,” Abbott didn’t mention Democrats — or even Austin, whose policies on homelessness, ride-hailing services and plastic-bag bans he’s excoriated in the past.

“Some cities in Texas want to defund and dismantle police departments in our state,” Abbott said. “This reckless action invites crime into our communities and it threatens the safety of all Texans, including our law enforcement officers and their families. We cannot let this happen.”

On Wednesday afternoon, Abbott spokesmen did not immediately respond to a query about which Texas cities want to defund and dismantle their departments.

Abbott’s online pledge form says, “Our law enforcement officers have our backs every single day, and we need to show them that Texans have their backs.”

‘Right approach’ in Dallas?

Abbott has found an unlikely ally in Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson, who has vocally opposed the Dallas City Council’s proposal to cut the police overtime budget and reallocate that money to other parts of the budget.

Johnson, a former Democratic state representative, has said the budget showdown comes down to defunding the police vs. defunding the city’s bureaucracy.

On Saturday night, Abbott tweeted that Johnson has “the right approach” on police budgeting.

Last week, the mayor unsuccessfully opposed a $7 million cut in the $24 million budget for police overtime.

Eleven council members prevailed in pushing the $7 million towards bike lanes, street lights, civilian police employees, affordable housing and solar panels for low-income residents.

Johnson had proposed funding many if not all of those things with $6.5 million in salary cuts, which he said would have affected about 10% of all city employees. The council unanimously rejected the mayor’s alternative approach.

On Wednesday, Johnson proposed an amendment that would have avoided the police-budget trim by lopping $6 million from salaries, to be structured by the city manager. That also was voted down.

Council member Adam Medrano, one of the 11 who supported the overtime cut, says it’s a “false narrative” to speak of it as defunding the police. Next year, Dallas still will spend more than 60% of its $1.4 billion annual budget on public safety, he tweeted Tuesday night.

Police overtime costs have increased swiftly since 2010, when there were more officers, Medrano said.

Freshman Rep. Rhetta Bowers, a Rowlett Democrat who began a listening tour with law enforcement officers in her district after Floyd’s death, has accused opponents of groundlessly wielding the “defund the police” motto against politicians seeking change.

“The labeling and the wording is wrong. When you think of defunding it sounds like doing away with it altogether, and that’s not at all what some people believe it means,” she said in June. “They do mean reallocating the funds and putting them in other areas like education, health care, policing or social services offered in the community.”

Using the issue as a political cudgel further drives a wedge between communities, she said, which often affects Black and Latino communities that need the help the most.

“We do need the police and we can’t have a safe community without them,” said Bowers, who faces GOP challenger Will Douglas this fall. “The labeling of defund the police is the wrong term. If we can get away from that and call it what it is, we might get some real solutions and we’d have law enforcement coming to the table talking about where we go from here.”

Austin correspondent Alex Briseño contributed to this report.