Austin City Councilmembers are outraged by the weekend’s protests and the Austin police department’s response.
On Tuesday morning, a tearful Councilmember Natasha Harper Madison told her fellow city leaders on a conference call, they must act. “It’s about our community…it’s about poor people, because it turns out not all poor people look like me! It’s about people existing in the margins.”
Her call to action resonated with others on the council, among them Greg Casar, who said social justice and progress are the absolute guarantors of riot prevention. He continued, “That if we actually care, if we want to do something then we need to step up and do something, and repeat the names of George Floyd, Mike Ramos, and David Joseph, but then take those words into action and to take them to heart.”
Casar said he is upset about the riots and is pleased the council will get to ask the hard questions to police this Thursday.
