George Soros has thrown $1 million at an effort to stop Austin, Texas from hiring hundreds of new police officers.
Soros' financial support follows reports that Austin's crime rate has risen faster than its population growth. Since 2016, the city's population has grown by 4%. In contrast, the number of murders this year shattered the city's record—back in September.
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To deal with the increasing murders, aggravated assaults and car thefts, residents have the option to vote this November for a ballot initiative requiring Texas' state capital to employee two police officers per every 1,000 residents.
Meanwhile, campaign finance documents reveal that Soros has made two $500,000 donations to a political action committee hoping to defeat the initiative.
As The Washington Free Beacon reports:
Soros's donation, made on Oct. 12, is his second of the month and comes as Austin experiences a decades-high spike in violent crime. The city has seen at least 67 homicides this year, the highest since at least 1981. Aggravated assaults are also up at least 10 percent, following a 26 percent spike in 2020.
On Oct. 1, the Open Society Policy Center cut its first $500,000 check to Equity PAC, a Texas-based political organization that backs left-wing causes. The donation is the latest example of Soros's involvement in various left-wing causes at the local level. In 2020, Soros donated over $600,000 to a Texas-based left-wing group that backed the election of José Garza, who now serves as district attorney for Travis County, where Austin sits.
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Since 2015, Soros has spent more than $17 million on various local races, including donations to left-wing prosecutors and state legislators. Virtually every candidate backed by Soros and the Open Society Foundations has supported a dramatic reduction in or elimination of cash bail and other policies critics say lead to higher crime.
Other large donors to Equity Pac include the Texas American Federation of Teachers, which gave $10,000, and Movement Voter PAC, a left-wing organization based in Maryland. The Washington, D.C.-based Fairness Project also contributed $200,000.
