[ad_1]
Voters are heading to the polls in Austin, Texas, on Tuesday to weigh in on a main race between the county’s George Soros-backed progressive District Attorney Jose Garza and his Democrat challenger Jeremy Sylestine, in a race the place public security and crime have been on the forefront.
Garza, who took workplace in deep blue Travis County in 2021 after a marketing campaign backed by progressive billionaire Soros, pledging to “reimagine” felony justice and prosecute law enforcement officials, has defended his document as district lawyer saying that he’s “doing exactly what Travis County voters elected him to do, fixing our broken criminal justice system by standing with survivors, working to end the excessive use of force by police, and prioritizing treatment over incarceration for nonviolent drug offenses.”
Garza’s critics, together with Sylestine, who beforehand labored in Garza’s workplace earlier than beginning his personal apply, have made the argument that Garza’s workplace has not advocated for victims of crime and has promoted insurance policies that make town much less secure.
“It seems like every day, there’s a new story that comes out where someone has been left holding the bag and disrespected by the DA’s office,” Sylestine advised Fox News Digital final month. “I know from being a prosecutor that there are tough decisions you have to make, but the cases that I’m seeing in terms of domestic violence and sexual assault are just very incongruent with what my experience was and what I want to do is return that power to the victim because the system isn’t designed to protect their rights.”
Jeremy Sylestine, left, and District Attorney Jose Garza. (Fox News)
Fox News Digital has spoken to quite a few relations of crime victims in Austin who’ve all expressed related sentiments that Garza’s workplace has put their needs on the “back burner” in order to pursue a political agenda that doesn’t align with sturdy jail sentences.
Several of these relations held a press convention on Monday, together with Conny Branham, whose son Christopher was murdered in 2020 in a mob-style assault in a case the place the Branham household says Garza ignored their needs at each flip as he negotiated plea offers with the suspects.
“We had no say in anything,” Branham stated. “We don’t matter to him.”
AUSTIN’S SOROS-BACKED DA BLASTED AFTER MAN CHARGED WITH 7TH DUI, KILLING 2 PEOPLE RELEASED ON BOND
District Attorney Jose Garza (Photo by Spencer Selvidge for The Washington Post by way of Getty Images)
“Our heart breaks for them and for their loss, and we work hard every single day with law enforcement to win justice for those families,” Garza stated earlier in the day.
Additionally, Garza has been beneath hearth for the backlog of circumstances in his workplace, his claims that he has the next conviction fee than his predecessor, which was contradicted by a current KXAN-TV report, and excessive profile examples of his workplace letting violent criminals going through critical fees out of jail whereas sure crimes have surged.
“DA José Garza might spin crime statistics for political purposes, but Travis County residents know better,” Sylestine not too long ago advised CBS Austin. “The reality is under Garza’s leadership, our communities have experienced a significant rise in violent crime – especially homicide, aggravated assault, and motor vehicle theft.”
SOROS-BACKED DA CUTS DEAL GIVING NO JAIL TIME TO ‘WASTED’ BUS DRIVER WHO KILLED CYCLIST IN CRASH
The skyline of Austin, Texas. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
Garza has additionally confronted scrutiny for his aggressive prosecution of law enforcement officials in a local weather the place the connection between metropolis officers and the police division was already fractured from town council’s transfer to defund the police in 2020.
That tense relationship got here to a head final yr, when Garza sparked outrage for exhibiting up on the funeral of a fallen police officer in what some known as a “slap in the face.”
Sylestine, who calls himself a “proud Democrat” and a “progressive,” says he intends to enhance the connection with the police division.
“I grew up as a prosecutor and as a young lawyer in the system, so a lot of the officers and detectives that were making up my cases when I was a younger lawyer are now in commanding positions,” Sylestine stated.
“So in terms of the relationship that I have, those men and women of the force, they know my brand and they know that I’m not an APD or law enforcement apologist either. If there’s something that’s been done wrong, they know that Jeremy Sylestine will hold them accountable. But they also know that it takes good communication and trust to make those relationships work and right now, that’s fractured, and it doesn’t have to be.”
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Sylestine continued, “Mr. Garza came in and had a political bullseye painted right on the chart on the backs of APD officers. They advertised for prosecutors who wanted to come in specifically to do that and if we did that with any other group, there would be an uproar over what sort of fixed mindset we were having, coming into our cases.”
Sylestine has raised considerably extra cash than Garza, which the Garza marketing campaign has blamed on Republicans crossing over into the Democratic main and pushing a message with “false Republican talking points.”
“I think what you’re seeing in my campaign is not any sort of Republican or GOP or right-leaning message,” Sylestine advised KUT News. “I’m really throwing right down the middle here. This is a campaign about criminal justice and what it means to people — and having someone in the office who’s going to do the job.”
The winner of Tuesday’s main will transfer on to the November basic election against Republican Daniel Betts. Polls in Travis County open at 7 a.m. and shut at 7 p.m.
[ad_2]
Source hyperlink