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Today we have in studio Robert Morrow the Travis County Republican Chair elect. On the phone we have Cody Wilson founder of Defense Distributed. We are going to discuss and break down how did The University of Texas at Austin Police Department (UTPD) Police Officer shoot himself in the leg?
Also…Dear Dear Austin the liberal mecca of Texas. Where the liberal leaders are supposed to protect the poor, elderly and so called minority….In Atlanta Georgia a naked unarmed veteran was shot and killed by police. The officer has been charged with murder by the District Attorney. Meanwhile in Austin Texas the DA’s office is so drunk they couldn’t prosecute their ass in order to find toilette paper.
Also….Austin ran Uber & Lyft out of town & leaving 10,000 citizens out of work. Now the black market takes over, called Arcade City….They are the Craigslist of the TNC’s
.…Yes that means Austinites are now taking rides with random drivers they contact online…No background check, no insurance, no enforcement, no drivers license, no registration, no inspection, no nada. This is what happens when government get involved and fix what is not broken. It creates a black market lawless system.
With Uber and Lyft both gone, Austin City Council passed a resolution directing the City Manager to identify “revenue neutral” city resources to help grow the Transportation Network Companies that stuck around after Prop 1 failed.
In laymen’s terms, existing resources and monies that are not already dedicated to any particular use could become available to ride-sharing companies that chose to stick around when Lyft and Uber left.
The discussion turned quickly to the very reason Uber and Lyft no longer exist in Austin: fingerprint background checks for drivers. Councilwoman Troxclair, who was a vocal Prop one and ridesharing supporter, brought forth an amendment to ensure that no money goes to companies that are not complying with the fingerprinting ordinance. This makes sense; companies that do not work within the law do not get taxpayer dollars.
One problem: the penalties for not complying with fingerprinting background checks do not exist yet. Mayor Adler shut down this amendment by ruling it not germane.
While some agreed, many city council members found it strange that the city did not want to talk about the regulations already on the books. As one council member pointed out, Austin asked Lyft and Uber to submit to rules that were not well-defined, and now there are smaller companies that are not complying with those rules that will now be eligible for tax dollars. This money would have been available for Lyft and Uber if they had stuck around.
If you ask me, the city got it ass backwards again, as it normally does regarding transportation. There was a big deal made about this Prop 1 (and to be fair, Lyft and Uber weren’t exactly playing nice) and now, there is no true enforcement thereof. We have rules that may or may not make ridesharing safer imposed on companies that definitely reduced the amount of drunk driving in Austin.
This was a big, messy experience, one that indicates to me that the leadership in Austin does not have a coherent, organized plan for the city’s long term growth. That’s not good for anyone.