AUSTIN MAN walks up to a stranger using a computer on the fourth floor of the Central Library, punches him in the head so hard he's knocked out of his chair, stomps on his head multiple times while he lies unconscious on the floor -- then calmly walks back to his own computer and sits down. The victim is in critical condition with life-threatening injuries. Police Chief Lisa Davis (@APDChiefDavis) happened to be in the building and made the arrest herself. On a city bus in 2024, Vasquez threatened an 11-year-old boy, cocked his leg back to kick him full-force, then stood up and punched the kid's mother in the face. She's a Spanish speaker and couldn't even understand the threats. A female bystander tackled Vasquez to protect them. He punched her in the head repeatedly. All was on video. Child endangerment charge and two assaults charges. Dismissed. Six months before that, he punched a CapMetro bus driver in the mouth hard enough to cause a bloody laceration. During the arrest, he called an officer a racial slur and spit directly in his face. Felony harassment of a public servant. Dismissed to "pre-trial diversion." He also had a felony terroristic threat against a public servant. Also dismissed. His Travis County record: • 10 cases • 3 felonies -- all dismissed • 4 assaults -- all dismissed • 0 jury trials Now someone is fighting for their life in a hospital because a man with a documented pattern of unprovoked violence kept walking out of the courthouse.

Austin finally found a homelessness program that shows some promise. Naturally, the City Council wants to hand it to an anti-cop activists to stop it. No Wrong Door is a program where cops trained in crisis response team up with medics and caseworkers to deal with the small group of people who keep showing up in 911 calls, jail and the ER, mostly homeless and mentally ill. The early results, from the city itself, shows the highest-risk people in the program had 57% fewer crisis calls. And the officers running it haven't arrested a single client. That wasn't good enough for the activist class. A few weeks ago, the ACLU, the Texas Civil Rights Project, public defenders and harm reduction groups demanded Austin pull police out of the program, or bury them in new rules, like requiring defense lawyers be notified before an officer can even talk to some participants, thus eliminating any means to actually help them in a crisis. One week later, Council Member José Velásquez proposed a new "community advisory group" to help steer the program's policies and operations. He listed who should be on it: the ACLU, the Texas Civil Rights Project, the public defenders, the harm reduction alliance. Council Member Marc Duchen asked aptly why the city would build an advisory board out of the program's loudest critics. He lost 3-1. Velásquez, Vanessa Fuentes and Ryan Alter voted yes. The full Council votes October 22. A police-led program might actually be getting people off the streets and out of jail, and Austin's response is to invite the city's most anti-police groups in to take it over and make sure cops can't do their job.