When Democratic politicians refuse to preserve law and order, people’s lives are put at risk in more ways than one. That is true even in Texas.
Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza is upset that Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) requested and secured a pardon for Daniel Perry, who was convicted of murder. Perry shot and killed Garrett Foster during a 2020 Black Lives Matter protest in Austin, which is located in the county. Garza is trying to get the pardon overturned.
Regardless of intent, it is hard to make a case that Perry had acted unreasonably and impossible to make a case that Democratic tolerance of Black Lives Matter activists acting outside the law did not create this kind of scenario. Video shows Perry attempting to turn right on a red light while driving, with lawless Black Lives Matter protesters blocking streets and strolling through the intersection. When Perry came to a stop, protesters swarmed his car, with some sprinting toward it, before Perry began firing. A still image from before the shooting shows Foster standing by the driver’s side window wielding his rifle.
Garza’s prosecutors made the case that Perry had animus toward the protests based on text messages and social media posts and that he could have simply driven away instead of shooting. Put aside the former for a second, though, and look at how the scenario actually played out. Perry was legally driving on the street while protesters were illegally blocking it. When he attempted to make a right turn, protesters swarmed his car, including one carrying a rifle standing at his driver’s side window.
How else do you think this could end? If Perry took the advice of prosecutors and drove away, how many protesters do you think he runs into? Remember, he had already had to stop in the middle of his turn because there were protesters blocking his path, and then more protesters swarmed his car.
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Even if the worst-case scenario was true, the idea that Perry went out actively looking to shoot protesters, they gave him a perfect out by engaging in behavior that any reasonable person would find threatening. That is before you even consider that Perry still chose the likely less lethal means of shooting the single armed man at his door rather than firing sporadically at everyone or flooring it through the crowd of protesters in his way, the latter of which other people in similar situations have, justifiably, done.
This lawlessness being accepted in Democratic-run cities such as Austin creates dangerous scenarios. People having their cars swarmed while they are trying to drive on roads they are allowed to drive on will fear for their life, and will respond in kind. Along with putting lives and businesses at risk of violence, these protesters put their lives at risk too, which is what ended up happening here.