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April 8, 2023

Self-defense has vanished in Austin, Texas (UPDATED)

By Andrea Widburg

See the update at the end of this post.

The Founders stated very clearly in the Declaration of Independence that all humans possess the inherent right to life. When they ratified the Bill of Rights, they inextricably intertwined that right to life with the Second Amendment’s right to bear arms. That amendment has no meaning if it does not include the right to self-defense. However, in the People’s Republic of Austin, Texas, which is controlled by a Soros-funded prosecutor, Sgt. Daniel Perry discovered that his inherent right to defend himself no longer exists. The only thing that will save him from years in prison (which is true even if he appeals) is Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s announcement that he will immediately pardon Perry.

Texas isn’t a bright red state. No state is. As long as a state has large urban areas, those areas will be under Democrat control. And when there’s a university in that large area, the city won’t just be under Democrat control, it will be under hard-left Democrat control. These are the places, too, in which George Soros, either directly or using pass-through organizations, has managed to seed local prosecutors’ offices with activists who want to defund the police, seek the decarceration of criminals, and are actively hostile to anyone who believes in old-fashioned ideas such as law-and-order or self-defense.

Image: Daniel Perry upon hearing the verdict. YouTube screen grab.

Austin, Texas, is Exhibit A for the leftism of America’s cities. It’s Texas’s fourth largest city, it’s home to one of America’s largest universities, its politicians are almost all Democrats, its prosecutor (Jose Garza, an open socialist) got into office thanks to money from George Soros, and it has defunded its police. Oh, and naturally, back in 2020, it saw some of this country’s largest George Floyd riots.

During one of those riots, Daniel Perry, who served as a Sergeant in the U.S. Army, found the Uber he was driving trapped by a howling mob. One of the members of that mob, Garrett Foster, approached his car with an AK-47 (he also had a knife and a club on him), which he pointed at Perry. According to long-standing principles of self-defense, Perry deemed himself at imminent risk of being murdered and used his weapon against Foster, who died at the scene.

Remember: Self-defense does not require people to get shot or stabbed before their rights begin. It’s enough that they have a reasonable belief that they face an imminent threat. Or at least, that used to be the law of self-defense in America. But Austin has seemingly abandoned American law.

Although the police declined to arrest Perry, that wasn’t good enough for Garza, the DA whom Soros’s funds placed in office. Instead, he charged Perry with murder.

Perry’s trial ended yesterday after an Austin jury found him guilty. Think about that: You’re driving along an Austin street, and you find yourself in the middle of a riot. The rioters attack your car, and one of them begins to point at you with his AK-47 (which is a weapon of war, unlike your AR-15). At that moment, most people would reasonably believe they were at imminent risk of death and would take steps to defend themselves—but an Austin jury just said, “nope.”

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton summed up correctly what American rights are, as well as the fact that they don’t exist in Austin:

“Self-defense is a God-given right, not a crime. Unfortunately, the Soros-backed DA in Travis County cares more about the radical agenda of dangerous Antifa and BLM mobs than justice,” Paxton said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

“This week has shown us how rogue prosecutors have weaponized the judicial system,” he added. “They must be stopped!”

Presumably, Perry will appeal, but he’ll have to spend that time in prison—and the mills of justice grind very, very slowly. Even the military is infected with the “slow justice” plague. Nidal Hassan murdered 13 adults and a fetus in 2009. He’s currently before the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces challenging his death sentence. It’s been 14 years—and justice delayed for his victims and their families truly is justice denied.

In Perry’s case, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has announced that he’ll take immediate steps to pardon Perry. That’ll keep this “everyman” out of prison and enable him to get on with his life, but it’s really not enough. As matters stand, self-defense against any of the leftists’ favored constituencies is dead in Austin, Texas.

Is Abbott going to pardon every future defendant who gets tangled in Prosecutor Garza’s socialist toils? Obviously not. This issue needs to be addressed and remedied immediately, not just in Texas, but in every red state that has cities under the control of leftist prosecutors.

UPDATE: I didn't realize it, but Greg Price has been all over this story -- including posts about allegedly illegal conduct by the prosecutor:

See also:

And here's the latest word from Gov. Greg Abbott:

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