AUSTIN (KXAN) — Austin Mayor Kirk Watson confirmed the Texas National Guard may be called on to assist the Texas Department of Public Safety during protests in Austin this weekend.
On Tuesday night, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he would deploy the Texas National Guard to locations across the state as protests are planned throughout the week and into the weekend.
In a social media post, Abbott said the deployment was to “ensure peace & order.”
“Peaceful protest is legal,” Abbott said. “Harming a person or property is illegal & will lead to arrest.”
Watson confirms National Guard may assist in Austin
“The City of Austin has been notified that the National Guard will be prepared to assist the Texas Department of Public Safety on Saturday, if deemed necessary.
The City of Austin will continue to protect the right of people to peacefully assemble. We will continue to recognize the humanity and value of our immigrant community. I’m supportive of people exercising their right to engage in peaceful protest against politics and policies that they disagree with. However, destructive actions or efforts to hurt police is wrong. You are damaging your city.
We are dealing with a very real situation right now that impacts the lives of very real people. Much of what we see out of Washington is to create fear and chaos— we should not play into these politics of fear. Adding to the chaos–through destruction of property, hurting other people, including police officers, or otherwise–adds to the problems for those people being targeted while empowering those in Washington who want more pain and chaos.
The reality is that we should not feed into this politics of fear and pain and risk doing harm to those we want to help. We must continue to assert our first amendment rights to peacefully assemble without creating negative consequences for real people already living in fear.”
Austin Mayor Kirk Watson
In response, Austin Mayor Pro Tem Vanessa Fuentes said deploying the National Guard was wrong.
“We’ve seen this playbook before, military force used to threaten and silence communities demanding justice. To every Texan exercising their constitutionally protected free speech: know your rights, stay vigilant, and protect one another,” Fuentes said.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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