Gov. Abbott to sign bill barring Texas cities from defunding police

Gov. Abbott's tweet comes as a comment on a retweet of an original tweet by Kenneth Casaday, the president of the Austin Police Association.

"APD Case number- 211430419 Shooting Call came out at 5:35am this morning. No units available city wide for 12 minutes. First APD patrol unit Assigned at 5:47am APD made scene at 5:51am, 16 minutes after the call came out. Victim critically injured after being shot in the head."

Abbott's comments to the tweet were:

"This is what defunding the police looks like. Austin is incapable of timely responding to a victim shot in the head. Texas won't tolerate this." "

We're about to pass a law-that I will sign-that will prevent cities from defunding police. Sanity & safety will return."

It is assumed by many that the bill will be specifically aimed at the city of Austin. Austin has been called an "outlier" city in TX being the "bluest" city in the state, and the only city that has gone as far as reducing the police budget.

Casaday and his colleagues have not taken the defunding lying down, however. They have even gone as far as taking out advertising space on two billboards on I-35, the main road leading to Austin from points north and south.

The billboards warn people of surging crime do to the local police department having been defunded, and telling people to expect "limited support" from authorities.