Texas governor Greg Abbott vows to sign bill blocking police defunding ahead of George Floyd anniversary

Greg Abbott wants to pass a law being debated by the Texas senate that would punish large cities for defunding their police departments

Texas governor Greg Abbott, pictured at a pandemic press conference in May 2020, has vowed to pass a law punishing large cities for defunding the police (Getty)

Texas governor Greg Abbott has vowed to pass a law punishing cities who want to defund the police, making the pledge just days before the anniversary of the murder of George Floyd.

On Sunday the Republican tweeted a reported shooting in Austin, which voted last year to divert $21million from the police to social services, where officers allegedly failed to respond to a gunshot wound to the head for 16-minutes.

The 63-year-old, who is up for re-election in 2022, wrote: “This is what defunding the police looks like. Austin is incapable of timely responding to a victim shot in the head.”

He added: “Texas won’t tolerate this. We’re about to pass law-that I will sign-that will prevent cities from defunding police. Sanity & safety will return.”

His message was posted two days before the one-year anniversary of the murder of unarmed black man, George Floyd, by former police officer Derek Chauvin, sparking a global wave of Black Lives Matter protests and calls to defund the police.

A boy and his younger brother stand next to a mural of George Floyd at the corner of Scotts Food Mart in the third ward in Houston, Texas, April 20, 2021. - Sacked police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of murder and manslaughter on april 20 in the death of African-American George Floyd in a case that roiled the United States for almost a year, laying bare deep racial divisions. (AFP via Getty Images)

Governor Abbott was responding to a tweet by Kenneth Casaday, president of the Austin Police Association, who claimed that a 911 call for a shooting at 5.35am on Sunday was not picked up until 5:47am.

He said: “Victim critically injured after being shot in the head.”

The shooting reportedly took place in the parking lot of a stripclub, according to KXAN.

No arrests have been made so far.

Last year Austin’s city council voted to divert $150million away from police and towards social services, but eventually that was reduced to a cut of $21.5million to the police budget, according to The Texas Tribune.

The Texas Senate is currently debating House Bill 1900, which would issue financial penalties to any city with more than 250,000 residents who cut or re-allocated their policing budget by forcibly handing over a portion of the city’s sales tax.

It was passed 90-49 by the House of Representatives last week.

If approved by the Senate it would be signed by governor Abbott and be put into place by 1 September.