Soros-Funded District Attorney Gets Hostile Reception at Fallen Police Officer's Funeral, Leaves Early: Report
A George Soros-supported district attorney who has prosecuted police officers in Austin, Texas, was an unwelcome guest when he came to the funeral of an Austin officer killed in the line of duty, according to a new report.
According to Fox News, Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza left early after it was made clear to him how little he was welcome.
Friday’s funeral was being held for Austin Police Officer Jorge Pastore, who was shot to death while responding to a hostage situation on Nov. 11.
Garza won election by promising to show police officers who was boss and raised hackle.
“When he came walking in, I thought what gall this man has to show up at a funeral for an officer killed in the line of duty when all he’s done since he’s been in office is go after cops,” said funeral attendee Dennis Farris, president of the Austin Police Retired Officers Association.
“From my perspective, he wasn’t welcome and the fact that either he was asked to leave or he chose to leave on his own,” Farris said. “Whatever the case may be, I’m glad he left because he shouldn’t have shown up in the first place.”
Garza, who belongs to the Democratic Socialists of America party, made waves in 2022 by indicting 19 Austin police officers in connection with the police responses to a 2020 Black Lives Matter protest, according to The Washington Post.
Since Garza took office, the number of cases referred to his office that he did not choose to prosecute has spiked, KXAN-TV reported.
All that made Garza’s attendance at Pastore’s funeral an issue. Fox News, citing sources it did not name, said at first Garza was asked to leave a room for first responders because he was “making people uncomfortable.”
After going to an area for Austin’s mayor and city council, he was told he was not welcome there, the sources said. Given the option of watching the funeral on television from a room, he then left, the source added.
“It was a slap in the face to every officer there seeing Garza at the funeral,” Fox News quoted an Austin police officer it did not name as saying.
“Everyone I spoke to expressed anger, confusion or both given his relationship, or lack thereof, with the law enforcement community.”
“What’s worse, it seemed as though Garza was genuinely confused as to why he was being asked to leave areas he didn’t belong, as though he didn’t understand all the problems he’s caused by unjustly indicting so many of our brothers and sisters. He should have just stayed home,” the source said.
Garza’s office did not respond when Fox News sought comment.
Pastore was killed after responding to a hostage situation, according to the Austin Chronicle.
“He always had a smile on his face. That’s what I remember about him the most. No matter how horrible the situation was, he was just a really good officer who wanted to help,” former Austin Police Association President Ken Casaday said.
Officer Michael Bullock, Austin Police Association president, said Pastore was among the first to enter a house in which the hostage-taker was holed up.
“It completely embodies what Pastore was all about,” Bullock said. “Fighting for other people, protecting innocent lives, and stopping people who were hurting other people.”
“He was not the kind of guy to wait for something to happen,” Bullock added. “He wanted to run in there and help people.”
Garza was elected in 2020 after Soros shipped $652,000 to the Texas Justice and Public Safety PAC group that helped Garza win, according to the New York Post.
“Everywhere Soros-backed prosecutors go, crime follows. These legal arsonists have abandoned their duty to public safety by pursuing leniency even for the most heinous crime, and they often flat-out refuse to charge criminals for shoplifting, vagrancy and entire categories of misdemeanors,” Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas said.
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