So the Austin City Council thinks that banning law-abiding citizens from engaging in lawful commerce will lower violent crime rates.

Of course, there’s no data nor facts to back up such approaches, but why let facts, data, and reason get in the way of a good knee-jerk “do something” emotional reaction.

Now, I’m all for doing things to reduce violent crime, and if those that claim to want to reduce violent crime really want to do such a thing, they should look at real root causes and work to address those things. That Guy points out an interesting find about Austin’s violent crime rates. From KLBJ 590AM:

Austin police say downtown crime involving the homeless or transients is becoming a big problem. Assistant Chief Raul Mungia with the Austin Police tells the Public Safety Commission, “From January 2011 to November 6th 2012, 35 percent of the violent crime down there involved transients.”

Mungia says 254 violent crimes were reported with 29 of those incidents involved transients as a suspect and 13 as a victim.

So Councilman Martinez, if you want to “do something” about reducing violent crime, looks like you’ve got a good place to start. That’s real crime, real violence, real problem, really happening. Instead of “feeling good” and accomplishing nothing, here you could feel good about accomplishing something tangible.

I’m sure Leslie Cochran would appreciate it.