AUSTIN MAN told a UT student he'd kill her if she dated black men, punched a woman's SUV hard enough to leave a foot-wide dent while she sat inside, and threw rocks and bricks at parked cars -- all in the last five months. His longest sentence in 15 cases across two years was 100 days. At Central Market, a witness said Russell Hardin threatened a child for the kid's sweatshirt and threatened to stab a man over a jacket. He was charged only with running from police. Prosecutors dismissed it. He elbowed through a treatment center's front window and shoved a stone flower pot down the back steps. Also dismissed. He was indicted for burglary, released on a personal bond, and skipped court. The felony was punished as a misdemeanor and that’s the one he only got 100 days for. He took a four-pack of Sutter Home from Target and drank it. Charged as a felony because of his prior thefts. A grand jury declined to indict. In April, police say he threw a wooden plank through a Ford Explorer's back window, a day after being arrested for throwing bottles and pipes at cars. Got 30 days. After the threat against the UT student, his bond went from $10,000 to $1 and the case was dismissed. A week later came the SUV punch, followed by a punch to a man's Hummer. Bond cut to $1 with prosecutors' agreement. 20 days in jail, time served. In July, another theft. Filed as a felony, prosecutors knocked it down to a misdemeanor. In August, he scrawled "RELFECTION TIME BRO!" on a rock at a food truck lot. Prosecutors dismissed it. Days later, he slammed a computer monitor face down in an apartment lobby. 20 days for that. On September 28, he threw rocks and bricks at parked cars, cracked a windshield, and hurled racial slurs at a construction worker. Officers found him shirtless and drunk a block away. He's now charged with felony harassment of a public servant. Courts have ordered mental health evaluations again and again. Needless to say, none of it has kept him off the street.

The defund the police movement in Austin had the effect of forcing taxpayers to spend a lot more for less policing. Through early September, APD spent $38 million on overtime, or $11 million over budget. Last year the city admitted it was taking the salary money from empty police positions ($31 million) and using it to pay overtime instead. Austin has essentially turned unfilled jobs into a funding source and just getting fewer cops on the street for the money. APD currently has a 16% vacancy rate. In some parts of the city it's far worse. In a patrol sector in southeast Austin, a third of the patrol jobs are empty. Downtown, more than a quarter are empty (in case you didn't notice). So the same officers keep working longer shifts to cover the gaps. That's expensive, and it's how departments burn people out and lose the people they do have. Meanwhile, the City Council keeps finding money for other things: art classes, $7 mil in immigration legal service, random $75,000 consultant contracts that haven't been evaluated. Somehow the money never gets to hiring enough cops.