Armed Robberies Plague Austin in Multiple Areas of the City

How did your city wake up to the first full day of the Biden administration?

Portland, Oregon — a Democrat stronghold — woke up to news of more antifa riots. This time they targeted the local Democrat Party headquarters, an ICE facility, and made their feelings about Joe Biden very clear. In the past, such left-wing riots targeting local businesses and the federal building tended to go unreported by the mainstream media, but now that Biden’s in office and the riots are targeting Democrats, they may take on a new level of importance.

In Austin, Texas — another Democrat stronghold — there was a crime spree overnight that thus far no local news outlet has reported.

The Citizen app reports that during a span of just a couple of hours on the morning of January 21, 2021, there was an armed robbery at a hotel in north Austin and a similar armed robbery at a gas station just a few miles away. During the same 24-hour period there were also two armed robberies for PlayStation 5 game systems, and a carjacking.

The first armed robbery reportedly happened at a Circle K gas station on Spicewood Springs Rd. A man and a woman reportedly robbed the gas station at gunpoint just after 2 a.m.

The second armed robbery, reportedly perpetrated by a woman and two men, took place at the La Quinta motel at 11901 N. Mopac Expressway at about 2:34 a.m. The suspects reportedly fled on foot.

The two crimes may be connected. They occurred within about 4 miles of one another during a low-traffic time. There are no reports of any suspects or arrests at this time.

There are few details about the other crimes. A carjacking reportedly happened in the area of 4900 Oltorf St. around 4:30 a.m. Police recovered the vehicle within a few minutes but there are no reports of any arrests.

A man was reportedly robbed of his PlayStation 5 by two armed men shortly after 6 p.m. on January 20th, in the area of 12400 N. Mopac Expressway.

Another man was reportedly robbed of his PS5 by two armed robbers at W. Slaughter and Brodie Ln around 9:45 p.m. Wednesday night.

These crimes occurred all over Austin, north, central, and south, in a single 24-hour period, according to the Citizen app.

For those not familiar with the app, Citizen uses your GPS to let you know what’s going on around you, including traffic accidents, fires, riots, crimes, and the like. Citizen reportedly had 50,000 Austin users as of October 2020. Some in the media have criticized it for “encouraging” people to go to crime scenes and broadcast live, which the app does enable, but explicitly does not encourage or reward. Media can and do engage in similar reporting nearly every day. Media may view the app as competition to its ability to shape coverage of local crime and riots.

Austin experienced its first homicide of the year on January 11, 2021.

The Austin City Council’s massive cuts to the police budget began to kick in this month. The Austin Police Department was already well short of full staff before the council unanimously approved the cuts, and about 22 police officers are reportedly set to retire or resign in January 2021 alone.