Shutterstock / lev radin
Gov. Greg Abbott speaks at a conservative conference in 2022.
This article was originally published by the Texas Observer, a nonprofit investigative news outlet. Sign up for their weekly newsletter, or follow them on Facebook and Twitter.
In a speech Tuesday to attendees at the Sheriffs’ Association of Texas’ 146th annual training conference and expo in Fort Worth, Gov. Greg Abbott comp ared attacks on Israel by Hamas — the militant group that killed around 1,200 Israelis on Oct. 7 — to crime and immigration in Texas.
“Long before even the war began, Israel was suffering challenges from daily missile launches by Hamas, by Hezbollah, by some others, and now you can add the Houthis to the mix, and it’s the kind of thing where we see,” Abbott said, pivoting to connect the issue to his Texas law enforcement audience. “You can use my analogy, not to the same magnitude of course, but you can use my analogy, something that Texas law enforcement deals with. You’re not dealing with a war, but you are dealing with ongoing assaults in your community. A different source: It could be gangs, it could be criminal organizations, it could be one rogue criminal by themself. Or it could be what I’ll be talking about later, and that is an invasion that’s come across the border.”
Abbott’s speech came after a representative from the Israeli military showed the sheriffs’ conference attendees a compilation of raw footage of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack in Israel, including a clip which appeared to show a militant using a knife to behead an Israeli adult. The film included footage of intercepted radio communications, social media posts, dashcam and phone video from victims, and CCTV videos, among other sources. Before viewing the film, all attendees were required to sign non-disclosure agreements and hand in their cell phones and smart watches. The non-disclosure agreement described the video as “compiled of the atrocities committed by Hamas terrorists without censorship or pixilation,” some of which was “attained by the IDF [Israeli Defense Forces] under confidentiality restrictions,” and prohibited recording of the film.
Neither the video nor Abbott’s speech addressed the Israeli military’s response after Oct. 7, which has killed some 40,000 Gazans, displaced around 2 million, and been criticized as an act of ethnic cleansing or genocide.
In his speech, Abbott also invoked founding mythology about the American West. “Go back in time to the very beginning of sheriffs in the state of Texas,” he said. “You were part of the men and women who helped to tame the West.”
The Fort Worth sheriffs’ convention, held between July 20 and July 23, offered a series of training sessions accredited by the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement, including seminars on election law, solving cold cases, and officer-involved shootings.
In Abbott’s speech, he also bragged about building a military base in Eagle Pass and actions that have led to the shutting down of the city’s primary park and recreation site as part of Operation Lone Star. “There’s a 50-acre park in Eagle Pass that was being used not only for those crossings, but for illegally processing those illegal immigrants,” he said. “And I told the National Guard to take back our land.”
In his speech, Abbott summarized: “People at the tip of the spear of ensuring that we remain a law and order state are our sheriffs.”
Abbott did not mention that in recent years, some sheriffs have either emboldened or openly worked with vigilante groups, including vigilantes with multiple previous criminal convictions, in border counties.
The governor also suggested that Transportation Security Administration agents should be on the border.
“Every single day, in every single public airport with commercial transportation in the United States, there are hundreds of TSA agents searching your body, searching your bags to make sure that no terrorist is gonna get onto a plane to commit a crime,” he said. “Why do we not have TSA agents by the thousands on the border, doing the same thing to all these people coming across the border?”
At the conclusion of his speech, Abbott received a standing ovation.
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