Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo is a piece of work.

The chief has repeatedly spouted anti-gun talking points over and over and over. He’s the kind of person that if I were to see him on fire, I doubt I would waste the urine to put it out.

Yet as the Defund the Police movement continues to spout its nonsense, Acevedo has a message for officers losing their jobs to it.

“People of Houston, they don’t want less policing, they want better policing and well-trained police officers,” said HPD Chief Art Acevedo.

Recently, Houston officials approved 5 new academy classes that will add roughly 400 new future HPD officers to the city’s police department.

“We’re excited about the restoration of 5 classes, while places like Austin are cutting a significant amount of police resources.”

Last week, the Austin City Council unanimously voted to cut roughly $150 million from Austin’s Police Department, roughly a third of their budget.

…

Chief Acevedo tells us they’re working on a new program that would make it easier for qualified out-of-state police officers to transfer and serve in Houston. This program could involve a 10-week academy course, instead of 6 months.

Of course, cutting police as violence surges in pretty much every city in the nation is definitely a boneheaded move. Then again, from what I understand about Austin, it shouldn’t be surprising to see they’d do something like that. After all, the city is basically Texas’s version of Portland.

Yet Acevedo also made a comment that just tickled me to no end.

“I think it’s ridiculous when you make decisions that are knee-jerk political decisions that are not based on evidence, not based on research,” said Chief Acevedo. “It ends up impacting the safety of American people in Austin.”

Now, this is the police chief that started ranting about gun control after one of his officers was wounded in the line of duty…with his own gun. He’s constantly spouted tons of anti-gun nonsense, yet he’s arguing against people making knee-jerk decisions that aren’t based on evidence?

That’s rich.

Anyway, about Acevedo’s invitation to other officers, let’s be clear for a moment. It sounds good. It’s a pro-police stance at a time when there aren’t many, and it’s likely to play well in Houston. Especially with violence tearing apart our cities.

However, Acevedo doesn’t have a lot of say on who can get certified in Texas.

While inviting laid-off Austin officers to come to Houston is probably fine, he extended his invitation to out-of-state officers. He even says he’s working on a program that would allow out-of-state cops to qualify to work in Texas. The problem with that is that he doesn’t have the authority to actually do any of that.

That falls under the purview of the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement (TCOLE). They already have a program for out-of-state officers to become certified in the state of Texas. In other words, Acevedo isn’t working on a damn thing except, apparently, trying to reinvent the wheel.

In other words, it sure sounds like what Acevedo is really doing here is spewing a bunch of hot air and trying to make himself look good. Then again, from what I’ve been able to gather about his law enforcement career, that’s about all he’s good for.