The irony could not be laid thicker than what happened to Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) on October 2. While parking his car near his Washington D.C. apartment, Cuellar was accosted by three individuals who took his car at gunpoint. Cuellar has tried to distance himself from the “Defund the Police” movement in recent months but was a staunch supporter until just recently.
Cuellar’s district is one of the deep blue parts of Texas running along the southern border. This area has some of the highest violent crime anywhere in the nation as the toll of unchecked illegal immigration, drug smuggling, and sex trafficking continues to ruin close-knit communities. Cuellar supported the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act and voted several times on key legislation that could have reduced funding to police departments, forced changes to tactics that would leave police officers exposed, and moved forward an ideology popular with liberals that police make people less safe.
U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas was back at work Tuesday after being carjacked the night before by three armed attackers less than a mile from the Capitol. https://t.co/BEQGTHbyfg
— NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) October 3, 2023
According to police, Cuellar was confronted by three armed men on Monday evening as he was parking. Cuellar did not resist the attack and allowed the criminals to take his car, leaving him uninjured but thoroughly shamed. Police recovered the car about an hour later, but have made no arrests and have not indicated three are any suspects.
Since the Coronavirus pandemic, carjacking in the nation’s capitol has soared and currently averages about two incidents per day. That is up from one incident every three days prior to COVID-19. D.C. police and agencies in the surrounding region reported a high water mark of more than 1,000 carjackings in 2022, well above the 200 reported in 2018.
Cuellar has walked back some support for the ultra-liberal priority of eliminating law enforcement. It was once thought that Cuellar would become unelectable if he took a stand against the policy decision, but the rapid change in conditions in his district has reduced the public perception of police as the bad guys. Cuellar is one of only three Democrats to receive an “A” rating for his votes concerning gun control from the gun lobby for his refusal to support several high-profile gun control bills.
Cuellar, who has a black belt in martial arts, said that he never considered fighting back, given the fact that three armed men were confronting him at the time. The region in which the carjacking happened is one of the hottest crime areas in the nation’s capital. Armed robberies are up 95% this year, while carjackings are up 57%. The region has seen about 1,400 police officers quit their jobs since 2020, with local law enforcement placing the blame on the city council for enacting policies antagonistic to law enforcement.
