A Texas Senate candidate stood at a town hall and called police officers murderers.
Even the liberal media couldn’t let it slide this time.
And Dan Abrams went scorched earth on James Talarico in a way that left the Democrat Senate hopeful with some very hard questions to answer.
What Talarico Said at the Town Hall
Abrams was responding to comments Talarico made at a town hall event where he was asked about reparations for Black Americans and a crime bill. Talarico answered by pointing to his involvement with a high-profile local case where a Black man died after being tased by police.
Talarico told the crowd: “I had a constituent of mine murdered by the police. His name was Javier Ambler. He was an unarmed Black man who was pulled over for not dimming his brights.”
Talarico continued: “He told the officers that night that he had a heart condition. They tased him so many times that he died right in front of them.”
Talarico went on to say, “The whole thing was filmed for a reality TV show called Live PD. It’s kind of like Cops.” Abrams, who hosted *Live PD* and now hosts *On Patrol Live*, played the clip for his audience and then went scorched earth on Talarico, accusing him of blatantly warping the facts.
What the Facts Actually Show
“There is so much in that comment that is untrue,” Abrams said. “The police officers involved in the situation with Javier Ambler were not charged, were not indicted until the George Floyd incident happened. And then suddenly the case was re-evaluated. They looked at it again and they ended up trying the four officers for manslaughter. . . . All of them were acquitted.”
Abrams knows this case better than most. He hosted *Live PD* when the Ambler incident was captured on camera back in March 2019.
Ambler died in March 2019 after a 20-minute pursuit with Williamson County deputies that started because he failed to dim his headlights for oncoming traffic and crashed his car in North Austin, where deputies used Tasers on him multiple times. What Talarico left out of his town hall story was the part where Ambler ran.
Abrams pointed out that Ambler then led cops on a 22-minute chase. “There’s now a new crime. When police pull you over and you take them on a pursuit and put all sorts of people’s lives at risk, you’ve got a new crime,” Abrams said. “So that’s totally dishonest from Talarico.”
Abrams also pushed back on Talarico’s claim that the Tasers killed Ambler. “He says he died from the taser. Well, it’s not what the jury thought,” Abrams said. “He had an underlying medical condition.”
Former Williamson County Sheriff’s deputies Zach Camden and J.J. Johnson were acquitted of all charges by a Travis County jury. They had been charged with manslaughter following Ambler’s death.
The verdict came after nine days of testimony. Closing arguments ended, and the jury deliberated for just a few hours before returning with the not guilty verdict.
And Abrams did not stop at correcting the record. “Those cops should sue James Talarico for saying that they murdered Javier Ambler. It’s a lie.”
Abrams said the whole ordeal had become an “embarrassment” for prosecutors and was another reason it was a terrible example for Talarico to use.
Talarico also claimed that reality TV policing shows encourage more violent interactions with Black constituents. Abrams wasn’t buying that either. “They weren’t interested in this case until the George Floyd incident happened, and he says ‘Oh, they’ve found an enormous amount of research on how there’s more violence, particularly against people of color, when there are cameras around.’ That’s not true,” Abrams said.
A Pattern That Texans Should Know About
This wasn’t some offhand slip of the tongue. Talarico has been invoking Javier Ambler’s name as a political weapon for years, and the facts have never matched the story he tells.
Talarico in 2020 donated $2,500 to the Austin Justice Coalition, which supported cutting the Austin police budget. He posted that year: “After the murders of George Floyd and Javier Ambler, our campaign proudly donated to a well-respected civil rights organization in our community.” He called it a murder then too, before any charges had even been filed, before any jury had heard a single day of testimony.
During a legislative session, Talarico introduced a bill that would ban contracts between police and reality television shows such as *Live PD*. He named this bill Javier Ambler’s Law. The jury that heard nine days of testimony and acquitted those deputies apparently didn’t get a vote on what the law would be named.
Talarico’s votes on law enforcement legislation in the Texas House include opposing a bill to tighten bail requirements for violent criminals, voting against mandatory minimum sentences for human traffickers, and voting against designating drug cartels terrorist organizations. That’s a record, not a slogan.
But Talarico doesn’t let facts get in the way of a good story. He stood at a town hall and told voters that officers who were found not guilty by a Texas jury committed murder. That’s not a political opinion. That’s a false statement of fact about real people who went through a criminal trial and walked out cleared.
Abrams, to his credit, called it exactly what it was. And given his personal connection to *Live PD* and the Ambler case, he had both the standing and the knowledge to do it. That’s the kind of accountability that should be applied to every candidate who weaponizes a tragedy without regard for the truth.
Texas deserves a Senator who tells the truth, especially when it’s inconvenient. A candidate who calls acquitted officers murderers at a campaign event isn’t appealing to justice. He’s appealing to grievance, and he’s doing it with facts he knows, or should know, are wrong.
And if those officers decide Abrams is right and pursue legal action, they’d have a pretty clear starting point: a town hall, a camera, and a Democrat Senate candidate who apparently never let a jury verdict stop him from calling someone a murderer.
Sources: Mediaite, The Gateway Pundit, Spectrum News Austin, KUT Radio Austin, Taylor Press, NBC News, CBS News DFW, Daily Signal, BizPac Review