Greg Smith

The Real Mule! I play golf and sell commercial insurance. Good at both. 40+year Austin resident, former Austin City Council District 9 candidate.

[Greg Smith @GregMuleSmith]

@ErinMondays @GregAbbott_TX Ask your council person or @statesman to ask!

[Greg Smith @GregMuleSmith]

Why does this keep happening? Council members that have endorsed Jose Garza & running for re-election @joseforatx @CMZoQadri @RyanAlter - any comments? Does public safety matter? @Austin_Common @statesman - do you job and ask if this is acceptable? @JenRobichaux @ToddJeffries

[Austin Justice @AustinJustice]

AUSTIN MAN charged with running a sex trafficking ring and dealing cocaine, meth, MDMA, and Adderall -- caught fleeing police in a car after firing a gun -- just walked out with a 2-year deal and watched more than a dozen felonies vanish in a single afternoon.

Kaden Caro has 62 cases in the Travis County courts. In 2024, DPS arrested him after a vehicle chase that ended in a crash and an injured victim. (See video below.)

Officers found him with a gun he wasn't allowed to have as a felon, plus cocaine, meth, Adderall, and Xanax he was selling. He was indicted on a stack of charges, including trafficking and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

This April, DA Garza's office let him plead to two counts and dropped almost everything else from that arrest and others:

• Sex trafficking - waived in the plea
• Dealing cocaine - dismissed
• Dealing meth - dismissed
• Dealing MDMA - no charges
• Dealing Adderall - dismissed
• Robbery - dismissed
• Gun as a felon, twice - dismissed
• Tampering with evidence - dismissed
• Unlawful restraint, exposing the victim to serious injury - dismissed
• Fleeing police in a vehicle, twice - dismissed
• A 2021 home invasion charged as burglary plus two aggravated assaults - dismissed

He pleaded to firing a gun and one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

Back in 2023, Caro sat on an ankle monitor for an aggravated assault on a mother in a family violence case. A GPS company flagged him twice driving back onto her block, within 200 yards of where she lived, in violation of his protective order. The assault charge was no-billed. The protective order violations were quietly folded into the district court and then dismissed.

Across 62 cases and 15 years -- robberies, assaults, guns, drug dealing, a trafficking charge -- Caro has never once faced a jury. Every felony ended in a dismissal, a reduction, or a plea.

[Greg Smith @GregMuleSmith]

@TeamYouTube I am streaming and I live in Austin, Texas. Some camera angles are fine, but the mid court view is not good!

[Greg Smith @GregMuleSmith]

@YouTubeTV seriously again with this poor reception? What’s the deal, why can a hockey game be perfect and this mid court angle for NBA be so bad?

[Greg Smith @GregMuleSmith]

The best ever!! https://t.co/izZCPtQGeX

[Greg Smith @GregMuleSmith]

@TeamYouTube Likely a AI response but truly bad! Easy to find other providers if you can't resolve. Watched golf also tonight and it was perfect!

[Greg Smith @GregMuleSmith]

@YouTubeTV - do better! Reception for tonights game is unwatchable! #youtube

[Greg Smith @GregMuleSmith]

@adamsamson @TeamYouTube Agreed. Pathetic.

[Greg Smith @GregMuleSmith]

@JenRobichaux Far from neutral and serious lack of priority reporting.

[Greg Smith @GregMuleSmith]

@JenRobichaux @JenRobichaux how do we get Council members to respond? Seems like local press doesn't ask these questions. Thanks @data_atx and you.

[Greg Smith @GregMuleSmith]

@gumppinatx Should be interesting how this all plays out! Biggest grift ever!

[Greg Smith @GregMuleSmith]

@JenRobichaux As a resident of ATX, please keep going! We may not always agree, but the service you are providing us is invaluable! Thank You @JenRobichaux !

[Greg Smith @GregMuleSmith]

@elonmusk Please start in Austin and eliminate Project Connect!

[Greg Smith @GregMuleSmith]

@JTLonsdale @JTLonsdale - ran for D9 in 2022. You hosted a debrief on why someone of us didn't succeed. If you’re serious about making a difference this year, I’m all in — whether that means running again or working behind the scenes to help build a winning effort. I am easy to find.

[Greg Smith @GregMuleSmith]

@MatthewModine Loved that movie!

[Greg Smith @GregMuleSmith]

Here you go ATX. Vote all these people out. #vote #ATX #Leadership #AustinCityCouncil

[Austin Justice @AustinJustice]

Wild this isn't getting news coverage.

A homeless woman in Austin gets shot dead in the neck and robbed.

Cops figure out pretty fast it was a repeat violent offender Austin prosecutors had already let walk on aggravated robberies, drug felonies, gun charges, plus a separate shooting where he put three bullets in a someone’s leg over a crack baggie.

Cops get the guy on his own home camera, six minutes after the murder, bagging up his bloody clothes, telling a woman to mop the floor and lie to the cops, and literally saying out loud “homicide will be in this hoe.”

DA José Garza’s office looked at all of it and dropped the murder charge two weeks ago.

The man is back on the street.

[Greg Smith @GregMuleSmith]

@MattMackowiak Matt - I asked yesterday, maybe you know. Who are the people in this meeting? Titles? Appointed by council? @JenRobichaux may know?

[Greg Smith @GregMuleSmith]

@data_atx I am very curious as to who these people are in this meeting?

[Greg Smith @GregMuleSmith]

You can't make this up. @APDChiefDavis why do you allow these comments to pass with no comment?
@ToddJeffries

[ATX data @data_atx]

Austin councilwoman Krista Laine wants Austin police to start logging the religion of criminals that the police use force against

She wants to make sure the police are not being islamophobic or anti-semitic in their use of force decisions...

[Greg Smith @GregMuleSmith]

City Council leadership with no real-world business experience.
Are things better than they were 3 years ago?
• Public safety
• Homelessness
• Affordability
• Roads & infrastructure
• Overall quality of life - Environment
What’s improved? Vote different in Nov.

[Jen Robichaux @JenRobichaux]

Last fall, the City of Austin told taxpayers that we needed to approve a tax rate increase for basic EMS and fire services. Meanwhile, they were sitting on an IT audit that showed a savings opportunity multiples of the budget gap - and they weren't planning on sharing it with us.