Texas’s Governor Greg Abbott has made a bold decision. He will not spent today with his handlers and donors at the big NRA convention in Houston. He will go to Uvalde to use the parents of murdered children as props in his Republican propaganda. But don’t worry, Abbott is sending a video to the NRA convention, and Donald Trump still plans on making a speech. I would imagine that a good chunk of Abbott’s visit to Uvalde will be another press conference in which the entire narrative changes about the massacre. Local and state law enforcement have not been able to keep their stories straight, and in every version, the Uvalde police force comes across as grotesquely inept, cowardly and guilty of criminal manslaughter. From this Wall Street Journal article:
Cops lied about how the murderer entered the building and who he encountered: The gunman entered the building unobstructed after lingering outside for 12 minutes firing shots. Victor Escalon, a regional director for the Texas Department of Public Safety, said he couldn’t say why no one stopped Ramos from entering the school during that time Tuesday. Most of the shots Ramos fired came during the first several minutes after he entered the school. Department of Public Safety officials previously said an armed school officer confronted Ramos as he arrived at the school. Mr. Escalon said Thursday that information was incorrect and no one encountered Ramos as he arrived at the school. “There was not an officer readily available and armed,” Mr. Escalon said.
The cops stood around, doing nothing for an hour: “The police were doing nothing,” said Angeli Rose Gomez, who after learning about the shooting drove 40 miles to Robb Elementary, where her children are in second and third grade. “They were just standing outside the fence. They weren’t going in there or running anywhere.”
The cops were handcuffing, jumping & tasering parents who begged them to go inside: Ms. Gomez, a farm supervisor, was also waiting outside for her children. She said she was one of numerous parents who began encouraging—first politely, and then with more urgency—police and other law enforcement to enter the school sooner. After a few minutes, she said, U.S. Marshals put her in handcuffs, telling her she was being arrested for intervening in an active investigation. Ms. Gomez said she convinced local Uvalde police officers whom she knew to persuade the marshals to set her free. Ms. Gomez described the scene as frantic. She said she saw a father tackled and thrown to the ground by police and a third pepper-sprayed. Once freed from her cuffs, Ms. Gomez made her distance from the crowd, jumped the school fence, and ran inside to grab her two children. She sprinted out of the school with them.
Again, the cops tasered parents: After the confrontation at the school ended with Ramos dead, school buses began to arrive to transport students from the school, according to Ms. Gomez. She said she saw police use a Taser on a local father who approached the bus to collect his child. “They didn’t do that to the shooter, but they did that to us. That’s how it felt,” Ms. Gomez said.
The coverup: Bob Estrada lives directly across the street from the school, which his grandson attends. The 77-year-old said he and his wife walked outside when they heard gunshots and were confused why the police who arrived didn’t immediately enter. “They are trying to cover something up,” he said of the information released Thursday. “I think the cops were waiting for backup because they didn’t want to go into the school.”
“I think the cops were waiting for backup because they didn’t want to go into the school.” Yes. The repulsive cowardice of the police was underlined by DPS Lt. Chris Olivarez, who was interviewed by Wolf Blitzer on CNN. Olivarez lied and said the cops on the scene entered the school swiftly (they did not) but even if the police allowed the shooter to massacre children and teachers for a full hour, the cops did so because “they could’ve been shot, they could’ve been killed, and that gunman would have had an opportunity to kill other people inside that school.”
The cops’ negligence and incompetence within the school also got one child shot:
A fourth grader who survived the shooting said officers assaulting the barricaded room told kids to call for help before they had incapacitated the gunman, which led to him shooting a kid who called for help https://t.co/rJP1B2hPC7 pic.twitter.com/6bHgb2risi
— Evan Hill (@evanhill) May 26, 2022
Here is a video of the parents pleading with cops to enter the school and stop the murderer.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
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- (180519) — SANTA FE, May 19, 2018 () — Texas Governor Greg Abbott speaks at a press briefing in Santa Fe, Texas, the United States, May 18, 2018. Ten people were killed and another 10 wounded on Friday when a student armed with a shotgun and a revolver opened fire at a high school in the U.S. state of Texas in the latest incident of gun violence against students. (/Steven Song)(axy),Image: 515240500, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: WORLD RIGHTS excluding China – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Avalon.red – sales@avalon.red London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251 Madrid: +34 91 533 4289, Model Release: no, Credit line: Steven Song / Avalon
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- (180519) — SANTA FE, May 19, 2018 () — Texas Governor Greg Abbott holds a press briefing in Santa Fe, Texas, the United States, May 18, 2018. Ten people were killed and another 10 wounded on Friday when a student armed with a shotgun and a revolver opened fire at a high school in the U.S. state of Texas in the latest incident of gun violence against students. (/Steven Song)(axy),Image: 515240537, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: WORLD RIGHTS excluding China – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Avalon.red – sales@avalon.red London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251 Madrid: +34 91 533 4289, Model Release: no, Credit line: Steven Song / Avalon
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- United States President Donald J. Trump makes remarks as he meets with Governor Greg Abbott (Republican of Texas) in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, Thursday, May 7, 2020. Credit: Doug Mills / Pool via CNP | usage worldwide,Image: 564280319, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: UK and US ONLY – DIRECT SALES ONLY – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Avalon.red – sales@avalon.red London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251, Model Release: no, Credit line: Doug Mills / DPA Picture Alliance / Avalon
I don’t even know what to say. Every day things get worse as we learn new details. I’m at the point where I don’t believe anything Texas LE says and I think they’re covering something up. Like maybe police killed some of the children. Maybe the shooter ended up committing suicide instead of the police shooting him. I just feel like they are hiding something.
You feel like that because they are. Police station is a mile from the school–why was there a ten minute gap and what happened during that time? Was there a school police officer immediately on the scene or nah? If there was, then why didn’t they find and apprehend the shooter immediately? So many questions but at least we have one answer: cops do not make schools safer.
Saw a tweet saying: At least firefighters run into the burning buildings, which is why we don’t have songs saying fvck the fire department.
Truth.
there are also reports that some of the cops on site, while preventing parents from trying to rescue their children, did go in to get their children/family members out.
I love how they arrested parents for “interfering with an active investigation” apparently standing outside while the massacre unfolded inside the school is considered investigating
TRUTH. This is who the police are.
If there was no back door at the Alamo there would be no Texans. These cops were cowards.
@Pottymouth Pup: Well, the parents were unarmed, you see. So, it was easy to get tough with them.
God help me for thinking this, but I think that the cops who showed up on the scene and waited were afraid of the shooter’s weapons and their shooting power. It’s understandable from a human standpoint, but isn’t that kind of their job? And since they now know how much damage such weapons will do, and how it can immobilize people who are armed and trained (supposedly) to deal with armed criminals, why don’t cops join the reasonable people in eliminating such weapons from the hands of U.S. citizens?
It’s not kind of their job, that IS their job. To be a police officer is to be willing to put your life on the line to protect others. What a shocking dereliction of duty. Almost as horrifying as the shooter.
Not only that, but they played right into the gun lobby’s narrative. Don’t they always say “when seconds count the police are minutes away?”
I read a joke on reddit yesterday: A woman was speeding on Uvalde’s main street when she was pulled over by a policeman on a motorcycle. The woman showed her license and registration and said to the cop, “Instead of giving me a ticket, how about I buy a ticket to the Policemen’s Ball?” The cop just smiled and handed over her speeding ticket. “I’m sorry, ma’am, but you seem to have confused us with the Border Patrol. Uvalde policemen have no balls.”
12 minutes was more than enough time for the police to arrive and take this guy down before he entered the building. What the fuck is the point of having a police force if they can’t do the bare minimum!?
Police protect property, not people.
This! Modern law enforcement exists to protect the oligarchy and the state, nobody cares about people. Americans aren’t realizing this, but we no longer matter except as a source of cheap labor for the rich.
This was a school of BROWN children. Hispanic children. THIS is the real reason. If this happened in a white neighborhood, in ABBOT’S neighborhood, or Cancun Cruz’s, do you think this would be the same outcome???? Oh HELL NO!
@Jan90067
It’s a small town. The police is mostly brown too, their own children were inside.
@Jan90067…this was the question I was too cowardly to ask on Twitter, for fear it was inappropriate at this time. It was a question in my heart the moment I heard they delayed entrance. Because my question was: WHY??? Why did they wait? What were they waiting for? So now, with your information, I’m wondering, were they hoping more brown children would be killed? Were they actively trying to eliminate as many brown children as possible?
Brava to the mum who pulled her kids out; would that I could. I hope I would have done the same thing for as many children as one could possibly gather. I’m sick with rage and frustration re the police inaction for over 1 hour. Kids could have been saved.
@Tessa: To Jan90067’s point about whether the cops would have acted in the same way if this had been a majority white school, do you really see them arresting, or tasing the parents in that case? I don’t think so. Fear could have broken out in any neighborhood but being aggressive to innocent people who only wanted to save their children is something else entirely.
@ Sui Generis,
It’s a wonder more people don’t see this, honestly; we’re careening toward a Brave New World/ Handmaid’s Tale hybrid.
And still…not enough people realize it.
Agree. The police only care about certain people. They’re are not here to protect and to serve everyone. That’s why I have never trusted them. I would’ve done the same thing that brave mother did and jumped the fence.
They also did this at the Pulse Nightclub. There was literally no reason to wait, they just were too scared/didn’t care enough to do their jobs and take down a lone gunman when they are armed to the teeth in riot gear. Columbine too. “Secure the perimeter”
Considering how militarized most US police depts are, it’s stunning. Read somewhere a teacher propped a door open to go retrieve their phone and that’s how the shooter got in???? If that’s a case so many people failed in a dire situation.
Useless police. We cannot let this part of the story fade. Every politician that calls for more cops in schools, more armed guards, in order to evade gun control, this is the outcome.
This is the outcome of a society that is steeped in idolatry for police.
This is the outcome of a police state.
There’s a cultural problem in US police force. They are being wired that the community is out to get them and they will go overboard in policing when they have an upper hand. Hence tasering and handcuffing parents, kneeling on someone’s neck. Shooting someone in the back for some silly bike light thing.
Shift them into a situation where their lives may be on the line and they don’t have a comfortable upper hand, they park themselves on the sideline w their impressive protective gear and direct traffic.
Hats off to the BP agents who responded to scanner traffic and ended the situation.
As a Texas teacher, WT actual FUCK???State officials want US to be armed? When actual police with long guns and vests just stand around and threaten civilians when shit goes down? I get trained to “Run. Hide. Fight.” Which I used to joke was the equivalent of a handshake but now I realize it’s just them giving us the finger.
they want you to be armed but not have the ability to choose a curriculum or books for your classroom or library, you know, the things you are actually trained for.
You are now underpaid, undervalued, and can now add school police officer to your resume. I am so sorry, Tx_mom. As a fellow Texan and mother, I am appalled at how our state treats you, both leadership and constituents. This is becoming the hill I will die on, though. So know that there are people on your side ready to fight back.
It’s them trying to sell more guns, per their masters’ instructions.
They’re all in the pocket of the NRA. They’re bought and paid for by the gun manufacturers and gun sellers lobby, so if they can convince people – or require people – to buy more guns, that puts more money in their pocket and the pockets of their death merchant bosses.
@ Tx_mom, I am incredibly fearful of the unnecessary burden that is being placed on teachers, like yourself, and those all throughout Texas. You are all under an enormous amount of pressure to not only have your curriculum stunted due to their ludicrous issues regarding books banned but the fact that you are not supported again by the Texas legislature is unacceptable. How are you supposed to do your job teaching these minds of the future while being fearful of someone entering the school to cause harm?
The entire Texas government is useless!!! You aren’t paid enough as it is and they want you to be trying to teach along with having a handgun to protect you and your students lives? The solution isn’t arming teachers, it’s more gun control!!! How many more mass shootings are we going to face before the entire GOP act on behalf of the safety of their constituents and NOT be puppets to the NRA?
As a Texas resident, I am sickened by the lack of the current administrations lack of action and accountability.
The screams of those parents will haunt me forever. No parent should be treated like criminals. This is what Texas has become due to the Repugnant’s acting as puppets for the NRA. Abbott is supposedly going to Uvalde today, but he was able to stop by for his fundraiser on Tuesday night. Abbott has also prepared a video for the NRA convention. Abbott should be ashamed of showing his face in Uvalde. It’s nothing but a publicity stunt, nothing more.
They didn’t have the decency to cancel the NRA convention? I am speechless.
They never do.
They practically pitch a tent near mass shootings for the convention because the cruelty is the point.
I think they “pitch a tent” in the metaphorical sense, too. They genuinely get off on mass murder.
Not sure why Abbott is getting any kind of praise for not attending when he is sending a video. Four musicians, Don McLean, Larry Gatlin, Lee Greenwood and Larry Stewart, have all cancelled. Of course the NRA didn’t cancel and will use this as a way to promote the fact that more guns are needed to protect ourselves.
None of those artists cancelling their performances deserve praise either. They knew what the NRA was about when they signed on the dotted line. It isn’t even the first time the NRA has held their convention after a mass shooting, many times it is in or near the same town as the shooting.
Exactly, Haylie. This isn’t some great moral stand; this is merely image control, PR bullshit.
@Swack The NRA promoting “more guns for protection” is like saying “eat more sugar to prevent cardiovascular disease”. I was hoping the NRA would implode during the Ackerman McQueen/ Oliver North debacle, but no suck luck.
Why would we expect anything different? They went on with the conference in Colorado immediately after Columbine.
They are such hypocrites. Guns aren’t allowed in the arena when their orange cult leader is speaking. Why is he afraid of his follows? Don’t they worship the ground he walks on?
What’s the point of police if they’re afraid of doing their job? Get rid of them.
They are only brave when it comes to tackling and arresting unarmed civilians. My God. You can hear the desperation in the voices of the desperate parents as they plead with these cowards to do their fuc*ing jobs. I’m so angry.
Abolish the police and hire only Ms. Gomezes. That woman is my hero and her face should be on t-shirts and billboards. She is a leader and we should listen to her over any politician. I’m sick to my stomach and the more I hear, the more I cry my eyes out.
So the parents, who may have had weapons since this is Texas, were pleading to go in and law enforcement stopped them. All the guns in the world could not help those kids. The optics are bad. The vast majority of the victims are POC and law enforcement were too scared to go in???? I cannot with this story. It enrages me.
As far as the NRA – shame on them. I also heard the VA LG is scheduled to speak at the NRA. I cannot wait to vote these Republicans OUT.
https://www.virginiamercury.com/2022/05/25/virginia-lg-scheduled-to-speak-at-nra-fundraising-event-in-texas-this-week/
Thank you for sharing this. I emailed the lieutenant governor’s office and asked her to please not attend.
And ironically it’s not on her weekly schedule of events on the official webpage. It’s this kinda shit that just leaves me angry. Hiding. She is hiding. I cannot wait to vote her ass out.
I am getting really tired of asking politely. It’s time to demand and order, as you do with your public freaking SERVANTS when they forget who they serve.
@Tessa, oh no. They don’t forget who they serve – they never forget who they serve. NRA gave Winsome 10k last year and so she is there this year at their convention. She hasn’t forgotten who she serves.
https://www.vpap.org/committees/148483/large_contributions/?date_posted=2022-05-27
Everything about this makes me sick to my stomach (literally). Reading the part about the mother jumping the fence and running in to get her children….I just….As a mother I would absolutely do the same thing but that’s not the point. She *should not have had to*! The police failed in every possible way and no amount of spin is going to change that. Nothing will happen with anything. Not with gun laws, not with police accountability, not with school safety…It’ll be the usual talk, talk, talk, empty words, empty words and more empty words with no action or change behind them. I’m done. I’m so fucking done.
Exactly, she shouldn’t have had too but also the fact that she just got right in while police were there and an active shooter was inside is appalling. Like there were still open entrances during all of this? The school wasn’t completely locked down by the police? This whole thing is devastating and I’ve cried every night reading these stories but now I’m getting more and more angry. How could those police officers do that? Leave those babies in there all alone? How are people ok with this? How can you say MORE guns or police are needed after this?
At my school we have designated faculty to lock doors during an active shooter. In my building we have 5 sets of double doors that my closest coworker is responsible for…all glass, all spaced out, and all locked with a tiny wrench, and that’s just on our side of the building. There are more entrances on around the building.
I’m sick of it always being children. I really don’t want anyone shot. But hell if it’s going to happen then why can’t it be a group of politicians. At least that way if politicians are scared when they go outside then maybe something would be done about it. That’s what it’s going to take to fix this. When the governors and politcians make laws about open carrying and all that I think that should include in the governors mansion and the capitols. If politicians are the ones making these idiot rules then they should be a part of them also. They should also have to look over their shoulders every time they hear a noise.
I know you’ll be surprised to hear this but the same politicians who want guns to be accessible to “everybody” prohibit people from bringing guns to where the politicians work or assemble. Funny how that works.
Everything you just said. I get more and more angry as more facts emerge. I know the officers won’t be charged, but this is criminal. I would have acted exactly as that mother did. Thank God they didn’t shoot her. Cowards.
If they do indeed make teachers be armed, people will be pulling out of public schools left and right. which they already are, but this is very scary for the future of education, among many other things of course
Well, the Republicans have been trying to privatize education for years. None of this should be politicized, but this tragedy — and travesty — does move us closer to that possibility. Parents won’t want to send their kids, teachers and staff won’t want to work in increasingly unsafe environments, and the ideals of public education get slaughtered, along with kids and communities and dreams.
This is crushingly awful. Again.
Yes this is all part of their grand plan.
Yes, I believe this suits their purpose – an ignorant, uneducated general populace. And I guess private schools will look like a high security prison. This also seems like an excuse to purchase high-assault rifles for police to carry as part of their regular uniform.
I saw an article on Axios about the biggest school district in Iowa, and more than 500 of teachers are resigning at the end of this year. Another article said a national survey showed 55% of teachers are considering leaving (though it didn’t cite the source). Teachers have been treated so horribly, and now we get to see the consequences of that.
That’s one of the things they want.
Americans fund their police forces to an incredible amount – and for what? So they can stand outside as more children die?
I have to wonder if policr would have been more responsive to a school in a more affluent neighborhood. It’s a terrible thought, but I think the lesson being learned by potential mass murderers is that certain people are fair game. They might even feel they have tacit support for their actions.
As for the nra, they are going to use this as an excuse to try to give local police forces more military style weapons and powers, nevermind the fact that it would have made no difference here. They have no shame.
I thought the same thing. There was too much secrecy around this.
Read on Twitter that 40 percent of the town’s budget went to the police and they have their own SWAT that made internet posts about how they learned the layouts of schools, etc. They are all a bunch of gun fetishist cosplaying cowards. They literally trained for this but waited for the Feds while children died.
https://apple.news/AptTz_enXTZSepEYCrktsbA
Just horrific.
OMG!!!! That makes me SO ANGRY! I can’t believe such a tiny town had such weapons, and they failed to use them here!!!
:: Roars in outrage ::
Defund the police. They are obviously useless in this small town. I hope there is a criminal investigation going on into this police force and charges are brought against them. I don’t know how they can look at themselves in the mirror. They make me sick.
For comparison, the first school shooting in Winnetka, IL, by Laurie Dann, happened in an elementary school that was as rich and white and privileged a setting as you can get in 1988 America. The kids were shot and Dann escaped before the cops got to the scene. The cops would not let the parents into the school afterward, either, and physically restrained them. The cops could not make their way around the village in the hunt for the killer because major thoroughfares in the town were blocked off for the funeral of a village fireman that was happening at the same time.
The killer was a privileged white woman who was CRAZY. In the months leading up to the school shooting, she had threatened the lives of her ex-husband’s elementary aged nieces and nephews. She allegedly stabbed her ex-husband with an ice-pick and still the cops wouldn’t charge her. They couldn’t keep track of her whereabouts. On the day of the killing she dropped poisoned bakery and Capri Suns at frat houses at Northwestern University and in the mailboxes of people she had babysat for. She trapped a family she knew in their basement, and set the house on fire. The woman had to smash through a basement window with her fist to escape.
Then Dann went to her nieces/nephews’ school and set a fire in the hallway and then made her way to the Hubbard Woods elementary school where she entered through the open doors. She sat with one class–the teacher thought she was a student teacher. She left that class,went to the bathroom where she shot the kids that were in there, made her way to another class, shot up that class, and left through the back door. She tried to drive to the expressway but got caught by the funeral. She abandoned her car, entered a million dollar house instead, shot the college kid who was in there, then after an hours-long stand-off, killed herself in the upstairs bedroom.
The point of this long post is, rich or poor, when there is a school shooter, we are on our own. Other than surrounding the house when they found out she was in there, the cops did nothing. Dann was a rich white weirdo on their radar beforehand but it didn’t save those kids. Schools need to be locked tight every single minute of the day, with one entrance that is monitored. That this guy walked unimpeded into Uvalde makes me so angry. Those kids and teachers were sitting ducks.
Yeah right. Lets make all the people who follow the rules do all the work. Heaven fobid we make the psycho’s who run around killing people do anything. Why wasn’t this woman locked up when she stabbed her ex. Why was she out. Even if it was parole. Why was this woman allowed a gun? Again, why do we all have to change for the people breaking the law. Why aren’t the cops doing more? Why aren’t the politicians doing more? One of the definitions of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Why do politicians expect a different result from their thoughts and prayers?
From the start, the news coverage of this was so sketchy and incomplete. I knew the cops were not telling the whole story. It just seemed like they were hiding things and not out of respect for the families. Those poor children .
Totally agree. The fact that it went from, he was engaged by multiple police officers before he got in, to he just walked right in, raised the red flag for me. Something is going on and it’s not good for LE so there will be every effort to cover it up.
The timeline is so suspicious. There is too much unaccountable time It’s like nobody can get the facts and LE can’t get their story straight.
These men are just stupid boys with toys. Useless cowards who completely failed in their responsibility to protect civilians. A complete disgrace and I agree there is some sort of cover up going on. There needs to be a full FBI investigation.
I have been following this nonstop, and just… oh my god. It just keeps getting more and more horrific. what is WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE!!!
Word on the street is that, allegedly officers went in and grabbed their own kids and left the other babies and waited it out!
Not word: Uvalde LE confirmed it.
What?! I was just going to say do t jump to those kind of conclusions, but holy shit. I’m in shock again. This keeps getting worse and worse
If that’s true they need to be charged with negligent homicide!!!!!
I didn’t think I could be shocked anymore. I have no words. Those poor babies. 😢
They interviewed a sheriff, I think, who said he got his own kids out while the other kids were being slaughtered. This is tragic all the way around.
Have you noticed they replaced the sheriff as a spokesperson? That was intentional for this reason.
WTF. I have no words.
40% of this town budget is used to fund the police department.
I can guarantee NONE of those cops had family in that school. They stood around acting like billy badass with concerned parents bc they didn’t care. They don’t care if someone killed mostly brown babies.
DEFUND THE POLICE
They did have kids in the school. They ran in and got them before going back outside and handcuffing the parents of the kids they left to die.
I heard this. But I didn’t know it was confirmed. I didn’t want to put any more misinformation out there.
This just makes it so much worse. Did the police think no one was going to find out? That everyone would believe their BS? Their refusal to answer questions doesn’t make this go away!
DEFUND THE POLICE
There is video on TikTok of uniformed cops badgering parents and behind them you can seen plain-clothed individuals running with children in their arms. According to reports, off-duty officers were running into the school to grab their children.
Say what? Every time I read more about this, it’s becoming crazier.
Vote out the idiots enabling this.
BrutAmerica on TikTok has the video. At the very beginning, in the background, you can see a man running with a young girl. According to the video kids were being evacuated at that point, but, I don’t want to assume anything, so take it as you will. As a parent, I am demanding answers.
Apparently, they did and pulled them out..?
My fiance is a medic and he always says that cops just make everything worse. They either get in the way or heighten an already-tense situation.
When I saw that the school was predominately brown children I thought I can just hear the racists MAGATS now asking “are they legal clitzens?”. Because you know that they have been doing that, and that was the first question for many of them. Not how can this be happening in one of our schools in this country again? But I don’t want to go to their garbage white supremist owning the libs websites to see the chatter to verify that. It was reported that many of the children’s parents in that school are employed by the US government as border patrol officers.
I read some tweets – don’t remember from who – saying that some cops did enter the building to rescue their own children’s classes, while doing nothing to help evacuate other classrooms. Also that 18 minutes of police radio recordings have “mysteriously” vanished. Has anyone seen any reputable news sources reporting this?
To the first part: https://www.mediaite.com/news/watch-texas-police-spox-on-live-tv-confirmed-cops-went-in-for-their-own-kids-during-uvalde-shooting/
Thank you
There is a long and documented history of police refusing to enter premises and leaving the risk and responsibility to other emergency services. However, there may be more to this story than meets the eye…
There are reports that some police entered the school to collect their own children and went back outside to ‘wait’ and harass parents.
There are also reports police eventually set up around the classroom the murderer was in, and waited for up to an hour, claiming they had ‘contained’ him. Which is essentially barricading the murderer in a class full of teachers and students.
And finally, there are reports that the police department was mainly white, the shooter was latino, and the school students and teachers were primarily latino, so this may have contributed to the police hesitancy to place their lives at risk for the sake of citizens they are biased towards. Perhaps even encouraging it and ‘allowing it’ so that a community they dislike could sort itself out, and as an added bonus, take the heat off recent white supremacy motivated shootings.
Sorry for the long post. I’m sick to my stomach and had enough of bigoted, corrupt and lazy police; lack of gun regulation; racism; and children dying in such a preventable and unnecessary way. America: the land of guns and racism.
Your fourth paragraph is what we’ve all been thinking….
Thank you for your long, informative post. As someone who has spent my life attending and working in schools with so-called “at-risk’ kids, none of this really surprises me — although I wish it still did. I’m hoping that as America and the international community see what this country’s realities and “ideals” look like for some of us, things can change for the better — for all of us.
I know though, that the NRA and those more concerned with embryos than actual children have far more influence and power than people like me seem to have.
Today, I am truly grateful for this space — to be able to learn, process, and share the grief and horror. 🙏🏽
The chief of police and the chief of the school distract police both have Hispanic last names. It’s 100 miles from the border, the odds of the police department being incredible white is extremely low. Hispanics and Latinos make up huge percentages of border patrol agents and other law enforcement in Texas. White supremacy is about more than just white people in positions of power.
I cannot fathom this sort of cowardice. Two teachers died as they bravely tried to protect their students. As a teacher, I can assure you that “act as a human shield” is not in our job description (though maybe it should be, given the frequency of these tragedies), but in Uvalde and Sandy Hook and probably many other school massacres, teachers have died in the line of duty. They didn’t wait for f–king backup. They did what they could in the moment because children were being f–king slaughtered and they couldn’t just sit there.
All that tough talk we always hear from cops, about how dangerous their job is and that it demands respects because of that, and THIS is what they do in the face of babies being murdered. I hope those children and teachers haunt their dreams for the rest of their lives. They should never have a moment’s peace.
I’m crying. I didn’t even finish watching the video, the desperation in those parents’ voices was too much to take.
I can’t even watch it. While I don’t live even near Texas, I do have elementary aged kids and I want to throw up every time my mind even starts to wander towards “What if it was my kids?” I’m grateful they finished school on Tuesday and have a week and a half before they start summer camp so I can just…be with them.
I watched it yesterday and did some hard sobbing. Their screams and cries just cut through, it’s so primal and human. Just wanting to protect their children. Those poor parents, I can’t imagine their suffering.
I just feel so incredibly hopeless and sick. There is no such thing as a good scenario where your child is dead. But, to be a parent that was trying to get in, and having cops, who WON’T go in themselves, hold you back? I just….it’s all such a nightmare.
And the pro-gun people will toss out any other solution OTHER than gun control. My town, in MA, had a discussion on the local FB board. And suggestions were things like metal detectors, permanent cop posting, arm the teachers. It’s insane. They want to look ANYWHERE but at gun laws.
The NRA is not about rights and the 2nd amendment. It’s about selling guns. It’s a big advertisement for gun companies. Children are dying so that gun companies can make money and politicians can make money taking the pay offs.
I am just so over it all.
OMFG I live in MA too and I’m part of three neighborhood forums (because I’m a masochist): my hometown, my current town and neighboring East Boston and it was ALL THE SAME SHIT.
I replied to one post that a police state response to violence needs to stop, that a police presence doesn’t make most kids feel safer, and that we live in one of the states with the strictest gun laws– more police is unnecessary…and everyone gave me shit.
I’m constantly amazed in those forums how often “call the police” is given as an answer to life’s simple inconveniences. I’ve heard that as a response to someone finding a needle-less, empty syringe on the beach, an unfortunate encounter with a cranky 7/11 employee, a homeless man hanging in an alley near an apartment–not actually doing anything, just existing. And on and on….white people are bonkers, man. We’re effin crazy.
The other day I heard something like…
A person that says “the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun, is a good guy with a gun”…is a person trying to sell 2 guns.
This gets worse by the hour, not the day, the hour. Can we please burn the NRA talking points about needing a good-guy with a gun instead of restricting military war guns. Also, if half a dozen police with guns were there and too scared or “uncaring” to try and save children; how about we stop the fantasy that giving Ms Crabapple in the second grade a gun to take care of while teaching is the answer too?!?!? Aaaahhhh so sorry, I realize I am ranting but this is past the point of stupid now and innocent children and scores of adults are still dying every day.
My heart goes out to the parents who lost a child in that massacre and to all the other parents with children at the school.
As a parent l’ve lost count on how many shelter in place, lockdowns my children have gone through. I’ve gotten text messages from my children telling me the school is being evacuated due to bomb threat, or the school is surrounded by police in swat uniforms, we have a generation that is forever scared by school violence or the threat of school violence, and it doesn’t matter where you live or what your social economic status is. Look how quickly New Zealand was able to pass gun laws after the Christchurch massacre but here in the U.S. common sense no longer rules.
Every one of theses acts leaves a mark on all of us.
What those families are going through is heinous, and yet Greg Abbott is actually making their suffering worse by sending people around to grieving family members and offering to pay them to stand w/Abbott against gun regulations at public events, and threatening the families who say no to keep quiet
The guy who posted that is a known liar who spouts this kind of crap after all sorts of tragedies.
That tweet has been removed.
Cruz is actually at the NRA convention center right now. Look at his unhinged response to the reporters asking questions. Cruz is about to loose his temper!! What a disgrace he is.
https://apple.news/ArYMRluWTS8CuJBSu9wcUXQ
thanks for the corrected info!
I get that it’s an active scene but arresting and tasering scared parents is ridiculous.
Cops incompetence is why I would want more trained SROs in schools. On site and able to swiftly handle things. Now protocol is to wait for local LEO to arrive on scene and if they detect an assailant is too much they must wait for SWAT. Maddening. Year’s ago we had an officer do our Lockdown Drill training. He told us the way we are taught is all wrong. He was getting progressively upset over the process. He told us this isn’t how he teaches his children to respond to an active shooter at school but his hands were tied.
In the school systems where I’ve worked, SROs were always part of the local police force, and thus, under the jurisdiction and the command of the same police force that you’re viewing as “incompetent “. How would “more trained SROs in schools” help — if they’re part of the same police force? Is it set up differently in other cities and counties?
I think training SROs and shifting protocol to allow SROs to do their job is helpful. There is no point in having SROs or local police who aren’t trained and who aren’t allowed to stop assailants. My position stands that adequate training is necessary. In my district, our secondary schools (Middle Schools) currently have 1 SRO supporting a population of 600-1000 students. 1 SRO is not enough to cover that much ground or look after that many students. So far, every fight has been broken up by staff; in one case, an Administrator had bruises from breaking up a fight and a concussion. We had another case where a pregnant Administrator was dragged on the ground during a fight (High School). Our Police Chief admitted that our schools have soft entry points and are easily susceptible to criminal behavior. My specific area is located in the country lines. We have students who hunt with guns and knives in the country. We had a student who “forgot” he brought his hunting knife onto school property. Students who forget their hunting guns in their vehicles. The elementary schools in our neighboring districts have 300-600 students and no SRO. You can feel differently from me, but understand that most school staff wants more trained and qualified SROs on campus. SROs do more than just arrest people. SROs who are appropriately trained and are a part of the school campus and community is more helpful than having zero law enforcement on campus and no police around. The incompetent cops in the Uvalde tragedy should be shamed, they failed their community, they failed that school, they failed those babies, and that means there is a serious lack of appropriate and adequate training and that the police department needs a massive overhaul.
I grew up around yt pipo I know how all of you act about Latinos. Make this right. Stop normalizing hatred for immigrants and POC. They would’ve NEVER leg this happen to yt pipo until you accept acknowledge and do better this will keep happening. And you all know it in your hearts. Outraged? Speaking up for the Hispanics Latinos in your area because they are really the indigenous peoples of americas renamed and rebranded in the name of cultural genodice. Be out raged. But what are you gonna do about it
All of this shit…. and they can’t even address the parents in Spanish. There are no translation services. The white men don’t care at all. And they don’t care at all for the kids/families/teachers at that school.
People in the US- what does the average American think about gun control?
I’m in the UK and all we see is coverage of people speaking out against guns etc which as far as I can tell everyone in the UK fully agrees with- I don’t actually understand how the US can justify guns being readily available at this point?
What am I missing?
Not surprised, the only good thing the police force in a minority majority town is terrorizing the working class immigrant population. When I read that 40% of the town’s budget went to police dep I knew something was up. These parents need all the help they can get. Unlike the Sandy hook parents they are from a different socioeconomic class and I fear they will experience a deep helplessness because of the lack of resources they have at their disposal. However, immigrant communities are resilient in the face of crisis and with our help I am sure they will be able to what they seek to do.
Below average American here…
If I made the rules
1. License required, & rigorous training & background check. Same to renew a license.
2. Domestic violence or other assault convictions – never able to own a gun
3. Make it harder to buy ammo than Sudafed.
4. Waiting periods
5. Insurance
6. Consequences if someone (say a family member) injures/kills someone with your weapon (obv also consequences if you do that)
I’m definitely forgetting a lot but I know in a week when this happens again I’ll be like “oh and another thing”
The scariest thing is that studies have shown most of these shooters have 2 things in common. Violence against women & telling others of their ideations. I feel like as we continue to enact more legislation against women these incidents are only going to increase.
Everything you said is basic common sense, but sadly too many politicians are being paid millions of dollars by the NRA.
The NRA is holding an entire nation hostage. Why is it not designated a terrorist organization? Why are politicians that accept NRA money allowed to have a vote on gun legislations – they should excuse themselves for bias. Why aren’t campaign laws stricter around a max amount that can be raised from lobbies to ensure politicians work for citizens and not lobbies and corporations?
There is 100% a gun problem. But a broken democracy is enabling it.
Agree with all of these. Also wanna add a huge tax (30-50% should do) increase to the price of ammunition. Those tax dollars will be allocated directly to individual state mental health services. That way the right can never again just merely blame the problem on mental health.
The NRA has a stranglehold on policies/PR with their deep pockets. Even Russia is involved in keeping the NRA loaded with money and increasing their influence within our society, sowing chaos. I’m a gun owner, but it’s a handgun. Not a AR15. No civilian needs that type of weapon, IMO.
A large majority of Americans support things like background checks and red flag laws.
Unfortunately, the GOP (while being funded by the NRA) has such a stronghold on large swaths of our political system that it doesn’t matter how we vote. Their gerrymandering and voter suppression have been very successful in this respect.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/numbers-show-americans-opinions-gun-control-measures/story?id=84995468
Most people support gun control laws and some sort of regulations – background checks being a big one that has broad bipartisan support.
I am someone who would be fine if all guns were illegal here, but I know that will never happen. It is frustrating and enraging though that the things that COULD happen (like a background check, like a waiting period, safe storage laws, etc) that could help prevent future tragedies are not happening because of the power and influence of the NRA.
There are more actual people that want gun control.
But the people against gun control take up more space/land. This gives them political power to have their way.
@Charley, the majority of Americans are very angry about the lack of gun control laws in this country.
Let this sink in for the moment. Out of a population of 350+ million, there are only 50 people (50 US Republican Senators) that are holding up much needed gun legislation in this country. The same 50 US Senators are beholding to the NRA and gun lobbyists. To a certain degree Russia’s Putin.
The NRA and gun lobbyist fund the Republicans re-election campaigns. This is further aggravated by Putin who also funds the NRA to cause chaos in this country over this subject.
It is really up to the citizens of the states who elected these morons to get rid of them. Or, we need to get rid of the Senate filibuster which is a whole different exhausting story.
Most Americans want some measure of gun control but a political minority of gun advocates supported by the NRA whose money control the US House & Senate Repubs. The media is culpable too. They trot these killings out then invite the very people who support no gun control instead of shunning them. These shootings will continue to happen. Americans will continue to point fingers. The police ARE afraid to go in…no one has blamed our gun policies that have citizens buying military style weaponry and ammo that outguns our police.
1. Ban all military style weapons. No civilian needs a weapon of war.
2. Extensive background checks. Mandatory training that is required every x number of years.
3. I-guns… just heard a pod that fingerprint unlocking device was made in ’99. It’s 2022.
4. Lock/secure all guns. Mandatory registration and insurance. If a gun is stolen and used in the commission of the crime, the owner must have some kind of liability. A large fine, at least.
5. Limit arms and ammunition purchases like fkn pseudoephedrine. And your driver’s license needs to be scanned so that all purchase info is automatically linked to you and the state ( which could raise red flags).
6. Mandatory capacity limit on magazines for semi- automatic hand guns.
7. Fund CDC gun violence research.
8. Ban advertising for guns/ shooting propaganda
9. Remove qualified immunity from the police force.
10. Extensive psychological evaluation of LEO candidates
11. Red Flag Laws
12. Limit purchase age to a minimum of 25 (when neurological maturity occurs)
13. Any history of violence (DV/SA/other) precludes ability to own/ purchase
14. Make 3D printing of any gun parts a felony.
Eva Mireles (one of the teachers) was my first cousin. Although I know her older sister, I never met Eva. I’ve since virtually met her younger sister as a result of this tragedy. Learning about how wonderful Eva was is bittersweet and I hate that I didn’t know her before. Our family goes back multiple generations in Uvalde. Such a senseless situation all around.
I am so so sorry for your loss @laUnicaAngelina.
I’m so, so sorry LaUnica.
Oh my God. I’m so sad for you and her family. I’m at a loss for everything and all words. My love and action to you all.
@ LaUnicaAngelina, I am immensely sorry for the loss that your family has endured. There are no words that I can express except to tell you how deeply sorry I am for the loss of your very much loved cousin. My heart is breaking for you and everyone in Uvalde. I am so sorry.
Oh, no, I am so very sorry. Internet hugs incoming ,🤗
I watched an interview with a family friend of one of the teachers that died on CNN. He said she was able to call her husband before she died. It makes me wonder did the shooter enter the classroom and wait to shoot them? What was he doing in there for over an hour? Did he play some sort of sick game as to who he was going to shoot first? I wonder what the survivors know. I know they are kids, but at some point those kids and their parents are going to speak about what really happened.
I am beginning to wonder, too, if this individual was more interested in dying by police. According to an account by one of the students this morning was that the teacher got a text that there was an active shooter, went to barricade her door, but that the gunman was already there. I wonder if it was the other teacher that was able to call.
That was my thought, too. Suicide by cop.
That could be it. Maybe he was waiting for the police to come in and shoot him. Just think of all that time the police had to get this guy before he killed 21 people.
On CNN they showed text messages between the shooter and a friend. He said he was waiting for his grandpa to leave so he could shoot his grandma. I wonder why he didn’t shoot his grandpa? Also, I wonder how waiting for him to leave affected the timeline. The kids and parents were at an awards ceremony just an hour or so before the shooting. Had the grandpa left the house sooner, the shooter would have shot his grandma sooner and left for the school sooner.
If the shooter showed up during the ceremony, I wonder if he would have shot entire families. It’s crazy to think about.
The teacher was the spouse of an off duty CBP agent. They had a daughter in the school. Teacher wife texted CBP husband who was waiting for a haircut- he borrowed the barber’s shotgun and made haste for the school… he was able to evacuate his spouse and child. He knew what wing of the building they were in and cleared classrooms as he made his way toward them. Meanwhile, 19 officers were prevented from attending to the situation while their CO and the FBI apparently had a lengthy penis measuring contest. By the by, I think this is probably good and extrapolatable data that supports a high concentration of conservative micro-penis-having men in Texas.
The mom who went in for her own kids is awesome.
The more I read about this, the angrier I get. I can’t imagine how heartbroken and angry the parents are. The cops are directly responsible for at least one child’s death by encouraging them to ask for help before they’d neutralized the shooter. That is inexcusable.
The myth about a good guy with a gun needs to end today. Dozens of armed officers were afraid of one gun.
Yes, it is a myth. There is no such thing as a “good guy” with a gun. The entire LEO have proven this fact.
Oh, it ended today… but the bigger issue is that if LEOs are afraid to confront a shooter with a weapon of war…well, this is the perfect counter to conservatard nonsense to their insane exhortations to arm teachers, and, well, everyone. Those weapons will pierce body armor and come out the back side. They will enter concrete walls. They will peirce steel doors. They are made for one purpose only… to kill as many human beings as possible in the shortest amount of time possible and weapons of war do not belong in civilian hands, period. They *CANNOT* argue against assault weapons bans anymore. It has just *shot them in the foot*. The public won’t let them gaslight anymore. We need to end this party in November. It’s existential now.
One effect of gun culture is that people rely on the potential threat of a gun to solve problems instead of dealing with the problem sooner in a more effective way. Sounds like the cops suffered from this, not bothering to use other skills and tactics, assuming they even had any.
This is all so sickening. And absolutely, racism influenced this!!
I feel so hopeless and heartbroken.
And I hate Abbott so much.
First responders are trained and designated to go into emergency situations to provide assistance. The job requires them to go into situations that most people are running away from. If you don’t want to put your life in danger, or hate the sight of blood or trauma, don’t train, apply or take the job, because that is the job.
The words used in most law enforcement departments mottos are protect and serve. This department did neither, and children died. They stood around while a massacre of innocents occurred. I am so angry, because innocents, especially children, were sacrificed, have been sacrificed, and will continue to be sacrificed on the pyre of the 2nd amendment. The NRA always spin the same line of “the good guy with a gun.” Well, the uniformed, authorised to carry good guys with guns and badges, stood outside abusing parents while children died.
Kaiser & Celebitchy, thank you for posting about this.
One of the slain teachers was married to a police officer. If he is with the UPD, I wonder what he’s thinking. Either way, it’s just another layer of grief to be piled on.
The number of children murdered in classrooms has now surpassed the number of police killed in the line of duty. We have created a country in which it is safer to be a cop than to be a kid at school. What the fuck.
I think I read on the Daily Fail that police officer had a heart attack and died two days after the shooting. Now their 4 kids are orphans.
Cops are under no legal obligation to save anyone. And was reinforced by the Parkland Shooting case.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/18/us/parkland-shooting-lawsuit-ruling-police.html
Protect & Serve is just a nice tagline. Or movies like to create fantasies that cops will step up and save the day. But really, they are trained to protect themselves only.
If that’s true, what is their purpose? DEFUND. THEM!
You are correct. I know a couple of cops who are getting out of local law enforcement because they said it isn’t what they thought it would be. They are angry with how the system is set up and how they can’t actually protect people or actually do their job to stop crimes. Our county adopted a mandate that officers were not allowed to chase after a suspect who committed a crime directly in front of them. If they had to pursue the suspect they had to stop and just report it and give a description. I was floored.
The two largest teachers unions – AFT & NEA- are protesting the NRA TODAY in Houston. Support them! We need to announce a nationwide teacher walk out in support of banning assault rifles and high capacity magazines, expanding background checks and raising the legal age to purchase a gun.
The American Federation of Teachers Union and the National Education Association need to sue the state of Texas and Governor Abbott under the Texas Tort Claims Act: If an injured party can show that a Texas government employee was negligent while performing his/her job duties, the injured party may have a valid lawsuit against the state government.
THIS IS GROSS NEGLIGENCE ON EVERY LEVEL
This makes me so sick. I heard one story that there are 18 minutes missing or deleted from the police audio. This whole thing needs a deep investigation. It’s ineptitude at best.
Yes it is. But they are trying to cover up their inactions. We need the Feds to come in and do a thorough investigation.
This is why they’ve been saying, ‘It could’ve been worse.” Abbott and his sycophants have been looking down the barrel of the gun used to kill those kids from the start. He knew the scene and what was happening as it unfolded. I have no doubt he realized the f*ckup, and, “It could’ve been worse,” is a stab at relieving pressure from the impending explosion. I think I might hate him as much as orange ass face.
I can only hope the people of that town and surrounding towns start enough of a movement for Texas to get their act straight. Little children died. It was preventable.
I only made it through 40 seconds of that video.
I lived in CT during Sandy hook and thought that would never happen again. This is gutting.
Anybody with any sense and conscience knows what needs to be done, it’s not on the poor grieving families of that community to start a movement. Americans with power, elected power or other power, and platforms need to drive change NOW.
Tourmaline
Respectfully.
With any sense you know the ones in charge won’t start a change without a grassroots movement. Which usually is most impactful if those most affected are at the center.
Otherwise, there would have been changes on so many things. What works is to choke out the money. Not elections. Most politicians don’t have a strong opinion unless a lobbyist tells them to.
Time to cut funding from police. Why are we giving them money and accolades to sit in their hands while kids are shot beyond recognition?
They said on CNN the funerals will be closed caskett for pretty much all of them. Think about that.
The protest in Houston is underway, and it’s huge.
ALEC, or the American Legislative Exchange Council is an extremely powerful group which owns/works with Republicans. It writes many of the US laws behind closed doors and then these laws are copied -sometimes verbatim- in other states. All things conservative are intertwined, including guns and gun laws.
This is why people say defund the police. If the police won’t save you, who tf will?
Every day that more is revealed, I get sadder. My deepest sympathy to all of the victims family and loved ones. I also cried reading the story of the official who had to I.D. the kids. He said he’ll never forget what he saw.
Absolutely heart breaking.
This whole situation is inexplicable, but the NRA was handed a gift in the form of incompetent policing. Do not let the blame game detract from the fact that we need gun control. Period.
This from senator Ron Johnson, Wisconsin in response to Fox News’ Neil Cavuto asking him to comment on the Uvalde massacre (to give him a teeny bit of credit Cavuto pushed back against Johnson):
“We stopped teaching values in so many of our schools,” said Johnson in an interview with Fox Business on Thursday. “Now we’re teaching wokeness, we’re indoctrinating our children with things like Critical Race Theory, telling some children they’re not equal to others, and they’re the cause of other people’s problems. This is a much larger issue than what a simple new gun law is gonna — it’s not gonna solve it. It’s not gonna solve it.”
SMH and reaching for vodka.
Right. Fkn blame it on the victims. Just like a republitreasonweasel. I cannot wait to hand this prick his walking papers.
So much for the argument that the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun, Gun Nuts.
Lest we forget, the NRA is up to its collective a$$hole in debt. Last year it tried to file for bankruptcy to evade New York officials seeking to dissolve the organization. In his decision, a federal judge said that “using this bankruptcy case to address a regulatory enforcement problem was not a permitted use of bankruptcy.” Letitia James, NY AG, continues her good fight to get an an independent monitor to oversee the NRA’s shaky finances. NRA leader Wayne LaPierre spent tens of millions of dollars of NRA money on his own lavish lifestyle, along with 3 other top executives. Also remember, LaPierre and NRA executives, board members and donors engaged in a decade-long effort to facilitate the activities of Maria Butina and Alexander Torshin who used the NRA as a conduit to influence top Republicans. Butina is currently in federal prison and Torshin has been heavily sanctioned.
The senate report into a trip NRA executives took to Russia in 2015 states: “The investigation confirms Butina and Torshin utilized a network of Russian oligarchs and high-ranking Kremlin officials to bring the NRA to Moscow with promises of lucrative business opportunities with Russian entities. The trip included meetings with weapons manufacturers that produce weaponry for the Russian military and numerous entities and individuals under United States sanction or representatives and subsidiaries of entities under sanction.”
I only hope this evil entity crashes and burns.
Friends of ours own a store, and carpenters stole over $50,000 worth of store merchandise. The police came, but it took NEARLY A WEEK before they began an actual investigation. They interviewed the carpenters, who were Brazillian speakers, and used the only bi-lingual carpenter as interpreter. ????? The police agreed the carpenters stole the property, but they refused to reinterview them or interview them in Brazilian. (Interpreters were available.) The police then closed the case. When our friends contacted the police chief about this shoddy investigation, the police chief told them if they called again (and our friends are very mild mannered), he would arrest them for police harrassment. I am not comparing merchandise with human lives, but this laziness, incompetence and then bullying tactics are all too common. Add in corruption and racism, and we really have to wonder, who protects us from the police? Disgraceful. I can’t imagine the agony of these Texas parents wondering if their children are alive or dead and watching the police stand around. Then, to add insult to injury, we have to hear from the “powers that be” that the police were amazing and anyone who complained about them was just overwrought or didn’t understand how these things work. Yet another institution in this country that is despicable and feels completely unaccountable.
I have been incandescent with rage since the news began to trickle out about this gross negligence, Dereliction of Duty, and complicity to murder that these @sshats are guilty of. I won’t call them police officers, they don’t deserve the respect.
I am a retired police officer, 20 years service. I retired 10 years ago, and back then we were trained in active shooter response. As soon as there are FOUR of us (which takes two or three minutes) we GO THE F&CK IN!!! We go in. It is our damn job and our DUTY! HOW DARE THEY leave these children and teachers to be slaughtered?!
I can barely see through my tears of rage, and SHAME at this disgusting display.
I was at a two day training for my new career (Registered Clinical Counselor) last weekend and spent a good portion of one lunch hour with my fellow therapists crying and raging. I needed to get some part of it out, but I cannot forgive the cowardice of these jagoffs.
Every single one of those murdered children is on their hands. Every. Single. One.