Uvalde Police Declined to Breach Classroom While Children Were Being Murdered
I heard the rumors over the last few days that the police were hesitating to go into the classroom in Uvalde, Texas, where a suicidal maniac was murdering children. This could not possibly be right, I thought this was merely an echo of another particular case where the police hesitated and children died.
I was waiting for the official word, knowing that the news ALWAYS gets the story wrong, and the sloppiness of journalists can make people go crazy angry about nothing and can even ruin people’s lives. I was reserving judgment.
It is official, the Uvalde School District police chief, Pedro “Pete” Arredondo made the decision not to breach the Uvalde elementary school classroom while a gunman was shooting children and teachers.
Despite repeated 911 calls from inside the classroom, police incorrectly thought no children were at risk.
What?
So they have an active shooter in a school during school hours and no children are at risk? Who makes that assumption? 19 officers stood in the hallway doing nothing, because Arredondo wanted to wait for a swat team. Children were calling 911 and begging the police to come.
And more children died.
I’m sorry, I see cowardice, I see ineptitude, I see criminal negligence, I see a billion dollar lawsuit. Every police officer involved should be fired. Each officer who failed to make the decision to move forward is culpable. Each officer who failed to investigate the scene to find out whether children were in danger is culpable.
This happened at the shooting in my area at the Stoneman Douglas High School. A Sheriff’s Deputy Scot Peterson, who held back when shots were being fired and kids were dying.
You will see from my writings that I am an ardent supporter of the police. I believe the “Defund the Police” movement is the stupidest, most naïve, most insane movement in American history.
But I also expect police to be a cut above. They have chosen to be the protectors of society and to put themselves in the line of fire rather than let civilians get hurt. Their code of honor (at least from my perception) would never allow children to come to harm.
I know that I still do not know all of the details of this situation, the press never gets its right, and the official word is not necessarily correct either, as Texas Governor Abbott found out. The courts will find out more, maybe a year from now.
My recommendation? Fire all 19 offices, fire, Arredondo, whoever is superiors are, and whoever was responsible for training these people. The whole mess has to go.
Uvalde Police Made ‘Wrong Decision’ in Waiting to Storm Shooter, Says Texas Official
Am a retired army and I would have went in to try and stop him.
“Arredondo wanted to wait for a swat team. Children were calling 911 and begging the police to come…..And more children died.” Are you sure? This seems a dangerous assumption at this point that I can not confirm. Most say the shots were fired quickly in the beginning. Therefore more kids weren’t killed by subsequent shooting. This is contradicted by 911 calls where shots are fired in the background. However, there is a much higher probability that the delay affected some wounded who might have survived IF the breach had completed an hour earlier. BUT —- I don’t think we know at this time and Joe may have jumped the gun with his assumption.
Obviously, you picked some low hanging fruit to vent your spleen. Venting, calling for vigilante justice, telling us trucks kill more, none of this will bring these kids back or affect anything different for the next time, and there will be a next time —- it’s America after all. Kill em with kindness, kill em with covid, kill em in kindergarten.
Pretty sure these guy’s careers are done, they will be terminated, they will need to leave the area, change their names, not sure how much actual punishment can be doled out. But that’s not the point. We need these guys to explain the breakdown. They had the equipment, they had the training, what caused the failure? I can not believe it’s just cowardice or stupidity. I hope that it’s not the fact this was a majority Latino school. But they owe us the teachable moment of why this went so horribly wrong so that other small-town, fully equipped, fully trained, police departments don’t repeat this total failure.
The story is still changing by the hour. From what I can tell, DHS Border Patrol swat arrived as the local police told them to stand down. The DHS swat finally issued their override and went in against the orders of local police. Again, not verified, I expect the story will change, and we still are not even close to the root cause of what really held them back.
And now we have another alternative to Joe’s hang-em-high theory of retribution management. We had an armed school resource person working for this school. He was off site so that didn’t seem to work. We have hardened the perimeter, but we opened the door, so that doesn’t work. And we had trained, well-equipped, police, and that didn’t work.
Maybe if we just armed the teachers, then the kids could just steal their guns and avoid the whole “how’d he purchase a gun” issue altogether.
Or we could continue to do nothing, and chances are this will vanish from our national memory in a couple of weeks. Probably, in a week of so this will be wiped from our memory just like this one wiped the Buffalo Tops shooter of the previous week from our memory. If we want to forget the current school shooting, we just need another school shooting to replace it. Think that’s a bad solution? Don’t know, we haven’t tried much else. And based on the airtime for this suicide-by-cop, the next one is probably queueing up as we speak tapping out their little manifesto.
But Uvalde is just a drop in the bucket. Guns are the leading cause of death for kids in America. Worse than auto accidents. From NPR, “Across the 29 countries in the study, the U.S. accounted for almost 97% of the firearm deaths among children 4 years old or younger, and 92% of firearm deaths for those between the ages of 5 and 14.” About 2,000 kids die by gun each year in America. 8,000 are shot but about 6,300 survive to live with those bodily and mental wounds. As terrible as that must be, they don’t count because they may be wounded, disabled, disfigured, but they are alive so not a problem like Uvalde. That’s about 170 dead kids by gun every month. That’s about 5 per day. Or 20 kids, like Uvalde, every four days. Sure, most are older, up to 17, but still, that’s a lot of kids. And 20 in one day really is not that much an outlier compared to many days of normal life in everyday, average, typical America. It’s the price of freedom.
If we are to attempt to do something, it might be better to look at gun violence in America, of which mass shootings, as horrific as they are, only represent a tiny slice of the problem which, IMO, is massive, pervasive, growing, with no reason to slow down at all. Quite the opposite: Uvalde has put a surge of gun and ammo purchases unlike even the election of Obama into play. Happens every time.
Stay angry, look for revenge, blame mental health, and thank you gunnies, once again for the profits.
Frank why don’t you do research on how many people are murdered by ghetto scum? And yes, as usual your comments are total bull shit. You are saying that children were allowed to die because it was a mostly Latino school? There you go again with your stupidity. You fucking lefties can’t get enough of the race card. And by the way, you will never shame me into giving up my guns. Why? Because I don’t add to the so called statistics that you spout. So stick to what you know. Which isn’t much. This tragedy wasn’t caused by law abiding people or the 2nd amendment. So I guess that the battle lines are drawn. People aren’t going to disarm. People that are known to post threats against schools and workplaces should be removed from society. It’s appalling how many times we talk about warning signs and nobody cares or does anything about it. And then idiots like you want to attack the overwhelming majority of gun owners who don’t do shit like that. You’re just another race baiting ignorant asshole.
Rifleman: I was gonna pass because your remarks are so off base, uncalled for and stupid, but since many here share your view….. First, you roll with the ole diversionary red herring: “how many people are murdered by ghetto scum” as if that matter more than a hound dog in a cat fight to the parents of the kids at Uvalde. If I said 4B ghetto scum have murdered 4B white women, would that matter re: Uvalde? If I said “zero” would that matter? It’s an emotional race baiting red herring you toss to divert attentions.
Then: “You are saying that children were allowed to die because it was a mostly Latino school” which seems to be a common misread of: “I hope that it’s not the fact this was a majority Latino school.” I did not say children were allowed to die because it was Latino. I said “I HOPE THAT IT”S NOT……”
Then you said: “There you go again with your stupidity. You fucking lefties can’t get enough of the race card.” to which I say you are slamming me based on your own misread. Apology accepted……
“And by the way, you will never shame me into giving up my guns. Why? Because I don’t add to the so called statistics that you spout.” I am doing nothing of the sort. But if the facts lead you that way, that’s on you.
“So stick to what you know. Which isn’t much. This tragedy wasn’t caused by law abiding people or the 2nd amendment.” Actually, on guns, gun laws, etc. I am pretty well schooled albeit out of day since I gave up on this over a decade ago. It’s over, you won, guns are everywhere, concealed and open carry are the rules of the road, and as everyone knows, if we stopped all gun sales immediately, we would have an overabundance of guns for centuries, the darned things don’t fall apart. It’s over, you got your way. But, be clear, this tragedy WAS caused by a law abiding citizen who bought his weapons legally and carried them legally right up until the point where he didn’t. Just like you………you are the same……except only for the last eight words.
“So I guess that the battle lines are drawn. People aren’t going to disarm.” People that are known to post threats against schools and workplaces should be removed from society. It’s appalling how many times we talk about warning signs and nobody cares or does anything about it. And then idiots like you want to attack the overwhelming majority of gun owners who don’t do shit like that. You’re just another race baiting ignorant asshole.” Again, I do not want your guns. I do not want to abolish the second amendment. If anything, I seek a win-win with gun owners to provide better access to more and bigger weapons while expediting crime gun traces even as we better protect gun owners from government intervention. IOW —- I believe that we can reach a better place where gun owners, those who don’t, and those lefties who want all guns off the planet can feel like they are in a better place. A win for all. Even the NRA can come out of this a winner with more power than ever. But it starts with the gunnies admitting their is a problem and we should all work together to make it better for all Americans, especially the children.
And no whatever you just said you thought I believe in or said seems to be a misread. At best.
It’s over. Nothing to see here. Time to move on.
Frank you are so stupid that you think “us gunnies” are at fault. You’re a fucking liar. The police slow to respond because Latinos attended the school. Seriously???? You make me more determined than ever to keep my guns and obtain more of them. My way of saying FUCK YOU!!!! Is others in your family as damned stupid as you?
And yet Chuck, being “so stupid”!in your opinion still makes us way smarter than you. Why you feel it necessary to bring my family in just shows who you are..
I never said the police were slow because it was a Latino school. Really. Reread please.
I never said I wanted your guns. Buy more. I own stock. Hard to find public offering too.
I did not say gunnies are the problem although it is a gun problem. But most gunnies are not bad people. Even the ones who stupidly try to take a poke at my family. Those are the rare assholes amongst them.
Finally, come on, you were always determined. I plan to keep mine as well. Will be adding a few shortly too.
I said America has a gun problem, mass murders are just a small part no matter how seemingly commonplace they are. But against modern nations, our gun violence is astoundingly high and the wonderment of the world. Our per capita ownership is one of the highest in the world.
If we all think there is a problem, it’s a people problem where the gun is a most often selected tool for remedy. Does that mean I want your guns. No. It just means we have a problem and guns sit right in the middle of it.
Read this with care. Twice the scotus has affirmed that the 2nd amendment is an individual constitutional right. To change that, it would require a constitutional convention and, I think, a 2/3 majority of state legislature to pass it That’s not likely to happen in our lifetime. But it could. So we must be careful who we vote for. The countries that suffered genecide kept the people unarmed. Yes, it could happen here. Don’t ever say never. We should remove the rights to arms from anyone proven, key word proven, to make or post anything threatening mass violence. But no banning of any weapon currently legal. That could put us on a slippery slope to total disarmament. Don’t question why anyone needs this or that. It’s not my business. Or the business of anyone else.
Fortify the schools. Get security consultants to design simple but effective means of surrounding each school with barbed wire, woven wire mesh fencing, topped by razor wire. Arm the teachers, have armed guards on the grounds, and these can be volunteers with proper firearms training. Quarantine the schools during the school day. No child from kindergarten through 12th grade has any “need” to leave campus other than for medical appointments and the like. make sure school cafeterias serve tasteful and nutritious food so there is no need to go off campus for a good meal. We cannot protect the kids if we aren’t allowed to take appropriate steps. Home school is a great idea, as my grandkids have proved by always testing well above the norm for public school kids. Take the problem kids to tough schools where their hijinks will not be tolerated. Teach the true basics. Reading, writing, arithmetic to start. Golden Rule. Stop the B.S. studies like Critical Race and gender awareness. These last couple are the responsibility of the parents and not public schools.
As for the cowardly police involved, I agree that a full house-cleaning is in order. I seldom criticize our men and women in Blue, but in this instance, it’s absolutely necessary to make sure their weak actions and lack of them are not tolerated. If even ONE child or teacher died due to their inaction, then major moves must be made to clean out the inept or cowardly persons involved.