Law enforcement is dangerous. That’s why departments issue handguns, spare mags, Tasers, pepper spray, batons, shotguns, ARs, and body armor, and spend millions of taxpayer dollars every year making sure their officers know how to use deadly force with some modicum of proficiency. If you can’t accept the danger, do not apply.
Pinning on a badge once came with implied consent. It meant you were willing to risk your life to protect the lives of others, regardless of how the courts have ruled. Sadly, that is no longer the case, at least not in Uvalde.
More than 400 hundred law enforcement officers from multiple departments waited 77 minutes outside a classroom of Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas while an active shooter killed 19 children and two teachers inside. They allowed an 18-year-old madman to kill 21 people while they waited in a hallway outside the classroom, milling around, talking on their radios, and checking their cellphones.
Now, a report from the Texas Tribune and ProPublica shows how the officers involved in the worst active-shooter response in police history are attempting to shift the public’s focus away from their own cowardice. They didn’t make entry, they told investigators, because the suspect had an AR. In other words, instead of blaming themselves, they’re blaming a gun, even though police had hundreds of ARs on the scene.
“You knew that it was definitely an AR,” Uvalde Police Sgt. Donald Page told investigators after the shooting, according to the report. “There was no way of going in. We had no choice but to wait and try to get something that had better coverage where we could actually stand up to him.”
Sgt. Page was not alone in his excuse-making.
“We weren’t equipped to make entry into that room without several casualties,” Uvalde Police Department Detective Louis reportedly said, adding, “Once we found out it was a rifle he was using, it was a different game plan we would have had to come up with. It wasn’t just going in guns blazing, the Old West style, and take him out.”
So much for the simple but effective run-to-the-gun active-shooter response that’s ingrained into every single police officer in the country. Uvalde police reverted to the chill-out-and-wait-for-SWAT response that ended after the Columbine massacre. And now they want you to believe that a rifle is responsible for their failure to act.
The country’s entire law enforcement community let out a collective groan of horror and disbelief once it was learned what happened in Uvalde, or more accurately what didn’t happen. Sure, there were a few officers who tried like hell to get into the classroom and shoot the bad guy, but they were waved off and held back by the feebleminded pussies who were running the show, who are still trying to justify their craven abdication of their sworn duty by blaming an inanimate object.
Officers had one job: They should have made entry immediately and engaged the shooter, regardless of how he was armed. He was killing children, after all. Each second could cost a precious life and they gave him 77 minutes.
The gun-ban industry was already using Uvalde as a talking point in their war on our gun rights. Given this new report, their clamoring will only grow louder.
Nowadays, rather than investing in armored fighting vehicles and weapons that rival those of Tier One JSOC units, perhaps police departments should invest in better quality personnel. It’s been nearly a year since the Uvalde mass murder and those responsible are still making excuses. But now, by blaming a gun rather than themselves, they’re putting our civil rights further at risk.
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4 Comments
As a disabled/retired POPO this type of COWARDICE makes me sick to my stomach, physically sick!! To think ANY OFFICER wearing a badge would take this stance is NOT ACCEPTABLE and the folks in the city of Uvalde, WHERE I WAS BORN 63 yrs ago, should collectively SUE not only the department BUT EVERY SINGLE OFFICER WHO REFUSED TO GO FORWARD to put down this scrot-bag!!!!!! NOT just the officers on the COWARDLY Uvalde police department BUT EVERY OFFICER WHO DIDN’T DO THEIR JOB that day!!!!!.
Thank God for one brave man who happened to b a CBP officer with a wife and kids who did WHAT AN OFFICER SHOULD DO in that circumstance and TAKE OUT THE TRASH!!!!!
It’s been awhile, so let me see if I have the math right. One 18yo boy with a rifle, a room full of children and unarmed teachers. Outside in the hallway we see armed LEO wandering in circles waiting for, WHAT?
I spent two tours of duty in Vietnam, and was engaged in firefights. People get hurt in the chaos and horror. My experience was that the guys with the most talent and greater number of accurate shooters won the battle..
People were hurt, and killed, in this battle. 21 of them didn’t sign up for the engagement – the guys with the rifles did. I understand that no one enjoys being shot. I never did. A few good men with vests and shields storming the room could (should) have been able to end the carnage in less than three minutes. My prayers are with the parents and children who will never forget this day.
This is so disheartening. The attitude voiced by that Police Department is that the school age and teacher victims should have been frontline protecting the Police from possible harm. The perpetrator had too dangerous a weapon, so the civilians were properly in the way for the Police. And they wonder why we believe our rights need protection?
Cowardice and complete lack of operational and tactical C2 was evident. Where in the hell was the first officer on the scene and his backup. A complete embarrassment and shit show. As a SWAT trained LEO but on regular patrol that came on right after Columbine we had several regular patrol officers with heavy ballistic shields fully LVL III/IV rated. They were the first patrol response to active shooters. SWAT always takes an hour+. An semi-auto rifle had/has no bearing on the response and entry and we were not even issued ARs back then with this County PD. This incident could have been ended in 5 minutes. Shameful just like what happened at Parkland and the Broward County sheriff’s deputy officer who waited outside and hid. Its called dereliction of duty and cowardice. This shit show response made all LE look bad. Put your plate carrier on and do your job. Good grief.