Uvalde Commander ‘Put the Lives of Officers
Before the Lives of Children,’ Texas
Official Says
National Review,
by
Brittany Bernstein
Original Article
Posted By: Dreadnought,
6/21/2022 1:48:13 PM
Law enforcement had a large enough presence at the scene of the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas, last month to have stopped the gunman within three minutes, but the on-scene commander “chose to put the lives of officers before the lives of children,” the Texas public safety chief said Tuesday.
“The only thing stopping a hallway of dedicated officers from entering room 111 and 112 was the on-scene commander,” Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw testified before a state Senate committee.
He said that the police response to the shooting, which left 19 students and two teachers dead, was an “abject failure.”
Reply 1 - Posted by:
DVC 6/21/2022 1:58:23 PM (No. 1192626)
Cowards always put their own lives above the lives of others. That's pretty much the definition of a coward.
Brave men will risk their lives for others.
This cowardly slug deserves to be run out of town and have no one ever talk to him again.
19 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
TXknitter 6/21/2022 2:04:18 PM (No. 1192636)
Thank you to the Texas DPS Chief for expressing the utter disgust for this police force that so many people share today. Oh Director MCraw will be criticized internally for being so blunt but I thank God for his professional integrity and honesty.
20 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
Rich323 6/21/2022 2:40:42 PM (No. 1192673)
Sorry to say, but respectable, caring law enforcement officers would have terminated themselves by now over guilt. Are these guys feds posing as police and not under local control? Are they drug cartel members who snuck in with fake documents and got hired as local police? You would think at least one officer wound come forward by now to rat on their boss for negligence.
9 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
kennedylaw 6/21/2022 2:47:51 PM (No. 1192681)
It made no difference what type of gun the shooter had since they gave him over an hour without interruption to shoot kids. He could have shot the fame number of kids with a .22 revolver that he had to reload after every shot. I doubt any 8 year old kids would have taken him down while he was reloading.
10 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
EJKrausJr 6/21/2022 3:07:41 PM (No. 1192697)
Of course they did. Instead of running toward the danger, they avoided the danger. There are words that describe that kind of behavior. LEOs should not use that kind of behavior. They want us to defend the Blue, but when the Blue behave the way the Uvalde LEOs do, no way Jose.
12 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
deerejon 6/21/2022 3:20:26 PM (No. 1192704)
That whole police force needs to be fired.What does it say on most police cars?TO PROTECT AND SERVE..and this was clearly not done.COWARDS do not belong on a police force.There was no PROTECTION for these Innocent children.Shame on these people.
10 people like this.
Every police department in this nation trains new officers in this kind of stuff when they are at their local academy. Why do they bother training when they refuse to use the training to save the lives of the citizens they are sworn to protect? That vow sure doesn't mean much anymore does it.
7 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
GirlwithaCurl 6/21/2022 3:43:59 PM (No. 1192729)
I just found out that Scalia wrote some law about the police not having to legally be responsible for protecting anyone's life/lives unless they are in custody!
So, folks, in reality, we ARE on our OWN!
The teachers need to conceal carry period!
7 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
bighambone 6/21/2022 3:56:59 PM (No. 1192740)
How can the Uvalde Police Department ever survive such a disgrace?
12 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
john56 6/21/2022 4:45:23 PM (No. 1192776)
I'm looking at this with no law enforcement experience and at 30,000 feet up -- but I do know how much of South Texas works. My guess is that the Uvalde ISD Police Chief was a friend-of-a-friend-of-a-school-board-member and whatever law enforcement experience he had was enough for him to "fit" into that job. South Texas school districts are great sources of local patronage jobs.
In most cases, the guy who gets the job does well enough that the place runs, the lights are on, and such.
But when things go bonkers as they did that fateful Tuesday, people can crack. And it sounds like this guy cracked. Didn't know what to do and let his inaction probably cost lives. If the man has any conscience, the guilt he will carry the rest of his life will be much, much worse than anything anyone else could do to him.
In airline crashes, many happened when subordinates (first officer) were too scared to question the captain's judgement, and the plane flew straight into the mountain, killing all aboard. I wonder if the "he's in charge" mentality was in play here for awhile until the Border Patrol officer took it in his hands to make something happen.
Uvalde is a nice city, but it is literally in the middle of nowhere. It's 75 miles or more to a major urban area (San Antonio) and a good 75 miles or more to other cities of similar sizes (Del Rio, Eagle Pass). It's foolish to assign response of well-trained, experienced urban city police to that group. Unless one is a native or likes the area, I wouldn't be surprised if law enforcement officers (police, sheriff) spend a few years there before moving on to greener pastures, like larger urban departments, or the Border Patrol.
2 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
blueline 6/21/2022 5:49:42 PM (No. 1192813)
What is equally troubling is that many (dozens?) of LE officers followed those orders, contributing to the deaths of those precious, defenseless children and their teachers. Such a command defies every syllable of training we've received about active KILLER response for twenty years+. The fact that there was a massive failure by first-on-scene officers and commanders, duplicating what happened at Parkland, FL years before, leads me to believe that we're not diligent enough in training and testing ourselves as strenuously as needed. It is counter intuitive to run toward potential death or injury. Only training and stress testing can condition us to overcome that natural reluctance and charge ahead. It's looking like we're failing here.
Bottom-line is that YOU, the citizens and taxpayers who employ us to fulfill this role must demand that the training and conditioning takes place. You must also demand that the officials you elect and the bureaucrats they install allocate the necessary resources for officers to train, prepare, and demonstrate excellent performance of this duty.
1 person likes this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
LadyVet 6/21/2022 6:27:57 PM (No. 1192849)
#11, there is also a report that there was a male teacher who survived by playing dead while his students were killed around him. He should be ashamed. At least the women teachers who died were shielding, protecting their students. I have not heard much about the male teacher.
2 people like this.
Below, you will find ...
Most Recent Articles posted by "Dreadnought"
and
Most Active Articles (last 48 hours)