As predicted, the Uvalde police are now the story

[gulliver]

Abbott, LaPierre, the person who sold the gun to the shooter, the manufacturer, and, most of all, the Republican Party are off the hook. Google "Uvalde" and it's all about what the cops did or didn't do. The people who really need to be on the hot seat, the true authors of the Caine Mutiny, just sit back and breathe a sigh of relief. What did they do or not do that would have prevented the crime in the first place? If the cops were in a situation where they didn't perform as expected, how did that situation come about? Who created or allowed the development of the situation?

[SYFROYH]

1. The police and their response need to be scrutinized.

There are so many different stories i cant keep track.

Gun laws are always on the table.

[doc03]

2. I said that myself after Uvalde, the media is making

it all about the cops. Not the least surprised at this. It will be turned around on Democats being anti cop.

[Strelnikov_]

8. "will be turned around on Democats being anti cop"

Yep. The one thing the Reich does well, strategic messaging.

[LeftInTX]

15. The response was abysmal

Arredondo did not bring his radio
Master keys to locked classrooms weren't available
OTOH, classroom doors wouldn't lock to keep Ramos out

We need to know what went wrong, so that this doesn't happen again

As a cop, he should have always worn his radio
All the other school PDs seem to have keys to all classrooms. My husband was a principal and their school PD did.

I think the response is a non-partisan issue.

Keep in mind that Arredondo is a school district employee.
The school district has a 6 officer police force. (This included Arredondo)
He's a school cop.

[Joinfortmill]

3. Maybe this will piss off the cops and they will call for

gun reform, but in this case they let children die because of incompetence at the top, at the very least.

[Igel]

9. More and more it looks like they were simply unprepared.

They didn't have systems and structures in place to respond efficiently and effectively.

Small organizations are often like that--things are a bit undefined and you work out the details as you go. But when there are at least three organizations involved--Border Patrol, the UCISD police, and Uvalde county police, you need to have clarity about each other's resources and how to mobilize them quickly (whether human or things like shields), who has jurisdiction and what lines of command are.

I've said before my school district (I'm a high school teacher) has those, or at least has said they have those, worked out, signed and sealed and both the county, school, and state cops have been briefed and know their roles in a wide variety of situations.

For example. The high school has active shooter drills. This year, for the first time, *all* campus personnel participated--from the janitors up through the principal and school police. Usually the principals are too busy running the drill to practice *their* roles in a real situation. Outsiders ran the drill this time; the admin were told they failed catastrophically, in the event of a real situation if they did what they in practice many would be dead and they'd have actually hindered the response. (They have a hardened "situation room" now, which is a scary thing for a school district to think a high school needs.)

A couple times a year students ask why there are extra cops on campus. It's because there's an active shooter drill going on that we know nothing about. During the summer the cops run a more realistic drill--they coordinate with various authorities, secure the perimeter and clear and secure the building, working with the administration (teachers and students are gone), while there's a cop inside pretending to be the active shooter. This is an all-day thing: They do it once, reset, and do it again; reset, do it again. That lets the different police forces coordinate and practice responses and the admin know what to expect. Sometimes with one shooter, sometimes with two shooters in the building, sometimes with one inside and one outside. During the school year they run the same drill, but do not enter the building (it would freak out the kids, and look too much like a *real* active shooter situation).

Look like Uvalde didn't bother with any of that. The systems and structures aren't there, and when that happens, with three police forces with no clear lines of authority, you get problems.

[gulliver]

11. Great post

I'd say the absence of such reliable systems and structures is the rule, not the exception. And I don't think such systems are even possible given the requirements and the cost of failure. Training these systems is, in a way, counterproductive. It substitutes magical thinking for thinking about common sense gun control.

[LeftInTX]

16. There were five forces there:

Uvalde UCISD
Uvalde PD (The city of Uvalde has their own PD)
Uvalde County Sherriff Deputies
Texas State Troopers
Border Patrol

[Pobeka]

4. Legalized weapons so dangerous even cops are afraid to challenge a bearer of those arms.

So dangerous even police are afraid of them. Let that sink in America. Whose gonna protect you now?

[Paladin]

5. Those Uvalde cops need to be ROASTED.

Face it, there are going to be any number of future school massacres in this country; the Republicans will see to that. Law enforcement throughout the nation needs a brutal How NOT To Do It example from which to learn. Immediately. To save school kids.

[gulliver]

10. I don't think that "brutal How NOT To Do It" will be of any help at all

In fact, focusing on the cops diverts the country from doing what actually will help, gun control. The argument that if the cops had been better, we wouldn't have needed gun control begins to emerge...from Republican Party sources and others who want to avoid their deserved share of the blame. But, honestly, absolutely everyone wants to avoid their share of the blame.

As noted in other posts, the Uvalde cops are not going to be a lot different from the thousands of other police forces in small bergs. This is Earth. The cops are trained as a matter of "security theater" to rush a blazing AR-15 when they hear shooting. Someone in authority CYAs by arming their cops to the teeth and getting them "training." Well, what else are they supposed to do given that the Republican Party insists on keeping AR-15s in the hands of the broken-minded?

The "experts" who created that "security theater" training also deserve huge blame for Uvalde, imo. Their training was worthless, and it can be expected to be worthless in countless thousands of situations across the country. They "trained" someone to kamikaze rush an AR-15. Sure they did. They administered an "oath." Sure they did. But those things don't work, and they probably should have known better.

It's not so simple deciding to give your life. It's not so simple finding the kind of people who would be unerringly true to their oaths and training. That's an unusual type of person, and those putting pressure, antagonism, and blame on cops share some responsibility for police forces not being able to attract that kind of person. Someone that brave and selfless can make a lot more money, raise a healthy family, and lead communities.

But the root cause is simply the gun industry and the Republican Party blocking common sense, simple gun control. Nobody would need to feel guilty if nothing had happened. That's what we need.

And, as a note, I'm not saying anything negative about what the Uvalde police did or didn't do.

[Paladin]

12. We'll have brave, well-trained cops saving schoolkids in this country...

...a damn sight quicker than we'll have effective national gun control in place. The clusterfuck by Uvalde law enforcement can be utilized to train better cops, from coast to coast. Plenty of people have questions and doubts about gun control---nobody wants poorly-trained or cowardly law enforcement.

And I say all that as a long-time gun owner, having devoted a good portion of my life to advocating strict, effective gun control---21 years' worth of said advocacy, here at DU. The Bad Guys are still winning...

[gulliver]

13. It seems like we are trying an incremental approach

I have some hope for that this time. It looks like we might actually get something in 2022. At least it would be a start.

[modrepub]

6. To Me It's Follow The Money

The gun industry is a money printing machine at this point. From the manufacturers, sellers and gunsmiths there's a ton of $ involved. They aren't going to allow anyone to infringe on their right to make a profit. Much like the fossil fuel industry obscuring climate change science; no way are they were going to just walk away from all the money they think they have.

If someone can come up with a good way to reduce their profits, then we'd have a chance at getting this under control. My personal thought is to up the insurance to keep guns on your person. Making owning firearms, especially high powered types, more expensive to own is a good way to reduce the number of them out there.

[leftyladyfrommo]

7. The problem is that thousands of towns all across

America don't have police forces that are any better.

My niece lives in rural NE Washinton not far outside a small town. After midnight they don't have police on duty. You just have to figure out what to do yourself.

Schools, churches and stores in those small towns are just sitting ducks for monsters that figure out places that have little protection.

It's a sad day if you have to have guards everywhere to protect the public.

[gulliver]

14. Great post

Thanks for posting

[fescuerescue]

17. They should be.

Their non response was criminal.

We can't let that slide.