What initially started as a gun control debate spiraled into small-town politics, an inept police force, cover-ups, traumatized families, and a search for answers.
That’s not new. Something like it happened in Parkland, but the granular details were often overlooked because that school shooting had taken on such a key political role for the gun-control lobby and because local and national authorities who were complicit in the mess tended to be Democrats.
The video leak, like so much else, has only fed into the broken discourse over what happened in Uvalde. And we know what happened.
The drive to militarize local police forces expected small departments to operate at a scale beyond their expertise. Local politics can be every bit as corrupt as the national kind. But the media’s drive to score points introduces its own form of corrupt narratives. Pile on the conspiracy theorists who show up to insist that nothing happened and the dead kids are actors and the whole thing reaches a critical mass of general horribleness.
At the bottom of this is institutional failure and institutional corruption.
When people can’t trust institutions and institutions aren’t worthy of trust, there’s no real way forward. Narratives turn into talking points and cheap shots.
And then this happens
Uvalde police officer criticized for checking his phone was waiting to hear from his dying wife – Texas Tribune
The truth? Not the truth? People can be forgiven for wondering. And that’s what happens when trust falls apart. Trust is what binds communities, families, and countries together. Without it, there’s no way forward.
CogitoErgoSum says
Even though I know it’s very unlikely that anyone will try to enter my house during the day while I am home, I still keep my doors locked at all times. I always lock my car doors too – always. Why on Earth would we not lock the doors to our schools while those who are most precious to us are inside? Just locking the doors to the school (and also the door for each classroom) may not have stopped the killer from shooting through the windows but it would have kept him from going inside. It’s such a simple precaution to take. It’ so easy to do and it would make more sense than taking away the rights of law-abiding people to own guns.
libertyORdeath says
They had already locked down the school dozens of times for either drills or due to the threat of illegal immigrants crashing into the school while trying to avoid CBP.
If you remember the chief of police ordered the officers to stand down for an hour while children were being killed. The leaked video has audio of about 7 or 8 shots fired while the cops stood in the hallway with the rifles and ballistic shields that they initially claimed they were waiting for. Add to this the fact that the cops spent more time harassing and arresting parents who saw what was going on than confronting the gunman and it seems to become clear.
Everytime election time rolls around we are inundated with mass shootimgs and school shootings. Why? Why were the officers told to stand down? Why was the door to the building left open? Why were the classroom doors left open after so many lockdowns and drills? Why were parents arrested for trying to get the cops to do their jobs? Why has the timeline and overall story changed so many times? Why did they say that they were waiting for rifles despite having multiple rifles within minutes? Why did they say that they were waiting on a ballistic shield even though they already had at least 2 in the video? Why do we still not know the true motive of the shooter? Why did he choose an elementary school instead of the high school where he supposedly was bullied? Why was this shooter in contact with the Buffalo shooter and possibly FBI agents online at discord?
Could it be the quickly dwindling support for the democrats from hispanics? Could it just be a good argument for disarming law abiding citizens? Theres far too many unanswered questions and outright lies, but thats unfortunately par for the course in our current political world.
libertyORdeath says
I forgot why did they claim the classroom doors were locked and needed to be breached with special equipment when they were apparently NEVER locked?
somehistory says
I saw a report this week that Hispanics are leaving the party of baby-killers and gun control.
The claim made right after the shooting was that the school district officers had only recently had *training* for a school shooting. Looks like they were *trained* to let a bunch of kids get killed and they learned well.
somehistory says
Checking the phone to hear from his wife who was inside and trying to get help, is nothing. What about the guy getting some hand sanitizer? what about the way they all ran back and hid when the shooting was starting?
I read just this morning that the initial *report* given to the authorities by the school district police made the claims that the cops “didn’t hesitate” to confront the shooter; that they were ‘waiting on shields’ and other equipment to breach…*.the unlocked….door,* (they left that part out) because to do otherwise, was “suicide,” and because they rushed in to confront the shooter, they are all “heroes.”
“Uvalde officials presented a document labeled “narrative” to Texas DPS days after the May 24 shooting.
“There was zero hesitation on any of these officers’ part, they moved directly toward the gunfire,” the document said.”
:”Do not put your trust in nobles, nor mortal man.” (Jere)
11B40 says
Greetings:
Me, I still haven’t figured out why Uvalde needed a separate police department for it school district.
somehistory says
School districts in Texas have police to patrol the schools, esp the ones where there are behavior problems; they can get on school buses for safety reasons if requested, enforce the rules, a resource the schools can call if there is a problem; and that leaves the reg town pd or county sheriff free for other things; unless they are needed….as in this case.
gravenimage says
+1
gravenimage says
Uvalde and the Failure of Trust
………………………..
Yes–appalling. I’m sure the police were told not to act. I wish they had been brave enough to go in any way and save these kids.