Isn't the cowardice and incompetence of the cops in Uvalde absolutely mind boggling?

[Anonymous]

Politicians and others are claiming that the solution is more cops. Really?

[BCA6010]

It blows my mind that a town with a lower population than mine (also in Texas), but a police force more than double the size has so many points of failure across the board, but it's also unfair to pin everything on the police even though they deserve the lion's share of scrutiny in this one. It's a well-known harsh reality that even in the best conditions, police are always several minutes away, and schools are disproportionately targeted by shootings and bomb threats and such. The school itself didn't even have basic security measures in place (not even an SRO, and every school I attended from 2nd grade onward in Texas had at least one) despite having received state funding to do so, which means either the school district, city, or both probably pocketed it or spent it elsewhere. This also implies that the state had inadequate oversight in how the money was to be used, which given the Texas state government's minimalistic tendencies, it's pretty likely they either caved to an interest group or foolishly distributed the money on the honor system. To the state's credit, all of the above is being investigated, but who knows what'll get covered up in order to save face especially when the popular opinion is to just unilaterally blame the cops and ignore all other factors.

You will never, ever, ever ensure improved security without hardening the schools. There's a lot of ways to do that which are cheap and effective and mostly one-time investments, but having a school resource officer on site is one of the most barebones, and there's no way Uvalde PD doesn't have the manpower to make it happen. The SRO is about the only legitimate "more cops" argument I can agree with, but it's more of a deterrent than a failsafe especially when you can't trust them to actively intercept and take out a threat.

Some others would be single point entry (with access control aka man traps) with one-way exits. Again this was normal in my school district more than a decade ago. You can take it a step further by wiring sensors to the exits so the front desk and/or security office know if any doors are unsecured. I'd also allow any and all faculty who possess or can legally attain a CHL to carry it, and also providing schools a means to compensate faculty who are interested. It's one thing to have uniformed security, but it's another entirely when serious resistance could potentially come from anyone.

[PolarDip]

Don't need more cops, we need better cops. Make it harder to become a cop so the bad/cowardly ones are filtered out early. Then relax some of the state laws and union influence so that the bad cops can actually get fired, not just shipped to another jurisdiction.

[Agape93]

I don't get it when people are surprised here

[CloudMassacre]

It’s not mind boggling at all, just another instance in a sea of “Just A Few Bad Apples”. I’ve seen so many different videos of cops being dumb or violent or just totally unreasonable, and seen them get paid leave or fired and rehired, that almost nothing surprises me anymore.
And always remember, these are all the things people have Seen them do, who knows how much shit is never recorded.

[Avicenna]

It’s so bad it makes you wonder if they were told to stand down

[Asker]

If that is the case, that makes it even worse!

[MrHopper]

Not really, its generally not a great paid job and so it attracts a certain type of person.

[jshm2]

No. Laws and process are there for a reason.

That you know jack shit about either is your fault, not theirs.

Had they ran in and got killed or a few more kids killed, then you would be saying the same shit.

[Asker]

Completely disagree. The Head of the Texas State Police just testified that it was an "abject failure." I guess he doesn't know "jack shit" too...

[Avicenna]

Someone doesn’t seem to have heard about the active shooter training the police got. But he thinks someone else doesn’t know Jack shit.

[exitseven]

yes, there is a lot of blame to go aroiund.