As my Senator Murphy tweeted today after viewing the video said:
"The Uvalde video puts to bed, forever, the question of whether the way to deal with bad guys with guns is to make sure there are more good guys with guns.
We've always known it was a gun industry created lie, designed to sell more guns. Now we just have the gut wrenching proof."
Nothing better illustrates the emptiness of the NRA slogan about "Good guys with guns......" Now, I cannot claim that I would have behaved with greater courage than these officers. None of us knows how we might behave when confronted with such circumstances. But I did not sign up for such service. I have not undergone psychological screening for character traits favorable to managing the stress of such circumstances. I have not been trained in weapons and tactics intended to successfully resolve such circumstances. And yet, clearly, even those who have been so screened and trained can become mortified. But it's not solely their fault. No one should have to confront such choices. The only real solution to this ongoing public safety crisis is to take away the godforsaken guns. Vote.
Protecting the public is what they signed up for, what they're still being paid to do, and what they failed to do. What civilians would have done is irrelevant. Not doing their job cost most if not all of 21 lives.
None of the heavily armed officers were injured or killed. Nor, did any of the heavily armed officers interfere with the carnage taking place in the classroom. Such a travesty, a monumental dereliction of duty. All, All, should be punished, should be prevented from ever again being tasked with protecting citizens of any town.
Clearly no one was in charge or leading that group. No one stepped up to lead. We saw group dysfunction at its worst. I am not sure those officers can be trained to behave differently.
Such a disgrace. Thank you for watching the video so we don’t have to. It must have been excruciating. Have any of those heavily armed but-too-scared-to-rescue-the-children police officers been dishonorably discharged, or resigned in shame?
Because families were promised they would see this before the public did, the Texas paper that posted it is taking a lot of flack. You can be sure, if they hadn't violated the embargo pressure would have mounted to keep it private, with further delay. I salute the Austin American-Statesman for getting ahead of the wave, and I thank you for detailing it for the faint-hearted (like me), Lucian.
"Resigned in shame," that would be rather impressive, if very late. A sort of of, "I can't believe I failed like this; let me resign, relocate to another city, try to get my act together and do something worthwhile with the rest of my time on earth" response.
It would arguably require some form of moral courage and self-respect which none of them seem to have, wouldn't it?
77 minutes is a very, very long time. An eternity. How can those men live with the shame. How could they not do anything with the sound of children's screams in their ears? Thank you for staying on this story that is beyond tragic. Beyond horrible.
Important to note… ‘all of these shooters have been groomed; by arms manufacturers, by righty whiteys, by political actors spinning out prejudice and fear. And they’re all making a buck on it.
Law Enforcement is primarily concerned with job security.
‘The deplorable insufficiency of those in high places.
it would have been heart weighting and frustrating to watch the whole 77 minutes knowing that children (and 2 adults) were being shot at, and knowing possibly some were wounded and needing attention.
in the clips i saw it angered me to see the somewhat light-hearted actions of a man getting hand sanitizer by crossing in front of the men with aimed rifles. and elsewhere, two men fist bumping.
the one thing glaringly lacking in the video was yellow stripes down the back of each officer.
Lucian, the only thing you might have added to your excellent piece is the disclaimer in the video itself that “the screams of the children were edited out of this video.” The screams should not have been edited out. We all need to hear those screams.
It's as if the horrific scenes of Allied soldiers liberating the death camps inside the fallen Third Reich were edited so no one would have to confront "man's inhumanity to man...(which) makes countless thousands mourn," as the poet said.
My dear brother, a retired Naval Commander, asked me to longer send him emails after I sent him a copy of the Editors Note. Said he was tired of my partisan bullshit. When did the slaughter of innocents become a partisan issue?
It took years. Last night on National Public Radio I listened to an hour-long presentation of an interview with the author of a new book on Robert Welch, founder of the notoriously extreme right wing and deeply paranoid organization, The John Birch Society. Picking out issues that could be exploited via "ad hoc committees," groups across the USA only loosely affiliated with the JBS, was a strategy Welch hit on sometime in the 1960s, and the short list is revealing: abortion rights, gun rights/2nd Amendment, anything concerned with civil rights. So they've been at it for years. Of course the efforts and issue campaigns go far beyond Welch and the Birchers, but they are allied with other extremists and aim to "radicalize" more centrist or less virulently right wing groups and individuals. Welch also made money with his successful candy company, so, like the odious Koch brothers, could invest in his political schemes.
When exactly any given individual like your brother bought into it is part of each person's psycho-history. Collectively, though, they were targeted for radicalization by, mirabile dictu, dedicated, fanatical radicals.
Please understand, that little red heart is an acknowledgment of the truth of what you’ve said here, Lucian. There is no way in hell or heaven that I can like it. Like all the other reports of this incident, the facts make my stomach turn. My grandson starts preschool this fall. I love him, his parents, and his uncle and aunt more than life itself. I am in knots. Thank you for the facts and analysis. As God is my witness, I wish this had never happened.
And that f-king idiot, Greg Abbott, will never apologize for his “scene stealing” antics as he relayed unsubstantiated info to the public —putting his political ambitions before the victims and families.
Maybe a quick revisit of some of Orwell's writings would be timely, that's all I can think of; we are sliding even further into a huge swamp of cultural denial and propagandistic language sophistries, about the ongoing, imminent, deadly threat of having incredibly easy acccess to military-style weapons specifically designed for maximum lethality.
Not to mention the militarization of the police. All those heavily armed, tough-looking macho cops from 20 different agencies.
Governor Abbott: “As horrible as what happened [was], it could have been worse. The reason it was not worse is because law enforcement officials did what they do,” Abbott said, praising officers’ “quick response” while speaking at a press conference on Wednesday. “They showed amazing courage by running toward gunfire.”
The, the truth began to come out about the "good guys."
As my Senator Murphy tweeted today after viewing the video said:
"The Uvalde video puts to bed, forever, the question of whether the way to deal with bad guys with guns is to make sure there are more good guys with guns.
We've always known it was a gun industry created lie, designed to sell more guns. Now we just have the gut wrenching proof."
https://twitter.com/ChrisMurphyCT/status/1547064816162029568
Nothing better illustrates the emptiness of the NRA slogan about "Good guys with guns......" Now, I cannot claim that I would have behaved with greater courage than these officers. None of us knows how we might behave when confronted with such circumstances. But I did not sign up for such service. I have not undergone psychological screening for character traits favorable to managing the stress of such circumstances. I have not been trained in weapons and tactics intended to successfully resolve such circumstances. And yet, clearly, even those who have been so screened and trained can become mortified. But it's not solely their fault. No one should have to confront such choices. The only real solution to this ongoing public safety crisis is to take away the godforsaken guns. Vote.
Protecting the public is what they signed up for, what they're still being paid to do, and what they failed to do. What civilians would have done is irrelevant. Not doing their job cost most if not all of 21 lives.
Perhaps it's a stretch to assume that all those "officers" are good guys.
You got here before me; I just now noticed your comment after posting a more extended version, mentioning some possible connected implications.
None of the heavily armed officers were injured or killed. Nor, did any of the heavily armed officers interfere with the carnage taking place in the classroom. Such a travesty, a monumental dereliction of duty. All, All, should be punished, should be prevented from ever again being tasked with protecting citizens of any town.
They should be prevented from ever owning a gun of any kind ever again.
Clearly no one was in charge or leading that group. No one stepped up to lead. We saw group dysfunction at its worst. I am not sure those officers can be trained to behave differently.
Thank you Lucian.
Such a disgrace. Thank you for watching the video so we don’t have to. It must have been excruciating. Have any of those heavily armed but-too-scared-to-rescue-the-children police officers been dishonorably discharged, or resigned in shame?
Because families were promised they would see this before the public did, the Texas paper that posted it is taking a lot of flack. You can be sure, if they hadn't violated the embargo pressure would have mounted to keep it private, with further delay. I salute the Austin American-Statesman for getting ahead of the wave, and I thank you for detailing it for the faint-hearted (like me), Lucian.
"Resigned in shame," that would be rather impressive, if very late. A sort of of, "I can't believe I failed like this; let me resign, relocate to another city, try to get my act together and do something worthwhile with the rest of my time on earth" response.
It would arguably require some form of moral courage and self-respect which none of them seem to have, wouldn't it?
77 minutes is a very, very long time. An eternity. How can those men live with the shame. How could they not do anything with the sound of children's screams in their ears? Thank you for staying on this story that is beyond tragic. Beyond horrible.
Deplorable…
Important to note… ‘all of these shooters have been groomed; by arms manufacturers, by righty whiteys, by political actors spinning out prejudice and fear. And they’re all making a buck on it.
Law Enforcement is primarily concerned with job security.
‘The deplorable insufficiency of those in high places.
“What to do, what to do?
Feckless cowards.
At least the armed cop at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida owns his cowardice - he ran and hid when he saw the gunman.
These assholes played cop for 77 minutes and then lied about their cowardly behavior.
I can't imagine doing nothing while listening to innocent children screaming
May the stench and shame of what they didn't do that day haunt them for the rest of their cowardly lives.
it would have been heart weighting and frustrating to watch the whole 77 minutes knowing that children (and 2 adults) were being shot at, and knowing possibly some were wounded and needing attention.
in the clips i saw it angered me to see the somewhat light-hearted actions of a man getting hand sanitizer by crossing in front of the men with aimed rifles. and elsewhere, two men fist bumping.
the one thing glaringly lacking in the video was yellow stripes down the back of each officer.
Lucian, the only thing you might have added to your excellent piece is the disclaimer in the video itself that “the screams of the children were edited out of this video.” The screams should not have been edited out. We all need to hear those screams.
It's as if the horrific scenes of Allied soldiers liberating the death camps inside the fallen Third Reich were edited so no one would have to confront "man's inhumanity to man...(which) makes countless thousands mourn," as the poet said.
My dear brother, a retired Naval Commander, asked me to longer send him emails after I sent him a copy of the Editors Note. Said he was tired of my partisan bullshit. When did the slaughter of innocents become a partisan issue?
It took years. Last night on National Public Radio I listened to an hour-long presentation of an interview with the author of a new book on Robert Welch, founder of the notoriously extreme right wing and deeply paranoid organization, The John Birch Society. Picking out issues that could be exploited via "ad hoc committees," groups across the USA only loosely affiliated with the JBS, was a strategy Welch hit on sometime in the 1960s, and the short list is revealing: abortion rights, gun rights/2nd Amendment, anything concerned with civil rights. So they've been at it for years. Of course the efforts and issue campaigns go far beyond Welch and the Birchers, but they are allied with other extremists and aim to "radicalize" more centrist or less virulently right wing groups and individuals. Welch also made money with his successful candy company, so, like the odious Koch brothers, could invest in his political schemes.
When exactly any given individual like your brother bought into it is part of each person's psycho-history. Collectively, though, they were targeted for radicalization by, mirabile dictu, dedicated, fanatical radicals.
Please understand, that little red heart is an acknowledgment of the truth of what you’ve said here, Lucian. There is no way in hell or heaven that I can like it. Like all the other reports of this incident, the facts make my stomach turn. My grandson starts preschool this fall. I love him, his parents, and his uncle and aunt more than life itself. I am in knots. Thank you for the facts and analysis. As God is my witness, I wish this had never happened.
And that fat bastard police chief is still drawing a check and that redneck mayor is still running his mouth. Only in Texas…
And that f-king idiot, Greg Abbott, will never apologize for his “scene stealing” antics as he relayed unsubstantiated info to the public —putting his political ambitions before the victims and families.
If Texas wants to secede, that’s fine with me.
Words fail me.
"Editor's note: The sound of children screaming has been removed"
My heart and brain cannot process this.
Land of the free, home of the brave.
Maybe a quick revisit of some of Orwell's writings would be timely, that's all I can think of; we are sliding even further into a huge swamp of cultural denial and propagandistic language sophistries, about the ongoing, imminent, deadly threat of having incredibly easy acccess to military-style weapons specifically designed for maximum lethality.
Not to mention the militarization of the police. All those heavily armed, tough-looking macho cops from 20 different agencies.
Governor Abbott: “As horrible as what happened [was], it could have been worse. The reason it was not worse is because law enforcement officials did what they do,” Abbott said, praising officers’ “quick response” while speaking at a press conference on Wednesday. “They showed amazing courage by running toward gunfire.”
The, the truth began to come out about the "good guys."
cowards
If the shooter was a black man, those "good guys with guns" would have shot him when he crashed his car