No amount of training can inculcate courage in a cop – or in anyone else. No P.O.S.T. certificate authorizing a demographically acceptable applicant to enforce the law can imbue the bravery necessary to “Serve and Protect” the citizens of their community.
The Uvalde school massacre is a source of great shame to every law enforcement officer present on the scene – with the exception of the (I’m guessing) ‘BORTAC’ Border Patrol agent who took immediate, offensive action to eliminate the threat. In the current Department of Homeland Security climate, he will probably receive a reprimand for imposing himself into a situation “outside his scope of employment.” I’ve personally experienced similar and seen it happen to others. He should receive The Soldier’s Medal.
For a tragedy of this magnitude – in the proud state of Texas! – is unconscionable. For claiming historical ancestry to the men of the Alamo neither the police nor the citizens of Uvalde showed much genetic DNA. Waiting forty minutes to eliminate a threat to school children? WTF?
The fact that it was preventable by the gun dealer, social services and law enforcement compounds the tragedy. I hope the faces of those dead children haunt their dreams for a long time. I know personally several gun dealers who refused to sell a man I knew a weapon because they didn’t like what they read in his face. They saved lives by not making a buck.
The on-site incident commander failed those children and their parents by not acquiring the necessary information to properly deal with the suspect. They are not alone. Many, if not most, police departments are under the mistaken notion that an “active shooter” requires standing off until a hostage negotiator arrives and establishes communication with the suspect. They have been watching too many TV shows where cops always “Sit, Wait, and Talk” (SWAT). These same TV shows portray cops entering buildings with their trigger fingers alongside the upper receiver group of the weapon when it should be on the trigger. These same TV shows portray cops approaching armed suspects by shouting at them and telling them to drop their weapons – instead of just shooting the bastards.
Knowing what’s going on inside a building requires getting up close and personal. Taking advantage of cover and concealment to approach a target for assessing the situation needs to be added to tactical training – with a double dose of testosterone. Getting locked into a standard operating procedure and assuming every incident is the same is what got those 19 children and 2 adults killed.
The first thing required in an active shooter situation is to determine what is going on! You can’t do that by automatically setting up and standing behind a barricade a block away. If the parents were shouting at the timid police to rush the school because they could easily hear the suspect firing his weapon, every officer on the scene should be fired for cowardice. It is the victim mentality imposed by “progressive” education administrators and the practice of punishing both the bully and the defender that has crippled the defense of our children in public schools. It’s not a crime to defend yourself from grievous bodily harm! Its not a crime to kill someone killing another innocent human being – least of all children.
In elementary school in the ’50s, my principal had no hesitation administering the “board of education” to my backside when I stepped out of line. My high school principal was my football coach the year before. I have no doubt those men would not have tolerated a punk entering their school without at least attempting to prevent it themselves. A real male principal is practically unheard of these days – and it shows in the emasculation of our public education.
The whole concept of “remain in place” and “lock down” in school active shooter situations was wrong from the beginning. Schools and classrooms are confined places that become death traps when an armed intruder takes control. The first thing that should happen is for the victims to vacate the kill zone! Classrooms should have windows and/or doors to escape through when the door to the hallway is locked. Currently there is no physical ability to escape. That has to change. The response should be similar to a fire drill -only faster- with a predetermined assembly point away from the school and out of firearms range and shielded from his fire. It’s exponentially more difficult to hit a moving target.
The very best response is to immediately counterattack with your weapon. Its the last thing a suspect expects. Statistics from Marines’ experience in Vietnam proved this significantly increased chances of survival in an ambush. This knowledge was used during the establishment of the first SWAT team in the United States by LAPD Captain Smitson. Second, to immediately remove yourself from the “kill zone” or “kill sack.” In police tactics this means moving instantly outside the “cone of death” – the space immediately within the aim of the shooter.
I can’t help wondering how many, if any, of those “Texas” parents were armed. I can’t imagine me or anyone I know standing idly by listening to gun shots inside my kids school and not rushing in and killing the bastard.
“Our schools are the greatest “cultural lag” we have today. When I read official publications put out by the men who run our educational system – booklets such as Life-Adjustment Education for All Youth – I have the strange feeling of reading about another world, a world long since departed if it ever existed at all. I sense the kindly spirit, the desire to make every child happy, the earnest determination to give advice on every problem any young person might meet in life – and withal so complete a misunderstanding of the needs of young people in today’s world that it frightens me.”
I am worried about the chances which young people, so poorly equipped to deal with modern life, will have when things become more complex and difficult, as they surely will before very long.”
“Our timidity in the face of organized pressure tactics by groups whose interest it is to silence all comment on matters they wish to order to their own satisfaction, without regard to the possibility that this may do damage to the nation as a whole – this timidity continues to this very day.” – Hyman G. Rickover: Education, Our First Line of Defense, January 1959; Annals Vol. 17, p. 536
Just because you wear a uniform – any uniform – doesn’t make you a hero. That’s particularly true if you are also wearing a badge and a gun being paid to protect the community. Uvalde, Texas proved that.
