Uvalde police prevented BORTAC from entering? Didn't enter confront subject themselves? Didn't call for their own SWAT team? Texas Department of Public Safety director Steve McCraw was ashamed of their actions, pausing emotionally for six seconds after he told reporters there were 19 officers in the hallway outside room 112, none willing to go to the shooter. McCraw said UPD chief Pete Arredondo, who was in charge of the scene, erroneously concluded that they had a "barricaded subject" and not an "active shooter." McCraw did not defend that conclusion and it seemed fishy, a cover for cowardice, but now we learn from AP that "audio recordings from the scene capture officers from other agencies
telling the school police chief that the shooter was still active and
that the priority was to stop him. But it wasn’t clear why the school
chief ignored their warnings." So there goes that always fishy rationalization.
At Parkland we had the "Coward of Broward." I don't know any synonym for coward that rhymes with Uvalde but we have cowards there. Miami-Dade Fire Rescue was appalling in its timidity on the Surfside condo collapse scene. In both Uvalde and Surfside the professional response was callous toward relatives of the victims. UPD HANDCUFFED a mom trying to rescue her child!
There has been some change in the mentality of public safety officials. It's their own safety first. As McCraw said, "we sign up for danger when we become cops." As at Parkland, people are going to lose their jobs, and well they should. In Uvalde, I thought the night after the shooting that UPD preventing the feds from entering could be criminal. AP: "As the gunman fired at students, law enforcement officers from other agencies urged the school police chief to let them move in because children were in danger, two law enforcement officials said." "The delay in confronting the shooter — who was inside the school for more than an hour — could lead to discipline, lawsuits and even criminal charges against police."
