NY Times Uvalde shooting report will make your blood boil
Remember the Texas Department of Public Safety report on the Uvalde shooting? All that law enforcement stymied by the actions of one supervisor for 77 minutes because he said they were dealing with a “barricaded subject” instead of an active hostage taker, and the Uvalde School Police head, Pete Arrredondo was the man to blame.
Texas Department of Public Safety Director Col. Steven McCraw called authorities’ response an “abject failure,” placing blame at the feet of the on-scene commander, who state authorities have identified as school district police chief Pedro “Pete” Arredondo. CNN
Well, the New York Times (“All the News That Fits, We Print” or something similar) says differently. Arrenado didn’t have a radio and did not name himself as an on-scene commander – as a matter of fact, NO ONE DID.
The Times report says the visual evidence, while limited, indicates the problem was not simply Arredondo but adds that the available footage shows high-ranking officers, experienced state troopers, police academy instructors, and even federal SWAT specialists came to the same conclusions and were detoured by the same delays the former School Police Chief Arredondo has been condemned for causing.
The officers waited, the report found, even as at least one high-ranking official — the acting chief of the Uvalde Police Department — learned that a teacher was wounded but still alive and that a child had been calling 911 for help from inside the classrooms. The committee found that none of the officers who learned of the calls advocated for “shifting to an active shooter-style response or otherwise acting more urgently to breach the classrooms.”
Officers massed on the north and south sides of the classrooms where the gunman was holed up, but they did not communicate with one another, the report found. Despite a search for a master key to the classrooms by the school police chief, Pete Arredondo, and others, no one called the principal, who had one. The usefulness of a specialized tool to pry open the door was tested but then rejected as too dangerous to officers.
The chief of the Uvalde police department called from his vacation to tell the acting chief, Lieutenant Pargas, to set up a command post. Mr. Pargas did so, in an office at a funeral home across the street, but then left it shortly thereafter. “This did not result in the establishment of an effective command post,” the report found.
The report found that of the four ballistics shields brought to the scene, “only the last shield, furnished by the U.S. Marshals, was rifle-rated.” It arrived at 12:21 p.m. — nearly 50 minutes after the gunman began shooting.
The report found the “egregious poor decision making” went beyond Mr. Arredondo and included the dozens of well-armed officers from Mr. McCraw’s own agency, the Department of Public Safety, as well as the scores from the U.S. Border Patrol. Spokesmen for both agencies did not respond to requests for comment.
While many of the officers interviewed by the committee said that they considered Mr. Arredondo to be the incident commander, others said they were not aware of who was in charge, the report said, creating a chaotic vacuum of leadership that the larger state and federal agencies could have moved to fill but did not.
I’m not defending Arrenado – he screwed the pooch royally. But the word scapegoat definitely comes to mind here: sure seems to me that all that high-dollar training and fancy Mr. SWAT Team Commander titles should entitle most of this on-scene commandos to a ticket on the unemployment or demotion express. Ignoring the scapegoating of the DPS report (which reeks of CYA for the failed on-scene DPS ranking guys) all the reports say no one took charge. Given that many of the kids shot died en route to the hospital in ambulances, you have to think an earlier resolution could have saved a lot of kids’ lives.
Side note – the superintendent of Uvalde Public Schools announced his retirement.
Category: Dick Stepping, First Responders, Government Incompetence
Sounds a lot like the disaster that hit the Navy as to the USS Bonhomme Richard. Everyone wants the reserved parking spot, but nobody wants the responsibility it entails. Once again, Initiative is no longer a required Leadership Trait.
Nor is Courage.
Nor Judgment.
Nor thinking.
I’m most bothered by this “ballistic shield” crap. When seconds count, go in and execute, don’t quibble about the lack of a shield for yourself.
That “following procedure” is more important than lives is bad.
There is a bit more going on here. In the military if you act on your own, outside of orders or against orders you might get punished if things go sideways but it is less likely if you were supporting whatever the mission was. It’s the old beg for forgiveness later over asking permission first.
If police officers act against orders or outside of policy, even if things go right, then they not only can go to jail but also get sued and lose everything they have and everything they ever will have. The legal battles civil and criminal can go on for decades and make them and their family homeless and impoverished for life. That is assuming they live. Even if they do nothing else wrong they won’t get any support from anyone from the POTUS on down. The media will dox and castigate them with lies and freaks, weirdos and other internet stalkers will harass them for years.
So no, police departments and police culture doesnt encourage officers to step up and take charge. They discourge it.
In Law Enforcement Agencies leaders are seldom, if ever picked for their ability to actually lead. There is little, if any specialized training devoted to training leaders and practically no tactical leader training for leaders not in tactical units.
Leaders are chosen for 1- Their strict adherence to and Enforcement of policy and the law, and 2- Their ability to do and review the mounds of paperwork the agency has.
Well, 5JC, I’d disagree a bit.
I’d say the leaders are chosen for
1 – their ability to kiss adz of and stroke the egos of the relevant politicians.
2 – their flexible adherence to and enforcement of policy and law (depending on the political/social positions of the involved parties), and then
3 – their ability to do and review the mounds of paperwork the agency has.
That’s based upon my LEO friends’ experiences in sundry agencies. YMMV
Concur with this, based on my own 8 years wearing a badge.
Law enforcement supervisor would be really a more appropriate term.
I can’t disagree Graybeard, but I was pointing more to the difference between the military and the police, not the things that are exactly the same. Kissing the right ass is one way to get promoted anywhere….
Soldiers (because of the Nuremburg trials and stuff that happened in ‘Nam) are now considered moral agents responsible for their actions (part of that “blank check payable with up to an including our lives” as a profession) while cops are not.
Cops are expected to provide rote performance of duty and let others sort it out today. The “militarization” of police you’ve heard about is on using deadly force– their duty is to go home alive, Officer Friendly retired years again. (A bizarre concept of “military” out the Charge of the Light Brigade, if you ask me.) Worse, in the last 20 years, many Blue State liberal bureacratic places refused to hire people “too smart” as cops (they’d just quit for a better job, the logic went) and one guy who sued for being rejected on that basis had a 125 IQ, so it gives me “friendly fire” worries.
As a soldier, I can’t shrug “my training kicked in” and get a pass when I kill the wrong folk; my ass goes to prison.
Soldiers don’t go to prison or get sued by the family when it is an honest mistake made in good faith.
In an extreme example I recall a ground unit that was in contact with several attackers holed up in one of those concrete block apartment buildings. Apaches were called in and they solved the problem by shooting a hellfire missile into the apartment. The missile won and killed everyone in the apartment. But it also killed the family in the apartment across the hall as well. A mom and six kids. Dad was at work.
Sure, the Army paid the dad for killing his family, I think it was around $60K. But no one was held accountable. This was years after the invasion too, during peace keeping or nation building or whatever the fuck it is we were doing over there.
A police officer kills 7 people by accident and he is going to prison forever, not really going to matter what the rest of the circumstances are. The civil lawsuits will bankrupt the city or the county.
That was war and people making a decision to underwrite what happens, despite best efforts, in war. It ain’t Iraq (not to that level, even if Chicago) back in the States. Soldiers don’t have qualified immunity or “talk to my union rep” either.
80% of police officers aren’t in unions, many places they aren’t even allowed to join a union.
Soldiers fall under Sovereign Immunity. This is way better than Qualified Immunity.
Thank God for that; public sector unions are corrosive.
There’s a place for sovereign immunity (as there is for qualified) but letting folk skate for bad and/or idiot stuff because of it is counterproductive and wrong. (Appropriate judgment must be taken… but it’s often too little or too slow in coming.)
Yes, look at the lawsuits and investigations of the cops involved in the shooting and killing of Breanna Taylor, and that shooting by officers was in response to her boyfriend shooting on of the officers executing the warrant.
“Who’s in charge here?” seems like the thing to ask when on scene with multiple agencies (Local, County, State, Federal). There must be a protocol, right? Why did it take so long?
The whole narrative of “you don’t need a gun because the cops will take care of it” all go out the fucking window when a gaggle of LEO’s are not doing shit while children are dying.
I can say with 100% certainty that one of my friends that became a cop would not have waited. He was a PFL (20-year Patrolman for Life) because following protocols was NOT HIS THING. He would said basically “I’m going to rescue those kids. Any of you pussies coming with me?”
I don’t why you would assume there is such a protocol. Personally I would be shocked if such a thing existed.
Normally, the person who was supposed to be in charge is the school Chief of Police. He failed. On scene it is supposed to be whoever is in contact. Also failed.
That generation of officers that go against the rules has disappeared in the last six years due in no small part to the Burn, Loot and Mayhem crew, defunding and general media animosity.
What left/libtards want, robots who’ll beat who they’re told (Constitution or not) for a pension and benefits.
When seconds count, police are hours away providing the mayor security then give you a ticket for jaywalking because you got hit by a car running away from the perp when they do arrive.
Props to folk who don’t do that, but (given what happened at Uvalde) too many for comfort do.
Pardon, but that’s all liberal expect in their cops.
While driving this morning I was listening to the scanner.
There was an ongoing incident and a officer that had just
come on duty was directed to the scene. First thing he asked
the dispatcher was “who is Sgt. in command on scene?”
Somebody else is responsible, where’s muh paycheck?! (This is what happens with “just following instructions,” folks.)
A whole bunch of pussies. Juss’ sayin’. My local LEO “Climate of Command” allows their Officers to use their training and judgement to handle any situation that may arise.
These mofos are covering their asses and those innocent children are still dead. The dirtbag may have been the one pulling the trigger, but the inaction of “Command” is what is most despicable.
Amen to you local PD. That’s how they should play it.
If folk want “warrior cops,” said cops must be trained to think and be responsible for their actions (or inactions) like soldiers. Saying their first job is to keep innocent folk from getting is not enough; they have to take initiative (even if they risk getting killed) to do it.
I’m seeing a whole lotta non-American attitude in those LEOs. By “American attitude” I mean when the officer or Sgt.s are not available, a buck Pvt steps up and leads the charge.
When you get slapped down for showing initiative, that’s gonna happen.
I’m also seeing a lot of “I cannot believe this is really happening” in the “leadership” and some of the “followship” responses. A mental vapor-lock that comes on when you don’t take the training as preparation for what you may be facing that very next day, but only as a way to get a pay bonus or status bling.
If I understand correctly, the local LEO directs the response even of the DPS until a formal handover is made.
Therefore, I’m still inclined to see the DPS report as placing the blame where it belongs more than a CYA action.
I also expect this situation will become part of the “Lessons Learned” review of protocols for school shootings.
(to be continued)
Unfortunately, you cannot make someone take the SWAT / Active Shooter trainings seriously when they have the attitude that “I’ll never really have to use this.”
The failure of the system(s) to recognize that the shooter was a wacko and a true danger to others is an entire separate subject. IMNHO the “No Child Left Behind” mindset of some educators hurts the education systems. Some of those kids need kicked out of the school system altogether and never allowed back – especially those showing signs like this kid did.
YMMV
The problem here is that they pretty much repeated the mistakes from Parkland and even Columbine. With Columbine everything was kind of new with the drugged up crazed teenagers murdering their classmates. These days there isn’t much excuse. Everyone knows that 98% of the time once a mass shooter starts he doesn’t stop until he dies, encounters police or runs out of ammunition in his primary firearm.
It was unconscionable for them to wait outside while wounded kids inside were bleeding out. But changing the philosophy and culture of policing isn’t something that is going to be easily done.
I concur that this is unconscionable, 5JC.
I have no first- or second-hand knowledge, but the theory – that they had mental vapor-lock because they didn’t really expect to ever have to deal with it – seems to fit the known facts.
I’ll read the full report later. I doubt I’ll be surprised. I had a conversation recently about “Supporting the Blue.” I said I support individual cops, that I know personally, but not LEOs in general. I work with LEOs, and too many have the attitude of, and will vocally state “I’m going home at the end of my shift.” Which sounds a lot like a ” me over you” attitude. I grant respect for the hard job they do, but in the end, their just people, and people tend to dissapoint.
That is because they are trained from day 1 that the number one rule in law enforcement IS to go home at the end of their shift. It IS a “me over you” attitude. These days enough people are trying to kill police, just because they are police that there is no need for the officer to be any braver. The police play every day and dying is losing.
This isn’t just for the benefit of the officer it is also for the benefit of the agency. If an officer dies they are out all they have invested in the officer.
The one area that is supposed to be the exception though is in active shootings. This is because of the need for preservation of human life and the shooter will eventually kill the officer if he can anyway. Getting people to flip the switch from self-preservation to making the risk worth it is something the military spends vast amounts of time, training and leadership on. The police do not. There is no St. Crispin Day Speech to rouse them into battle.
“F*ck ’em all, I’m going home alive!” may work in a Free Fire zone, but not in a domestic civilian evironment. Too many die, either by active means or being let die.
Actually the opposite of your first statement is true. Regardless though, what would you suggest?
Yeah, it doesn’t win over civilians if anything that moves in the enemy. (Not a good thing back here either. All I”m saying.)
Cops need what you pointed-out the military spends oodles of time/money on too. That’s what I suggest.
Pulled this from our SOP 343…
Maybe the cops need something similar..
1. As you commute to work each shift, reflect and ask yourself the following:
a. Am I ready for that career fire today?
b. Am I prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice?
c. Who is counting on me to be at my absolute best?
d. Why am I here and why do I do this job?
or maybe this:
Customer Service is everything to our department. We will excel in everything from daily interactions at the grocery store to aggressively searching every last survivable inch of a burning building. We will treat everyone with respect, dignity, and compassion -and not because a policy tells us to, but because it’s the right human thing to do. We are here for one reason and only one reason: THEM!
UN-HUH.
Everybody loves a fire fighter. A fire fighter hardly ever arrests anyone or makes them go to jail. Expectations are the fire fighter will put out the fire, pull the people out of the wreck or restart their heart. When they don’t nobody blames the fire fighter.
The police on the other hand do a lot of things, mostly conflict resolution. At least one party is always unhappy about the outcome.
5JC, while a lot of that is true, we get blamed all the time for thing we did / didn’t do. To the simple minded thugs, we’re “the man” like anyone else in uniform. Firefighter closecalls has plenty of examples of firefighters being attacked, or the FNDY EMT being killed just last week.
Not saying it’s the same as cops, but a change in mindset for a lot of cops is obviously needed.
That attack was one of the worst things I’ve seen in a while. I don’t know if she was targeted due to being a fire fighter, but it is possible.
***This.*** Emphasize that their whole job is protect innocent people from bad people, even at the risk of their own lives, and the rest is secondary.
Military people hold dear that they protect hearth and home (even though they kill other soldiers at the risk of life/limb/sanity) and, even if idealized, that’s their ethos.
Every word of what you just wrote was wrong.
How? That’s what soldiers tell themselves. It ain’t “go home at the end of shift” at the expense of the public.
Jailers protect people from bad people. There is no such thing as innocent people. While there is no greater love than to lay down your life for a brother you make a lot of bad assumptions right from the start.
I’ve been in combat a number of times. Not once have I heard anyone from there ever say one word about fighting for hearth and home. I have serious doubts anyone even thought it.
“There is no such thing as innocent people”
Fuck, we’ve identified the boot licker 🙄
If being a Christian is boot licking than you found me.
Contrary to Grunt, it seems, I think I understand what 5JC means by “no such thing as innocent people”, and therefore disagree with Grunt’s assessment.
A point of contention is that the relationship between American law enforcement and the general public has devolved into a binary us/them mindset, where:
“us” = badge wearers
“them” = everyone else
That is the context in which I am replying to 5JC.
Now, if we’ve shifted to a theological discussion about Original Sin, then yes I agree with 5JC that there are no innocent people before God.
However, if we are still talking about American law enforcement, then 5JC is a bootlicker.
I invite 5JC to clarify.
Rather than delve into that rabbit hole, if “anon” meant that there are weak and helpless individuals that need protecting, than I can go along with that.
It may be sentimental, but that stuff sells itself. To have “f*ck everybody else” involved instead isn’t encouraging or constructive.
I’ll jump in here as a current Leo and prior infantryman. The way I learned it the whole mantra about going home at the end of shift was about being alert, aware and not letting ones guard down. It was never us versus them. To paraphrase General Mattis, I treat everyone with respect but have a plan to handle them if needed. That starts with being physically fit, trained and understanding behavior. It helps that in my agency we are allowed to use judgement. But make no mistake there are situations where that switch gets flipped and an active shooter is one. No matter how they parse it the first officers on scene should have gone in to take on the shooter and the the fat boy school chief should have taken command. Don’t care how many other agencies showed up or how many ranking stuffed shirts showed up, his job and his responsibility. That he was inside without his radio just pisses me off. He should have been the one coordinating follow on forces and establishing a cp.
Boom. Done. Said better than I did.
Nailed it.
100% concurrence here.
Well said, MTFAO. Your reference to the school police chief as “Fat Boy” points to a key part of the problem. Uvalde is a small town, relatively remote from other towns of any size. As in so many such towns, the best and the brightest tend to migrate out to larger urban areas, in this case San Antonio, leaving the mediocre and underperformers, like “Chief” Arredondo, to staff the municipal work force.
Because the personnel pickings tend to be thin, the overall quality and professionalism of such forces is just as thin. This is especially true of lower tier law enforcement agencies like school/campus police as was glaringly demonstrated by “Fat Boy” Arredondo. whose performance was deplorable even by small town standards.
Here’s a current San Antonio Express-News article on Arredondo:
Fired Uvalde school police chief is exile in hometown (expressnews.com)
Airborne Brother is a retired LEO. Several of the men in my church are retired or active LEOs. When I was a kid one of my Sunday School teachers was a Houston Police Officer.
Good men all. I want them to go home at the end of their shift.
Working for TDCJ-ID, I’ve had interactions with a lot of criminals of all stripes.
Working private security in downtown Houston, as well as working EMS in Houston, I’ve had interactions with some of the sorts of folks the LEOs have to deal with daily.
There comes a point where you realize that no matter what you do, that battered wife is going back to her abuser, the addict is going back to his meth or booze, and in the post-Obama atmosphere the kids are being taught to hate any LEO they see.
(cont)
…There are still the few that you can help. So you stay on. But there are not many worth making your wife a widow for, or missing your children’s graduations and weddings for. Damn few.
I understand wanting to go home at the end of shift. And cannot fault it.
I worked as a substitute teacher in a TDCJ-ID education class this week.
40 inmates in 2 classes being given a chance.
I can think of 6 or 7 who were really trying to take the chance. I wrote 2 up (could have written up several more) – so they’d get thrown out of class for a couple of years. If I went back the others may have gotten tossed, too.
But you can bet if a fight broke out this ol’ boy is out in the hall to let security pick up the pieces. I’m going home at the end of the day.
Very well said.
I’m in the Coast Guard Auxiliary, and we have to have a basic understanding of FEMAs Incident Command System. The system was originated by fire departments to control for proper responses to fires. You establish the size of the fire, and respond with the command structure you need. You don’t send in the entire fire department to put out a trash can fire, but you also don’t send in one pumper truck, and a ladder truck to a high rise fire. The disaster determines the response, what command and control you need, what assets you will need, the people you’ll need, the numbers of each, and the amount of coffee you’ll need to get through it.
Every police department in the country is, at least nominally, supposed to be familiar with this system as well.
After Sandy Hook Obama mandated Federally 2 weeks of active shooter training for every police officer in the country. It is pretty much the same program everywhere and one of the few blocks of training in Law Enforcement that is standardized between agencies. Most receive this training at the academy and might never see it again.
One thing that most State and local agencies do poorly is training. They simply don’t have the resources to do it well. Most military units for example get a year or more to train between deployments. Most police agencies might get a couple of days a year and that is being generous.
True enough. The last time we ran a live “table top” drill, with the Auxiliary, Minneapolis and St Paul PD, Fire, and EMTs, as well as local private emergency services, was 5 years ago.
The assessment from the Coast Guard Command was that we did well. But that’s because up here in Minnesota we’re a lot smarter than we look. And my gosh are we handsome.
Establishing “who’s in charge” should’ve been simple.
1- Pete Arredondo was the Uvalde school district police chief.
2- This shooting was in his school. He’s the default on-scene honcho.
3- Unless relieved or ordered to stand down by state or federal authorities, he’s in charge.
This should have been the opening statement in their active shooter SOP.