UVALDE, Texas (AP) — An investigation Uvalde city leaders ordered into the Robb Elementary School shooting cleared local police officers of wrongdoing Thursday, despite acknowledging a series of rippling failures during the fumbled response to the 2022 classroom attack that left 19 children and two teachers dead.

Several family members of victims walked out in anger midway though a presentation that portrayed Uvalde Police Department officers of acting swiftly and appropriately, in contrast to scathing and sweeping past reports that faulted police at every level.

“You said they did it in good faith. You call that good faith? They stood there 77 minutes,” said Kimberly Mata-Rubio, whose daughter was among those killed in the attack, after the presentation ended.

Another person in the crowd screamed, “Cowards!”

Jesse Prado, an Austin-based investigator and former police detective who made the report for the Uvalde City Council on Thursday, described several failures by responding local, state and federal officers at the scene that day: communication problems, poor training for live shooter situations, lack of available equipment and delays on breaching the classroom.

“There were problems all day long with communication and lack of it. The officers had no way of knowing what was being planned, what was being said,” Prado said. “If they would have had a ballistic shield, it would have been enough to get them to the door.”

  • Coach@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    Demand privatization. Stop paying taxes and elect leaders (hell, these parents should run for office themselves) willing to make the hard choices. The cops have had every chance and unlimited budgets to protect the people. They chose to be lazy and scared pussies, instead. Ain’t no time for that!

    • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      I don’t think privatization works out as well as you think it does.

      First off, most privatized agencies, all the cops just apply for and now work for a corporate douchelord. They get paid even less than they were before, get even worse training, and even more protection. sure they loose the qualified immunity- maybe- but they get the benefit of corporate-level legal aid.

      Secondly, you now have a private, for profit company running law enforcement. conflicts of interest will happen. and chances are solid, they would be the same companies as running prisons, which means officers have every reason to make more arrests than cops already do.

      • Coach@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        It’s not a “think.” I saw it work. Check out Camden, NJ. Formally, the murder capital of the world. They privatized the police force and {surprise, surprise} murder dropped significantly.

        I understand this topic is unpopular with Lemmings - hell, I don’t like the idea of busting unions - but, in the case of the police, I have seen it work well.

        P.S. I welcome the downvotes from people who have no clue what they’re talking about.

        • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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          2 years ago

          First, Camden isn’t privatized police. They disbanded their police and built a new county-wide police force.

          Then, the reform wasn’t without controversy- they basically went full broken windows, issuing summons for shit as trivial as riding bicycles without bells. (Which while the broken windows premise may be valid, the proper response is to fix the damn “windows”)

          Next, you’ll note the observation that they rehired most the police force? They girdled everyone, made them reapply and gave extensive scrutiny- including psychological evaluation- and retraining.

          Any private corporation will be concerned first and foremost about profits, and not public order; never mind the public good.

          Even when private police are “simply” security guards with police powers, employed by corporations; it is likely to be abused- for example enbridge’s privately-contracted police officers that abused the fuck out of protesters and violated their civil liberties

    • Milk_Sheikh@lemm.ee
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      2 years ago

      … This ghoul seriously forced in a talking point asking for more equipment? To grieving parents who watched their kids die while the police were derelict in their duty? 50% of the city budget isn’t enough huh?

      The report for the Uvalde city council… was conducted by Jesse Prado, an Austin-based investigator and former police detective.

      Ah. “We’ve investigated ourselves and found no wrongdoing” despite the feds openly stating the opposite

    • Frozengyro@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      Yup, once a team decides not to go in, they won’t go. There will always be another goalpost to move. If they had the shield, they would be waiting for one more guy, or a specialized unit or a robot to go in.

    • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      So every time you see police protecting nazi protesters, remember: they chose to protect those nazis. Just like they chose to let kids bleed out in Uvalde.

      • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        Nononooo…

        They’re not defending Nazis. They’re defending other cops. Who happen to be Nazis.

  • ProfessorProteus@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    So they’ve (officially) done nothing wrong? Does that imply that it’s not wrong to laze about while a shooter—who they obviously knew about—works unimpeded to hollow out classrooms with a fucking carbine?

    • BassTurd@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      Legally I think that’s exactly what that implies. Cops are under no obligation to defend anyone. They are law enforcement officers, not protection for civilians.

      ACAB. Their job is to keep us in line, not protect us.

  • paddirn@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    “The officers didn’t actually shoot any of the children themselves, so therefor they did nothing wrong.”

      • Aniki 🌱🌿@lemm.eeBanned
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        2 years ago

        That footage will never, and I mean, NEVER see the light of day. It will have to be leaked to get out.

        • CosmicTurtle@lemmy.world
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          2 years ago

          I could have sworn they did release it. I remember people saying that it was graphic because you should see dead children on the floor as the police, nonchalantly, walked around the building.

          • PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world
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            2 years ago

            There have been a few mass shootings with released footage, but Uvalde isn’t one of them. The prevailing theory is that a cop (or multiple cops) accidentally shot a kid (or multiple kids) in the classroom so the footage has been buried. IIRC, at least one kid in the classroom had gunshot wounds that weren’t consistent with the caliber of gun the shooter was using, but matched standard police issue.

        • BassaForte@lemmy.world
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          2 years ago

          If they did no wrong, then they would release it. Since they haven’t released it and never will, wrong has definitely been done.

    • IninewCrow@lemmy.ca
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      2 years ago

      At this point, I’m starting to think that the officers delaying so long might have actually prevented more children and bystanders from getting killed … if they had gone in earlier with guns blazing at everything that moved, they probably would have killed a lot of innocent bystanders before realizing who they were actually supposed to shoot in the first place.

  • not_that_guy05@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    Did anybody honestly think they were gonna do something to them? There was a whole reason while there were marches for police accountability, BLM, and racism during covid.

    Nothing changed.

    ACAB

          • SoleInvictus@lemmy.world
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            2 years ago

            When you’re a cop, you can be both persecuted and persecutor. If only we could harness the power of their flip flopping to generate electricity, the police would finally do more good than harm.

          • Passerby6497@lemmy.world
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            2 years ago

            Hey, give them a break! They work a dangerous job and just want to go home every day! Never mind that they’re not even in the top 10 most dangerous jobs, or that they’ve willingly signed up to put their lives on the line. No, they just want to go home at night donchaknow!

      • theneverfox@pawb.social
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        2 years ago

        Didn’t you read their quote? They didn’t go in not because they were cowards who shirked their duty, it was because they didn’t have a bulletproof shield

        Clearly we just need to keep arming the police until the protection trickles down

      • bryan@lemmy.sdf.org
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        2 years ago

        He got 64 percent of the vote in the primary. He’s running against two other republicans. The do-nothing incompetent sheriff is still likely to win.

          • reddig33@lemmy.world
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            2 years ago

            What do you call it when an incumbent wins his primary against same party challengers if not re-elected?

            • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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              2 years ago

              I mean, the Clown with Short Bowels is being annoyingly pedantic, but they’re not wrong.

              What do you call it when an incumbent wins his primary against same party challengers if not re-elected?

              I would personally go with “The Party’s Chosen Candidate” but I understand that’s pretty wordy.

              • ShortBoweledClown@lemmy.one
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                2 years ago

                I feel that with the general turmoil of US politics in recent years, providing correct information is becoming increasingly important. How are people supposed to take part in a system they don’t understand?

                Even if OP was saying it flippantly, the next person reading it may not know that.

                • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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                  2 years ago

                  I agree, but unfortunately being a pedant can be annoying, even to other pedants.

                  Accuracy is indeed important, but that’s not going to make humans, you know, stop being human and stop responding emotionally instead of thoughtfully. Humans are gonna human and damn it if they aren’t irrational beasts. I should know, I am one.

      • meco03211@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        But what are his chances in the general? Is it a location where the “real” election is the primary and whoever has an R by their name in the general will win?

        • PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world
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          2 years ago

          Yup, Uvalde is majority Republican and the election is expected to go to Republican candidates. Since he won the Republican primary, he basically already won the general.

  • dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    2 years ago

    “Missteps” implies that the police did things.

    They failed to act and instead they let children get murdered. I know the SC said that cops don’t have to protect you whatsoever, but this is beyond the pale. You have a duty to the American people given that they pay your salary, you fat fucking worthless pitiful excuses for law “enforcement”.

    • theyoyomaster@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      The precedent is that an individual officer has no duty to protect any given individual on the basis that the collective police have a responsibility to the public as a whole that outweighs an individual. That argument doesn’t work when the entire department stood by and actively prevented any action against the shooter.

    • Ann Archy@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      I always saw them more as cunts, personally, but I suppose they can be more than one thing.

  • Dead_or_Alive@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    Since the last yellow drop of piss leaked out of the cowards who were at that school that day the city was always going to find that every single law enforcement officer onsite at the Uvalde massacre acted appropriately.

    They are facing massive lawsuits and they will do nothing to give the opposing litigants any ammunition to use against them in court.