Over the past several days, it has become clear that the gruesome death toll of the Uvalde, Texas school massacre was substantially due to the inexcusable incompetence and cowardice of the city’s police.
Americans of all backgrounds are depressed, horrified, humiliated, and ashamed to see to many innocent lives lost thanks to gross failure by those sworn to “serve and protect.” But Americans should not be surprised at this outcome. America has spent decades deliberately creating less capable, more cowardly police, and without a change of direction more tragedies like Uvalde will come to pass.
Like many other towns in America, Uvalde has a large and well-stocked police department. The town of 15,000 has a part-time SWAT team and 40 officers, roughly one for every 375 people. That’s substantially more than the number of police per capita in nearby San Antonio or El Paso.
But when they were put to the most important test of their lives, the officers of Uvalde flopped. Early viral footage from the city shows terrified parents shrieking and begging police to storm the school. Read more…