The actions - or more notably, the inaction - of a school district police chief and other law enforcement officers have become the centre of the investigation into this week's shocking school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.
The chief's decision - and the officers' apparent willingness to follow his directives against established active-shooter protocols - prompted questions about whether more lives were lost because officers did not act faster to stop the gunman, and who should be held responsible. One of the officials said 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.
New York City defence attorney Paul Martin and Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum in Washington, both said Saturday that they did not know of any other officers who have been criminally charged for failing to act in a mass shooting. In terms of civil liability, the legal doctrine called “ qualified immunity,” which shields police officers from lawsuits unless their actions violate clearly established laws, could also be at play in future litigation. Potential administrative punishments - meted out by the department itself - could range from a suspension or docked pay to forced resignation or retirement, or outright termination.
The daughter of a teacher who bled to death reached a $1.5 million settlement in her lawsuit against the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office in 2002. Police were heavily criticised at the time for not going into the school sooner.
All the good cops left after they started arresting people for not wearing a mask. 19 cops waited outside the classroom while children were being murdered and they did nothing because they were scared they might get shot. This is what a cop is now. Bullies.
Where was the SWOT team? Why did use regular cops to storm the school and kill the shooter?
don't punish all the cops at the time as they have to follow orders from above. Charge the ones in charge
Cops do not get in trouble in America. On top of qualified immunity our Supreme Court ruled that they do not have to protect or save anyone (I know I know). But they can kill if they feel remotely threatened even if there is no reason.
All these policemen look overweight.
no criminal charges for those offering buy now pay later on assault riffles? POTUS USA guncontrol mentalhealth
That puts an end to the Bullshit argument that the only way to deal with a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun....how about take away that gun in the first place....thats what we did in Australia, and it worked!
I would hope so, this is not good enough. I heard one officer actually had the time to arrest a mother that was trying to get into the school to rescue her baby. WTAF 😡
So there were numerous heavily armed and trained police officers on the scene that failed to take any action against the gunman but senior politicians and the NRA suggest arming teachers is the answer 🤦♂️