Charged and tried for dereliction of duty and 21 counts of first degree manslaughter. Unfortunately they can not be charged with criminal cowardice as no statute exists for that.
The victims families should also file class action suits on each law enforcement officer present who failed to act to to stop the shooter with the NRA and Gov. Abbot named as codependents.
There was one officer that wasn't a coward named Ruben Ruiz. His wife was one of the two teachers killed. Eva Mireles called him during the shooting and told Ruiz, ""she had been shot and was dying."
Ruiz attempted to enter the classroom to save his wife, but was detained by fellow officers who confiscated his gun and "escorted him off the scene."
This was the same officer captured by video surveillance looking at his cellphone (for good reason).
Consequences for commanders? Let Officer Ruiz answer that question.
Like Frank Figliuzzi said - fire them and charge them with felony child endangerment, with failure to act. Put them in jail - after stripping them of all property to pay off the civil suits from the families.
They should all lose thier jobs, their pensions and they should be prevented from ever again working in law enforcement. Also, they should be charged with dereliction of duty, depraved indifference to humanity and be held financially accountable by the families whom they robbed of their children along with the two teachers. Gov. Abbott should lose his job and be publicly shamed for not attending even one funeral. Vote him out!
Police Chief Pete Arredondo should be charged with manslaughter. The other officers should be held civilly responsible and banned from working in law enforcement ever again. All 376 officers involved should lose their pensions.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott should be charged with 21 counts of involuntary manslaughter for allowing the murderer to buy the guns and ammo. The gun manufacturers should be charged as well.
Let's address the real issues.Weapons of war are available to the general public and the police are logically afraid for their lives. All dressed up in camo and shields (very manly), and not willing to risk their lives to protect the innocents. Follow the money!
Steve, I think it is very important to go after the Republicans who control this predominantly Hispanic town. I know it well; I grew up an hour's drive west in Del Rio, on the border with Mexico. I am a retired 33 year journo, mostly in DC political media and afterwards a consultant and a member of Democracy Partners. I truly believe that this swing district in SW TX, most recently represented by Wil Hurd and now by Tony Gonzales, an NRA puppet, needs to land back in the hands of Democrat John Lira, a former Marine who personally experienced the horrors of domestic terrorism when his great uncle, a federal govt employee, was killed in the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. Wil Hurd would have paid better attention to Uvalde than Tony Gonzales, who echoes the NRA talking points. Please showcase John Lira's candidacy to push against the horrors of Uvalde. Thank you.
The following is the Uvalde Police Department’s mission: ""The City of Uvalde Police Department serves the community by protecting citizens and property, preventing crime, enforcing laws, and maintaining order. The Uvalde Police Department is committed to provide superior police service to the public in order to protect life, property and the freedoms provided by the Constitution.”
They did not serve the community, they did not protect the community, they did not enforce the law, they did not maintain order, they did not protect life. They certainly did not provide the children or their parents the freedom from fear.
I have no idea whether this is an administrative issue or a rank-and-file issuel It does not matter. This department should be disbanded and a re-constituted, re-invigorated and a police force rededicated to its mission should be created.
I believe they should be terminated, lose benefits and pension, prosecuted, and banned from working in law enforcement, intelligence, teaching at the academy or private training to LEO or elected office,.
The problem appeared to be a command structure (or lack there of) problem. I would want to fire the School Police Chief. I don't know enough to know who else should have taken the lead in view of his incompetence as "chief" - showing up to a shooting without a radio. I don't see a viable criminal negligence case for most of the officers - since police are trained to follow command structure & no one seemed to be in charge.
I think they should be drawn and quartered. They should all lose their jobs and be charged with depraved indifference to humanity or the like. I'm shocked they're still alive to be honest.
Teacher here ~ if I fail to report suspected child abuse, neglect, abandonment, etc. I'm threatened with criminal accountability. Similarly, if my students don't show sufficient growth on state standardized tests, I'm threatened with being placed on a "growth plan" where my classroom/teaching techniques are monitored 24/7, I'm subject to constant interrogation about my strategies, etc. and that's just the start. These commanders LOST LIVES by failing to act and yet, they remain on the payroll with NO accountability at all? They should be criminally liable for the loss of lives; there are no valid excuses for their failure to act.
Fire all the LEOs who were present that day (except for the one who tried to enter the classrooms but was escorted out of the building). Terminate all benefits, including any pensions. Create lifetime ban on working in law enforcement and owning firearms. Publish the names of all the LEOs who were present that day. Charge them all with criminally negligent homicide or some similar statute.
I think every single one should be dismissed, and I hope the grieving families acquire a legal team to sue everyone from Abbott on down. I’m beyond warn out with the lack of consequences in this country.
No police officer is equipped or trained in an encounter with a military grade assault weapon. I’m as angry as anyone that they didn’t do more but I don’t blame their pause. What kind of country will we have when our police officers need military style training and equipment? What about when our teacher do, like my daughter’s 65 year old AP World History teacher? A grandmother, in Kevlar, trained to disarm an 18 year old mass murderer with military weaponry?
Terminated. Lifetime ban from further work in law enforcement. Charged with dereliction of duty, convicted and punished. Consequences for every law enforcement person in the school building that just waited around, hid and did nothing. No amount of hand sanitizer will ever wash away the stain of their shameful conduct.
I think the state government officials need to be held accountable. Why so little funding for the schools? They can’t afford to fix the locks or the wi-fi system? There needs to be an investigation into that. We know what Abbott and cronies prioritize. When it comes to the officers and the ones in charge I am flabbergasted. How could this possibly happen? I don’t have an answer. They should be held accountable but I will let better legal minds than mine to determine how.
Easy to say "coward." A lot of those guys were awaiting orders. In their minds if they 'played hero' they could get kids killed. Many of them didn't know what was going on.
I think that our police, etc need to determine if they have the resources and plans to protect us against weapons of war. If not, something more dramatic is needed. Oh - how about making these weapons illegal!!
Anyone who had decision making power should be fired and arrested for dereliction of duty. School police should be disbanded completely. They are obviously useless. Complete overhaul of purpose and training of all officers. Those who resist should be fired.
I believe they should be fired and lose their pensions. The same is true for everyone at the Secret Service who deleted their texts and all of their "superiors." And none should be allowed to work in law enforcement again. (Now we know why Pence refused to get in that limo; now we know what HE knew: Trump's secret service would have dumped him on the steps of Congress and fled.)
If it were practical, I would fire every last police officer in Uvalde and start over.
It is said "elections have consequences"; the corollary is, but should not be, "bad behavior has no consequences" in the US today. Bad behavior must have severe consequences.
They should, at a minimum, be fired for gross dereliction of duty and all benefits to which they might otherwise be entitled after the term of their respective service from the force is finished is not paid to them. They should however, be paid for any amount for pay that is fully vested and owing to them.
Definitely, the Leadership group, due to their ineptness, should be held accountable for the failure to act and child endangerment. Re: Others: The question becomes whether the orders from those “in command” were lawful. Certainly, the officer, whose wife was clinging to life in classroom, if performing life saving duties could be exonerated from disobeying an order. The intelligence picture is unclear about what the ground troops knew. (Hard to believe I know). These officers may have been hindered by Rules of Engagement or fearful of media and lawsuits. I still don’t get it. I think carrying the load of cowardice in the line of fire for the rest of their lives is punishment. At the minimum, officers, who knowingly knew what was happening in the classroom and did nothing, should be suspended 60-90 days and participate in rehabilitation training to strengthen their character.
I spent a career in public safety. I ended my career as fire chief and then moved on to director of emergency management for a Big Ten university. What happened in Uvalde is dereliction of duty, pure and simple. Those who "lead" or were in "command" from the alphabet soup of agencies on the scene that day should all be terminated, and never allowed to work in a public safety role ever again. My agencies trained and tragically responded to active shooter calls. First officer on scene goes in. No waiting. No waiting for command. No waiting for keys to unlock doors! Force entry, engage and neutralize. Higher ranking officers arriving on scene take command, establish a unified command post and communicate with first responders via portable radios or face to face. None of this occurred in that school. Dead children and teachers. Blood is on the hands of those commanding officers. Cowards indeed.
The people who are supposed to have guns don't use them and the people who shouldn't have guns, do. That's the Republican world of Texas. I don't know why all these families don't sue Abbot and the Republican legislature of Texas for increasingly lax gun laws, incompetent law enforcement and refusing to accept the will of the people. These Republicans have blood on their hands, and they need to face the consequences of their actions. Most Texans, like most Americans want these weapons confiscated and destroyed. Republicans have turned this country into a blood bath.
we should use this moment to ban assault type weapons nationwide, tho there was definitely dereliction of duty to act, we should use this as an example of the presence of assault type weapons so rampant, means that some crazy, deranged or just plan unregulated angry person can create a war-like danger anywhere in America, at any time. and that it is unrealistic to have a good person with a gun always available and trained to sacrifice their own life at any moment. And the financial burden of trained security guards everywhere, is just too much!
Again and again, we see it. Proper training for law enforcement is sadly ineffective. Steve’s right we are dangerously on the edge.everything seems upside down. Accountability for dereliction of duty and responsibilities. Not sure what that looks like, but those families who grieve know.
Termination and lifetime ban from further work in law enforcement.
Charged and tried for dereliction of duty and 21 counts of first degree manslaughter. Unfortunately they can not be charged with criminal cowardice as no statute exists for that.
The victims families should also file class action suits on each law enforcement officer present who failed to act to to stop the shooter with the NRA and Gov. Abbot named as codependents.
There was one officer that wasn't a coward named Ruben Ruiz. His wife was one of the two teachers killed. Eva Mireles called him during the shooting and told Ruiz, ""she had been shot and was dying."
Ruiz attempted to enter the classroom to save his wife, but was detained by fellow officers who confiscated his gun and "escorted him off the scene."
This was the same officer captured by video surveillance looking at his cellphone (for good reason).
Consequences for commanders? Let Officer Ruiz answer that question.
https://www.newsweek.com/uvalde-officer-slammed-using-phone-had-dying-wife-classroom-moody-1724447
charged with depraved indifference to humanity
Like Frank Figliuzzi said - fire them and charge them with felony child endangerment, with failure to act. Put them in jail - after stripping them of all property to pay off the civil suits from the families.
Total Accountability. Fired and prosecuted.
Fire them all and criminal charges for superiors.
Dismissal or resignation. Also criminal referral for omission to act and criminal endangerment of children.
They should all lose thier jobs, their pensions and they should be prevented from ever again working in law enforcement. Also, they should be charged with dereliction of duty, depraved indifference to humanity and be held financially accountable by the families whom they robbed of their children along with the two teachers. Gov. Abbott should lose his job and be publicly shamed for not attending even one funeral. Vote him out!
Fired post haste; with no pension, banning from law enforcement work anywhere, and continued, persistent public shaming.
fired and put in jail
Fired, sued and negligent homicide. The photo showed the attention seeking bravado of people who like the look but not the work.
Fire them all. Not up to the job.
They need to face consequences.
Police Chief Pete Arredondo should be charged with manslaughter. The other officers should be held civilly responsible and banned from working in law enforcement ever again. All 376 officers involved should lose their pensions.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott should be charged with 21 counts of involuntary manslaughter for allowing the murderer to buy the guns and ammo. The gun manufacturers should be charged as well.
Lose jobs and any pensions All 396 of them.
Fire all their leaders, including Gov. Abbott. Retrain and redeploy.
Let's address the real issues.Weapons of war are available to the general public and the police are logically afraid for their lives. All dressed up in camo and shields (very manly), and not willing to risk their lives to protect the innocents. Follow the money!
Texas has a law about indifference to the safety of children. They should all be charged with it.
Federal consent order for all involved police depts. Everyone in authority who did nothing gets fired.
Steve, I think it is very important to go after the Republicans who control this predominantly Hispanic town. I know it well; I grew up an hour's drive west in Del Rio, on the border with Mexico. I am a retired 33 year journo, mostly in DC political media and afterwards a consultant and a member of Democracy Partners. I truly believe that this swing district in SW TX, most recently represented by Wil Hurd and now by Tony Gonzales, an NRA puppet, needs to land back in the hands of Democrat John Lira, a former Marine who personally experienced the horrors of domestic terrorism when his great uncle, a federal govt employee, was killed in the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. Wil Hurd would have paid better attention to Uvalde than Tony Gonzales, who echoes the NRA talking points. Please showcase John Lira's candidacy to push against the horrors of Uvalde. Thank you.
They were ALL scared shitless of the AR rifle except the one officer who tried to save his wife. Get rid of them all.
Termination and lifetime ban from law enforcement if there is such a thing.
The following is the Uvalde Police Department’s mission: ""The City of Uvalde Police Department serves the community by protecting citizens and property, preventing crime, enforcing laws, and maintaining order. The Uvalde Police Department is committed to provide superior police service to the public in order to protect life, property and the freedoms provided by the Constitution.”
They did not serve the community, they did not protect the community, they did not enforce the law, they did not maintain order, they did not protect life. They certainly did not provide the children or their parents the freedom from fear.
I have no idea whether this is an administrative issue or a rank-and-file issuel It does not matter. This department should be disbanded and a re-constituted, re-invigorated and a police force rededicated to its mission should be created.
I believe they should be terminated, lose benefits and pension, prosecuted, and banned from working in law enforcement, intelligence, teaching at the academy or private training to LEO or elected office,.
They should not even be a dog catcher or mall cop
Fired…Loss of Pension….Loss of ability to
Ever work in U S A ….PROSECUTION…
Prison and financial liability to each family
How can they get paid leave??? Must have
Consequences for their cowardice and
As a mother, grandmother and patriot I’d
Have given my life by entering and doing
My best to stop the killing.. they murdered
Those children and two teachers just as
Much as the shooter with the AK-15 By
Standing around Doing NOTHING….
The entire Board should resign and they
Should face the same penalties as the
Police & officers …financially feel the
Horror of the fact they killed children ..
I’m at a loss to understand 😪Marsha
The problem appeared to be a command structure (or lack there of) problem. I would want to fire the School Police Chief. I don't know enough to know who else should have taken the lead in view of his incompetence as "chief" - showing up to a shooting without a radio. I don't see a viable criminal negligence case for most of the officers - since police are trained to follow command structure & no one seemed to be in charge.
I think they should be drawn and quartered. They should all lose their jobs and be charged with depraved indifference to humanity or the like. I'm shocked they're still alive to be honest.
Manslaughter.
Teacher here ~ if I fail to report suspected child abuse, neglect, abandonment, etc. I'm threatened with criminal accountability. Similarly, if my students don't show sufficient growth on state standardized tests, I'm threatened with being placed on a "growth plan" where my classroom/teaching techniques are monitored 24/7, I'm subject to constant interrogation about my strategies, etc. and that's just the start. These commanders LOST LIVES by failing to act and yet, they remain on the payroll with NO accountability at all? They should be criminally liable for the loss of lives; there are no valid excuses for their failure to act.
Fire all the LEOs who were present that day (except for the one who tried to enter the classrooms but was escorted out of the building). Terminate all benefits, including any pensions. Create lifetime ban on working in law enforcement and owning firearms. Publish the names of all the LEOs who were present that day. Charge them all with criminally negligent homicide or some similar statute.
I think every single one should be dismissed, and I hope the grieving families acquire a legal team to sue everyone from Abbott on down. I’m beyond warn out with the lack of consequences in this country.
No police officer is equipped or trained in an encounter with a military grade assault weapon. I’m as angry as anyone that they didn’t do more but I don’t blame their pause. What kind of country will we have when our police officers need military style training and equipment? What about when our teacher do, like my daughter’s 65 year old AP World History teacher? A grandmother, in Kevlar, trained to disarm an 18 year old mass murderer with military weaponry?
Terminated. Lifetime ban from further work in law enforcement. Charged with dereliction of duty, convicted and punished. Consequences for every law enforcement person in the school building that just waited around, hid and did nothing. No amount of hand sanitizer will ever wash away the stain of their shameful conduct.
Terminated from the top down. Dereliction of duty. I wish there were a way to prosecute them.
I think the state government officials need to be held accountable. Why so little funding for the schools? They can’t afford to fix the locks or the wi-fi system? There needs to be an investigation into that. We know what Abbott and cronies prioritize. When it comes to the officers and the ones in charge I am flabbergasted. How could this possibly happen? I don’t have an answer. They should be held accountable but I will let better legal minds than mine to determine how.
I would love to NEVER see another cosplay photo of cops with tactical gear and weapons in a SWAT photo
Could it be turned into a positive means against the war on guns? Have them give talks to groups on why assault weapons need to be banned.
Easy to say "coward." A lot of those guys were awaiting orders. In their minds if they 'played hero' they could get kids killed. Many of them didn't know what was going on.
Fired and unindemnified by the City of Uvalde.
I think that our police, etc need to determine if they have the resources and plans to protect us against weapons of war. If not, something more dramatic is needed. Oh - how about making these weapons illegal!!
Anyone who had decision making power should be fired and arrested for dereliction of duty. School police should be disbanded completely. They are obviously useless. Complete overhaul of purpose and training of all officers. Those who resist should be fired.
I believe they should be fired and lose their pensions. The same is true for everyone at the Secret Service who deleted their texts and all of their "superiors." And none should be allowed to work in law enforcement again. (Now we know why Pence refused to get in that limo; now we know what HE knew: Trump's secret service would have dumped him on the steps of Congress and fled.)
If it were practical, I would fire every last police officer in Uvalde and start over.
It is said "elections have consequences"; the corollary is, but should not be, "bad behavior has no consequences" in the US today. Bad behavior must have severe consequences.
They should, at a minimum, be fired for gross dereliction of duty and all benefits to which they might otherwise be entitled after the term of their respective service from the force is finished is not paid to them. They should however, be paid for any amount for pay that is fully vested and owing to them.
Definitely, the Leadership group, due to their ineptness, should be held accountable for the failure to act and child endangerment. Re: Others: The question becomes whether the orders from those “in command” were lawful. Certainly, the officer, whose wife was clinging to life in classroom, if performing life saving duties could be exonerated from disobeying an order. The intelligence picture is unclear about what the ground troops knew. (Hard to believe I know). These officers may have been hindered by Rules of Engagement or fearful of media and lawsuits. I still don’t get it. I think carrying the load of cowardice in the line of fire for the rest of their lives is punishment. At the minimum, officers, who knowingly knew what was happening in the classroom and did nothing, should be suspended 60-90 days and participate in rehabilitation training to strengthen their character.
I spent a career in public safety. I ended my career as fire chief and then moved on to director of emergency management for a Big Ten university. What happened in Uvalde is dereliction of duty, pure and simple. Those who "lead" or were in "command" from the alphabet soup of agencies on the scene that day should all be terminated, and never allowed to work in a public safety role ever again. My agencies trained and tragically responded to active shooter calls. First officer on scene goes in. No waiting. No waiting for command. No waiting for keys to unlock doors! Force entry, engage and neutralize. Higher ranking officers arriving on scene take command, establish a unified command post and communicate with first responders via portable radios or face to face. None of this occurred in that school. Dead children and teachers. Blood is on the hands of those commanding officers. Cowards indeed.
The people who are supposed to have guns don't use them and the people who shouldn't have guns, do. That's the Republican world of Texas. I don't know why all these families don't sue Abbot and the Republican legislature of Texas for increasingly lax gun laws, incompetent law enforcement and refusing to accept the will of the people. These Republicans have blood on their hands, and they need to face the consequences of their actions. Most Texans, like most Americans want these weapons confiscated and destroyed. Republicans have turned this country into a blood bath.
Termination.
Restrict from serving for law enforcement, public or private.
Loss of retirement benefits.
Harsh, I know. But earned.
we should use this moment to ban assault type weapons nationwide, tho there was definitely dereliction of duty to act, we should use this as an example of the presence of assault type weapons so rampant, means that some crazy, deranged or just plan unregulated angry person can create a war-like danger anywhere in America, at any time. and that it is unrealistic to have a good person with a gun always available and trained to sacrifice their own life at any moment. And the financial burden of trained security guards everywhere, is just too much!
Again and again, we see it. Proper training for law enforcement is sadly ineffective. Steve’s right we are dangerously on the edge.everything seems upside down. Accountability for dereliction of duty and responsibilities. Not sure what that looks like, but those families who grieve know.