So, When the Cops are Really Needed, They Hang Back and Wait for Backup for a Fucking Hour?

It seems to be beyond dispute that the cops in Uvalde, Texas just hung around for an hour with an active shooter inside of a school and waited for the Border Patrol to send in a SWAT team.

Just like Parkland four years ago.

For years, I've been reading stuff that the police had learned that the thing to do in an active shooter situation was to head for the sounds of the gun, find the shooter and engage him. They were to follow the old Coast Guard livesaving motto: "You have to go out, but you don't have to come back." But in Uvalde, like in Parkland, like in Columbine, the cops hung back and waited. They "established a perimeter".

Big fucking deal.

Is it too much to expect the cops to at least be as brave as a ten-year-old, who was shot while attempting to call for help, for help that would arrive in its own sweet time?

The Brits during the Great War had a term for it: Lack of Moral Fibre. It may be harsh to expect cops to go take on an active shooter, but that's part of the damned job. It's not all just hassling kids and poor people with badly-maintained vehicles, or running speedtraps. There are situations where a heavily-armed critter is inside a building, killing people, and the choice is to either risk one's life and go try to stop the critter or just let him keep on killing people.

I know that's a hard thing. But these days, it's part of the job. And if they don't care for it, they can turn in their badges and go to work for Door Dash.

On another note, after this week, any school administrator who doesn't insist that school access doors be locked should be assigned to overseeing a transfer station.