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I Know, Right?
Whatever the merits of this meme, it has the advantage of speaking to the way a lot of people feel — not just about the events in Uvalde but about the entire past couple of years.
There is a visceral sense that, when it came to the highly questionable mandates imposed on the law-abiding populace, law enforcement energetically and eagerly enforced the mandates, even with some excessive enthusiasm and relish. But when it comes to doing their job against actual lawbreakers, well, not so much.
Someone might argue that the behavior of the cops in Uvalde was in some way an artifact of the demonization of the police we’ve seen the last few years. That argument has some potency and might carry the day were it not for the egregious and overzealousness that has been on display these last months where Covid was concerned.
I doubt that we really know yet all of the details regarding what happened in Uvalde. Perhaps some exculpatory things will come out. But the fact that this kind of meme immediately resonates with people would, in a sane world, give politicians pause. But we don’t live in a sane world.
H/T Instapundit for the meme.
Published in General
I did appreciate over the past couple of years the law enforcement agencies that refused to enforce illegal lockdown orders. [I do not appreciate law enforcement that refuses to enforce laws because they disagree with the policy behind the legitimately enacted law.]
I think that the repeated attacks on law enforcement for doing the “right” things (like arresting arsonists), and attacks for doing the “wrong” things (like ignoring violence on government buildings) has definitely been a factor in the reluctance of officers to take risks. All those who lied about actions of police officers–you reap what you sow.
The gym I workout at opened during Covid during Lockdowns. Opened while the Whitmer Maladministration declared a lockdown on all gyms, among other things. Apparently the Novi Michigan Police drove by, walked up, looked in the windows at people working out. Did this several times. What the Novi Police didn’t do was talk to the owners , or shut the place down. The place stayed open. No fines, no citations, no nothing.
I am very grateful to the Novi Police for this. So are the owners of the gym
In many places vaccine mandates weeded out the heroic, moral compass driven action men. What you’re left with is yes men and shallow thinkers.
Most of the LE heads in our area announced early on they would not be enforcing any lockdown/mask rules.
Police are city employees controlled by city councils and they do what they are trained to do and measured on. I don’t understand why city councils and mayors act like cops are rogue, uncontrolled organizations.
The cops killed the murderer within about 90 minutes, as I understand the timeline, and the meme is that they’re do-nothings.
My own conclusion is that many people will believe whatever they want to believe. I long understood that this is true of the Left. I’ve been seeing, more and more, that it is true on the Right, as well.
I’m still a bit surprised about this. This will probably cease to be the case soon, as it occurs with sufficient regularity that I imagine that I’ll get used to it.
From a comment I made on Doug Watt’s post on the main feed before I saw this post:
And I’m sorry officer, I know there are “good cops”, but my procedure is – I have to take you down to the station so’s we can clear this all up, real quick for me. OK?
I think the meme is saying that they were do-nothings during the window of time that lives might have actually been saved, but Johnny-on-the spot to press down on violators of health regulations of dubious legality. I suspect all the former small business owners in Minneapolis, Seattle,Portland and elsewhere, whose businesses were plundered and razed in 2020, might have also developed a dim view of the relative utility of the police.
At any rate, my point was not that I agree with the closest possible reading of this meme but that it resonates with people for a reason. In a different world, the political class would be more eagerly asking themselves “why?”. And that includes political conservatives.
We do not want a world in which people feel as if they must take the law into their own hands, but that’s the world we’re gradually getting. To no one’s benefit.
90 minutes is a ridiculous amount of time to plan when there is one shooter, you know where he is, and he’s contained.
How big is uvalde that it took 12 minutes to respond to the initial weapon reports? How incredibly dangerous is it in Uvalde that they have 4 resource officers for 8 schools? On what planet is 30 minutes, let alone 1.5 hours a decent turnaround time to getting back up in a small, uneventful town?
Average response time for the top 10 major US cities (ranked by population) is 8.5 minutes. Even their police department admitted some serious errors.
Having done my police work on the West Coast I do see some differences in policing on the East Coast and the Midwest. These differences probably have some exceptions in certain municipalities and counties.
I was not a bill collector for the city. Warrants were not issued nor asked for involving parking violations. In cities like Chicago, Baltimore, New York, Philadelphia, and other cities police officers seem to be viewed as a mayor’s private army. This does not count the corruption in other city agencies. For example, if you want a building permit expedited it will cost you some extra cash. If you want a good training officer as a rookie, you have to dig into your wallet as a trainee.
When corruption has a long history in a city or county, from fixing elections to favors for political support it should come as no surprise that a police department is corrupt. It also should come as no surprise that judges and prosecutors are playing the game as well.
You are seriously telling us that 90 minutes is an acceptable amount of time while children were getting shot? They were in the hallway in force for over 30 minutes doing nothing.
BTW it was Border Agents not the local police who ultimately went in and killed him.
Who’s the willing “believer” here? You.
They didn’t. An off-duty border patrol agent shot the murderer. The cops were too busy outside arresting concerned parents.
Since it wasn’t the cops who killed the murderer, the meme portraying the cops as “do-nothings” is accurate.
That said, I’ve been told that the cops harassed a few parents. So maybe not “do-nothings”? Instead “do-the-wrong-thing”?
Shaking down otherwise law abiding citizens while ignoring real cviolet crime has a long and rich history.
I blame the politicians more than the police.
This is true.
I’ve got no idea what happened and why in Uvalde. I hope—with Doug—that the Texas Rangers’ report will be thorough, honest, searching and made public as soon as it is complete.
I’ve told this story before, but when my first husband was looking for a good police department to apply to, he had two big criteria. The first was that the department was located in a place that both of us could imagine living and rearing a family in. The other was that the department had to have zero corruption. With corruption encompassing both the taking-of-bribes kind, and the hitting-people-after-the-handcuffs-are-on kind. In those days (pre-Internet)it wasn’t as easy to check these things, but the Maine State Police came up squeaky-clean. As Doug points out, this is of-a-piece with Maine politics and culture more generally.
Anyway, I feel as though I’ve spent my whole adult life (one way and another) working on making policing better. More responsive, more ethical, more courageous, more survivable, more community-integrated…you name it, we’ve been working on it.
And for the past five years or so, I’ve watched so much be systematically destroyed.
Again, I have no idea what relationship this has to what happened in Uvalde. I only know that it is one more heartbreak.
Wasn’t it a court in Texas that decided a few years ago that the citizenry has no actual right to expect that any police force or its members come to their aid when the citizen faces danger?
I’ll get back to this point in the next comment I make.
But right now I am musing over this FBI adventure that came to my attention back in the 2012 to 2014 era:
Rolling Stone has been uncovering the involvement of FBI agents who spent months and sometimes years recruiting and grooming teens and young adults who clearly are victims of schizophrenia, serious autistic problems or other mental health disabilities.
One example of this: Our tax dollars at work have allowed for one young man back in PA or OH to be “friended” by a FBI agent who let him know how important his involvement would be in a local event that would save the USA. Unfortunately for this young man, it ended up that the “saving-our-nation activity” involved buying supplies by which the young adult could blow things up.
The developmentally challenged young adult who was chosen by the agent either somehow intuited the activity was not moral or legal, or else had too little ability to focus on such a complicated project to actually go out and buy the bomb supplies on his own. So the FBI agent accompanied him and encouraged him every step of the way, until the agent was satisfied all the needed supplies were purchased.
Luckily for local people, this entire thing ended up being exposed, and no humans were hurt in the FBI agent’s mission.
Well okay I imagine the young adult’s parents were harmed, as they had to spend money to clear their son’s name and keep him out of the criminal charges of buying goods needed for bomb creation.
Plus I imagine there is type of overwhelming pain involved when the parents of such a person realize that while they have had to fight for the proper schooling, proper med treatment, and other forms of help, the government is more than willing to encourage their developmentally challenged offspring to become a terrorist!
I guess I find this a little confusing. If your goal is to make policing better, why would you go to a place that’s already squeaky-clean? Seems like it’s the places with corruption that need the help.
Back to my original point: if the police are not bound by any legal contract to help us citizens out when it matters most, then what?
I noted that the court case was I believe resolved in Texas? Was it possible that the judge hearing the case who went and decided that police can relax at the donut shop while a home invasion is being committed was aware of the fact that many Texans are armed to the teeth? So he then figured out and so ruled that Texans can resolve difficult criminal matters on their own?
So since the police are not required to respond as the police force of the late 1940’s or 1950’s would respond, and have proven again and again that they work for the Man, and not for the citizenry, the next time such an event occurs, maybe the citizens will first have to overthrow the superfluous assemblage of Do Nothing Mouth Breathers, and then go in and take out the shooter themselves!
Which is pretty much what happened in Uvalde since it wasn’t the police who did it.
The heroic men still exist. Let them forward their own agenda instead of their government’s.
Perhaps it is due to the voters in these cities that are willing to elect corrupt mayors, city council members, judges and DA’s. Not too mention corrupt state and federal office holders.
I am coping my comment from another post…
The police have NO LEGAL OBLIGATION TO PROTECT AN INDIVIDUAL!
This issue has been raised to the Supreme Court any number of times. Police are not liable for failing to protect any person.
I do not say this to disparage the Uvalde police. My point is that total reliance on them is a recipe for disaster.
Despite it’s garish cover art, I recommend this book to everyone. Dial 911 and die.
One of the reviews summarizes quite well:
I expect they can ignore an emergency call for assistance, in order to do nothing at all.
Um . . . no. The Uvalde police forces did squat during those 90 minutes. They stood around doing nothing while the kids inside called 911 and pleaded for help they never got.
The incident ended when three off-duty border patrol agents arrived. They arrived 60 minutes after the incident started. They were told to do nothing. After 30 minutes of being told to sit in a corner and wait for orders, they said “to hell with this,” disobeyed orders and went in. Two minutes later the shooter was dead.
It was not the cops who stopped the shooter. It was three freelance border patrol agents. Just like it was a border patrol agent who got a text from his wife about what was going while he was getting a haircut in Uvalde. He borrowed a shotgun from the barber, went down to the school and evacuated several classrooms filled with students, including one with his daughter in it. Then the incident commander (a Uvalde policeman) found out what he was doing and made him stop, because he might disturb potential hostage negotiations that weren’t yet happening.
So, yeah, the Uvalde cops did nothing.
The CBP agent who shot the gunman had a child in the school and his wife was teaching there. That was possibly a good bit of the difference in motivation between the police and the parents who wanted to go in.
Added: According to Seawriter, I might have gotten this wrong. It possibly was a different off-duty officer, who was the parent of a different child.
By that chain of events, the Uvalde cops did less than/worse than nothing.
Why do you think Abbott is so angry about this? At Biden’s photo opp in Uvalde, the Border agents were pointedly told not to come. FJB did not want to upset his base.
Yes. Loose cannons. Rogue border patrol agents. Dissed and dismissed by President Beiden when he visited after the shooting.
It’s a very low bar. Just about anyone can upstage Brandon.