Lots of brave cops have confronted shooters and saved lives. Some have died trying to

[Tom Rinaldo]

Some cops are also racist sadists, and some are cowards. The average cop is neither a sadist nor a coward. The average cop moves toward danger even though some over react (with potentially lethal consequences to others) while doing so. Cops are a part of many problems, but except in isolated instances, school shootings aren't usually one of them. Much more often than not, when it comes to mass shootings, cops are "the good guys with guns." "Good guys with guns" have a key role to play in confronting those who attempt mass murder. As sickening and horrifying as the failings of the Uvalde police force has been, that can't be allowed to become the central focus of current outrage.The problem is the almost childish expectation too many have bought into that usually " good guys with guns" can save us from ourselves.

Cops rarely protect the public against mass shooters, not before numerous casualties occur. AR 15s with large capacity ammo magazines kill far too many, far too quickly, far too effectively, for a few more blue uniform wearing officers with pistols to provide the answer. Decades of a rampant gun fetish, fortified by decades of logic defying public policy decisions made by rabid state legislatures across the country, sanctioned by a ideologically captive right wing Supreme Court, can not be countered by adding better trained, better led cops to local police forces and school districts, or by stationing them inside every supermarket.

We must not be thrown off the trail. Cowardly cops are not the issue here.

[doc03]

1. The Republicans couldn't be happier to have us blaming "The Blue", it distracts us

from the cause of the problem GUNS. Nothing they would like more than claiming they back the "Blue"
and we want to de-fund them.

[Ferrets are Cool]

2. I agree with your post. I guess I just get angry when cops are generally made out to be

these great hero's of our society, when in reality, they are just as flawed as the rest of it. The difference is that they are given power to ENFORCE the rest of us with laws...sometimes with their own interpretation of those laws.

[Tom Rinaldo]

3. "when in reality, they are just as flawed as the rest of it."

I agree with your post also.

[greenjar_01]

9. When you become an adult...truly become an adult

You realize that the image of competent authority you developed in childhood is just that, a childish image. There's nobody in charge. Everybody is just winging it. We reach a minimum competence some of the time, maybe. Maybe.

Most people don't get there until well into their 50s. It's what we used to call wisdom. A lot never get there. Un vecchio scemo.

Conspiracy theories are a reaction formation to this discovery. Unable to accept the awful truth of it, people invent maximum authority and competence as a response. That's why conspiracy theories read so childish.

[2naSalit]

5. +1

[dutch777]

6. A point in this like other police missteps is poor standards and training of most police

I don't know about everywhere, but last state I lived in before moving to PA, the basic requirement to be a police officer was a HS or GED diploma, a relatively clean police record (no felonies) and 8 weeks training at the police academy. None of that speaks to a highly trained or prepared police officer for all the crazy situations they may encounter. Thought is local department will advance their training but as many end up in small towns and small departments its really just OJT. Standards need to be raised, markedly.

[KarenS]

7. Blaming the cops is a great diversion for

the politicians who won't do gun control or even automatic weapons control.

Hypocrisy is what Republicans do best.

pro-life/protecting children/honoring service/mental health

the list goes on.

[greenjar_01]

8. Yup

Well said.

[Emile]

10. When I see the faces of these little kids that were slaughtered, I won't make excuses for the cops!

[Tom Rinaldo]

14. I don't make excuses for those cops either

Obviously the ones who did get shot rushing in can't be blamed, it is worth noting.

[LizBeth]

11. Between killing black people with guns that scare them and leaving children to face an AR15

yet they are too cowardly to face it, I do not want to hear it.

[ret5hd]

12. Maybe not THE issue, but certainly AN issue...

Cowardice not only manifests itself by cowering in the face of certain danger. Another manifestation of cowardice is killing in the face of questionable safety/danger.

Kill a kid in a park seconds after approaching him? Cowardice.

Kill a man reaching for his license? Cowardice.

Kill a woman looking thru her window wondering who is prowling outside? Cowardice.

Yes…THE problem is guns, but we shouldn’t ignore we have A problem with cowardice.

[Tom Rinaldo]

15. I agree with you

That is part of why I wrote above: "Cops are a part of many problems, but except in isolated instances, school shootings aren't usually one of them." and also why I made note of that the fact that often cops over react to perceived threats (real or imagined) with potentially lethal to others consequences. My point in the OP is solely that police cowardice in confronting mass shooters has virtually nothing to do with the staggering number of mass shooting victims America experiences every year. In the vast majority of cases mass shootings (other than murder/suicides) only stop when the shooter is either shot by or totally pinned down by police closing in on them. But even if every fucking cop who puts on a badge had the character and courage of Batman, that would not significantly reduce the epidemic of gun deaths that our society is grappling with.

[intheflow]

13. Why not both?

Yes, guns are the overwhelming problem, and I can see cop inaction being used as a deflection tool for that discussion, but police incompetence in an active school shooting is not a trivial sideshow.