Why did they wait so long? This is the question many parents in Uvalde, Texas are asking about law enforcement in the wake of the horrific school shooting that killed 19 children and two teachers.
New video reveals shocking footage of distraught and anxious parents and family members, who rushed to Robb Elementary School upon hearing the news that Salvador Ramos was in the process of murdering kids in a 4th-grade classroom, begging and urging police officers on the scene to go into the building and save their children.
Instead, local Uvalde police—armed and wearing tactical gear—stood outside the school and did nothing, except to form a defensive perimeter and actively prevent parents and relatives from rushing into the school in an attempt to rescue their children. Mothers and fathers can be heard pleading with the cops to go in, many shouting “What are you waiting for?”
The police, however, refused to move. Rather, they began placing handcuffs on several moms and dads, who desperately attempted to breach the police line and run into the school, while other parents were tasered or pinned to the ground by local officers. Most watched helplessly as their children inside were being gunned down. Many parents and witnesses are now reporting that they had to wait at least 40 minutes, and some say as much as an hour, before police finally decided to stop Ramos’s evil rampage. A tactical team of Border Patrol agents stormed into the barricaded classroom and killed Ramos, but the damage was done. Which begs the question: Did the police wait too long? Could the lives of some of those 10-year-old kids have been saved if the police had moved much quicker and sooner?
The Democrats and their media allies have politicized the shooting, blaming the NRA, the gun lobby—and yes, Republicans (!)—for the massacre. Their goal is obvious: To strip away and eventually repeal the Second Amendment. For liberals, school shootings are the most effective propaganda weapon they have in their drive to disarm law-abiding Americans. This is why they are not interested in stopping school shootings. Their answer is always the same: grab the guns.
In fact, Democrats, the corrupt corporate media and Black Lives Matter (BLM) are partially to blame for the Texas massacre. Don’t get me wrong: Ramos was a sick, demented psychopath, who is personally responsible for this atrocity. He should burn in Hell. But the actions of the police—or rather, their relative inaction and cautious, cowardly behavior—are a direct result of our Woke culture and leftist policies.
Since the death of George Floyd in 2020, there has been a sea change in American society. The Democrats and BLM have persistently demonized and vilified the police. Cops, once respected and revered as heroes, are now routinely portrayed as racists and thugs. Liberal Democrats, such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, smear them as being part of the “systemic racism” allegedly afflicting the United States.
The results have been catastrophic. Democrats—under massive pressure from BLM and the left-wing establishment media—have launched a national defund the police campaign. Law enforcement budgets in major cities and small towns have been slashed; resource officers have been removed from countless school districts; and in most areas of the country the police have pulled back from engaging criminals. Hence, violent crime has skyrocketed. Minneapolis, Chicago, Philadelphia, Seattle, New York, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Dallas, Portland, Ore., and Baltimore—the story is the same: smash-and-grab robberies, shootings and homicide rates are exploding.
The massacre in Texas was simply an extension of this phenomenon. The police—demoralized, underfunded and reviled—refused to engage with a dangerous criminal. They did in Uvalde what they’ve been doing in Minneapolis and other places: pull back. This is what a society that hates and devalues police looks like. Liberals have created an incentive for cops not to be heroes, not to stick their necks out and not to sacrifice their lives on behalf of besieged children.
Moreover, one of the reasons the Uvalde police say they had to wait for the Border Patrol tactical team to arrive on school campus before moving on Ramos was the lack of equipment. In particular, they didn’t have a ballistic shield necessary to breach the barricaded classroom. It was Border Patrol agents who brought (and had) a shield. Yet, that meant a long delay. Hence, police defunding directly resulted in the lack of tactical gear vital to public safety. This is inexcusable, and the Democrats must never be allowed to forget it. They have blood on their hands.
The only way to stop a bad person with a gun is with a good person with a gun. For nearly an hour, this is precisely what was lacking in Uvalde. We now know there was no armed school resource officer at Robb Elementary. In fact, there was no officer on campus at all. If Americans are truly serious about ending school shootings, there is an effective answer: Place armed security teams inside every school. School resource officers, along with fortified school buildings that have only one entry and exit point, will substantially reduce—if not eliminate—mass shootings.
Democrats, however, led by Warren, Sen. Chris Murphy, Rep. Ayanna Pressley and Rep. Ilhan Omar have introduced and sponsored a bill that prohibits federal funding to any school that hires or uses resource officers. Think about this: They are so determined to defund and cripple the police that they want to remove law enforcement officers from every school in the country, thereby leaving our children defenseless and at the mercy of murderous psychopaths, such as Ramos. It is not only evil, but dangerous. This is how much they hate our children and the police.
The Texas Public Safety Department now admits “the police were wrong” in not going in much earlier to take out Ramos. They were overly cautious, timid and cowardly. Because of this, potentially several children died unnecessarily. We have neutered the cops. It is time to confront Black Lives Matter and the Democrats’ war on the police. Forget blaming guns, AR-15s, the NRA or the so-called “gun lobby.” It’s time to blame the real culprits: Woke leftists and their fanatical political enablers.
-Jeffrey T. Kuhner is host of “The Kuhner Report” on WRKO AM-680 in Boston. His daily show airs 6:00-10:00 am EST. He can be reached at: JeffreyKuhner@iheartmedia.com
Photo: Getty Images