Since the horrors of the Uvalde school shooting, news of the myriad failures of the police response have been coming to light. Their failure to show up prepared, failure engage the shooter, abuse and threats directed at parents, and attempts at a covering up of how events actually unfolded are both shocking and unsurprising at the same time.

During the unrest of 2020 many of the pro-police arguments centered around police being necessary in extreme circumstances like this, and the need to fund them better. It’s worth noting here that a full 40% of the town budget was allocated to their police department, and that they had also completed active shooter training as recently as March 21st of this year.

Does any of this change your mind about the movement to defund/restructure our police forces?

What should we be doing differently to ensure a massive failure like this never happens again?

Should the Uvalde police force face any criminal or civil penalties for their actions or lack of actions that day?

*I wrote this America centric, but international perspectives always welcome!