Should Uvalde Law Enforcement Officers Be Charged With Crimes?
The lack of police action during the Uvalde massacre is analogous to firefighters standing outside of a burning building until the screams of tormented victims subside.
Mass murders will continue in America until lawmakers and courts change their wrongheaded Second Amendment decisions which are killing our children and grandchildren.
It is purely evil to vote for laws or make rulings from the bench that allow teenagers to buy military style assault weapons. What has possessed these leaders?
It is folly to suggest that we arm teachers, especially against assailants with assault styled weapons.
The Uvalde police feared for their lives in the face of these weapons, even choosing to prevent parents from trying to rescue their children. Their response was despicable and inexcusable.
Ted Cruz says that there should be only one door to enter and exit our schools, which would leave students and teachers with no escape alternatives. Is the man insane?
One thing is certain, there can be no reduction of gun violence without changing gun laws. The leaders who refuse to change the current laws must be defeated.
This is a uniquely American crisis. Gun lovers should stop making excuses and stop lying about it.
The blame for mass murders must be shared by all of us. It’s either the product of our actions or our inactions. No blanket “fix” is possible. America did not become the mass murder capitol of the western world by making one bad decision. This untenable situation is the result of a long list of bad decisions that have been made by people we placed in authority.
Rational Americans must act decisively. For too long, extremist interpretations of the Second Amendment have prevailed and it’s killing our children and grandchildren every day.
Every donation to public officials by the gun lobby must be widely reported by the mainstream media. The candidates and law makers who accept the gun money should be continuously confronted by the media. They must be shouted down at every turn. They must be scorned, ridiculed and publicly disgraced. Most importantly, they must be removed from power.
Now, let’s review the 27 words that comprise the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution.
“A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”
That’s it, just 27 words, and like so much of the founding document, it was written to be deliberately vague and subject to various interpretations.
So ask yourself, what is “well regulated” about a deranged teenager who can legally purchase military style assault rifles and use them to kill children?
The Second Amendment unequivocally advocates for a well-regulated, trained state militia which is comprised of responsible adult citizens, not homicidal teenagers. If you don’t understand the difference, you are too stupid to have a voice in this discussion. We insist on an answer to one simple question from those who resist all gun regulations: Can we at least agree that the Second Amendment has limitations?
It may surprise some to learn that the language of the Second Amendment is tied directly to the slave state’s fear of federal government. Early drafts of the Second Amendment spoke of a national militia, not a state militia.
Slave owners like Patrick Henry insisted on state militias that could be used to defeat slave rebellions and stop an abolitionist federal government from freeing their slaves and turning them against their former owners.
Some state militias were called “Slave Patrols” and were used to prevent slave rebellions. For a detailed analysis, see this explanation by Cenk Uygur of the Young Turks here:
This interview with author, broadcaster and historian, Thom Hartmann is instructive. As you will learn, the Second Amendment accomplished something very different than modern day hardliners realize.
This article from ConstitutionCenter.org is also very informative.
Recent rulings issued by SCOTUS regarding the Second Amendment have laid the foundation under state laws which allow mentally ill teenagers to buy assault style weapons.
These laws provide cover for politicians who take big donations from the gun lobby in exchange for opposing gun regulation. These politicians embrace SCOTUS rulings written by Justice Antonin Scalia and others, who have claimed to have a unique understanding of our founder’s original intent, but history suggests otherwise.
Here is a list of Senators who have taken a shocking amount of “gun money”. Their intent is also startlingly clear. Make no changes in gun laws. The price of each Senator is included for your bemusement. Below is the amount each Senator was paid by the gun lobby:
Mitt Romney (Utah) $13,647,676, Richard Burr (North Carolina) $6,987,380, Roy Blunt (Missouri) $4,555,722, Thom Tillis (North Carolina) $4,421,333, Marco Rubio (Florida) $3,303,355, Joni Ernst (Iowa) $3,124,773, Rob Portman (Ohio) $3,063,327, Todd C. Young (Indiana) $2,897,582, Bill Cassidy (Louisiana) $2,867,074, Tom Cotton (Arkansas) $1,968,714, Pat Toomey (Pennsylvania) $1,475,448, Josh Hawley (Missouri) $1,391,548, Marsha Blackburn (Tennessee) $1,306,130, Ron Johnson (Wisconsin) $1,269,486, Mitch McConnell (Kentucky) $1,267,139, Mike Braun (Indiana) $1,249,967, John Thune (South Dakota) $638,942, Shelley Moore Capito (West Virginia) $341,738, Richard Shelby (Alabama) $258,514, Chuck Grassley (Iowa) $226,007, John Neely Kennedy (Louisiana) $215,788, Ted Cruz (Texas) $176,274, Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) $146,262, Steve Daines (Montana) $123,711, Cindy Hyde-Smith (Mississippi) $109,547, Roger Wicker (Mississippi) $106,680, Rand Paul (Kentucky) $104,456, Mike Rounds (South Dakota) $95,049, John Boozman (Arkansas) $82,352, John Cornyn (Texas) $78,945, Ben Sasse (Nebraska) $68,623, Jim Inhofe (Oklahoma) $66,758, Lindsey Graham (South Carolina) $55,961, Mike Crapo (Idaho) $55,039, Jerry Moran (Kansas) $34,718, John Barrasso (Wyoming) $26,989, John Hoeven (North Dakota) $22,050, Susan Collins (Maine) $19,638, James Lankford (Oklahoma) $18,955, Jim Risch (Idaho) $18,850, Tim Scott (South Carolina) $18,513, Kevin Cramer (North Dakota) $13,255
The prices paid by the gun lobby may exclude expenditures made by independent political committees.
Here is a laundry list of changes that these Senators will resist, but are necessary to reduce the number of mass murders.
(1) Pass an assault weapons ban with some teeth in it, and not just another superficial ban like Clinton signed into law in 1994, which removed a few gun parts and accessories.
(2) Ban the importation of all assault weapons.
(3) Limit ammunition of legal guns to five round magazines.
(4) The Government should buy assault style weapons off the street, along with as many other weapons as possible by paying the owner more than their original purchase price.
(5) Employ a longer waiting period with more extensive background checks after gun safety training is complete.
(6) Make the penalty of trafficking or owning ghost guns very severe.
(7) Require a psychological evaluation of each gun buyer, conducted by an independent psychiatrist.
(8) Tax the weapon and the ammunition at twice the state’s sales tax rate.
(9) Use aforementioned tax collections to compensate victims of gun violence.
(10) Pass red flag laws.
(11) Change the minimum age of gun ownership to 21 years.
Here are several options for those who choose to punish the Uvalde police. The following Federal and State laws focus on police misconduct during life threatening events. The US Department of Justice offers a list of possible charges against police for misconduct.
See: 18 U.S.C. § 242 that includes “Deliberate Indifference To Serious Medical Needs”. The law also states that "Whoever, under color of any law, willfully subjects any person to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States shall be guilty of a crime."
See more HERE.
The State of Texas has a related law. See Title 5, Chapter 19, Section 19:05 that states, “A person commits an offense if he causes the death of an individual by criminal negligence.”
Texas also has a Good Samaritan Law that speak to the duty to rescue. See Section 74.151 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code which states that generally, no one has a duty to rescue another person. However, there is one major exception which is known as “The pre-established duty to rescue” which states that when someone is in peril, there are certain situations in which a duty to rescue is pre-established. In these situations, failing to come to the rescue of the person in peril is grounds for liability. The special relationship between the person in peril and the rescuer assumes that the person who rescues must act solely out of concern for another human being’s safety.
THE PARENTS DEMONSTRATED IT AND THE POLICE PREVENTED IT.
The Parkland, Florida school massacre must also be reviewed.
Charges were filed against Police officer Scot Peterson after the Parkland, Florida school massacre in 2018. These charges include child neglect with injury, culpable negligence and perjury. This case may suggest a course of action against the Uvalde Police.
The following summary of the Parkland Massacre is instructive.
On Valentine’s Day, February 14th 2018, Nikolas Cruz, age 19, walked into the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida where he killed 17 people and injured 17 others.
Scot Peterson, the school’s resource officer, never confronted the gunman and kept his distance outside the building. Cruz eventually left the school and was arrested later.
Peterson has been charged with 11 counts of child neglect with injury, culpable negligence and perjury. A trial date has not been set.
Here is an excellent story by Eric Barton, a Miami-based freelance journalist. It is a deep dive and an excellent read.
The article was published in Men’s Health on May 19, 2022. It includes an exhaustive interview with Peterson who takes a number of twists and turns to hide his lack of courage. The article examines Peterson’s obfuscations, contradictions and denials of wrongdoing that are eerily similar to those of the Uvalde police.
See more HERE.
The Uvalde massacre has galvanized the nation like no other since the August 1, 1966 UT Tower massacre, but in that situation, off duty officers, including my cousin, Milton Shoquist, took the initiative and their actions saved countless lives. See more HERE.
They climbed over the dead bodies, not knowing if the they would be the next victims. They made it to the observation deck on the 28th floor of the tower and killed the shooter, Charles Whitman.
That tragedy lead to the establishment of SWAT teams and rules of engagement that in many circumstances, no longer serve the best interests of victims.
The Uvalde police put their inaction on full display, and it has shocked America to the core.
The parents of massacred children can’t afford to buy off United States Senators. Instead, they have paid with the lives of their children and more are sure to pay.
Just like this, but it's not a lie.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uV-7D4io1Rs