This article comes from “citizens.news”
The outrages following the mass murders of 19 school children and two adults in Uvalde, Texas last week continue to emerge as we learn more about the tragedy, including a little detail about the city’s police chief.
Uvalde Schools Police Chief Peter Arredondo donated a total of $17 to Act Blue and $5 of it was “earmarked for Beto.” The $10 donation was earmarked, “Need to Impeach.” And while the amount donated was not much, it certainly shows his political affiliation and ideology: That citizens should not be able to own the most popular self-defense rifle in the country.
You may recall that year Robert “Beto” O’Rourke, formerly a Democratic member of Congress, was running for governor against current GOP Gov. Greg Abbott. After he lost that race, he decided to run for president and entered the Democratic primary sweepstakes. During a debate, he famously said, “Hell yes, we’re coming after your AR-15s.” Indeed, that ‘pledge’ inspired now-Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), who owns a restaurant in Rifle, Colo., where wait staff are required to wear a sidearm, to run for Congress.
“The police chief of the Uvalde CISD Police donated money to ActBlue in December of 2017 that was earmarked for… Beto O’Rourke. Can’t make it up,” noted political commentator Pete D’Abrosca.
He then reminded his followers that Arrendondo was the one who stopped responding police officers from entering the Robb Elementary School as the shooter was inside killing people.
“To be clear: this is the same guy who stopped 19 LEO’s from entering the school while 21 people were being murdered,” he wrote.
To be clear, preventing officers from entering an active shooter situation at the school goes against their training. And to that point, that same school held an active shooter drill just two months ago.
“I have spent the past few days researching the training of Uvalde officers, including the tactics they were expected to use to halt school shooters. The documents are jarring. Here’s a thread of our findings so far,” New York Times reporter Mike Baker wrote in a Twitter thread last week.
“In the past two years, the Uvalde school district has hosted at least two active-shooter training days. One of them was just two months ago. The trainings included both classroom teachings and role-playing scenarios inside school hallways,” he added.
“The Uvalde training session 2 months ago relied on guidelines that give explicit expectations for officers responding to an active shooter,” Baker continued. “The training is clear: Time is of the essence. The ‘first priority is to move in and confront the attacker.’”
“But how should officers confront the gunman? With a tactical team? The training says that’s probably not feasible, because the urgency is so high. A SINGLE OFFICER, the training says, may need to confront the suspect on their own,” the reporter continued.
“The guidelines provide sobering clarity: The first officers may be risking their lives. But, it says, innocent lives take priority,” he added.
Baker also quoted the training materials: “A first responder unwilling to place the lives of the innocent above their own safety should consider another career field.”
“The training expectations are obviously in stark contrast to what we are seeing in Uvalde. Police officials have said that officers were reluctant to engage the gunman because ‘they could’ve been shot,’” he wrote, quoting a senior law officer who spoke last week to reporters about why officers did not go in sooner.
It’s also possible that the shooter was previously arrested for plotting a “Columbine-style” attack four years ago, to take place when he was a senior. The shooter in Uvalde was 18.
Sources include: