No one, it is quite safe to say, wants to be embarrassed before people who expect more from you.
So it was when Texas Gov. Greg Abbott sang the praises of law enforcement in the immediate aftermath of the Uvalde school slaughter, only to learn the next day that he had been “misled” by the cops who had given him the wrong information about what happened when the shooter began killing those precious 19 children and their teachers.
Now he’s even angrier. The public now has seen the video of the stumble-bum response of police as the shooter was killing his victims. They didn’t know what to do, despite their extensive “active shooter” training.
“Obviously, it’s disgusting to see what happened,” said Gov. Abbott this week. “It’s been clear from the time of Columbine that whenever there is a shooting, like what was happening in this school, you run towards that danger and encounter that danger and you have to eliminate the shooter as quickly as possible. From what I have seen, from the video, it looks like that policy was not followed.”
To be fair, two officers did run toward the gunfire, but retreated when the gunman opened fire on them.
What happened over the next 77 minutes, though, makes our blood boil. The cops armed with shields and an array of weaponry failed to take the shooter out when they had multiple chances.
We have a truckload of issues to peel away. Time, though, is not on the side of anyone who must provide answers to parents, spouses and siblings of those who died in that horrific massacre.
They want answers to what happened and why it went so terribly wrong. They want them now.
They deserve to get what they are demanding.