Tag Archives: Uvalde shooting

crime news

We need answers! Now!

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So help me, I could not believe my eyes when I read that the Uvalde police officials at the center of an investigation into what happened in that South Texas community a few days ago had stopped cooperating with state and federal authorities.

Specifically, the stonewalling appears to be occurring within the ranks of the Uvalde Independent School District police department and its chief, Pete Arredondo, who reportedly has gone missing for the past several days.

Meanwhile, rumors and gossip are flying all over the place about what went so terribly wrong with the police response as the lunatic shooter opened fire in a Robb Elementary School classroom, killing 19 precious children and two of their teachers.

A grief-stricken community is demanding answers from the chief. It wants to know why he waited so horribly long to “neutralize” the shooter. It seeks to know whether the department was on site with resource officers. Now come questions about a door that was closed, but not locked.

There appears to be a boatload of deception going on about the response. The U.S. Justice Department has launched an investigation. The Department of Public Safety and its investigative arm, the Texas Rangers, are on the case, too.

Meanwhile, we have a Uvalde ISD chief of police who’s hiding in the weeds. Come out from your hiding place, Chief Arredondo, and talk to the community you took an oath to protect and serve.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

Crowd reaction portends … what?

Donald J. Trump is fond of holding rallies, listening to the noise coming from a sizable crowd … and then using the size and sound of his rallies as a measure of his political standing.

That’s foolishness, to be sure. However, if we apply that metric to the present day, consider this:

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ventured for the second day in a row to Uvalde, the site of the horrific slaughter of 19 school children and two teachers this past week.

He got a rousing welcome, all right … of boos! The noise was loud and sustained.

The stricken Uvalde residents want the governor to do something to end the violence. They speak for a lot of other Texans, not to mention even more millions of Americans who are shaken to their core by the violence that erupted against those precious children and their protectors.

They blame Gov. Abbott for refusing to act. They are taking their anger out, too, on legislators who continue to dance to the tune called by the gun lobby … and ignoring the cadence set by their real bosses, the voters!

It is long past the time for our elected representatives to “represent” the interests of voters, most of whom favor a legislative remedy to the carnage that continues to cause undue grief and misery.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Emotional tug-of-war

My emotions are playing a mighty game of tug-of-war with themselves at this horrible moment.

One side has gripped the proverbial rope and is reminding me to “never forget” the tragedy we all saw unfold this past Tuesday morning in Uvalde, Texas. Indeed, my guts are torn by the thought of those 19 precious children and those two educators who were slaughtered by the evil monster.

What’s more, we now are learning almost daily of the failing of law enforcement to act properly to protect the lives lost in that Robb Elementary School classroom. The Justice Department has decided to look deeply into what went wrong; to what end remains unclear.

Pressure on the other side of that tug-of-war match reminds me of the myriad other crises that have been pushed aside: the Ukraine War; the 1/6 investigation underway in Congress; inflationary pressure; the nagging persistence of the coronavirus pandemic.

Well, I am going to concede this fight to the side that insists we stay focused on the aftermath of the Uvalde tragedy. Where should the aftermath take us? I hope it leads to meaningful efforts by Congress and/or state legislatures to do something finally to wage all-out war against this senseless carnage.

Yes, I also have asked, “When is enough to be enough?” I thought we reached that point long ago. After Columbine, or Aurora, or Newtown, or Sutherland Hills, Charleston, or Parkland, or El Paso, or Buffalo, or Las Vegas.

Is Uvalde the tipping point? I truly don’t know. I only can hope it becomes one.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

What if the killer … ?

I am hearing from gun-rights apologists who suggest that laws designed to install universal background checks wouldn’t have prevented the lunatic from opening fire in Uvalde, Texas, with an AR-15 rifle.

Hmm. They ask: What laws would work to stem such a tragedy? My answer: I haven’t a clue, which is why I depend on my elected representatives to craft solutions that are too far above my limited knowledge and skill set.

However, in an editorial this morning, the Dallas Morning News is calling on John Cornyn, Texas’s senior Republican in the U.S. Senate, to show leadership, to reach across the aisle to work with Democrats — as he is capable of doing — in finding solutions to this sheer madness. The state’s junior GOP senator, Ted Cruz, is too wrapped up in blaming “Democrats and the media” for “politicizing” this tragic event. What horsesh**!

The DMN poses this: What if their killer, an 18-year-old, had been turned away at the gun store? What if he had just one or two obstacles in front of him on his way to destroying lives and terrorizing our country? Would those children be alive?

The answer is that maybe they would be. Maybe they would be starting summer vacation. Maybe they would be playing with their friends. Maybe their moms and dads would be holding them right now.

It’s John Cornyn’s moment. Reform gun laws and lift up the American middle (dallasnews.com)

Lots of “maybe” to examine, you know?

I want Congress to explore the possibilities of turning “maybe” into commonsense public policy.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

What about that war?

Now we know what it takes to push an illegal, immoral and unjustified war off the front page and off the air.

It takes a madman who walks into an elementary school and slaughters 19 third- and fourth-grade children and two of their teachers. Yes, the Uvalde, Texas, massacre has dominated the news and yanked our attention away from that war in a faraway place called Ukraine.

To be candid, I don’t yet know which story depresses me more.

The Ukraine War was doing a nice of job of sending me into prolonged periods of funk. The Russians invaded Ukraine intending to drive out the government and installing a puppet regime to do Moscow’s bidding; it hasn’t worked. Indeed, the chatter now is beginning to telegraph a different sort of message, that Ukraine actually might win the battle on the field.

Weird, man.

Meanwhile, a grieving United States of America is coming to grips with the Uvalde tragedy and our citizens are now asking pertinent and legitimate questions about whether the police responded properly to prevent further carnage.

All of this is enough to tax anyone’s emotional strength.

We all need to remain strong.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

Unspeakable horror?

Ted Cruz stood before the National Rifle Association faithful and proclaimed that there are “no words” to explain the unspeakable evil that befell the students and teachers in Uvalde earlier this week.

Yes, Sen. Cruz, you are right.

There also are no words to explain another phenomenon that is getting the short shrift at the NRA convention underway in Houston.

No words can explain to me and many millions of other Americans the cowardly inaction by politicians — chiefly Republicans such as Cruz — over searching for legislative remedies to curb this kind of insane gun violence.

Poll after poll say the same thing: Most Americans favor stricter gun control legislation. We live in a “representative democracy,” a nation that is governed by those we elect to “represent the interests” of the governed.

These politicians are not beholden to the big-money interests of the powerful lobbies, such as the gun lobby. They work for you and for me.

I say this once again understanding the sanctity of the Second Amendment to our Constitution. I support the Second Amendment. I also believe in my heart that there is a legislative remedy to be found to keep firearms out of the mitts of those who have no business carrying them.

The moron who slaughtered those children and their teachers in Uvalde was, as Ted Cruz said, the personification of evil … but dammit, evil also exists in the refusal of our elected officials to listen to the pleas of those of us they represent and act to end this senseless violence.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

Abbott is ‘livid’ over misinformation

“As everybody has learned, the information that I was given turned out, in part, to be inaccurate, and I am absolutely livid about that.”

That was Texas Gov. Greg Abbott today responding to reports that the police in charge of the response to the shooting rampage that left 19 children and two teachers dead at a Uvalde elementary school had lied to him.

Is it fair to call it a lie? I believe so. A lie is the deliberate and purposeful telling of a falsehood. A shooter entered Robb Elementary School on Tuesday and opened fire with an AR-15 rifle.

The cops told the governor that they responded so slowly because they believed the shooting had stopped. It hadn’t. Department of Public Safety director Steven McCraw now admits to the mistake in delaying the DPS response. What he hasn’t yet copped to, though, is why he told Abbott a tale that prompted the governor to praise law enforcement’s efforts initially.

Some heads need to roll.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Bidens coming to pray and to seek solutions

President and Mrs. Biden — both of whom are familiar with the intense grief of burying a child — are coming to Texas to grieve with the families and friends of the 21 people who died in that horrific massacre that erupted at Robb Elementary School.

For the Bidens, this marks the second such community they will visit in the past two weeks. Recall that they went to Buffalo, N.Y., to extend the nation’s sympathy to the families of the10 victims of the shooter who walked into a supermarket and opened fire.

Now comes this latest unspeakable event.

Nineteen third- and fourth-graders died at the hands of the madman along with two teachers who were trying to shield the children from the bullets.

What does the president say? What can Jill Biden tell them? Yes, they buried an adult son who died from cancer in 2015. What’s more, the president’s infant daughter died in a tragic 1972 car wreck just before he took office as a U.S. senator from Delaware.

They have walked this lonely path before.

Their task, though, ought to be as well to mobilize men and women in Congress to do what they can to prevent future occurrences of this scope and misery. That, I dare say, will be a much steeper mountain to climb than merely hugging victims’ family members.

Still, it is good that they will come to Texas to express the nation’s sorrow over this hideous tragedy.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Teachers are not cops!

I want to make myself utterly and totally clear about something I posted earlier on this blog about arming teachers to stop shooters who murder children in classrooms.

Teachers have no business being asked to do something they possibly — if not probably — never have done in their lives. If we arm teachers, we should not expect them to respond with the cool professionalism that law enforcement officers are trained to do.

Arm teachers? Seriously? | High Plains Blogger

Teachers are there to teach children. Arming teachers is an invitation to a disastrous event.

Imagine putting a pistol in the hands of a 24-year-old teacher fresh out of college and in the classroom for the first time in his or her life. The teacher has received training on firearm proficiency, but has never fired a gun at another human being.

What does one expect would occur if a gunman walks into that teacher’s classroom and starts spraying the room with bullets? How would that freshly scrubbed teacher respond?

Let’s end this discussion about arming teachers and deal realistically with how we can prevent future massacres such as what occurred in Uvalde this week.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Massacre must mobilize us

As a general rule I do not categorize myself as a “single-issue voter” motivated to cast my ballot on just one critical issue of the moment.

The massacre that erupted in Uvalde, Texas, however, is likely to turn me into someone I do not generally profess to be. Nineteen children and two educators are dead today in the wake of the state’s worst-ever school massacre and the second-deadliest such tragedy in the nation’s history.

My aim now — along with my bride — is to ensure that every candidate for statewide office on the ballot this year, along with local congressional, legislative and county candidates seeking my vote answer this question the correct way: Are you willing to support the enactment of laws — either at the state or federal level — that seek to prevent future tragedies such as what has occurred in Uvalde?

If they hem and haw their way around an answer and follow the preposterous lead of the likes of Sen. Ted Cruz, then they will not have my vote. Cruz decided immediately Tuesday after the Uvalde slaughter to blame the media and Democrats for “politicizing” the issue of gun violence.

Politicize? Is this nimrod serious?

We happen to require a political solution to this crisis and make no mistake, we have entered a crisis with this spate of gun violence.

I will reject with all due vigor any notion that we cannot find a legislative solution. I will reject as well the notion that we cannot find common ground among politicians to seek solutions that do not violate our Constitution’s guarantee of the right of Americans to “keep and bear arms.”

Any politician who cannot bring himself or herself to seek those solutions needs to be voted out of office and banished from the public arena.

We have had enough.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com