The Hallway
It is more than painful to watch. Police officers, standing in the hallway, checking phones and equipment, conversing in whispers; as the shooter stands amid the dying and dead children behind the classroom door. It took seventy-seven minutes to go through that door. There were near four-hundred police officers at the school, but it took seventy-seven minutes to be “the good guys with guns against the bad guy with a gun”. The Columbine lesson from more than two decades ago was known by every officer there: don’t wait. But wait they did, and kids and teachers died, that may well have lived if the “protocols” were followed and they went straight through the door.
Some claim it was a failure of courage, that every man in the hallway was a coward. But, it’s never that simple. One officer had his gun taken away and was escorted from the building. His wife was dying in that classroom, and they were concerned he would “go in” without permission. Of course, that’s exactly what they all were supposed to do.
Leadership
It wasn’t a failure of courage, of all three hundred and seventy-six officers. It was a failure of leadership, at the highest levels. Sure, the Chief of the Uvalde Independent School District Police, a force of six, should have taken charge. He even wrote the policy that said it was his job. But he failed to do so. So it’s on him. But it’s also on the dozens of Texas State Police who were on the scene in minutes. Their chief, Steve McCraw, the grizzled old man so quick to place blame on a teacher for an open door that wasn’t, didn’t order his men in, not even the vaunted Texas Rangers.
And there were dozens or more of Federal Border Control agents. They were used to being around the school. Uvalde is at a major crossroads within 100 miles of the border. Border Control was constantly in the area, looking for what they called “bailouts”, fleeing migrants. In fact, there is now evidence that the Uvalde school was “locked down” so many times because of “bailouts”, that a “lock down” order lost its urgency. Where was their commander, ordering them through the one classroom door to take out one man?
Teachers and children died because of a failure in leadership. All it took was one person, one “leader”, to say go, and those officers in the hallway would have done what they ultimately did anyway. They would have gone through the door, and “taken out” the shooter. There was no lack of courage, there was lack of leadership.
It’s called dereliction of duty, failing to do what you are by your “job”, supposed to do. And we’ve seen it before.
The Insurrection
On January 6th, Donald Trump, 45th President of the United States, encouraged an armed mob to march on the Capitol Building. His speech started at noon, and was over an hour long. But before he was even done, the “mob” around the Capitol was breaking through the outdoor barriers. Just after his speech ended, at 1:30, the final outdoor protections to the building were breeched. Meanwhile, the Congress, in joint session, was meeting to confirm the electoral votes.
Just after 2:00 pm, the windows were broken, and the mob entered the Capitol. Soon the Vice President and the Speaker were escorted from the Chambers, and the building went into “lockdown”. But there was no locking down a building that was already breeched. At 2:24 Donald Trump sent a tweet saying: “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution.” It was gasoline on a fire.
At 3:36 the White House press secretary tweeted that, at the President’s direction the National Guard was on the way. But it wasn’t until 4:17 pm that the President “tweeted” a video, telling the mob:
“I know your pain. I know your hurt. We love you. You’re very special. You’ve seen what happens. You’ve seen the way others are treated. … I know how you feel, but go home, and go home in peace.”
And, it wasn’t until 5:40 pm that the first National Guard troops arrive at the Capitol Building (NPR).
Preserve, Protect and Defend
It was three hours and seventeen minutes from the beginning of the attack until the President of the United States responded. We watched all three hours and seventeen minutes “live” on television. So did he. But, like the leadership at Uvalde, he did nothing.
There is plenty of evidence that the President of the United States, Donald Trump, intentionally caused the Insurrection at the Capitol. And there’s even more proof that he tried to subvert the election, and the “peaceful transfer of power”. But there is one, single, incontrovertible, damning fact. The President takes an oath of office to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States”. And for over three hours, he did not.
Like the Uvalde Chief and the Texas Director: Donald Trump was derelict in his duty.
