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while 19 police officers dawdled in the hallway, the children trapped in the classroom with the shooter frantically cried for help and called 911, explicitly stating that some were dead but others were still alive. As that was happening, the Uvalde police not only stood back—they actively prevented a Border Patrol tactical unit from trying to enter the classroom.

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"There were 19 officers in there," said McCraw. "In fact, there were plenty of officers to do whatever needed to be done, with one exception: The incident commander inside believed they needed more equipment and more officers to do a tactical breach at that point."

That commander's erroneous belief that the active threat to children had passed is not merely wrong, it is obscene: The still-living children repeatedly alerted law enforcement to their dramatically unsafe situation.

As sickening as it is, this is worth repeating: With the children wounded, bleeding, dying, and frantically—quietly—calling for help, the police stood by, waiting for even more assistance. They told the Border Patrol to hold off, and they actively restrained parents outside the school who begged them to help and even volunteered to do so themselves.

The public is still learning the truth of what actually happened on Tuesday. But based on what is currently known, it is hard to imagine a more appalling response from law enforcement. In fact, the word appalling doesn't even do this calamity justice. The police failed so completely, so utterly, so pathologically during those key 45 minutes—undoubtedly the longest 45 minutes of the fourth-graders' lives—that one wonders how such failure is even possible.

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Originally posted by Mikhailoh:
if it had not involved children, you would never have heard of it.

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Originally posted by Mikhailoh:
if it had not involved children, you would never have heard of it.

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Originally posted by QuirtEvans:

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Originally posted by Mikhailoh:
if it had not involved children, you would never have heard of it.

Are you saying it isn’t worse when children are involved?

Most people would think that the obligation to save children is greater. They cannot save themselves.

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Originally posted by Mary Anna:

When a mass shooting kills people who inarguably are going about their own business in places that shouldn't be dangerous in the opinion of middle-class America, it makes the news.

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Originally posted by wtg:
I imagine those cops are also going through their own version of hell.