What the Uvalde Shooting Tells Us About Policing

FEATURING MICHAEL SIERRA-ARÉVALO - The horror of last week’s mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas that claimed 21 lives, 19 of them children, revealed in stark terms just how ill-equipped police were to deal with such a situation. Two minutes after the shooter entered Robb Elementary School, police arrived on the scene. Still, it took law enforcement about 90 minutes to enter the room where the shooter was holed up with children, some dead, some alive, before armed officers burst in.

During the time they waited outside the school, police arrested and even tasered parents who were getting increasingly agitated about the danger their children faced. In spite of huge amounts of funding, equipment, and training, Uvalde’s police force now stands accused of dereliction of duty and faces a Justice Department review of its conduct.