Following Orders

The police and their supporters in the Uvalde shooting have been making a couple of excuses for standing around while children died. The two that I see the most are: “You don’t know how you would react unless you have been faced with the choice of running into a deadly situation,” and the other, “They were following orders to wait.” Let me tell you about those:

I was a firefighter and a paramedic. I can recall a few times that I ran into truly dangerous situations, because not only was it my job to save defenseless people, but because I could not call myself a man while standing there safe as children (or others) were dying.

• There was the time when we went into a burning house. We entered through the garage. The door that led into the kitchen from the garage was under so much pressure, that it was bowing out towards us. It was outlined in fire, looking like the door into hell.
• There was the time that I entered an apartment through the front door, following my Lieutenant through a wall of flame, searching for two lost children. Even though it wasn’t safe to do so, we split up to do the search. I found one kid, but knowing he was unable to get out through the wall of fire between us and the door, we took refuge in the bathroom. I put him in the tub and laid on top of him to shield his body with mine.
• When 9/11 happened, I think every firefighter in the country watched those 343 firefighters enter those towers, many of them *knowing* that the tower was going to collapse. They went in anyway. We all wondered if we would have the same set of HUGE balls that they did. I finally decided that I did, because it was what we all did. every. single. shift.

So I think that I can say that I would have the guts. What about following orders?

I think back to the time when we were called to a house where a woman had gotten a suicide note email from her ex-husband while the kids were there for visitation. We arrived and peeked in the door to see the man’s body hanging by a noose. We were told to wait for the cops. I wasn’t going to do that, so I went in against orders, looking for the kids.

I just couldn’t sit there, knowing that children were in danger while I sat safely outside. It turned out that the kids were at the grandparents’ house. I got a stern talking to for that one, nothing more.

So with that, I feel qualified to speak about this. Those cops? They were cowards. The one that stood outside, trying to get his wife to respond to text messages? If he didn’t go in to at least TRY and save her, he is a pussy. If she lived, I hope that she divorces his cowardly ass and takes his fucking pension in the divorce settlement.

Then there are those who ask how armed teachers would have done any better. The answer to that? The teachers are locked in the classroom with the little mass shooter asshole. They are committed, they have skin in the game. Nothing would be better than watching some mass shooter incel getting his ticket punched by a school librarian carrying a pink .380 Lady Smith.

At the least, this incident shows that we could cut the number of cops in half in this country and it would have no effect on stopping violent criminals.