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Pecos Pueblo

Tuesday, May 31, 2022

Heroes are hard to find

People are up in arms for the time that it took for the cops to go in after the Uvalde shooter. I'm not. They were probably scared of getting shot. Heroes are made, by heroic actions, not born. I was in a similar situation once and I flinched.

Many years ago the neighbor came screaming over that there was a man with a gun in her house. She had come home and a burglar was riffling through her dresser drawers. I grabbed my 12 gauge shotgun but did not enter the home. I called the sheriff and waited for him to arrive. Why?

Because I didn't want to get killed by somebody hiding behind a door. Self preservation is a very motivating factor. The man on offense always has an advantage in these situations. Could have easily got the drop on me. He knew where he was and I didn't. In any case, the cops finally showed up, entered the dwelling and the guy was long gone, probably out the back door.

Should I have risked my life in this situation? Maybe so, I am not sure. Probably not for Mrs. Harrison's jewelry. Talk is one thing and action is another. Perhaps if there were kids involved I would have behaved differently. I don't know.

With kids involved in Texas, you would have hoped that someone would have met the test and gone in earlier. But did you know they have no legal duty to respond? See The Police are not required to protect you.

"Nothing in the language of the Due Process Clause itself requires the State to protect the life, liberty, and property of its citizens against invasion by private actors," then-Chief Justice William Rehnquist wrote for the majority in DeShaney v. Winnebago County Department of Social Services (1989).

The decision was reaffirmed in Castle Rock v. Gonzales.

Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the majority, stated that Ms. Gonzales did not have a "property interest" in enforcing the restraining order and that "such a right would not, of course, resemble any traditional conception of property." The Court went on to reaffirm the DeShaney ruling that there is no affirmative right to aid by the government or the police found in the U.S. Constitution, and thus no legal recourse could be brought thereunder.The “no duty to protect” rule remains unwavering and the law today.

1 comment:

Jon Harwood said...

I am sympathetic to the cops. They were in a quite dangerous situation and the guy in charge interpreted it as a hostage type barricade. That may be wrong but it is an error that can be comprehended. Many of the cops outside may have been willing to try it but they are paramilitary and trained to follow the boss. I have little sympathy for the big shots who covered their asses by blaming the locals. That sort of chicken shit behavior is rampant in government.

The ones I dislike the most are the idiots that think that a teacher with a gun or a security guard is ready to take on a murderer with a high powered rifle. That crap is bar room talk and the picture looks a lot different when you have a pop gun and your opponent has an AR-15.

I suppose the experts can come up with some recommendations but those experts should be law enforcement, not politicians.