Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/06/27/former-uvalde-schools-police-chief-charged-with-child-endangerment.html
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Why the hell did this take so long? 
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is this putz going to wail “QUALIFIED IMMUNITY” like a banshee?
and when will the so-called SWAT team going to get their charges?
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I don’t doubt that he’ll try(and that a depressing number of people, some well placed, will eagerly latch on to any excuse to let him slide); but it seems like a bad fit legally. ‘Qualified immunity’ is what covers the illegal things cops do (‘in good faith’/‘in legal grey areas’!) while doing their jobs; rather than dereliction or gross incompetence(which this fairly clearly was: reports seem to vary a bit on who was just being abjectly incompetent and who was using pre-Columbine doctrine because it was way less effort that way; but even the most sympathetic attempts at interpretation don’t leave room for anyone, except possibly the Border Patrol group that actually decided to go in, to be engaged in at least one or the other or both).
Now, there is a fun line of ‘no duty to protect’ decisions; so if he starts up with Town of Castle Rock v. Gonzales…
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One of the reasons that I have no sympathy for this guy is that he co-authored the official active shooter response protocols for the district, then proceeded to ignore them when the shooting occurred. Most of us may not really know how well we’d respond when faced with that kind of emergency, but it’s still fair to judge people by the standards that they set for themselves.
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So why isn’t he getting hit with felony murder charges? He was present during the commission of the murders and he actively stopped others from trying to stop them. That would get you life if you happens to be in the same liquor store as an armed robber in most Texas courts.
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That’s great, but I don’t see how this won’t end up either as Qualified Immunity, and/or the police have no duty to protect.
Remember that, they have no duty protect. They had a Supreme Court case about it, IIRC. The whole “protect and serve” is just copaganda marketing.
The best I expect to happen is this guy never works as a cop again and ends up as a manager of a Cinnibon in Omaha.
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Manager? That’s too good for em. Dishwasher at an Applebees for the next 40 years sounds about right.
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Fair, but I was making a Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul reference.
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