Kevin L
A True Doomsday Prepper
Anything is possible. But I don't know how I could live with myself given how my cowardice cost 17 children their lives. Children. I would either kill myself or retreat to a mountainside where I would never need to look another person in the eyes. My shame would condemn me.
School shooters are cowards. Every one of them. An AR15 in the hands of a coward is still a coward. I'll take odds on a trained, determined man with a glock over a nutjob 19 year old with an AR15 any day of the week. It was this guy's job to be trained, be ready, and to step into the line of fire when these children faced a slaughter.
Might he have been shot or killed? Of course. But he has known that possibility since he first put on the badge. But might he have save 50 or 100 children from slaughter? It was his job, his purpose to stand between the shooter and the kids. Period.
IF anyone wants to defend this guy's actions, you are setting up the next cop to abandon children in their time of need. You are saying it's ok to sit outside and eat donuts while children are slaughtered? Is that what you want?
First, I agree with you.
He had a duty to act, and many children died because he hesitated and froze when he needed to fight.
What he did wasn't ok, and I agree with your points about unlivable shame, and he shouldn't be exonorated. He became a cop for a reason, and society had a contract with him when he put on the badge and he failed in his sacred duty
I get all this.
My only point is that people are human, and sometimes we f---k up because it's an imperfect world.
All I'm saying is that you or I might have froze and/or hesitated if we were in the same situation.
The blame for this mass murder lies with the shooter (and, of course, the law enforcement that didn't follow up on the danger signals).
Also, I wonder if the higher-ups are using this guy as a scapegoat (or sacrificial lamb) to draw blame away from their failings when they didn't get proactive from all the tips that they got saying that this guy was a dangerous psycho with a gun.