GOP/NRA Thoughts & Prayers are worthless. Mayor McLaughlin & Chief Arredondo self preservation. You lied a lot. Updated Uvalde PD & EMS 20+ minutes of broadcast deleted
I’ll probably regret publishing this article but I have H-A-D it with the endless mass shootings. The GOP & NRA talking points are bullshit. I can’t wait for Biden to declare a national emergency.
Why are 20+ minutes of radio transmissions for Uvalde deleted?
I had planned on spending a few hours listening to the Uvalde Police Department and EMS/Fire Rescue Radio broadcast for May 24, 2022 —as I was researching I discovered that on May 26, 2022 Broadcastify had posted the following on FARK:
About 20 minutes of archived police scanner audio from the Uvalde Police Department is deleted. Are WE allowed to ask, "Why are you hiding something if you are not guilty?"
(broadcastify.com) below are the Broadcastify archived links for Uvalde but it’s pretty stunning that there are large gaps (presumably deleted) in the radio communications.
As mentioned this was previously disclosed by Broadcastify’s May 26 2022 comment on FARK.com
Screenshot of Broadcastify’s. May 26, 2022 Post on Fark.com
This is a major problem both in terms of transparency and the public optics. This Broadcastify link will take you to Uvalde County Law Enforcement (GATRRS) radio broadcast. Again I had originally planned on using my lunch hour listening to the archived radio broadcasts. Each of the broadcast in the red box have large portions of the communiques missing.
Screenshot of Broadcastify’s Uvalde radio transmissions
I’m genuinely vexed as to why nearly 20 minutes of the May 24, 2022 radio broadcast appear to be deleted. I reached out to Broadcastify and confirmed that they use original source feeds to publish radio communications. Which likely means someone in Uvalde manually deleted nearly 20 minutes. Additionally I’m unaware of any mainstream media (both national and local) reporting on this problematic issue. Again one plausible explanation could be that TX DPS may have taken down the 20 minutes but it’s important to understand the 20 minutes (of now deleted radio transmission) likely includes the first moments of the shooting. And that in of itself is hugely problematic for the Uvalde Mayor & ISD Police Chief Arredondo. Late last night I submitted a FOIA request to both Uvalde PD and Fire/Rescue —my educated guess is they will likely deny my FOIA request
Like many of you. I’ve struggled to wrap my head around the horrific mass murder of 21 innocent lives stolen by this gunman. Moreover I’ve struggled to write about the Uvalde mass murder. I started the first draft on May 24, 2022 but felt that I was allowing my own emotions to seep in to writing and my readers deserve better than me using this platform with a phuckton (not an actual metric or unit of measurement, but I want it to be) of typos and curse words.
Part of my inability to publish this article was I wanted to wait for more facts to come out. And with each passing day, like many of you I am truly horrified by the details and local law enforcement response to Uvalde. Yes I’m making a very deep line in the sand, that is, I’m attempting to make a clear delineation between local law enforcement versus State and Federal. Because the fact an off duty CBP Officer was allowed into the Ross Elementary School during an active shooter situation —coupled with various law enforcement officers handcuffing parents, body slamming other parents and deploying pepper spray and tasers —read more here and here. What’s being glossed over is how “Chief” Arredondo’s unforgivable ineptitude. Meaning the “active shooter training” see Texas Department of Public Safety’s Active Shooter Response for School-Based Law Enforcement January 2020 Course #2195
According to the (near) real-time data tracking from the Naval Postgraduate School’s Center for Homeland Defense and Security (CHDS), which started tracking K-12 school shootings (see link to interactive map) we are losing thousands of children during the never ending “school shootings” and frankly I’m sick of the gun violence in America. Yes hardening our public schools will help mitigate the potential loss of life but arming teachers or school staff?
Have you lost your ever loving mind…
That’s not how to effectuate a safe learning environment for our children. Hear me out -perhaps maybe electing Representatives and Senators who are not bankrolled by the NRA or other Gun Lobbying Groups might actually be the most effective solution. Moreover the “mass school shootings” are in fact unique to America when you compare to all other similar Countries, yes America blows other countries out of the ballpark (see data here) and frankly like many of you, I’m really tired of dropping my kids off at school and wondering if today will be the day that a crazed mass murderer will show up at one of my kid’s schools. And that every time I get an alert on my phone from my County’s Public School’s Public Information Officer, for a split second I pray it’s not a notice that one of my kids school is on lock down due to an “active shooter”…
Texas’ Active Shooter Training is brutally blunt:
Unlike some training manuals the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement (TCOLE) https://www.tcole.texas.gov/ is brutally blunt - I now refer you to page 6 section 2.2 entitled PRIORITY OF LIFE Again I do think it’s important for you to understand the actual training materials because these pesky facts matter. And I’ll bet you a cheeseburger the DOJ After Action Report will be scathing because having read the training material (see Scribd for a highlighted & spicy annotations)
I’m not exaggerating -the TCOLE manual literally states that if you as a law enforcement officer can not defend innocent life then you shouldn’t be in law enforcement. It’s literally there on page 6, specifically section 2.2 -PRIORITY TO LIFE and yes I know I’m being redundant.
The Priority of Life Scale is used to guide first responders during thecritical decision making process that is required to effectively neutralize any threats. As first responders we must recognize that innocent life must be defended. A first responder unwillingness to place the lives of the innocent above their own safety should consider another career field.
You have to understand this one fact, in an active shooter incident, law enforcement is trained to “neutralize the threat” first —meaning after the shooter has been neutralized then first responders can render aid and/or evacuate the injured. Moreover TCOLE’s training explicitly states
NEUTRALIZE – Take away the attacker’s capacity to harm other people. This may include the use of deadly force, disabling an attacker, or disarming an attacker and taking them into custody…
Again this isn’t an opinion or conjecture, this is directly from TCOLE’s January 2020 Training Manual. It is unbelievable hard to comprehend how “Chief” Arredondo’s unilateral decision to order officers to stand down for more than an hour. The Active Shooter training manual even talks about how dynamic an active shooter situations are. And how incident commanders need to create an unification center for families, controlling the flow of law enforcement —hence why that off duty CPB Officer going in to retrieve his wife and child likely went against the active shooter training and unfortunately shows how “Chief” Arredondo did not know what he was doing. It is as if he completely ignored the training and protocols. I can’t wrap my head around the >67 minutes. Undoubtedly lives could have been saved. And I’m okay with CBP’s tactical unit finally ignored Arredondo’s Orders and went it. Again the TCOLE training is unambiguous, see pages 7 and 8 -it’s there in black and white
Officers responding to active shooter events should be working through the following list of priorities during an event.
STOP THE KILLING – Officer’s first priority is to move in and confront the attacker. This may include bypassing the injured and not responding to cries for help from children. (emphasis added)
STOP THE DYING – Once the threat has been isolated, distracted, and/or
neutralized, they should begin providing medical aid to those most seriously
injured. In most circumstances, emergency medical service personnel will not enter the scene until it has been deemed safe by law enforcement. This means that law enforcement and other staff inside the structure must be the initial medical providers for many of the victims. Gunshot wounds and other penetrating trauma can cause bleeding, sometimes massive bleeding that must be quickly controlled…
EVACUATE THE INJURED – As soon as the scene can be secured, every effort should be made to quickly evacuate the severely injured to medical facilities where they can get proper treatment.
I thought Sandy Hook Elementary mass murders, would be the last.
I thought Emanuel AME Church mass murders would be the last
I thought the Century 16 multiplex Aurora mass murders, would be the last.
I thought the Las Vegas Route 91 mass murders, would be the last.
I thought the Atlanta Nail Salons mass murders, would be the last.
Unfortunately these mass murders were not the last.
Again according to real-time data collected by CHDS), which started tracking K-12 school shootings (see link to interactive map) we are robbing ourselves from our future. That is American School children are our future yet it seems like every month there’s another school shooting.
Anti-Abortion Activist - I have two questions for you
You hold on to your guns in one hand, while holding the Bible in the other hand. You fight, often times aggressively to prevent any abortions yet you are absolutely silent when it comes to the never ending mass murders. So here’s my question:
you purport to be the guardians of the “unborn” are you actually okay with the gun violence in America?
Because the stench of your blatantly hypocrisy is beyond offensive it’s no longer acceptable. You can not have it both ways. Pick a lane or at least admit you don’t give two shits about the life of an unborn child once they are outside of the womb. Yup there I said it and nothing catastrophic occurred.
Those who know me offline know that the day of the mass murder I questioned the timeline. That over 67 minutes seemed like an impossible error —that there had to be an explanation. That there’s no way dozens of law enforcement officers wouldn’t take immediate action to neutralize the threat.
Thoughts and Prayers are meaningless…
Look I’m not a super religious person and that isn’t meant to ostracize individuals who have far more faith than I do. But the reality is “thoughts and prayers” are not the solution. Yes it’s a nice sentiment but action needs to be taken and until either Congress or State lawmakers grow a spine and reject the Gun Lobby’s nonsense then I don’t want to hear elected officials offering or asking for “thoughts and prayers” because my warped sense of human is they might as well say “thots & pears” —however it’s not everyday where I look to an NBA Coach (hattip to my LooLoo who sent me the video on May 24th) but you should watch Coach Kerr’s comments because he perfectly encapsulates what I think a lot of us are feeling…
Mass murders because that’s what these mass shootings are:
M-A-S-S M-U-R-D-E-R
Every time there is (yet another) mass murder and yes I am tired of saying “mass shooting” and I genuinely wish the mainstream media would call what happens in our communities what they are: MASS MURDERS by Firearms. It’s not that hard and frankly it’s offensive that we are not accurately stating what happens. When a gunman/woman walks into a school and commits senseless mass murders of our Children and school staff.
Perhaps I’m in the minority but as a parent to school age children, when did we just blindly accept our children doing “active shooter” drills, which are almost synonymous with fire drills. Well that’s insane and I don’t think I’m alone in saying “fuck the new normal —when are law makers in DC going to legislate” At this point I want to know:
…how many more dead children will it take for Mitch McConnell & the GOP to do their job?
No really in the above YouTube Video where Coach Kerr referenced H.R.8 —after the horrific Parkland School Mass Murder, the House introduced and later voted, largely along party lines:
H.R.8 isn’t nor should it ever be viewed as a “partisan gun-control“ bill -it’s the antithesis of gun control. It’s common sense legislation that seeks to close multiple loopholes and it should be viewed as “gun safety legislation” —and no the irony is not lost on me. The fact that nearly every mass murder has involved AR-15 type weapons of war —
In the June 1, 2022 article, I walked you through Ulvade Mayor McLaughlin & Chief Arredondo’s attempts to portray themselves as “the good guys” all while we are learning additional facts. And YES I want you to rewatch my video because the second clip is Mayor McLaughlin literally losing his ___ when Beto O’Rouke dared to say “I know you have a narrative…“ in the hundreds of press conferences after a mass-murder occurs I have never and I mean never seen a public (elected or appointed) public servant literally cuss out another person -again the relevant section starts at minute marker 0:28 - Mayor McLaughlin literally said:
“you sick son of a bitch…no it’s because of assholes like you” Mayor McLaighlin
At the time of that May 25th press conference I was standing in one of the cantinas in my office with a bunch of coworkers and I immediately turned to one of my bosses and said:
There’s only one explanation, the mayor lost his shit because he’s covering for local law enforcement and Beto isn’t letting him get away with it —so buckle up because the facts will likely confirm my assertion…
To be clear my one boss wasn’t entirely convinced but a few days later (after the general public learned new facts) his tone was I guess this is why we pay you because your ability to accurately forecast has never let our clients down. I need to be clear here, I wanted to be wrong. Because the thought of local law enforcement waiting for over 67 minutes was incomprehensible, and yet that’s what happened. What’s odd is I haven’t actually seen any mainstream media fully press Mayor McLaughin for his insane outburst. Based on the latest facts (as we know them) it was in fact Mayor McLaughlin who literally cussed out Beto on National Television and the fact (any) reporter hasn’t pressed the Mayor on what he knew at the time of May 25th or simply asked him why did he have such an unhinged public meltdown, that bothers me, a lot
Start at minute marker 0:28 👇🏻
Late on June 1, 2022 the Washington Post published: Uvalde mayor recounts frantic attempt to call shooter during massacre: again when you read the Washington Post Article coupled with the extremely unprofessional outburst by Mayor McLaighlin a logical conclusion is the Mayor & Chief already knew how badly they messed up. Therefore every action by McLaughlin & Arredondo has been self serving and an obvious attempt to mitigate their liability and culpability of their disastrous decisions that likely cost many lives.
…he rushed to Hillcrest Funeral Home about 15 minutes after “the first call” reporting that 18-year-old Salvador Ramos had crashed his pickup truck nearby. He found himself standing near an official he identified only as “the negotiator,” while frightened parents gathered outside the school and police waited well over an hour to storm the classroom.
“His main goal was to try to get this person on the phone,” McLaughlin said in the interview, which was also conducted by Telemundo San Antonio. “They tried every number they could find,” but the gunman did not pick up the phone.
List of Mass Murders via firearms in the State of Texas
2009 Fort Hood Shooting = 13 fatalities; 32 injured.
See SB No 11 which was known as a “sweeping bill addressing school safety & training for active shooters” which by law required all Law Enforcement, ISD SRO etc to complete “active shooter training”
2019 El Paso Walmart shooting = 23 fatalities, 25 injuries
…Texas Homeland Security Strategic Plan 2021-2025 establishes my long-term vision and goals for homeland security, providing a framework for our efforts to prevent, protect against, mitigate the effects of, respond to, and recover from attacks and disasters… serves as a guide to focus our efforts in building, sustaining, and employing a wide variety of critical homeland security capabilities. While we cannot be certain what challenges the next five years will bring, I know we will rise to meet them, continuing to increase the security and resiliency of our great state."
Gov Abbott once again convened a special group which discussed the possibility of expanding background checks, banning assault weapons and implementing tougher “red flag” laws which would allow courts to order the surrender or seizure of guns from people deemed dangerous. And like previous mass murders in his state, Gov Abbott once again used the bullshit “mental illness’ and “video games” what Abbott won’t tell you is he DECREASED funding for Mental Health. In his time as Governor of Texas Greg Abbott has slashed and I mean slashes tens and hundreds of millions in funding for mental health services. And I swear to sweet baby Jesus this DOLT thinks none of us are paying attention to his proclivity to speaking out of both sides of his mouth… but I lately blame Texans for re-electing Abbott and his cohorts. Additionally—should you be inclined I’d highly recommend that you read this Texas Tribune Interactive Report —you can see for yourself how under Gov Abbott Texas has become the Mecca for gun fanatics and apparently Gov Abbott’s lacks any modicum of self awareness or he just thinks Texans & Americans at large are stupid…that he consistently acts “aggrieved and livid” but under his leadership guns are far more accessible and he’s banking on people ignoring the laws he’s signed in to law.
Texas Ranks 50 out of 51 for mental health services
Oh come on did you really think I’d randomly throw an assertion out there without the prerequisite receipts. Have I taught you nothing? That my track record reflects that I’m a proficient collector of receipts and I like to share aforementioned receipts…
Mental Health America (MHA), is a non-profit group, which tracks mental health resources in America. In 2022 MHA however, ranked Texas 50 out of 51 territories for mental health access in 2021. Additionally MHA also ranked 15 for adults and 30 for youth — the data suggest that in Texas there’s a higher than average prevalence of mental health illnesses but unfortunately the Governor and Texas State Legislator consistently under funds mental health services which results in limited care and in some rural areas severely limited access to Mental Health Services
Texas and it’s Governor and (corrupt) Attorney General let’s look at the laws…
And yes I’m certainly glad that Gov Abbott never deleted his 2015 tweet (see permalink) where he literally said “I’m EMBARRASSED…Texas #2 in nation for new gun purchases…” let me walk you through how Governor Abbott and his sycophants have made Texas the deadly “wild … Wild West”
I’d like to walk you through some statistical data, obtained directly from the state of Texas’ own DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY —it’s important that in the face of an emotionally charged issue, that facts should be paramount. For the record I have family in Texas, occasionally they won’t claim me and I won’t claim them. This isn’t an indictment of Governor Abbott and his indicted Attorney General, Ken Paxton —but
2021: more than 1.7 million individuals have a (Texas) state-regulated license to carry in Texas. Active License Holders: 1,700,877 Certified Instructors: 4,272
The Republican Party and the NRA predictable talking points.
Like clockwork the Republican pundits are out there amplifying the NRA’s talking points which occur every and I mean every time there’s a mass murder by an armed gun men. For Example:
video games are “radicalizing” our youth -
..not even four hours after it was confirmed that more than a dozen and half elementary school children were murdered, Mark Short went on to ABC News and literally repeated this known NRA talking point about a nexus between video games and school shootings. Additionally during the May 27th Press Conference where TX DPS Dir McGraw not only implied but seemingly voluntary stated:
Not to be out done by Ronnie (or Ronny) “RACIST” Jackson’s unbelievably racist and ignorant misinformation that the Uvalde shooter was influenced by “rap music” - no really this is what he said on Fox News:
Ronny Jackson then decided to go down the “we need more God in our [public] Schools” and that will some how reduce the nonstop mass murders. Texans this is who you keep re-electing. Seriously I have family in Texas and we have refused to visit them until Gov Abbott, Ken “I’m under a felony indictment” Paxton, Senators Cruz & Cornyn both beholden to the NRA —and if you’re naive enough to believe Mitch (I’m an obstructionist legislative grim reaper) McConnell some how gave his fellow Republicans the “green light” to discuss commonly gun control —here’s my factual retort vis-a-vis Sen “Big” John NRA-sycophant Cronyn’s own tweet
According to the data collected by the Brady Institute the NRA has poured tens of millions of campaign contributions to nearly every single republican senator, you don’t have to take my word for it, I’ve embedded the Brady Institute data for the 116th Congress (election cycle) below
To be clear, these are in fact a known NRA talking points. And every time I see some Republican pundit regurgitate this utter nonsense, it makes me furious. You are under zero obligation to take my word, in fact I now refer you to a recent NIH publication —furthering let’s see what the actual experts say about this false correlation. I assume that the American Psychological Association (APA) is an acceptable “expert” in studying any correlation between children exposed to violent video games and becoming an “active shooter” or more precisely a mass murderer…in March of 2020 the APA reaffirmed its previous 2015 resolution, which states in part:
There is insufficient scientific evidence to support a causal link between violent video games and violent behavior, according to an updated resolution adopted by the American Psychological Association.
“a good guy with a gun can stop a bad guy” —as noted in this previous article the FBI’s own data suggests that of the 61 “bad guys” only four, yes four were neutralize “by an armed citizen”
And lastly your daily saltwater therapy —also let the record reflect that after a long 11+ hour workday —my insomnia has returned and I’m taking that as a positive sign that I might (albeit slowly) returning to my Spicy self. Because here I am at 2AM DC local time putting the final edits on this rather exhaustively researched article
Have a wonderful day…
Due to other professional obligations I won’t be online for much of today. Apologies if this article is slightly disjointed, as previously mentioned I started draft in this on May 24th but waited until June 2nd to publish it.
“Texas must achieve several objectives to better protect our communities and our residents from mass shootings….will continue to work expeditiously with the legislature on laws to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous criminals, while safeguarding the 2nd Amendment rights of law-abiding Texans.”
💔💔 Little children teaching adults and classmates how to survive terrorists attacks on they’re school is common place now. It’s not acceptable. I lost it when she began the memory song for how to survive an active shooter attack.
Good to see that one boss sees your qualities, Filey, as a the North star to truth (your gut feeling for truth, for when something is wrong, doesn't pass the smell test, your former boss valued you for). Hope that gives you some comfort in the anguish you're still in.
As a Dutch person I am amazed that any weapons (apart for jobs, hunting) are allowed in a civil society, and how 2A still can be abused by mostly Republicans. They're obviously not the "well regulated militia" meant in 2A.
💔💔 Little children teaching adults and classmates how to survive terrorists attacks on they’re school is common place now. It’s not acceptable. I lost it when she began the memory song for how to survive an active shooter attack.
https://twitter.com/davidhogg111/status/1532059535829258241?s=20&t=37z1o8vFUaYBacror8hNNA
Good to see that one boss sees your qualities, Filey, as a the North star to truth (your gut feeling for truth, for when something is wrong, doesn't pass the smell test, your former boss valued you for). Hope that gives you some comfort in the anguish you're still in.
As a Dutch person I am amazed that any weapons (apart for jobs, hunting) are allowed in a civil society, and how 2A still can be abused by mostly Republicans. They're obviously not the "well regulated militia" meant in 2A.