BLUF
I don’t think we have anywhere near enough information to judge what actually happened and what the police did right or wrong. Inflammatory videos tell only a tiny part of the story, and I don’t rely on them for an understanding of what actually happened except in regard to the tiny part they are telling. In this case, we know that desperate parents were angry at what they perceived as police inaction, and the police restrained some of them. The rest will emerge as time goes on – but for many people, the takeaway will be “the police are awful and they didn’t care.”
That is by no means clear right now.

On that report that police in Uvalde were just standing around

Here’s the story as it now stands. I caution everyone to ask questions, though, before jumping to conclusions.

For example:

Video emerging online from Tuesday’s schoolchildren massacre in Uvalde, Texas shows local police more concerned with stopping parents than stopping the killer…

Here are my questions in response to that sentence:

–Were these all the police that were at the school at the time, or were there other police in the building trying to get in and who were communicating with those outside? Were these police we see in the video stationed outside in case the killer ran out and tried to escape, or in case he had an accomplice?

–Were the killings of children and students still going on, or were they over by this time? Were there cameras in the classroom or halls? Were police inside the building aware of what was going on at that point?

–What would have happened if the parents were let in and they ended up being killed as well? Was that not very much a concern of the police – sort of like the way firefighters restrain parents from running back into a badly burning building?

More:

Javier Cazares, whose nine-year-old daughter was murdered, says cops were ‘just standing there’ and waiting for protective shields to arrive at the scene before they went in.

‘They said they rushed in and all that, we didn’t see that,’ he told The New York Times, adding that many were ‘just standing there.’

‘There were plenty of men out there armed to the teeth that could have gone in faster. This could have been over in a couple minutes,’ he said.

Same questions – and also “they said they rushed in and all that” indicates that there may have been police inside already.

From commenter “Kate”, who offers a link to this WSJ article and a summary of some information in it:

On the Border Patrol team, and why police didn’t charge in sooner: Once the shooter got into the classroom and locked the door, police couldn’t get in because of concrete block construction and a steel door. The Bortac team got a key from the principal, unlocked the door and stormed in, three of them. The first carried a shield, which took fire, the second was wounded by shrapnel, and the third killed the shooter.

If that is accurate, then the police outside may have known the Border Patrol team was already on the way or perhaps even at that moment engaged in getting into the classroom, and that the Border Patrol team officers not only had a shield or shields, but may have been more highly trained in dealing with this sort of situation. Unless we know an exact timeline, we really don’t know what was going on with the police in this video or inside the building at the time it was taken.

This article is from a British paper that is usually pretty accurate on this type of event [emphasis mine]:

It was unclear at what time the footage [of the encounter between parents and police] was shot. It also emerged Wednesday that Customs and Border Patrol agents who rushed to the scene had to grab a key from school staff to open the door of the classroom where the bloodbath took place.

That is because they were unable to break the door down themselves…

Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw told reporters that 40 minutes to an hour elapsed from when Salvador Ramos, 18, opened fire on the school security officer to when the tactical team shot him, though a department spokesman said later that they could not give a solid estimate of how long the gunman was in the school or when he was killed.

‘The bottom line is law enforcement was there,’ McCraw said.

‘They did engage immediately. They did contain (Ramos) in the classroom.’

It seems possible that the doors were reinforced for protective purposes, against intruders or perhaps fire. But this made it very hard to enter, even for police with weapons. Also, did they not want to fire at the door because children inside who were alive might have been hit? I’m not knowledgeable about whether gunfire can breach a steel door or not.

More [emphasis mine]:

Steve McCraw, director of the Texas department of public safety (DPS), said on Wednesday that a ‘brave’ school resource officer ‘approached him’ and ‘engaged him’ – but added that ‘gunfire was not exchanged.’ He did not explain why.

The New York Times reported that their sources said at least one armed law enforcement officer from the Uvalde school district was at the school, and that officer exchanged gunfire with the gunman, but the gunman was able to get past…

All of the 19 children who died were inside the one [fourth-grade] classroom.

Officers were unable to enter it, The New York Times said.

[DPS spokesman] Olivarez said some of the officers were shot by the gunman, so others began breaking windows around the school trying to evacuate children and teachers.

It sounds to me as though, when the parents were arguing with the police officers outside the building, there was an active shooter situation and also other police were trying to get into the building in various ways and to allow the children to escape.

More [emphasis mine]:

Multiple teams of Border Patrol agents raced to the school, according to Jason Owens, a top regional official with the Border Patrol…

McCraw praised the officers and denied there had been a failure – emphasizing that the arriving officers ‘engaged him’ and were able to ‘keep him pinned down in that location.’

I don’t think we have anywhere near enough information to judge what actually happened and what the police did right or wrong. Inflammatory videos tell only a tiny part of the story, and I don’t rely on them for an understanding of what actually happened except in regard to the tiny part they are telling. In this case, we know that desperate parents were angry at what they perceived as police inaction, and the police restrained some of them. The rest will emerge as time goes on – but for many people, the takeaway will be “the police are awful and they didn’t care.” That is by no means clear right now.