(May 24 2023) - Another Sandy Hook just happened

therealjondoe

Rising Star
BGOL Investor
For those not familiar with him, John Cougar Mellencamp is as American as Apple Pie. He has classic Americana songs. For him to say this is a big F U to those traitors who claim to represent true America.
Fun fact his song jack and Diane was about an interracial couple but the record company made him change the lyrics
 

Piff Henderson

Stage Manager of Stage Managers
BGOL Investor
Fun fact his song jack and Diane was about an interracial couple but the record company made him change the lyrics
He also said he singing voice is based on Black blues singers. He chose the name "Cougar" because he thought it sounded like a blues musicians name.
 

Politic Negro

Rising Star
BGOL Investor
Texas’ Governor Wants You to Forget About Uvalde
BY MARY C. CURTIS
JUNE 29, 20222:51 PM

The news cycle moves so quickly that we too often forget the things we should remember. Like the shooting in a Uvalde school that killed 19 children and two of their teachers. It was a little more than one month ago. We spoke with someone who will never forget, Texas state Sen. Roland Gutierrez, who serves the citizens of Uvalde. He’s spent much of the past month looking for answers. Gutierrez came to the city the night of May 24. And he’s stayed there for most of the time since, to be there for his constituents—to listen and to give them what support he can. Some of the people who lost their children blame law enforcement—for not doing enough, fast enough, to save their kids. The state senator has been looking for answers about law enforcement’s failings that day. But he’s also keeping the pressure on, knowing that the clock is ticking for Texas to take real action.

On Wednesday’s episode of What Next, I spoke with Gutierrez about what he’s doing to make sure no one forgets what happened on May 24 in Uvalde. Our conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Mary C. Curtis: I can’t help but wonder, tempting as it is to harp on law enforcement’s failures—and they certainly are quite a few—if that might be missing the point, which is that an 18-year-old was able to buy an assault weapon and use it to kill people. One commentator put it like this: “Demanding that police respond more swiftly and courageously once the slaughter of school children has already begun is itself the mark of a broken society, which no longer seems able to ask that we prevent such killings in the first place.” What do you think?

Roland Gutierrez:
I think that there is everything to that statement. Let’s be clear: We spent two hours in a committee hearing talking about a door that was malfunctioning. This isn’t about doors. It’s not about metal detectors. It’s not about putting fencing all around our schools and limiting to one door, as our lieutenant governor would have, or even ballistic shields. This is about militarized weaponry in the hands of 18- to 21-year-olds. This is about not having red flags laws in Texas and a governor who refuses to employ them. This is about not having waiting periods.

Look, I’m a realist. I live in Texas, and I even own guns myself. I don’t own these types of guns. But I know my constituents and I know what my constituents in West Texas like and what they want. At the end of the day, even my Republican constituents are telling me I’m right on raising the age limit to 21. It’s the simplest thing we can do. Greg Abbott could go in there, call a special session right now, and insist on one change, and that’s an age limit. Then he can drop the microphone and leave the building. He’d be the star in this state. But instead, he chooses to sell his soul because he cares more about the NRA and their money than he does about innocent children in Uvalde, Texas.


You gave a very emotional speech to the Senate Special Committee to Protect All Texans about what you witnessed in Uvalde. What were you hoping to accomplish? Because you note that you’re not trying to tell them to vote in a certain way. So what did you hope people would take away from what you shared about that experience?

It sounds harsh, but I wanted them to feel the horror, the pain, and the suffering. Emmett Till’s mother, she said, Leave his casket open. She wanted the world to see what they had done to her little boy. I saw seven little girls in coffins. I wanted people to understand the horror of what these families have had to deal with.

Because of the way Texas politics works, not only is the Legislature not in session, but lawmakers won’t return to the capital until January of 2023. So Gov. Greg Abbott has called for the formation of a special legislative committee to examine and develop legislative recommendations. Do these seem like useful exercises to you?

No. We’ve been down there before, with Santa Fe. With Sutherland Springs. With El Paso. With Midland–Odessa. This is simply another ruse, another attempt to bamboozle the Republic of Texas, to stall. Until the media goes away, until these stories go away, until people are talking about something else. He has done nothing. Massacre after massacre, this man has done absolutely nothing. And a special committee is absolutely doing nothing. Until we get in there on a date-certain 30-day legislative session, pursuant to our constitution, then nothing can be done.

What are you hoping that such a special session could accomplish and achieve?

We’ll do anything. A red flag law, a background check law, a magazine capacity law. What I really would like to see is the age limit increase to 21, like they did in Florida. Do anything. Do something. Greg Abbott likes to talk about evil. The only evil that exists in this state is having elected leaders, people in power, that have a problem staring them straight in the face and doing absolutely nothing about it.

I wonder what would be on your legislative wish list versus what you think is a realistic agenda in the state of Texas that you know so well?

Well, I’m sure they’ll come back in January and we’ll talk about doors and windows and locks and “school hardening.” And yet again, we’ll spend next to no money on it. Look, we spend $4 billion on a failed border security plan, and they spent $100 million on school hardening in 2019. Look where that got us. They failed these kids. I’m sure there’ll be some of that. I’m sure there’ll be some mental health money. I doubt that Greg Abbott will avail himself of the red flag incentives that are going through Congress at this time. But what I will be pushing for at a bare minimum, what I’ll be yelling from the rafters is to change the age limit to the age of 21, and I will find any bill I can to make an amendment to do that.

But we also have the federal gun deal. What do you make of that particular proposal?

Listen, we are in the desert, and we are dying of thirst. So I suppose that something is something. But that said, it comes with too many options for governors or people in power to say no to, like the red flag incentive piece. If Abbott doesn’t avail the state of those benefits, then we’re left without anything. We’re left without red flags. We’ve got a greater background check process, which is fine. But we don’t even touch the age limit requirement. And I don’t understand why, when the vast majority of Americans say to raise the age limit to 21.

Now, you’ve said in a recent interview that the South Texas school district has talked about applying for a federal grant program called Project SERV, the School Emergency Response to Violence, to raze Robb Elementary. What are the parents in Uvalde saying about the future of the building and what needs to be done?

I haven’t heard from one single parent that wants to send their school kids there. The president was very helpful. His staff in the White House was very helpful in calling me directly to figure out how we can help do that. I put them in contact with the school superintendent. The school superintendent and I have been collaborating. We’re going to keep moving forward to try to get to that end, but there’s not one single parent that wants to send their kids into that building.

The last thing on my mind is just something you alluded to earlier—how short people’s attention spans are. You talked about how people are delaying things until it goes away. How fast the news cycle is. Does any part of you worry that by the time legislators get back to Austin, whether for special session or new legislative term, most Texans will have moved on and the pressure will be off.

The first Saturday after the shooting, I was fueling up my car early in the morning. I saw a young couple putting ice in an ice chest, filling up their car with gas, presumably going to the lake or wherever they were going. I couldn’t understand why this young couple in San Antonio weren’t feeling my grief and my pain. I couldn’t understand why they had forgotten what happened just three short days ago in a town 90 miles away. And the fact is that most of the world just kind of moves on. People have their own issues, their own problems to contend with. All I can do for myself is figure a way to talk to people, where we keep reminding them. Because you’re right, as soon as the dust settles—and it’s settling—most people will move on. And I feel most people already have. So maybe all I can do is yell and scream and shame people. Maybe that’s all that’s left of my career. I don’t know.

How do you keep people tuned in? Because every week there seems to be a new tragedy. Uvalde followed Buffalo and people stopped talking about that.

For my part, I want people to organize, not to vote or anything like that—although that’s something that I imagine will come in time. But for my part, I want them to tell their story. I can’t tell it for them as well as they can, when they’re ready. They need to be advocates for themselves. They need to be advocates for their children. They need to be advocates for the parents across Texas. I try to tell those folks that we’re going to get through this. But I also ask them to do the hardest thing possible, which is to talk about this, when they’re ready. Families that lost children are going to deal with this for the rest of their lives. Imagine all of those hopes and dreams and aspirations that they had for their children and the hopes and dreams and aspirations that those little kids had for themselves, even just to simply enjoy a summer vacation that was just about to happen. All of that in an instant is gone because we in power couldn’t figure it out.
 

lightbright

Master Pussy Poster
BGOL Investor
heat on that BBQ finally got hot enough for ole Petey boi.... :hmm:


Uvalde schools police Chief Pete Arredondo resigns from city council
Arredondo told the Uvalde Leader-News that he was stepping down from his elected position, citing the need for the mayor, city council and staff to “move forward without distractions.”

Chief%20Pete%20Arredondo%20EL%20TT%2011.jpg
Uvalde schools police Chief Pete Arredondo stands on a dirt road on the outskirts of town on June 8, 2022.

Pete Arredondo, the law enforcement official state police said was most responsible for a flawed response to the Uvalde elementary school shooting in May, has resigned from the Uvalde City Council.

Arredondo, the chief of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District police department, had been elected to the council a few weeks before the May 24 shooting that killed 19 children and two teachers. He took the oath of office in secret and has not attended any of the council meetings since.

The Uvalde Leader-News reported Arredondo's resignation, which The Texas Tribune was unable to immediately confirm.

"After much consideration, I regret to inform those who voted for me that I have decided to step down as a member of the city council for District 3. The mayor, the city council, and the city staff must continue to move forward without distractions. I feel this is the best decision for Uvalde,” Arredondo told the newspaper.

The school district placed Arredondo on administrative leave June 22, the day after Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw told a state Senate committee that police officers under the command of Arredondo could have ended the shooting within minutes of arriving, but inexplicably decided not to do so.

In a lengthy interview with The Texas Tribune in early June, Arredondo maintained he was not the incident commander and never ordered officers to stand down.

Whether Arredondo intends to resign as the school district police chief is unclear. Neither his lawyer nor a school district spokeswoman immediately responded to requests for comment.



Uvalde schools police Chief Pete Arredondo resigns from city council | The Texas Tribune


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Politic Negro

Rising Star
BGOL Investor
heat on that BBQ finally got hot enough for ole Petey boi.... :hmm:


Uvalde schools police Chief Pete Arredondo resigns from city council
Arredondo told the Uvalde Leader-News that he was stepping down from his elected position, citing the need for the mayor, city council and staff to “move forward without distractions.”

Chief%20Pete%20Arredondo%20EL%20TT%2011.jpg
Uvalde schools police Chief Pete Arredondo stands on a dirt road on the outskirts of town on June 8, 2022.

Pete Arredondo, the law enforcement official state police said was most responsible for a flawed response to the Uvalde elementary school shooting in May, has resigned from the Uvalde City Council.

Arredondo, the chief of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District police department, had been elected to the council a few weeks before the May 24 shooting that killed 19 children and two teachers. He took the oath of office in secret and has not attended any of the council meetings since.

The Uvalde Leader-News reported Arredondo's resignation, which The Texas Tribune was unable to immediately confirm.

"After much consideration, I regret to inform those who voted for me that I have decided to step down as a member of the city council for District 3. The mayor, the city council, and the city staff must continue to move forward without distractions. I feel this is the best decision for Uvalde,” Arredondo told the newspaper.

The school district placed Arredondo on administrative leave June 22, the day after Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw told a state Senate committee that police officers under the command of Arredondo could have ended the shooting within minutes of arriving, but inexplicably decided not to do so.

In a lengthy interview with The Texas Tribune in early June, Arredondo maintained he was not the incident commander and never ordered officers to stand down.

Whether Arredondo intends to resign as the school district police chief is unclear. Neither his lawyer nor a school district spokeswoman immediately responded to requests for comment.



Uvalde schools police Chief Pete Arredondo resigns from city council | The Texas Tribune


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Not enough resignations and firings
 

Politic Negro

Rising Star
BGOL Investor
After Uvalde shooting, Texas leaders will spend more than $100 million on school safety, mental health
Almost half the money is going toward bullet-resistant shields for school police officers, a move that Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick called on fellow state leaders to support

TEXAS, USA — Texas leaders announced Tuesday that they have agreed to dedicate more than $100 million in state funds to boost school safety and mental health services following the Uvalde massacre.
Nearly half the money — $50 million — is going toward bullet-resistant shields for school police officers, a priority of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. The second-largest expenditure — $17.1 million — is for school districts to buy silent panic alert technology, which allows them to alert law enforcement during emergencies.

The $105.5 million total in funding will support the initiatives through August 2023. Almost all of the money is coming out of a budget surplus inside the Texas Education Agency, which oversees public K-12 education.

“The State of Texas is acting swiftly to ensure our schools are secure and that children, teachers, and families across Texas have the support and resources they need to be safe as we work to prevent future tragedies like the heinous crime committed in Uvalde,” Gov. Greg Abbott said in a statement.
The state’s Republican leaders have largely championed mental health and school safety as the policy response to the May shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, resisting gun-control measures. The massacre left 19 students and two teachers dead, as well as 17 others wounded.

The mental health efforts include $5.8 million to expand telemedicine for children and $4.7 million to increase the use of a treatment program for at-risk youth.
In approving the funds, Abbott emphasized almost all were being transferred from the TEA surplus and would “not affect current school operations or funding.” Just over $100 million is coming from that source, while the remaining $5 million is being tapped from the state’s Health and Human Services Commission.
Patrick called on state leaders to back the $50 million transfer for bulletproof shields. The Republican speaker of the Texas House, Dade Phelan, agreed with Patrick but also proposed several additional initiatives, including the silent panic alert technology.

Gun-control advocates panned the funding as insufficient.
"Once again, Governor Abbott’s response falls short and is out of touch with the realities of Texas’ gun violence crisis," Liz Hanks, a volunteer with the Texas chapter of Moms Demand Action, said in a statement. "We need evidence-based solutions to prevent school gun violence, not ineffective measures that militarize our schools."
 

Piff Henderson

Stage Manager of Stage Managers
BGOL Investor

  • At least 5 people have been killed in a shooting in downtown Highland Park, Illinois, in the area of a July 4th parade, the city said.
  • The city has canceled all Fourth of July events and urged residents to avoid downtown.
  • The suburb city is located about 25 miles north of downtown Chicago.
 

woodchuck

A crowd pleasing man.
OG Investor
People on the scene said it sounded like a rifle.
They found the rifle, but the shooter is still on the loose. Witnesses said it was a white boy, 18-20 years old, wearing a blue shirt. IMO, I think these kids belong to a group of like minded idiots that are planning these shootings. They seem to be getting younger and younger.
 

easy_b

Easy_b is in the place to be.
BGOL Investor
They found the rifle, but the shooter is still on the loose. Witnesses said it was a white boy, 18-20 years old, wearing a blue shirt. IMO, I think these kids belong to a group of like minded idiots that are planning these shootings. They seem to be getting younger and younger.
Republicans and people like Tucker Carlson are radicalizing these white boys. I had to explain to a few people already that Highland Park is a suburb of Chicago it is not Chicago
 

Politic Negro

Rising Star
BGOL Investor
After Uvalde shooting, Texas leaders will spend more than $100 million on school safety, mental health
Almost half the money is going toward bullet-resistant shields for school police officers, a move that Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick called on fellow state leaders to support

TEXAS, USA — Texas leaders announced Tuesday that they have agreed to dedicate more than $100 million in state funds to boost school safety and mental health services following the Uvalde massacre.
Nearly half the money — $50 million — is going toward bullet-resistant shields for school police officers, a priority of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. The second-largest expenditure — $17.1 million — is for school districts to buy silent panic alert technology, which allows them to alert law enforcement during emergencies.

The $105.5 million total in funding will support the initiatives through August 2023. Almost all of the money is coming out of a budget surplus inside the Texas Education Agency, which oversees public K-12 education.

“The State of Texas is acting swiftly to ensure our schools are secure and that children, teachers, and families across Texas have the support and resources they need to be safe as we work to prevent future tragedies like the heinous crime committed in Uvalde,” Gov. Greg Abbott said in a statement.
The state’s Republican leaders have largely championed mental health and school safety as the policy response to the May shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, resisting gun-control measures. The massacre left 19 students and two teachers dead, as well as 17 others wounded.

The mental health efforts include $5.8 million to expand telemedicine for children and $4.7 million to increase the use of a treatment program for at-risk youth.
In approving the funds, Abbott emphasized almost all were being transferred from the TEA surplus and would “not affect current school operations or funding.” Just over $100 million is coming from that source, while the remaining $5 million is being tapped from the state’s Health and Human Services Commission.
Patrick called on state leaders to back the $50 million transfer for bulletproof shields. The Republican speaker of the Texas House, Dade Phelan, agreed with Patrick but also proposed several additional initiatives, including the silent panic alert technology.

Gun-control advocates panned the funding as insufficient.
"Once again, Governor Abbott’s response falls short and is out of touch with the realities of Texas’ gun violence crisis," Liz Hanks, a volunteer with the Texas chapter of Moms Demand Action, said in a statement. "We need evidence-based solutions to prevent school gun violence, not ineffective measures that militarize our schools."
 
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