The families of 19 of the victims in the Uvalde elementary school shooting in Texas on Wednesday filed a $500 million federal lawsuit against nearly 100 state police officers who were part of the botched law enforcement response to one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history.

The families said they also agreed to a $2 million settlement with the city, under which city leaders promised higher standards and better training for local police.

The lawsuit and settlement announcement in Uvalde came two days before the two-year anniversary of the massacre. Nineteen fourth-graders and two teachers were killed on May 24, 2022, when a teenage gunman burst into their classroom at Robb Elementary School and began shooting.

The lawsuit, seeking at least $500 million in damages, is the latest of several seeking accountability for the law enforcement response. More than 370 federal, state and local officers converged on the scene, but they waited more than 70 minutes before confronting the shooter.

    • TexasDrunk@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Remember when that county overwhelmingly voted R after a firearm tragedy that killed their children?

      I’m not saying that makes the harassment ok. It absolutely doesn’t. I’m pointing out that they’re voting with the people who harass them.

      • Riven@lemmynsfw.com
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        5 months ago

        And that’s why I feel no simpathy for anyone who voted R there. They literally get what they wanted.

        • TexasDrunk@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          I do. I feel sympathy for anyone whose child dies, especially if they were murdered. I don’t know which of them voted R and it’s likely some of them didn’t. Hell, the children didn’t vote for anyone. They’re not a single individual and I’m not going to look hard enough at which of them deserve contempt and which don’t.

          I also know how absolutely shit these rural schools are first hand. Anyone who grew up there has had a hard row to hoe in regards to learning history and understanding the world around them.

          However, I won’t look down on anyone who doesn’t feel anything but contempt for communities who get what they vote for. I get it. I’m pissed about it too. I just happen to be pissed at the fucking politicians who have made it impossible to get a halfway decent education at a rural Texas school unless your rural town happens to be incredibly rich.

          • Riven@lemmynsfw.com
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            5 months ago

            I feel sympathy for those parents and the kids but not all the other adults who live in the state vote r and complain about this. I understand the bit about education and propaganda but at a certain point it’s still their fault as adults and my sympathy ran out about 8 years ago.

            • TexasDrunk@lemmy.world
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              5 months ago

              And I can totally see your point of view and think it’s necessary because compassion doesn’t really work on people like that. I think a lot of the way I feel comes from the fact that the only reason that’s not me is largely due to luck. I made the decision to leave at 18 which gave me a wider view of the world. I went back years later and the town was too small to hold me.

              For years I heard dumb shit like we can’t fix up our park or turn it into a skate park because we were exactly between the east and west coasts so the gangs (code for black people though I didn’t know it at the time) there would come and shoot us all up. The only shooting that wasn’t painted as meth addicts killing each other we had was painted as an undocumented immigrant (I still don’t know if that was true, but my guess would be no) with la raza ties. Someone (I wasn’t clear on who except that they weren’t white, either gangs or cartels) was going to come to our shitty little town and kidnap blonde haired blue eyed girls and sell them into sex slavery. A lot of this shit was on the local news because that’s what local politicians were saying. “Local politicians are concerned that” and then make everything after it seem like it’s a fact if you tuned in 3 seconds too late.

              I’ll say I understand what led a lot of them there and it was fucking insidious. I don’t condone the way they act or the way they vote. And most of them will never understand exactly how they were manipulated into it.

  • can@sh.itjust.works
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    6 months ago

    Remembering this story makes my blood boil. Don’t be a cop if you’re a fucking pussy.

    • Billiam@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      How sociopathic do you have to be to hear screaming children and gunshots from inside a school and not try to do something?

      Like, do you not have even the most basic human instinct to protect children?

      • kandoh@reddthat.com
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        5 months ago

        I’m sure most of the cops were very eager to go in. As soon someone else tried first, they’d have been right behind them.

        • Rampsquatch@sh.itjust.works
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          5 months ago

          And every last one of them should have been the type to go first. There were kids screaming for help and they didn’t act. I don’t care if they would have, they didn’t.

          • constantokra@lemmy.one
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            5 months ago

            Ever been at a playground with your kid, and you hear a scream? Turns out it was someone else’s kid and they’re already on it but you’re already on your feet and so are half the parents there. It’s hard wired. Their training might not be good for keeping people safe, but it sure as hell must be good at subverting basic human instincts.

            • Rampsquatch@sh.itjust.works
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              5 months ago

              Are you seriously comparing the sounds of children dying in a fucking school shooting to kids playing in a park?

              Edit: I need better reading comprehension.

              • constantokra@lemmy.one
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                5 months ago

                How are you getting that from what I wrote? I’m saying it’s a basic human instinct that when you hear a child in distress you find yourself moving toward that child, whether it’s yours or not. There were a lot of police there, and none of them acted on that instinct. I’m agreeing with you. It’s insane that none of those people, many if not most of whom were parents, acted on that natural instinct to protect children.

                I find it particularly grim that their training must be excellent at subverting basic human emotions but apparently doesn’t do anything to help them actually protect and serve. It’s clearly effective, it’s just horrifying what they’re training them to be.

    • lanolinoil@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      It’s turning more to be If you weren’t a fucking pussy, why would you associate and claim these as your people?

    • lanolinoil@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      I wish so bad I believed in YHWH’s hell so I could sleep knowing he would spend all of eternity there.

  • BigMacHole@lemm.ee
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    5 months ago

    Uvalde reelected everyone involved in the MURDER and COVERUP and CHILDREN!

  • Facebones@reddthat.com
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    5 months ago

    I’m not a gun person and hate the whole “solve guns with more guns” bullshit, but this is why I’m actually fairly onboard with sticking a (well evaluated) combat veteran in schools.

    After all the shit we dealt with fuck some snotty little asshole who got passed over for prom or wtfever.

    • BigPotato@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Yeah but also in Texas a (at the time) current member of the Army shot an Air Force Veteran because he got scared of the guy existing, so clearly the quality of Veterans in Texas was exponentially reduced on that day.