Officials in Uvalde are apparently using a strange legal loophole to avoid
transparency on how their cops handled the mass shooting at Robb elementary school,
which of course tragically left 19 children and two teachers dead.
The police department is facing a lot of ridicule because of the fact that it
took them over an hour, about 77 minutes to get into the classroom and
do something about the shooter.
But now we're learning that they're trying to avoid releasing documents that
are being called upon by various reporters.
Now the city of Uvalde, according to NPR,
has hired a private law firm to make its case which cited the dead suspect loophole
to deny the release of information because the gunman died in police custody.
The legal exception bars the public disclosure of information
pertaining to crimes in which no one has been convicted.
Now there was a good reason for putting this type of loophole in the legislation.
It was meant to ensure that someone who might be innocent isn't publicly
accused of a crime, that their reputation isn't completely destroyed.
The Texas Attorney General's office has ruled that the exception applies when
a suspect is dead and in this case of course the suspect is the mass shooter.
Now the maneuver has been used repeatedly by Texas law enforcement agencies to
claim they're not required to turn over the requested information because
a criminal case is still pending even though the suspect is dead.
And again, the loophole exists to protect innocent people
who are wrongfully accused or whose cases were dismissed.
Now as you can imagine, the press is looking for all sorts of document and
also surveillance including body camera footage, the 911 calls,
criminal records and emails and
text messages that were exchanged between members of the police department.
And there's good reason for
why they would want this information as you guys probably already know.
But for those of you who might have missed, after the shooting happened we
got all sorts of contradicting information from local officials,
from the police department.
The story kept changing and wow, what a shocker,
we're actually learning some other pretty terrible incriminating information about
how the police department handled the shooting that day.
But before I get to that, Emma, I wanted to open it up to you and
get your thoughts.
>> I mean to me it's clear that they're covering up something massive.
Now we don't know what that is.
Obviously I'm speculating here, I'm gonna give that a million caveats but there's
a possibility that something, a cop's bullet killed a child or more, right?
We don't know that for sure but given the extent to which
they're trying to cover these things up, you can't rule out that possibility cuz
it's been revealed at the very least they were incredibly negligent.
There were dozens of officers at the scene from different departments
that chose to wait an hour as they were receiving
911 calls from a little girl who said my teachers bleeding.
Smeared her friend's blood on herself in order to hide herself from the shooter,
among other things.
You can see the logged minutes where they didn't do anything at all.
So either police are too scared to do anything or
they committed a crime here and frankly we can get some more details.
And I wanna critique the Biden administration's lack of really saying
anything at all on this topic in a bit but maybe you can go through those details and
then we can get into that.
>> Yeah, the Biden administration I think unsurprisingly has been careful in
avoiding any type of offense toward the police even in this situation, even when
you have right wingers in the country criticizing how the police handled it.
But I do wanna talk about some of the latest that we've learned.
According to those close to the investigation and
also one sheriff in the area who disclosed information to the press.
So the city and its police department are arguing against the release of
the requested records, citing the following reasons.
And again, all of these reasons are being cited, okay?
The city is being sued, some individuals criminal history records could include
highly embarrassing information.
Some of the information could reveal police methods, techniques and
strategies for preventing and predicting crime, doubt it.
>> What strategy?
>> Right, exactly.
We need to hold these strategies close to home,
close to our hearts because we've been so effective in preventing crime,
including a mass shooter in an elementary school.
So ridiculous strategy, absolutely.
>> The strategy where we cowered in fear as children were being massacred inside,
that's something we've gotta keep under wraps guys because it's really highly
technical police work.
>> Okay, absolutely insane.
So could cause emotional slash mental distress,
is not of legitimate concern to the public.
Now I would argue it actually is a very legitimate concern to the public.
Namely the victims,
family members who want answers in regard to how the cops handle this situation.
Could subject city employees or officers to a substantial threat of
physical harm and violates individuals common law right to privacy.
City officials have also refused to release more details reasoning that
it could interfere with the ongoing investigation by the Texas Department of
Public Safety, Uvalde county's district attorney and the FBI.
But look, despite their best efforts to avoid any transparency,
we are learning more and more about how incompetent the Uvalde police were.
How honestly it seemed they were completely unaware of basic
issues including whether or not the classroom door was locked.
And apparently according to new reports, the Uvalde police
didn't even attempt to open two of the classroom doors,
two of the doors leading into the classroom where the shooter was, right?
So they had assumed that it was locked and so
they didn't just try to turn the knob and open it instead they,
according to police officials, tried a bunch of different keys.
I don't even know if that's true, that's what they're alleging and
they didn't get into the classroom until they used a crowbar to open it.
So let me give you those details.
Okay, so surveillance footage shows that police never tried to open
the door to two classrooms at Robb elementary school in Uvalde.
In the 77 minutes between the time the gunman entered the rooms and
massacred 21 people and officers finally stormed in and killed him,
according to a law enforcement sources close to the investigation.
Police might have assumed the door was locked, but the latest evidence suggests
it may have been open the whole time possibly due to a malfunction,
the source said.
The surveillance footage indicates gunman Salvador Ramos, was able to open the door
to the classroom 111 and enter with an assault style rifle, the source said.
So this is a police source close to the investigation disclosing this
information to the press and so regardless of how much the cops want
to avoid transparency things are leaking out now.
But it's just don't assume, try to open the door.
According to the surveillance footage, they didn't even try to do that, Emma.
>> This kind of reminds me a little bit about when we've been talking about
abortion and the pending abortion ban,
that's gonna happen in many red states in this country after Roe v Wade's appealed.
In which sometimes I see liberals focusing on the rape and
incest exceptions in certain bills and certain Republicans they might not be that
extreme if they want to put exceptions for rape and incest in these bills.
But it's kind of a red herring because one, then you're focusing on and
you're conceding the point to the right that an abortion is an immoral act.
And so now the debate is about whether you can in some narrow exceptions, if you're
a victim do this immoral act in order to save yourself some emotional distress.
And it's not even a good faith debate because Republicans don't
really care about rape and incest exceptions.
Now we're talking about doors and that's what the police want, right?
They are putting this out there to the public that maybe the door didn't lock on
purpose so the conversation is about door safety and
Republicans are happy to talk about that as well to one entryway point.
And they don't even believe this either.
The Uvalde cops are waiting this out until the national media doesn't pay
as much attention anymore and Republican politicians are waiting this out so
they don't really have to do much on gun bills etc.
So they're working in tandem to just tread water and
make this a separate conversation,
push the pressure away from them and all of that.
I mean, it was the same reason why they were focusing on
the teacher leaving the rock allegedly,
which was proven false at the door and that the door was open, etc.
Focus on the teachers, public schools are inherently unsafe.
Teachers are those unions, we should really undercut them, right?
They're not doing their jobs well, doors are not safe enough in schools etc.
Anything except the major issues in this country which are, we have way
too many guns, it's way too easily accessible for people to get guns and
also that cops are overfunded and are doing nothing with that money.
>> Yeah, it's interesting because I think the frantic search for
a scapegoat following a mass shooting has become even more vicious where before
the usual talking points focused on the right wing's alleged concerns.
Obviously hollow concerns cuz they never wanna do anything about
mental health in America.
Now it's focusing all the energy on the teachers.
The fact that they decided to place blame on a teacher for allegedly propping
the door open with a rock tells you everything you need to know.
And then that story of course changed and there was evidence indicating
that that was not the case, the teacher did not prop the door open with a rock.
And now, yes, you're right, the focus is on whether or
not that lock malfunctioned but
placing all the blame on a malfunctioning lock is exactly what you say it is Emma.
It's a way to distract from the very real issue of mass shootings happening on
a regular basis in this country, mass shootings impacting children
in elementary schools, this isn't the first time it's happened.
And you're right,
I do think that the right wing along with gun advocates are desperately hoping
that the ending to this whole story is what we've experienced in the past.
Everyone forgets, everyone moves on, we get distracted by what the latest
scandal or latest political story is and that's it, and they never have to
face any real consequences or really question some of our failing policies.
So I like that we're staying on the story, we're gonna continue doing that and
hopefully the police will have no choice but to release the documents and
the footage that the press is demanding of them.
But they do have that loophole in the books and they're definitely taking full
advantage of it to avoid the release of these documents.
>> And just one final point, really quickly,
just notice how the rights demonization of teachers is a through line throughout all
of their political projects right now.
It's both with this mass shooting, it's with grooming kids.
They are trying to undercut the concept of public education and teachers and
it's a multipronged approach, so just be aware of that.
>> Totally.
Yeah, teachers are groomers but we are going to put guns in their hands because
we trust them to protect our kids from mass shooters, it's so ridiculous.