Will Lawton PD Have The Courage To Face An Active Shooter?

It's been just over a week since the Robb Elementary shooting in Uvalde, TX happened and as details continue to emerge, the overall view keeps getting muddier. One of the most critical aspects of the event is the ever-changing narrative of the timeline and how the police response transpired.

Initially, the unanimous response across the country was "Thank goodness the police were able to stop the shooter." It's an understandable response to a situation like that, but as the details poured out in the following days, more questions appeared rather than answers.

In the first and early version of the story a school resource officer originally had an exchange with the shooter but then the revelation that the exchange didn't happen. The doors were locked and he forced his way in, then it released he was unimpeded in his entry. Body armor, no body armor... Standoff, no standoff... Barricade, no barricade... It lasted forty minutes, it lasted over an hour... etc...

Then the hoards of videos started filtering across social media detailing the actual response of the police forces in Uvalde that day. Performing glorified crowd control of those seeking to help these children. Forcing worried parents to stay away, cuffing, controlling, and tasing all while refusing to respond to this threat themselves.

Even though the federal courts have ruled many times in the past that police have no responsibility to protect the citizens of this country, it was a complete and utter failure as to what was entrusted of them to do. When asked bluntly about the failure and refusal of police to respond to this tragic threat, more harm was done than good when the Texas Department of Public Safety stupidly said:

...they could’ve been shot, they could’ve been killed...

Of course, this is the soundbyte the media latched onto without the actual context, but that's how the media works against independent thought in America, and that quote will long be remembered by the public and mocked in comparison to other public servant industries.

You never see firemen refusing to run into a burning building to save a life out of fear of being burned...

As it seems the actual response by law enforcement that day in Uvalde was a complete and utter failure of entrusted duty and actual training, one has to wonder if Lawton's finest have the training and courage it would take to instantly rush into such a dangerous situation, a threat to life and limb be damned.

Before you get the wrong idea, this is not some sort of anti-police hit-piece seeking to attack or degrade our local police force. I offer my full support to our local boys in blue. I refer to them as Lawton's finest and not in jest. I just understand that as big as Lawton is, 90,000-ish people, it's still as small of a town as Uvalde, TX.

As big as we are, we live a traditional small-town life. Everyone knows everyone else's business. A local economy trapped by small-town politics, and while the city has made a considerable effort to improve this aspect, Lawton still suffers from small-town policies like our police being understaffed and still underpaid.

I feel it's a legitimate question that is fair of anyone to ask. It seems a fair question to be posed to every small town police department in this country. If the day comes when the unthinkable happens, will LPD be prepared to respond with a swift and decisive response?

All the same, I also don't think this is a question that can be answered. All I know is I don't think I could handle seeing pictures of tiny custom caskets being created again.

While everyone seems convinced they have an answer to situations like this, only one thing is absolutely certain... You can't legislate against evil. Criminals don't follow the law. If they did, people wouldn't die at the hands of others since murder is already illegal. As we've continually seen in Europe, even in the absence of guns these mass life-loss events happen with knives, acid, vehicles, blunt objects, etc...

As the quote goes: Evil triumphs when good men do nothing. On that particular day, it seems like the good men did nothing and evil reigned until a better man aimed to do something.