187 Minutes

187 minutes. Over three hours. Trump watched on TV as the crowd he drew to DC, riled up, directed to the Capitol, and encouraged to stop the legitimate certification of the election stormed the Capitol building, violently attacked police, and chanted violent threats at the Vice President and Congress.

His aides tried to get him to say something to stop it. He tweeted about his disappointment in Pence. Pence’s security detail, meanwhile, was contacting their loved ones in case they didn’t make it out alive.

Congress people tried to get the President to stop the crowd. But many knew he wouldn’t disavow the rioters. And he wouldn’t. He said they were special. He wouldn’t even say the election was over the next day.

It was so bad that the acting Secretary of Defense was not getting orders from the President. He was getting orders from the Vice President, who’s not even in the chain of command. But they knew they couldn’t listen to the President at that time. He was dangerous and trying to subvert our democracy for his own power.

Trump just watched. For three hours. As our democracy hung by a thread. He wouldn’t act to stop it.

Even the Uvalde police didn’t wait that long to act.

It’s unfathomable to me that people can still support Trump.

Fund the Moms, Instead

As the horror unfolded in Uvalde, a mother was handcuffed outside the school for “interfering,” as she pleaded with law enforcement officers to enter the building and save the children. Her children.

As a parent I can imagine the frustration, fear, and anger as the seconds and minutes ticked by, knowing a gunman was in that school with her kids.

So she did what the law enforcement officers hadn’t done. She went in and saved her kids. Alone. Unarmed. Brought her children to safety.

We’ve seen the Uvalde SWAT team photo. Dressed up, playing soldier. We know the armored tanks that many of these police forces have. It’s been reported that Uvalde spends ~40% of its municipal budget on its police force. And those police stood by for 90 minutes as children and teachers were slaughtered. What a waste of money. And it contributed to wasted, innocent lives.

Many want us to hold up police as heroes. It’s a dangerous job, undoubtedly. But they do too many jobs for which they aren’t suited. And this one, for which they’ve been outfitted, trained, and paid, they didn’t do. It’s not a problem unique to Uvalde.

Remember that when politicians tell us they need more money for police. Instead, we need better solutions than police.

Because in this one instance, a single mother did more than most of the police there.

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