Routine Shootings at US Schools and Universities Megathread.

[HVC]

They wanted fancy pew pew's

[crazy canuck]

Zoupa may not be aware that in the US it is common that local education spending is not done through the municipal budget but through a separately operated and managed school district. That appears to be the case with Uvalde.

Really poor cheap shot on your part.  What does the education spending have to do with the funding of a police department that did not do its job?

[The Minsky Moment]

Zoupa may not be aware that in the US it is common that local education spending is not done through the municipal budget but through a separately operated and managed school district. That appears to be the case with Uvalde.

Really poor cheap shot on your part.  What does the education spending have to do with the funding of a police department that did not do its job?

??

The point was that the PD appears to take up a huge chunk of the budget because the other major spending item is off budget.

Not a shot on Zoupa but just a comment he may not be aware of quirks in organization of local governments in the US.

[The Minsky Moment]

So why did they have a SWAT unit then?

Graft and toys to play with.

[crazy canuck]

Zoupa may not be aware that in the US it is common that local education spending is not done through the municipal budget but through a separately operated and managed school district. That appears to be the case with Uvalde.

Really poor cheap shot on your part.  What does the education spending have to do with the funding of a police department that did not do its job?

??

The point was that the PD appears to take up a huge chunk of the budget because the other major spending item is off budget.

Not a shot on Zoupa but just a comment he may not be aware of quirks in organization of local governments in the US.

His point was that funding for the police in that community was a waste of money if your post was accurate.  It has nothing to do with him misunderstanding anything.

[The Minsky Moment]

I was responding to the 50% figure. Not his assessment of the value of the department. 

[The Larch]

So why did they have a SWAT unit then?

Graft and toys to play with.

So, widely tollerated corruption and inefficiency, then?

[The Minsky Moment]

Graft and toys to play with.

More seriously, it's hard to say.  Logic would suggest a town of 15,000 doesn't need a SWAT team.  OTOH if a basic function of every small town American PD is now the ability to storm a building and take out fully equipped and geared shooters, one could argue that every podunk hamlet from Maine to Guam needs one.

[Josquius]

Graft and toys to play with.

More seriously, it's hard to say.  Logic would suggest a town of 15,000 doesn't need a SWAT team.  OTOH if a basic function of every small town American PD is now the ability to storm a building and take out fully equipped and geared shooters, one could argue that every podunk hamlet from Maine to Guam needs one.

Or they could just do the thing sensible countries do and share these special resources between a whole bunch of towns.

Every town having its own completely independent police force is madness on both a practical policing and economic front.

[Admiral Yi]

Did they have a SWAT team?  I thought they waited for the Border Patrol SWAT.

[The Minsky Moment]

Or they could just do the thing sensible countries do and share these special resources between a whole bunch of towns.

Every town having its own completely independent police force is madness on both a practical policing and economic front.

It depends on context.  What you describe works for where I live for example - I live in small town with around the same pop as Uvalde but in a densely populated county where the County PD has specialized units that serve all the towns in the county.

But Uvalde is the country seat of its own county.  That pooling model starts to fall apart where you have large, sparsely populated areas.  The alternative would be to rely on the SWAT 2 hours away in San Antonio.

[The Larch]

Did they have a SWAT team?  I thought they waited for the Border Patrol SWAT.

[Razgovory]

Oh, Jesus Christ.

[Tonitrus]

If they're like a lot of small(er) town SWATs, they're probably regular flatfeet that do the SWAT duty only when an event calls for it, but are otherwise doing the usual traffic stops, escorting old ladies across the street, being off-duty, etc.  But with some extra training...that pew-pew time referenced earlier.  And the just being all tacticool nonsense.

[Tonitrus]

Oh, Jesus Christ.

Yep, making themselves look like one of the several Russian internal police forces that are soley dedicated to beating protestors/dissadents.