Comments by "Daniel Bradford" (@Falconlibrary) on "Uvalde and Police \"Duty\"" video.

@CreativityNull I was a teacher for 30 years. I did my mandated reporting duty (over the objection of administration in a couple of cases) directly to law enforcement and social services. Police and social workers are also mandated reporters in California, by the way. If any harm comes to a child and we don't report, we can be sued and lose our license to teach (police, oddly enough, don't have a license to do their job). We can also be charged with a misdemeanor. The standard is "If a person fails in their child abuse reporting duties, and an instance of abuse or neglect leads to death or great bodily injury". Here's the conundrum: When I reported suspected child abuse to social services and to the cops, they did NOT have a duty to DO anything. I had a duty to report, but they had no duty to act. We need to require a duty to ACT of people in our society who are on the frontlines. It's horrific that we don't.
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@darrenhendrix2198 Let's put it this way: School budgets get cut all the time, police budgets never get cut and often get increased. That says it all about how people view teachers vs the police. People who hate teachers often cite Mr. Johnson in 10th grade who was an a-hole to them as the reason. Because Mr. Johnson is all teachers everywhere, right?
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This argument "the police don't have a legal duty to protect us" is being trotted out by cop supporters to shut down criticism of their inaction when they're actually strengthening the case for MAJOR (systematic, nationwide) police reform or police defunding. Police departments often have the largest budget of any city department. 40% of the city budget in Uvalde. 17% of Los Angeles' city budget. If the police have no duty to prevent crime, solve crime, or protect our lives and property, then why do we have them? Cops can't continue to have it both ways: nearly unlimited authority over our lives, armed with a license to shoot if they recite the magic words "I was in reasonable fear of my life", a sweet pension after 20 years (and it's NOT one of the most dangerous jobs, sorry, cop supporters), and then say "Oops, I don't have any actual legal duty to you, the taxpayers". It's one or the other. I'm not paying taxes for THIS. We need a new Constitutional amendment if that's what it takes, either that, or just abolish government altogether if it has no duty to us. I'm not kidding.
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I'm trying to imagine firefighters standing outside Robb Elementary while it's on fire and kids are trapped inside, saying "Those kids are probably dead and that fire is really hot! We could get hurt trying to put it out and rescue people from the building!" Because no firefighter would EVER do that. Firefighters are heroes. Cops are cowards and bullies.
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