My God, the cover-up by the Uvalde School Police is getting worse by the day.
Story number one:
‘They keep threatening to arrest us.’ The obstacles facing local news in Uvalde
Over the past two weeks, Nora López, executive editor of the Express-News, has led her staff in covering this story. The job has been made more difficult, she said, by the obstacles facing her reporters and photographers. Visiting law enforcement officials and bikers obstructed reporters’ abilities to cover the funerals of victims.
“In addition to the trauma of covering such an event, then to have to deal with all this harassment and attempts to stop us from reporting this story has been really disconcerting,” López said.
On Tuesday, López spoke with Poynter about the work to continue covering the story of the Uvalde shooting victims and their families, and the obstacles journalists are facing in doing so.
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
We’ve had reporters on the ground who have been harassed. Last Thursday, there were groups of motorcycle gangs that we believe are former police officers. They were physically getting in front of reporters and videographers, and using their body and their hands to try to obstruct the sightlines. The motorcycle gangs kind of backed off a little bit on Friday, but through the weekend, the police that’s been there helping with the situation continue to do the same thing …
They keep threatening to arrest us, but so far they haven’t. It’s been really hostile. There’s the concern that they are violating our constitutional rights, because we have the right to news gather. I believe that this is bordering on official oppression in stopping us from talking to people and doing my jobs.
The other equally disconcerting thing to me is that they’re also discouraging families from talking to us because they’re hustling them along. Even families who have agreed to talk to the media, they’re basically saying, ‘No, you shouldn’t. You need to move, you need to just move along quickly.’ That’s my biggest concern, that they’re actually now stopping people who want to talk to us, from talking to us.
Story number two:
The Texas Department of Public Safety has asked the state’s Office of the Attorney General to prevent the public release of police body camera footage from the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde in part because, it argues, the footage could be used by other shooters to determine “weaknesses” in police response to crimes.
The office of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton will now review audio and body camera footage recorded by the department to determine if any of it can be released, according to a letter the department sent Motherboard in response to a public records request we filed asking for “photographs and audio as well as video records” recorded by Department of Public Safety officers.
Story number three:
Uvalde Hires Private Law Firm to Argue It Doesn’t Have to Release School Shooting Public Records
The City of Uvalde and its police department are working with a private law firm to prevent the release of nearly any record related to the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in which 19 children and two teachers died, according to a letter obtained by Motherboard in response to a series of public information requests we made. The public records Uvalde is trying to suppress include body camera footage, photos, 911 calls, emails, text messages, criminal records, and more.
“The City has not voluntarily released any information to a member of the public,” the city’s lawyer, Cynthia Trevino, who works for the private law firm Denton Navarro Rocha Bernal & Zech, wrote in a letter to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. The city wrote the letter asking Paxton for a determination about what information it is required to release to the public, which is standard practice in Texas. Paxton’s office will eventually rule which of the city’s arguments have merit and will determine which, if any, public records it is required to release.
What do we have in total?
The possibility illegal intimidation and suppression of journalists covering the story.
The police doing everything possible to keep their body cams and other recordings from going public.
Just imagine how bad it must be if they are willing to look this bad covering it up.
What is it?
Cops being total cowards? Going back and forth with “you go first,” “no, you go first.”
The Chief running around like an idiot trying to deny responsibility?
Cops laughing and joking about the situation?
How fucking bad is it?
The more they cover it up, the more I want it released.
With any luck the Tarkin effect will take hold.
it argues, the footage could be used by other shooters to determine “weaknesses” in police response to crimes
If your active shooter response depends on surprise, you’ve already lost. The shooter already knows what’s happening.
This will get even worse if they really had one or two chances to stop him before he got in the school.
I’ve seen a couple of headlines saying this but there have been some conflicts in the stories.
I actually do not feel bad about the “poor journalists” not being able to do their jobs. They have been demonizing cops for decades, crapped on them during the BLM “Mostly Peaceful” riots and ignored the physical attacks against independent journalists by Antifa.
If the Uvalde cops suddenly develop balls and go on to beat a journo or two and throw them in jail, I believe it is a win-win situation.
As far as the “motorcycle gangs”, I have nothing against the bikers keeping the media away from the funerals of children. Often as not they’re as bad or worse that the Westboro psychos.
That was my thought too. The funerals are NOT news, unless you’re at the national enquirer level of sensationalism. Otherwise, everything the PD does should be open source and available to the public. The law enforcement in this country has basically pissed away every ounce of public trust they had, so too effing bad. But yeah, leave the funerals out of the news. The families shouldn’t have to deal with that.
“The law enforcement in this country has basically pissed away every ounce of public trust they had…”
Sadly, you’re right. The left already hated them, and enforcing Covid restrictions against people trying to live their lives and earn a living killed off most of the support they had from the right.
I wonder if any of the cowards are old enough to remember that it wasn’t the Watergate *break-in* that brought down a sitting president, it was the subsequent *cover-up* .
New info:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10930843/Uvalde-cops-didnt-try-open-classroom-door-video-reportedly-shows.html
Some need firing, some need prison. All need their nutless asses kicked up between the shoulder blades.