Sheriff Ruben Nolasco won re-election despite pressure from victims’ families to step down and a Justice Department report finding ‘cascading’ failures among the law enforcement response that day
Sheriff Ruben Nolasco won re-election despite pressure from victims’ families to step down and a Justice Department report finding ‘cascading’ failures among the law enforcement response that day
For nearly two years, a Texas county sheriff has refused to step down after a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in 2022.
Instead, on Super Tuesday, Uvalde County sheriff Ruben Nolasco faced voters for the first time in the wake of the massacre.
And he won re-election with roughly 39 per cent of votes against three Republican challengers, according to preliminary results.
The sheriff has repeatedly rebuffed calls to resign or withdraw his candidacy for re-election despite overwhelming public pressure from victims’ families, demands that he face criminal charges, and a federal investigation that detailed a minute-by-minute timeline exposing “cascading” failures in the law enforcement response that day.
The parents of the actual children cared enough to campaign against them... But as for the rest of the voters: it isn't their kids.
America is the world capital of "rugged individualism," and it's basically Texas' whole schtick. These people don't give a shit until it happens to them. Like directly to them.
Was there nobody else willing to stand up and do the job? Even someone in the same party, with the same principles should be able to look at an assessment of the Sheriff’s department’s actions and realize a leadership change is necessary for the general safety of the community.
If you are a conservative living in Uvalde, Texas with a couple of kids, wouldn’t you want the peace of mind to know the local Sheriff’s office is under new management?
I wouldn’t feel safe having my kid in school with that guy in charge.
I've said it before, Uvalde had a chance to bring about change and they immediately voted Abbott back in and their community reelected the same sheriffs and judges who did nothing while their kids died. After a point my sympathy is used to for these people, if they don't care about their own kids and community, why should I?
As a Canadian who lives in Alberta, this pains me.
I despise our provincial government. I vote in every election. I reach out to my electors who I disagree with. And it doesn't matter because a bunch of old "got mine" boomers rich on oil money, keep voting in their shitty friends who are looting the public in plain view.
Why don't I move? Because the whole fucking world seems to be going this way, and the housing market is insane.
How can you live in that community and be happy with this as an outcome?
Zero accountability for anyone with the blood of literal children on their hands but I’m sure they’ll go after the corrupting influence of ‘woke’ Democrats.
Because their police standards and practices are, by and large, our deep blue city police standards and practices. Some minor differences sure but you transplant people from one department to another and they'll fit right in.
In Alabama, as soon as the Republicans realized their craziness impacted their own lives, changing the rules became the top priority of the state. They are doing a perfect job of showing us they could do their jobs super efficiently, but have zero desire to.
Also, their workaround will protect the businesses and the doctors, but not the patients.
It makes them independent of the mayor, who appoints the police chief and is effectively in control of the police department (if the chief doesn't cooperate with them they'll appoint a new one). The mayor is just as likely to be corrupt as the sheriff, so having 2 separate law enforcement agencies that are able to investigate each other seems like a good idea. In an ideal situation they'd keep each other honest.
Same with coroner. Let's say you have a corrupt mayor and corrupt police department that would really like it if the coroner reported some deaths to be suicide or of natural causes.
But when everyone is in the same political party and colluding anyways, it doesn't really work.
Interestingly, basically no one has any checks on sheriffs. We can "vote them out" but that's extremely difficult, and sheriffs can interfere with they're competitors with no consequences.
Many counties the sheriff is the primary elected official. They are generally the local executive, outside of cities that are largely enough to need a more formal government.
What happens when a system that only works with an educated, engaged, and intellectually honest population starts attacking education, engagement, and honesty?