Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

“woke” is the new caravan.

It is not hopeless, and we are not helpless.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Republicans do not trust women.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

Bark louder, little dog.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

Hell hath no fury like a farmer bankrupted.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

People are complicated. Love is not.

Welcome to day five of every-bit-as-bad-as-you-thought-it-would-be.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

You are here: Home / Politics / Gun Issues / Open Thread: An Update From Uvalde

Open Thread: An Update From Uvalde

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Per the Houston Chronicle:

A collection of families of victims and survivors of the May 24 shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas are filing a class-action lawsuit seeking $27 billion in damages that will target multiple law enforcement agencies on the federal, state and local levels, reports KSAT in San Antonio. The suit alleges the agencies violated the victims’ rights under the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

“What we intend to do (is) to help serve this community, and that is to file a $27 billion civil rights lawsuit under our United States Constitution, one-of-a-kind in the whole world,” said Charles Bonner, a Bay Area civil rights attorney representing the families, told KSAT. Bonner and his associate have been meeting with families at Pastor Daniel Myers’ church, Tabernacle of Worship, in Uvalde during the weeks leading up to this week’s announcement…

Bonner intends to file the lawsuit next month, he said, after the Department of Justice wraps its investigation into the shooting. Bonner also announced that his firm is working with the gun safety organization Everytown For Gun Safety and several other firms to represent the Uvalde families in the case, according to KSAT.

Reader Interactions

36Comments

  1. 1.

    CaseyL

    Wow.  You gotta go big to get these assholes’ attention, and I am glad the Uvalde families are doing that, and have found lawyers willing to do that.

  5. 5.

    bbleh

    A thousand blessings on the people fighting this fight, and as many on Beto, whose political courage should be much more widely acknowledged.

    (And I’m sorry, but what’s with “several months away” disbursing any of the relief fund?  Yeah I understand you don’t want to inadvertently cross any governmental aid regulations, but how long does it take to figure that out?  A couple weeks maybe?)

  6. 6.

    West of the Rockies

    Is the wretched chief or sheriff of the department still on duty?  I hope he quit or got canned.

  7. 7.

    SpaceUnit

    If successful, these suits will likely only drain taxpayer dollars and bankrupt the local community while leaving the agencies intact and most personnel still protected by LEO unions.

    Seems to me it would be better to sue individuals within those agencies based on the conclusions of the DOJ investigation.  Maybe some version of both.

    I could be wrong.  I was wrong once a long time ago so it’s theoretically possible.

  8. 8.

    Ruckus

    @Ksmiami:

    TX is not the only state with shitty cops. AK has 3 just suspended for beating the crap out of a guy. Supposedly he assaulted another police officer. It was photographed and the video went up on twitter. It looked pretty damn brutal.

  9. 9.

    Feathers

    @Ksmiami: I remember after the Abu Ghraib photos there was an article (New Yorker?) which included an interview with someone who wrote a history of the KGB. He said that one thing that a former old school KGB guy told him that the problem with torture is that it was violence bureaucratized. Violent men might achieve something, but that was because they knew what they were doing. Also, they had stakes in the game. They were doing violence, but weighing their actions against the consequences if they got caught. When it turns into officially sanctioned torture, that flies out the window.

    The other thing that happens is that you lose the opportunity to make quality hires, because nobody decent wants to work with the kind of sadistic goons who want to be able to control and hurt people.

    That is the problem with policing today. Whatever the benefit of allowing police officers to make mistakes on the job, it has gotten so stretched into unreality that it has become a job where you get to do all the violence you care to. And not only no consequences, but you are celebrated for it.

  10. 10.

    Feathers

    @bbleh: The fund for the Boston Marathon victims was the way to go. They set it up, did nothing but give out the money raised. Closed up shop when the money was gone.

  12. 12.

    Ruckus

    @SpaceUnit:

     “I was wrong once a long time ago so it’s theoretically possible.”

    I’ve been wrong twice and thought I was doing pretty good, only once is pretty damn amazing.

  13. 13.

    Immanentize

    @Feathers: Yes. This is true. For a very clear example of that in Iraq, check out the memo delineating the limits on “walling.” Bybee, IIRC.

  16. 16.

    SpaceUnit

    @Ruckus:

    Okay, the truth is that I’m usually wrong about three or four things before I even get out of bed in the morning.

    Sometimes it’s the decision to get out of bed.

  18. 18.

    Doug R

    Fourteenth Amendment sounds like a good tool to attack all gun-humper legislation come to think of it.

  20. 20.

    Ruckus

    @Immanentize:

    Hey! I’m getting there, hopefully another 25 yrs or so, maybe 27 so i can say I’m 100. Of course sometimes you regret getting what you ask for.

    Also I don’t seem to recall that Henry ever thought he was wrong. 99 yrs of never being wrong. Quite the record. At least in his head.

  24. 24.

    VaoR

    IMHO it’s possible the DOJ investigation might be valid. But I do not trust anything coming out of any of the Texas or local agencies. I’m dubious about the other Federal agencies present like Border Patrol, Homeland, and US Marshals. This was a massive clusterfuck and the natural response of any one involved will be to minimize their response and point fingers at others.

    a massive lawsuit might be the only way to find the truth.

  25. 25.

    Ksmiami

    @Ruckus: oh I know- we need national standards and personal liability laws and to break the power of unions. And reduce the military weaponry- it’s useless

  29. 29.

    Villago Delenda Est

    I hope they find a way (unlikely) to make that shitstain Abattoir personally liable for this fuckery.

  30. 30.

    Another Scott

    That’s a headline-grabbing number.  I hope they have a good team of lawyers because they have to know that they will be fought every step of the way.

    In other news:

    There's a very cool company called @brickmaniatoys that has been creating incredibly detailed custom lego, and donating $$ to Ukraine

    They've made Saint Javelin, Ghost of Kyiv, Stugna-P, Mig-29 designs and more.

    And now they made this epic Independence Day video. pic.twitter.com/LGQ5zEGcuR

    — Christian Borys (@ItsBorys) August 23, 2022

    Wow. Very well done, and those guys really love their Legos!!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  32. 32.

    Mai Naem mobile

    @Feathers: i think they had the same Special Master guy whose name escapes me that they used for 9/11.)That’s why I didn’t understand when TFG started talking Special Master for his docs .

  33. 33.

    WaterGirl

    @Omnes Omnibus: On the day that she changed capitalization in her nym I had 3 different people write to me, distressed, because the pie filter was only catching one iteration but not the other.

    I gathered from that that I am not the only person who finds it tiresome.

  35. 35.

    Ksmiami

    @WaterGirl: I live in Texas. The policing throughout the state is pretty sub-par and the botched response to Uvalde was tragically unsurprising. In a just world Beto will get 80 percent of the vote, but again Texas so. I hope the lawsuit is successful and families can get some measure of relief or peace, but the only real solution is to bring back the assault weapons ban. I’m sorry if this is tiresome but truthfully fighting the same battles over and over just to try to keep a civil society is a wretched way to run a country.

  36. 36.

    Ruckus

    @Immanentize:

    I think it was you who mentioned that my military service has stuck with me very strongly over the years.

    A thing about the military is that most people serve at a time when they are still finding themselves and the military, by it’s very nature, burns it’s self into your psyche. The degree of how burned into your psyche is partially from your experience, partial from your character, your upbringing, your expectations and your experiences during your service. Combat seems to sharpen all of that even more. But I’d bet that most people who served during a war have a greater affect from that sharpening, combat or not. It’s a matter of degree. So yes I have strong memories of my service. It’s a 24 hr a day gig. It’s not a job, it’s a lifestyle, one that is extremely different than civilian life.

    I just watched a program on Netflix called To Be of Service. It is about people who served who have PTSD and how service dogs have helped a lot of them. PTSD negatively affects one’s life and the military, by it’s very nature brings a butt load of life at you all at once. If that butt load has people shooting at you, that focuses you even more and the rest of the world just sort of fades into the way back, background. Now I never had people shoot at me and while I regularly carried a loaded weapon, I never had to remove it from the holster other than to hand it to the next person. Not everyone has that same experience.

    I have a couple of points going on here. First, I took my time seriously. I didn’t actually want to be there, but at the end of my time in, I also learned a lot about myself, about others and saw a good part of the better parts of the world. So it sticks, like it or not. Second, I use the VA, as I’ve stated here a bazillion times. I get exposed to people with all sorts of experiences from ok to FUCKING HELL. I spent 2 months in a Navy hospital while I was in the Navy, with a lot of wounded bodies and a lot of wounded psyches. I’ve spent the last 10 yrs using the VA services and I realize that conventional medicine can often repair bodies pretty damn good, but psyches is dramatically harder and civilian medicine really, really does not have an answer at the cheapest cost where warfare psyche is concerned. I know they want to help, their tools just aren’t up to the job. There needs to be more, especially if we are going to be at war far more often than not, which seems to be a republican answer to everything. They don’t have a clue how to build anything so they have to attempt to tear it down. War is an outcome of people who have zero clues as to solving issues like greed for money and/or power or how to get along with the humans in the world. We just shut down an almost 20 yr war and the Netflix show I am talking about shows that we really don’t handle this crap very well. If Joe Biden has done nothing else (Oh but he has!) getting us out of our last war was the best. I’m not betting that within the next 20 yrs we will be back at war, curtesy of the fucking conservative side of the aisle because I don’t want to be right about this.

    Anyone that has a desire to know more, watch To Be of Service on Netflix. It’s very, very good on this subject.

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