Let's not Ignore the Elephant in the Room

Photo: Peter H. Wrege

Now before you get all bent out of shape, I'm not impugning the bravery or commitment of the Orlando Police Force.

But lets face some difficult facts:

The first shots were fired at 2:02 AM

The police breached the building at approximately 5:05 AM

The police response directly contributed to 39 of the 49 deaths (yes, 49... I don't  give a rat's ass about the shooter).

Why do I say that? Because National Guard combat studies have shown that survivability can be increased by up to 66% with immediate paramedic critical trauma care. In practice the chance of survival can easily be boosted by 25%.

The problem is not with our police officers but with our tactics.  We cannot wait 3 hours to breach in a situation like this.  If the police had breached the building in 15 minutes from arrival or even 30 the casualty count would have been much lower.

Police say they had to wait three hours to access (sic) the situation, get armored vehicles on the scene and make sure they had enough personnel. CNN

If your goal is preventing the deaths of police officers our tactics are highly effective, if they are aimed towards reducing or minimizing civilian deaths they suck.  I thought we expected far more from our police than what was given, I am just as sure that many of the officers were immediately prepared to breach the building and were held back by leadership.