Today I listened to a Jocko Willink podcast where he talked about the disastrous police response to the Uvalde school shooting. Jocko is a former Navy Seal who was an operator and later a Navy Seal instructor. Given his background, he’s an expert on tactical assaults, armed intruder response and security.
Jocko didn’t discuss gun control, mental illness, social media, social contagion and the myriad other contributing factors to school shootings on this podcast. He said he wanted to focus on his are of expertise.
He said the reason the police allowed the shooter to remain in the classroom and shoot students for over an hour while the police were insight, with superior force came to one thing – a lack of training.
He then detailed the type of training he gave to Navy Seals. He talked about them learning through repetition, scenario practice and instruction. He said the training would weed out operators who couldn’t do the job – for whatever reasons (including fear, inability to compartmentalize, physical and emotional capacity, etc.). The training would teach the capable operators how to effectively kill an armed intruder in various tactical breach scenarios.
He said most police never get this training.
He was sure, by analyzing the timeline of the attack and response, that these responders did not.
Jocko said there was an armed intruder inside an elementary school shooting. He said there is only one effective response – go! Get in there and kill the intruder.
His analysis was so straightforward, thoughtful and comprehensive that it was clear this is a systematic failure and that he’s correct that proper training would have resulted in fewer children being shot and fewer people dying during that hour long plus attack.
If you are interested, I recommend listening to this episode.
Jocko also talked about two different tactics for protecting kids.
First, he said there should be well trained, armed security in every school. Schools should be hardened against instrusion, automatic/passive security measures should be implemented, and the security officer should be responsible solely for protecting against an armed intruder. In other words, this is not your typical “school security officer” who’s job is to enforce school rules, break up fights on campus and act as a community relations liaison. He said that’s a different job for a different person.
Second, he said if a shooter is outside the building, students should be locked down behind the hardened barriers while security (and police) should kill the attacker before he ever gets inside.
If the shooter has entered the building, he said students should be drilled to run and escape. This is exactly what Sam Harris spoke about a few weeks ago.
One of the things Jocko said was to pay attention to your instincts.
He asked, what would you do if you were a little kid and a bigger kid was coming to beat you up? You’d run away.
He asked, what would you if you were trapped? You’d hide.
He asked, what would you do if someone came to hurt your children? You’d attack.
Before listening to him, I thought our police, across the US, had been over-militarized. After 9/11 and the Patriot Act, I saw pictures of SWAT teams and Tactical Forces with machine guns, body armor, assault vehicles etc.
I watched TV shows (fiction and nonfiction) and saw videos of these heavily armored cops using what appears to me to be excessive force – especially against unarmed citizens or people who had been restrained.
Now I’m seeing this from a different perspective. It’s not about the weapons as much as it is about the training.
Our police need more. They need to learn from experts, like Jocko or his peers, who have extensive military training.
The last point Jocko emphasized was that people will say, “What kind of a world do we live in where schools have to be hardened, armed security is required and we have to prepare student and teachers for armed intruders? I don’t want to live in a world like that!”
His reply was, “This is the world we created and the world we are in.”
I am not a big Jocko fan. I’m not into leadership and self help experts. His “tough guy” persona, deep voice and combat mission stories turn me off.
But I respect his wisdom and his expertise.
I wonder if anyone will listen and more importantly, take action.