The Uvalde Elementary School Massacre is the latest example of the police lying to the public about their activities.
Aaron Rupar examines how the story the police told changed dramatically as their lies were exposed as the facts came to light. As Rupar writes:
The lesson here, as my friend Alexandria Neason wrote better than I can, is that police departments lie, primarily to make themselves look like necessary servants of an endangered public. Allowing them to self-justify off the record is, at this point, inexcusable.
Rupar explores how what the police said about the imaginary school resource officer, the mythical Border Patrol agent, the nonexistent body armor, and the children who weren’t dead yet were lies designed to make law enforcement appear to be the heroes.
After all of these incidents, law enforcement has lost the benefit of the doubt.