I think you hit the nail on the head. I think a lot of police culture is about LOOKING cool. LOOKING like a badass, LOOKING like someone who would be on the Avengers team fighting Thanos and saving the city.So much for living by the gun, and dying by the gun. You are SWAT officers, it's your job! If not that, then why bother signing me up?! I know protections of ones self is important, but if all you're doing is signing up to look "cool or bad ass", then stick to professional cosplay and fuck off. And if you're really that much of a coward, you might as well work Bison, Shang Tsung, or Shao Khan.
But that's all it is. They look like people who would run into a school to save children. They're not those people of course, they just look like those people.
And apparently the Uvalda police have gotten their feelings hurt, they don't like people being mean to them, and they're refusing to go to work and police the city and have brought in units from other cities to do their jobs. Because those dumb parents won't stop bitching and complaining about their kids being killed, and they just don't understand for police their priority in the safety of the officers. The children were just not that important.