What in the world is going on with the Broward County Sheriff’s Department?
The more we find out, the worse this gets
The latest Florida school shooting is not just tragic, but as one reader pointed out, atrocious. Atrocious because every law enforcement agency involved ignored eleventy billion (approximately) red flags.
As more information becomes available, it’s looking more and more like there are some serious problems within the Broward County Sherrif’s department. We’ve chronicled several of those here, here, and here.
The failure of the designated school officer to engage the shooter (he’s now defending himself, saying he believed the shooting was happening outside of the school), then the revelation that four officers sat outside during the bloodbath, EMT’s who weren’t allowed to enter the school and begin working to save the wounded, and that’s just the beginning of what’s turning into an all-out scandal.
Most recently, Buzzfeed reported, based on dispatch records they obtained, that the number of calls to the Cruz home was double that disclosed by the BCSD. Most of the calls not mentioned by the BCSD were for domestic disturbance issues, fights between Cruz and his brother, or the like. Nonetheless, they were not included in reports and records released by Broward County.
Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel refuses to resign and blames the officer on duty for his failure to engage the shooter:
Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel refusing to resign telling @nbc6: "I gave him a gun. I gave him a badge. I gave him the training. If he didn’t have the heart to go in, that’s not my responsibility." Clip from our one-on-one interview below. #DouglasHighSchool pic.twitter.com/FV5Gn0ZEBY
— Erika Glover ???? (@ErikaGloverNBC6) February 25, 2018
As heat on the department has intensified, the Broward County Sheriff’s office strongly encouraged all employees to “stand as one” against a “flurry of media allegations.”
Letter from the Broward County Sheriff's Office obtained by @FoxNews' @IngrahamAngle urges employees to vigorously defend embattled Sheriff Scott Israel. pic.twitter.com/slQ9RCefsc
— Debra Heine (@NiceDeb) February 27, 2018
For several days, a story suggesting Broward County softened policies against juveniles has made its way around the internet. This story alleges the Broward County Sheriff’s Department was in cahoots with the Broward County School District. An arrangement of some kind was made wherein BCSD would go easy on minors in order to artificially inflate crime statistics, helping both the department and the school district to obtain grant money.
The nagging question here: why didn’t Broward County officials take repeated warnings about Cruz seriously? This theory may provide some context.
Whether or not this theory is true, we don’t know. What we do know is that according to a handful of experts, Cruz could have faced charges well before he went on a murder rampage had Broward County handled his case differently or even handled his case like other departments in the area.
From the Miami Herald:
His troubling behavior gave law enforcement plenty of opportunities to investigate and arrest him — and even take away his guns — long before he shot up Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland last week, according to interviews with former South Florida prosecutors and legal experts.
In recent years, South Florida police detectives have arrested a slew of young men in unrelated cases who exhibited similar, troubling behavior on a variety of charges. Cops took them seriously.
It never happened with Cruz.
“There’s no doubt there was a failure,” former Miami-Dade prosecutor Marshall Dore Louis said of how law enforcement handled tips about Cruz. “The idea that they were aware of it and could do nothing is absurd. … We can’t let this happen again.”
…“The standard isn’t whether that information itself was ‘arrestable’ but whether law enforcement had an obligation to investigate a violation of the law,” said John Priovolos, a former Miami prosecutor. “A detective should have been assigned. Subpoenas should have been sent to Instagram to locate the IP address and verify it was Cruz.
“Cruz could have been arrested — maybe he would have been diverted to a mental-health court, but he would have been under some sort of supervision.”
Even if a case couldn’t have been made, the teen might have been placed squarely on the radar of police analysts who monitor potentially dangerous people who post online, Priovolos said.
“At the very least, the most capable intelligence detectives should have been monitoring him,” Priovolos said.
But none of that happened. And now 17 people are dead.
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Comments
This Sheriffs department is an absolute mess. The men had no confidence to charge in. You need proper training to go in, gun forward, fast and try for the first shot. To do that you need a lot of range time.
It’s not just the proper shooting training, it is the training in their role of using Restorative Justice and civil citations with these students so as to not jeopardize their life chances.
http://invisibleserfscollar.com/change-your-belief-change-your-behavior-change-your-life-tranzi-obe-again-at-the-forefront/ came from attending comparable programs in Atlanta that were a composite of school districts, police, social justice activists, and people convinced that virtual reality could be used now to rehabilitate instead of incarceration.
Sometimes, contrary to what Broward taught, the problem really is in a deeply troubled individual and not the “situation” as they insisted in the cited materials.
There’s one big reason that guarantees that the deputy who refused to engage did NOT think the shooting was coming from the outside – if he DID believe that, he would have run for the door as fast as he could and barricaded it as soon as he got inside.
I was thinking that. A real cop would only take cover behind his car if he knew where the shooter was and shots were coming at the cop. A real cop would do whatever he/she needed to do to protect those kids. A coward would hide behind his car and later make vague claims.
This looks like BCSO safe-space behavior to me.
Also, supposing he thought it came from outside, he still made no attempt to locate or engage the shooter, inside or outside.
He chickened out and that’s the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
speaking of chickening out – here’s a video clip of the Broward Deputy in action!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWjxRwHTZiw
I would have gone in even if I had no weapon.
No death wish here, but had God granted me the chance, I would have picked it up.
I can throw a rock.
In battle, many options arise.
I am fast on my feet. Even for an old fat guy.
I can out-think any strategy an 18 year old can come up with.
I have my wits.
And I am not afraid to meet death, or God.
I am prepared.
I also have corners that I bet the little psycho wasn’t checking.
I can see myself doing the wrong thing, but I cannot see myself doing NO thing.
Source: past experience in crisis situations
What they are missing mostly is Competent leadership.
And the longer the current sheriff stays on the job, the longer Broward county will lack adequate leadership.
He refuses to resign, it’s time for Rick Scott to move for a suspension.
It’s also that the SRO jobs are highly coveted by the most cunning and corrupt dirty cops. It’s easy duty where they get to shake down high school students.
Whats happening is that Israel is a disgusting political opportunist who only cares about making himself look good rather than actually enforcing the law – and his department reflects this attitude at every level.
Love the part where he has all of his staff tasked with being PR shills to protect him.
Well let us see; According to American Thinker in an article a few days ago a tipster warned the FBI that Cruz had guns and was into ISIS. The Sheriff is cozy with the muslim brotherhood and one of his deputies is an official of CAIR, gives active shooter lessons at the local mosque. That same deputy is one of the brave guys hiding behind police cars while the shooting is going on. The shooter was well known as a troubled dangerous person. Guess the CAIR affiliated deputy thought as long as the Kafir are killing each other why should I get involved? Now it comes to lite that the “sheriff” is getting his employees to feed the media more outlandish stories than the media usually comes up with themselves. How much more surreal could it get. Waiting for another shoe to drop and sure as the sun rises there will be another shoe dropping.
Talk about scraping the bottom of the barrel, a CAIR shill. CAIR was founded by some International Association of Palestine (IAP) stooges. IAP is a Hamas fundraising front in America. One of CAIR’s functions is to use low grade terrorism against any journalist who has the gall to tell the truth about bad actor Muslims.
My Forum post earlier today…
Ragspierre | February 27, 2018 at 8:41 am
https://hotair.com/archives/2018/02/27/broward-county-deputies-ordered-defend-sheriff-video/
Is it just me, or does Sherf Israel constitute a living, breathing argument on several levels as to why we NEED the Second Amendment?
————————————-
He’s corrupt, not just incompetent. He’s a Collectivist political hack, not merely a self-interested elected “office-holder”. He’s someone who will lie on national TV, not merely someone who has views with which I disagree.
The banners say that 2A is only there for States to prevent the Federal government from tyranny. So… who protects the people within the State from the State? It would be circular to say the Feds. The NRA did try to assist freed slaves from just that State supported tyranny in the South post-Civil War. I think there were known corrupt state officials at the time of the Bill of Rights. “Let every man be armed” wasn’t a “State’s Right” issue alone.. it started with individual rights. The wonder if the Sheriff’s Lambo has police gear on board?
This story alleges the BCSD was in cahoots with the Broward County School District.
Huh? BCSD was in cahoots with BCSD? That sounds rather tautological.
I suspect that should read ‘BCSO in cahoots with BCSD’.
Letter from the Broward County Sheriff’s Office obtained by @FoxNews’ @IngrahamAngle urges employees to vigorously defend embattled Sheriff Scott Israel.
In other words … we’re dealing with another Swamp.
And a lot of reptiles…
Lets cut to the chase. This is a Democratic County. Anyone living in a Democratic County should realize the same processes which enabled Cruze are probably the same processes being used in your county.
Can all you antiSemites stop picking on Isreal?
Yes, in this case we are very anti-Israel but it is important to remember that we are not being antisemitic.
Sorry … not funny.
Don’t get blinded here, by the light being shined on Sheriff Israel. The Sheriff’s Office, under Israel, is a disaster, in terms of crime prevention. And, it should have intervened long ago in the life of Nikolas Cruz. But, the problem encompasses every aspect of the Broward County Justice System, including the School board, the Broward County Judiciary, most of the police departments in the county and the Broward County Chiefs of Police Association.
https://www.scribd.com/document/372308388/Broward-County-Promise-Program-Fully-Executed-Collaborative-Agreement-Final-Document#from_embed
All were equally culpable in this incident. And, do not forget that the Broward County School system made the conscious decision, several times, not to secure the county’s schools.
The entire political leadership of Broward County, as well as its largest municipalities, were a party to this Promise Program. They are all Democrats. And the Progressive Establishment is going to protect them. To do that, they need a scapegoat. Enter Sheriff Israel. While the Sheriff deserves everything that is coming to him, people would be wise to remember to keep an eye on the other people behind the curtain. They are all responsible for these deaths.
Do not become mesmerized by the smoke and mirrors here. Look closely behind the curtain.
Another Obama & Holder debacle.
Thank you for helping me to understand why we see Jake Tapper and Buzzfeed and the other ususal suspects throwing Israel under the bus. I’ve been musing on it, wondering why they would be willing to stray even for a second off the NRA/gun control narrative. It makes perfect sense now. They are in total CYA mode. The lawsuits will be epic and many of their comrades will be exposed.
Left wing New Yorker who will not take responsibility. This asshat needs a good old fashioned tar and feathering and being run out of town on a rail.
If he does resign, he’ll likely just be replaced by another New York liberal. Broward County is controlled by Northeastern leftists – mostly from NYC.
Does someone maybe well connected… someone….
Have a finger on this kid’s $800,000.00 inheritance?
Makes a worthy motive.
Why are we only hearing from the Sheriff and the now former deputy? Do all deputies report directly to the sheriff? Most agencies have intervene=ing positions like sergeants, lieutenants, captains and maybe more… There has been exactly zero public discussion of where these people were during the event.
I cannot help but think that there just may have been someone in authority telling them to “wait” and to “just contain the situation”. It would be more expected that the sheriff would push the responsibility for this mess down onto them (we all know that stuff flows downhill) and claim he was a victim of incompetent supervisors and commanders; the name Phillip Queeg comes to mind here. I know for a fact that such things happen.
I think the reason that is happening is because many in the department are in Full Metal CYA mode.
Of course there is the possibility that it is just rotten from peel to core.
Many of the command staff may be Sheriff clones if Israel has been Sheriff for a number of years.
Sherrif Israel is a reality TV wannabee complete with his own local radio show.
He’s more of a self promoter than anything else and the local media, who like the guy, have been covering for him for years, even burying a bizarre sex scandal of his in 2012.
There is a “theory” out there that the school district and the sheriffs office came to an arrangement that helped the school district lower the crime rate by ignoring crimes which would get the school district increased funding in return for the improvement.
Go back up the thread to Mac45’s post. The link is to a copy of the official agreement amongst the responsible parties. Have a barf-bag handy.
Not a theory a fact:https://www.browardprevention.org/behavior/promise/
If you google Promise Program you can see all the states and munis
participating in this program. The superintendent for BC schools is from Chicago where he “successfully lowered the juvi crime rate”.
What a bunch of disgusting human beans.
A Great Truth: If you reward bad behavior you will get more bad behavior.
This arrangement with the schools to obfuscate students criminal records is why Trayvon Martin never got an official record.
His burglar proceeds were listed by the SRO as ” found” property .Subsequently much of the property was never returned to owners
Here’s the bottom line. It was the deliberate and intentional policy of Broward County to keep kids out of the criminal justice system. Criminal activity was allowed without holding these kids to account. The Valentine’s Day shooting was the consequence of that decision. Full stop. Let the obfuscations begin.
So… obviously the NRA’s fault this happened.
And Gov. Scott’s, Senator Rubio and President Trump’s. Have I left anyone out? Oh yeah, all 5+ million NRA members, all workers in the firearms industry, the companies of those workers and all Republicans who don’t vote for the fantasies of gun grabbers.
I read that the officers were told not to enter the building before turning on their cameras and they didn’t have cameras.
This explains why they (School officials and the like) encouraged the radicalization of the students to protest! This is all a smoke screen for the Broward County Government’s Far Left leanings, corruption and ineptness.
The Supreme Court has ruled that police have no constitutional duty to protect any individual.
What do we even need the police for? Protect and serve – the only protecting and serving some police departments do is to protect their own asses and serve their own interests. Sorry, maybe I’m a little bitter over the abortion called the Coward Country Sheriff’s Department.
Scott Israel is the absolute worst kind of cop. His entire focus is on blaming everything and everybody except himself, and trampling on the rights of law abiding citizens.
I rarely wish this upon anyone, but he really should commit seppuku.
The Supreme Court has ruled that police have no constitutional duty to protect any individual.
What do we even need the police for? Protect and serve – the only protecting and serving some police departments do is to protect their own a**es and serve their own interests. Sorry, maybe I’m a little bitter over the abortion called the Coward Country Sheriff’s Department.
Scott Israel is the absolute worst kind of cop. His entire focus is on blaming everything and everybody except himself, and trampling on the rights of law abiding citizens.
I rarely wish this upon anyone, but he really should commit seppuku.
The POS throws his loser employee under the bus but now wants support? He was the problem that day. Numerous times they had the opportunity to stop it…yet failed.
But It’s all those legal gun owners that are at fault?
The sheriff is yet another in a long line of D tools or fools.
This is what is going on with the BCSO –
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2018/02/26/jack-cashill-incompetence-wasnt-the-problem-in-broward-county/
Kemberlee,
I know it’s trivial, but locally they are referred to, and refer to themselves, as BSO (Broward Sheriff’s Office).
Corpses for cash program. A latent major issue here is actually the federal funding for the Sheriff’s Departments. Because it has been disclosed publicly that the crime rate has been artificially inflated in Broward County to collect more federal funds, this in itself should be a reason to Federally subpoena Sherrif Israel to Washington to stand before a house committee. Trump and Sessions should be Furious about this abuse and also get directly involved. Possible Indictments to follow. FURTHERMORE, Federal payments based on crime rates should be phased out immediately because it’s too easily abused at the cost of human lives. Of course some will scream that the counties won’t have enough money to fight crime. This is simply not true because the counties will always go to the local government for tax increases. And that’s a good thing because it keeps local voters and taxpayers involved, interested, and they will hold their local governments in greatest accountability. Under the scenario of Greater local accountability, if Israel won’t resign immediately, then at the next election, the voters can say to Israel, “you’re fired!”
This is democracy in action or lack thereof when a Democrat is in charge
The story you link to from The Conservative Treehouse is more than an allegation – it is the result of several years of investigation and is backed up by lots of documentation, all of which is accessible via links from the Treehouse stories. The Cashill story linked above is a good starting place…