Florida Supreme Court upholds suspension of Broward Sheriff Scott Israel by Gov. Ron DeSantis
DeSantis: “Scott Israel failed to protect the families and students of Broward County and I look forward to the @FLSenate resuming the process of formal removal.”
In January, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel over his response to the Parkland School shooting in 2018.
Israel tried to get his job back through the courts, but Florida’s Supreme Court ruled DeSantis has the constitutional right to suspend Israel.
The Miami Herald wrote that “Florida’s constitution allows the governor to suspend a sheriff for neglect of duty or incompetence.” The Sun Sentinel from January reported on DeSantis’s executive order:
In his executive order, the governor cited incompetence and neglect of duty. At the press conference, he did not mince words.
“I have no interest in dancing on Scott Israel’s political grave,” DeSantis said, “but suffice it to say the massacre might never have happened had Broward had better leadership in the sheriff’s department.”
The suspension caps a nearly year-long series of revelations that exposed the failure of Broward sheriff’s deputies to run in to save children at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Some deputies said they couldn’t remember when they’d last been trained to handle an active shooter, even though the agency had a confused, chaotic response to a mass shooting at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in 2017.
Israel fought back as he “filed a lawsuit challenging whether DeSantis had the authority to suspend him.” He claimed DeSantis never “specified any statutory or official duty that Israel neglected or performed incorrectly.” I guess he didn’t read or listen to DeSantis’s order or press conference.
Broward Circuit Judge David Haimes ruled against Israel in April. Israel’s attorneys filed an appeal, but the Supreme Court said DeSantis could suspend him.
Today’s @flcourts opinion leaves no doubt of my authority to suspend a government official for neglect of duty and incompetence. Scott Israel failed to protect the families and students of Broward County and I look forward to the @FLSenate resuming the process of formal removal.
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) April 23, 2019
Of course Israel attorney’s bashed the ruling and promised he would not stop fighting.
After this ruling, it heads to Florida’s “Republican-majority Senate, which will decide if his [DeSantis’s] decision stands.”
Israel’s attorneys also issued a warning to the rest of elected officials. He urged them to remain “aware of the potential for Governor overreach when discharging their duties.”
How pathetic. Anyone with a brain knows that Israel did not do his job properly. The shooter killed 17 people and injured 17 more. The sheriff ignored warning signs and tips about the shooter. Then he didn’t allow his people to storm into the school to take down the shooter.
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The Coward of Broward goes down in flames.
I hope they force him to watch the Monty Python “Brave Brave Sir Robin” sketch with his face superimposed at that Senate hearing. He is a joke of a police officer.
Slowly the wheels turn……..
Wait… are you saying… “everyone considered him the coward of the county?” ????
Of course Israel attorney’s bashed the ruling and promised he would not stop fighting.
Well, it’s nice that he’ll fight for something, even if it’s not the safety of high-school students.
He’ll fight for his pension and dental plan.
Protect and Serve are just some words someone wrote somewhere.
Like his chickenshit deputy that was at the school and afraid to go in, retired drawing about $8500 per month. Total BS.
The Florida Supreme Court’s opinion also reminded me that Israel was in charge during the January 2017 shooting at the Fort Lauderdale airport where cops that were supposed to be patrolling the baggage area were actually at a retirement party.
That shooting was another screw up under Israel’s watch and that screw up encompassed the actual shooting and the aftermath.
There are two amazing things about the Court’s decision. Israel filed suit on March 7, 2019. The Supreme Court decision was issued on April 21, 2019. That’s 6 weeks from filing, through 3 courts and a decision by the Florida Supreme Court.
The second thing is that the Supreme Court constantly references their role in the process of suspending / removing an elected official. They never stray from their “lane.” They are mindful and in fact rely on the state Constitution and the separation of powers as all three branches are involved in the process.
(It should also be noted that Opa-locka, FL, a city that is so corrupt the citizens are looking to disband the city itself, has a City Councilman that thinks they should hire Israel to be the police chief.) Opa-locka is so bad that the head of the oversight board which took over the city after years of corruption, quit saying no one can deal with this City and the people in the government. Israel and his ineptness and corruption will fit right in.)
I am soooo glad to see that the misinformation on the MSDHS shooting is still alive and well. I posted the following liink before and I will do so again. Please check it out, paying particular attention to the entire timeline.
http://projects.sun-sentinel.com/2018/sfl-parkland-school-shooting-critical-moments/#nt=oft12aH-1la1
In the first place, the Sheriff’s Office was NOT in charge of security at the school. That would be the Broward County School Board [against whom DeSantis took NO action]. And, School Board personnel were derelect in reporting Cruz’s presence on the campus. You will also notice the the majority of the casualties occurred before Peterson even knew that a shooter was on campus. And, while Peterson may have neglected his duty, he very well might not have located Cruz, before Cruz shot the rest of the casualties in this case, by entering immediately, as this is a three story building. The same is true of the other responding deputies, only one of whom arrived on scene prior to the last shot being fired.
As to the shooting at the Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport, the airline released a bag containing a loaded firearm and ammunition to a passenger without ever notifying the Sheriff’s Office. And, the shooter was taken into custody within 90 seconds of initiating the shooting. So, what incompetence, on the part of the Sheriff’s Office, existed, which led up to this incident? None. While there were communication problems following the incident, none of that had any impact upon the actual incident itself.
Everyone wanted a scapegoat. Somebody had to be responsible. And Israel was a toad Sheriff. He was not well liked, And though he was incompetent, to a large degree, there have been a number of sheriffs in Florida who were equally incompetent who were never suspended for incompetence. Also, if you follow the timeline, in the MSDHS shooting, it is nearly impossible to see where any action, on the part of Israel, was incompetent. He was not on scene until long after the incident had finished. He was not actively directing the actions of his deputies. And, it is impossible to say that his departmental policies allowed the incident to happen or continue, given the short time period of occurrence and the physical lay-out of the building and campus and the fact that he was not responsible for security at the school. As to the fact that Cruz had not been arrested previously, any arrest would not have prevented him from committing this act, though it might have made it more difficult. And, the School Board, along with the entire Broward County criminal justice system were signatories to that the Promise Agreement.
While few people in Broward County are likely to be bemoaning the suspension of Israel, his suspension has done nothing to change conditions in that county or made the schools any safer. It was a sop to the parents association and cover for other county politicians. It was political and the charge of incompetence did not meet the traditional levels for suspension of a Sheriff in Florida.
That the SCOF punted the case to the Florida Senate, is to be expected, as a mechanism for appealing the suspension already exists.
A Sheriff has a duty to uphold the constitution. This prick gleefully jumped on the progressive bandwagon to overturn the 2nd Amendment. He was part of CNN’s ambush “town hall” meeting and was happy to smear the NRA and all gun owners. Fuck this guy, he has no business being dog catcher much less Sheriff.
I generally regard Mac45 as competent and sensible. However, on this one, I disagree.
His lieutenant, a female as I recall, told the onsight deputies to hang back, and another municipality’s officers arrived and they were still hanging back.
The point of being in charge is that you train your employees on what to do when you aren’t there. He failed that in spades.
Meadow Pollack’s father – whatever he thinks of Israel – is what I would adhere to. I have no doubt he has parsed this event mercilessly.
There’s no doubt more blame should be spread around, however, that doesn’t change Israel’s culpability, nor his lieutenant’s. I believe she resigned, or whatever. I seem to remember she is no longer with the department.
And yes, Obama’s policies are also to blame. Don’t discipline problem kids? Riiiiightttttt. For a father, he sure is clueless.
That would be the female lieutenant that was was Israel’s ol’ stomping ground, the Fort Lauderdale PD who had no management or supervisory experience when she was made a lieutenant.
The more that you dig into Israel and his background and activities, the more you realize that he never should have been in charge when the Parkland shooting occurred.
Florida Sheriffs are by nature political creatures more so than law enforcement officers but Israel took that to the extreme appointing people in the department that were not qualified, hijacking investigations into the activities of his friends, budget problems, etc.
His actions and inactions are going to cost Broward County huge bucks. The Lauderdale Airport shooting has several lawsuits working through the courts as well as lawsuits from Parkland.
There may not be a criminal charge that fits what he did in his office, but there should be.
You all keep missing the point. I’m not sure why.
I can’t make this any clearer. Though Israel was an incompetent Sheriff, not the first by the way. He was in no way responsible for either the shooting at the Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport OR MSDHS. No matter who was Sheriff, the airport shooting would have happened anyway. An airline gave a passenger access to a firearm and ammunition inside the terminal building. There was nothing that the Sheriff’s Office could have done to prevent that. All they could do was to respond after it occurred. As the timeline I gave you a link to showed that the majority of the casualties occurred on the first floor of bldg 12, before Dep. Peterson even knew it was occurring. Now, again, there was almost nothing the Sheriff’s Office could have done to prevent it. Even if Cruz had been charged and convicted of some kind of felony before the shooting, he could still have acquired the rifle on the private market or on the black market. And, the Sheriff did not have control over the security at the school. That was the responsibility of the School Board and the School Board failed to institute effective security measures and their employees refused to follow procedure and notify the office that Cruz had come onto campus carrying a gun case or other bag. All of them knew him and knew he was not supposed to be on campus and had been involved in violent episodes in the past. Even when the coach was told that Cruz had a rifle in the stairwell, the office was never notified. In other words, if the alarm had been given during the 2 minutes between the time that Cruz was first sighted and the time when he fired the first shot, it is possible that no student or teacher would have lost their lives. But, that didn’t happen.
However, because this was a massacre, somebody, in a position of power had to shoulder the blame. Somebody had to suffer. Interestingly, the School Board, which was the entity which failed to secure the campus, had a policy to avoid prosecuting students for criminal acts and whose employees failed to notify the office, at the school, upon sighting a known threat on campus. The State Attorney went along with the Promise Program. The Courts went along. The entire Broward County power structure bore some responsibility for this. And yet, no one seems to care. So, who to throw to the slobbering mob? The Toad Sheriff, who had little political influence in the county. Everything which happened to Israel was political. It allowed DeSantis to make some of his supporters feel good and to protect the Democrat power structure in Broward County. So, Israel gets sacrificed. He rightly feels that he was unfairly treated in all of this. He will not be missed in Florida. But, his suspension has done nothing to make thee schools any safer. And, that is not going to change. People have to understand that. The suspension of Sheriff Israel was nothing but political theater.
Mac 45,
I believe it is you who is missing the point. One can argue that the BCSO could have stopped the Parkland shooting based on previous incidents with the shooter. But that is not the point either.
What is the point and why Israel is on the hot seat is not what happened prior to the incidents at Stoneman or the airport. What he is in trouble for is the response from his department. In both cases, the response was inept and clownish. That’s on Israel because of the people he appointed to positions of authority and the training received.
Compare the Stoneman shooting to the Pulse night club shooting where police from Orlando and surrounding counties acted in a professional and coordinated response.
If you bother to read the Commission (after action) reports on both incidents, there are tremendous differences in the response, all of which can be laid at the feet of the Sheriff and their respective departments.
Sorry to say this, but this isn’t about the shooters as you seem to want to make it be. This isn’t about what could have prevented the shootings. This is about the response of one department during and after the shootings themselves.
“Sorry to say this, but this isn’t about the shooters as you seem to want to make it be. This isn’t about what could have prevented the shootings. This is about the response of one department during and after the shootings themselves.”
Gitarcarver,
You seem to dismiss the fact that Israel’s suspension was entirely due to the MSDHS shooting incident. But, that was the whole reason for the suspension. There are any number of Sheriffs, in the state, who are as incompetent, if not more so, than Israel. None of them have been suspended. Historically, there have been far more incompetent sheriffs, who were never suspended. Historically, the only way that a Florida sheriff gets suspended is when he is under indictment. So, what was different in Israel’s case? The MSDHS massacre.
The media, the parents and loved ones of the slain, people of good conscience all wanted to know who was responsible for the incident and how it could be kept from happening in the future. The answer was not that difficult. Two things had to be done. The first was for the School Board to put effective security measures in place to begin with. The second thing was to quit ignoring the criminal behavior of students. Neither was going to happen, for political reasons. The first would require that the School Board admit that it did not have effective security in place and it would have to spend an incredible amount of money to implement a security program which would eliminate the potential for such an incident to occur in the future. That was political suicide. The second would not be acknowledged, because it involved almost all of the countywide political institutions and politicians. But, the incident happened and someone had to be responsible for it. All fingers start pointing at the Toad Sheriff.
The fact that the Sheriff was responsible for site security has been largely ignored, by everyone except me, apparently. The fact that Cruz was on campus for only about 8 minutes and that the entire shooting incident took about 5 minutes is largely ignored. The fact that even after Cruz was shooting, no Code Red had been issued, which resulted in students leaving the relative safety of their classrooms when the fire alarm went off. The fact that Cruz had actually shot over half the casualties before the Sheriff’s Deputy assigned to the school, Dep. Petersen, even knew of the presence of Cruz on campus is ignored. That all the responding deputies, except Petersen and one other, arrived after the last casualty had occurred. Ignored is the fact that the surveillance footage was on a twenty minute delay, rather than being live, a fact unknown to the Sheriff’s deputies.
What was stressed was the fact that Peterson did not immediately charge into Bldg 12, upon arrival. This would not have helped the people already shot. It may not have stopped the rest of the carnage, but, then again, a couple of people might have been saved. The fact that officers, who arrived at the very end of the shooting stopped to put on protective vests and then, at the direction of the officer on scene, Peterson, took up positions outside the school, was stressed. As the shooting had stopped, this was no longer strictly an active shooter situation. The fact a responding supervisor called for a perimeter to be established, after the shooting, was criticized, even though Cruz took advantage of the lack of a perimeter to escape into the community. The lack of a clear on-site command structure, as evidenced by the lack of a command post after the shooting had stopped, was emphasized. The fact that that Cruz had not been arrested in previous contacts with the Sheriff’s Office were criticized, even though such arrests would not have kept Cruz from obtain his weapon, should ha have desired to do so. Are you detecting a pattern here?
You tout the “response” to incidents such as the FLL Airport shooting, the MSDHS shooting and the Pulse nightclub shooting. Well, a response does not prevent the initial incident. All it does is clean up the mess. In the Pulse shooting, the Orlando PD, which was eventually praised for its response, did not rush in to confront the shooter, once the shooting had stopped. Responding units set up a perimeter and contained the situation. But, the response did not “save” the people who were already shot. There was a small foot note criticizing the FBI for not paying closer attention to the shooter, prior to the incident, but that was quickly forgotten. The Airport shooting was planned by the shooter. And, it was facilitated by the fact that the airline knowingly gave the shooter a checked box containing the handgun and ammunition used in the incident, without notifying the Sheriff’s Office. Deputies were on the scene in approximately a minute and took the shooter into custody. The ensuing confusion was the result of a lack of specific intelligence, inaccurate information and a lack of on-site control. But, none of that resulted in the casualties suffered. I have already dealt with the MSDHS incident, at length. In all three cases, there was no way for the responsible LEA to prevent the incident from taking place [unless the off-duty officer at the door to the Pulse nightclub had gotten lucky when he initially exchanged gunfire with the shooter]. So, what was difference? Children were involved at MSDHS. So, someone had to be responsible. And, the Sheriff was chosen to take the fall.
To essentially blame the MSDHS shooting on Israel was the easiest way out, politically. He was one man, not several as in the case of the school board. He was not well liked. And, he had made himself highly visible, following the incident. His suspension would satisfy the media and the parents of the victims as well as give cover to the other politicians in the county who shared responsibility for the incident. Now, everyone could move on and forget it. Closure, both personal and political, had been obtained. But, the children were still no safer than they were before. No significant increases in security occurred. Yep, an incompetent Sheriff was removed from office. We can all breathe easier now. The RESPONSE to the next mass shooting at a Broward County school will hopefully be much better choreographed. Of course, the mass shooting will still occur, but hey, how you respond to clean up the mess, after it is all over, is the important thing, right?
Edit: “The fact that the Sheriff was responsible for site security has been largely ignored, by everyone except me, apparently” should read. “The fact that the Sheriff was NOT responsible for site security has been largely ignored, by everyone except me, apparently.”
Read the time line. PLEASE.
I’m not excusing or or defending the problems encountered by members of the Sheriff’s Office. However, people have an obligation to be accurate in their statements about these incidents.
Here is the unvarnished truth about the school security situation in Broward County, and in most of Florida outside of Miami-Dade county, which actually has a fairly stringent security program, at the time of the MSDHS incident. There was NO effective school security. No metal detectors. No entry and exit screening. The few gates which were locked, during the school day, were opened and left unguarded just prior to recessing the school for the day. A single armed security officer [usually a local LEO]. None of the powers that be considered the possibility that a school massacre could happen there. Not even the parents of the students. But, it did happen. And everyone had to cover their behinds. Someone had to be responsible, or everyone would have to be. And some people could not accept that. So, as I said, it was decided that the Toad Sheriff would be the scapegoat. How often have we heard the refrain that we have to protect our children, after such incidents as Sandy Hook? And, how much has been done to actually do that? Not very much. Even after MSDHS, people are wringing their hands and whining about schools looking like prisons, if they enact efficient security measures. People simply do not want to acknowledge that any threat exists. To acknowledge that fact, makes people feel insecure and fearful. And, they do not want that. What suspending Israel did was to allow people to feel safe, even though there is no evidence that any greater security exists. It also allows people to ignore the responsibility that other politicians had for this incident. It allows the new governor to engage in political payback. And, it allows some to feel that they are actually doing something to make children safer.
It is nothing but politics.
Once again, you talking about prevention while the rest of us are talking the response of the BCSO led by Israel.
If you want to claim that Israel is a political scapegoat and ignore the reality of what happened, that’s fine.
It won’t change the fact that his department failed at almost every level during the two shootings.
We taxpayers pay millions of dollars in training and hiring for police. In my Florida county alone, the training budget is several million dollars. So when a gun was spotted on a campus, the police responded quickly and appropriately. When there was a suspected explosive device, once again the police acted decisively and appropriately.
When gunmen were shooting people in Broward County, the police were eating cake and not following procedures and training.
I hate to say this, but “the buck stops here” means it stops at the Sheriff.
So, how does the suspension of the Sheriff prevent these incidents from happening? It doesn’t. But, you do not care about that. Prevention is irrelevant, as long as we can blame someone for the RESPONSE to the problem. See, I’m not the oone who is ignoring reality, you are.
If there was a deputy in the baggage claim area of the airport, when the shooter opened fire, it might have reduced the number of casualties. But, it would not have stopped incident. However, if the airline had notified the Sheriff’s Office that it was releasing a firearm and ammunition to a passenger and that had been turned over to that passenger outside the terminal, by a deputy, that might well have prevented to whole thing.
Now, there is a BBBIIIGGG difference between SPOTTING a gun in campus and responding to an in-progress active shooter situation. Guns are spotted on campus in Broward County several times a year and such cases are handled quickly and efficiently. They get little or no press. Now, if the school resource officer in YOUR county first learns that there is a gun on campus when the possessor of that weapon has already downed several people, just how effective is that? Not very. In the MSDHS case, the Sheriff’s Deputy was not aware that there was even a gun on campus, until the shooting had stsrted and several casualties already existed. But, several of the employees of the school, at least of whom was told that Cruz was armed, knew Crua was on campus, knew he was not supposed to be there, knew he was carrying a bag and, knew he had been dangerous in the past and simply told NO ONE. So, exactly HOW is that the Sheriff’s fault. He was not in charge of security at the school. His deputies could only react to the situation. Let me know how well your local LEA does when a mass shooting is underway at a school in your county.
Like it or not, Israel WAS a political scapegoat. His removal did nothing to make the school safer for the children. And, in fact, there is no evidence that the Broward County School Board, which IS responsible for security at the public schools, made any meaningful changes in their security program. That is the reality of the situation. People might FEEL safer, with Israel gone. But, they are not.
Do you realize how silly you look when you agree that he was incompetent, but then argue that he shouldn’t have been fired for incompetence?
Police firearms training has addressed “active shooter” incidents ever since Columbine, 20 years ago. There, the cops stood around waiting for SWAT while students were being murdered. I don’t know how Broward County dropped the ball on something this important.
Every department I know of has a standard policy: If you hear shooting in a school, you should call for backup on the radio, but immediately go in and do whatever it takes to stop the shooting. Like any other crime in progress, you don’t need permission or orders from anyone to stop the crime. I don’t understand why the Broward County deputies were told to hang back, or why they even bothered asking.
It wasn’t long ago that this guy was “toast of the town” at CNN, but then Brian Srelter also claimed Michael Avanetti was a credible presidential candidate.
Brian Stelter, the George Costanza look alike…
The best news of today, this rodent goes down in flames.
The suspension of the sheriff was for a systemic failure in his department over several incidents culminating in the massive failure at Parkland.
You say that Peterson charging into the building would not have helped those who were shot and that’s true. The fact of the matter is that the training is to enter the building (not charging in recklessly) and try to get eyes on the shooter. That did not happen and the shooter walked away. That failure of the correct response is totally on Israel. The same is true with the secondary officers from the BCSO that arrived. Instead of getting eyes on the shooter, they stood by and let the shooter walk away.
One of the egregious errors the Commission notes is the communication – or lack of communication – between the officers from the BCSO and other agencies. The failure of the onsite command is also noted. You want to skip all of that and say “no big deal.”
(Also note that the other agencies wanted to go into the building to save other people but were held back because of the on-site supervisor who had been hand picked by Israel despite not having supervisor experience in any capacity.)
You are entitled to your opinion even though it is contrary to the facts.
As for preventing the shooting, you may not realize it but there were bills passed by the Florida legislature to address the very things you talked about.
As for the program that let the shooter walk around and not be arrested, you know who was a major proponent of that? If you say “Sheriff Israel,” you win a cookie. He was also against metal detectors, against allowing teachers to be armed, and against more armed SRO’s in the schools.
It should also be noted that the same Commission wrote the training for such events within the BCSO was lacking and not done even though the budget called for the training and Israel said the deputies had trained for the situation.
Yet for some unknown reason, you keep wanting to say that Israel’s departmental failures don’t reflect on him.
Your comment that “there are other incompetent Sheriffs in Florida” shows a lack of critical thinking. It is ludicrous to even postulate that one cannot and should not get rid of incompetent and corrupt leaders because there are other leaders that are corrupt an incompetent as well. Heck, let’s never try and get better. Let’s never raise the bar on what we expect because there are always worse people out there.
Most people can walk and chew gum at the same time. We can address what happened to try to make sure it doesn’t happen again, but we can also hold accountable the failure of those who responded and who failed to take responsibility for their own (in)actions.
Let me get the LE tactics out of the way, first.
Since 2001 [Columbine happened in 2000], the response to an active shooter, among LE administrators, is for the line troops to race in and engage an active shooter, in order to save innocent lives. The expectation is that, if you get eyes on the shooter, you engage. That is “shoot” him, for those not clear on the terminology. But, what LEAs teach is that LEOs are supposed to enter, in a 4 man diamond formation, as CSPD did, not just run in alone. So, what to do? Run in alone or wait for back-up and go in as you have been taught? Decisions, decisions. Now, if you enter carefully to get an eyeball on the shooter, or shooters, you have to sweep every doorway and check every room. If not, you run the risk of being neutralized, by the shooter, or a second or third participant. That means you are “killed”, for those not up on the terminology. If that happens, you are not going to neutralize the shooter or be able to provide intelligence to responding officers. This is why knowledgeable LEOs HATE this run and gun policy. They do it, because they are dedicated and care about others. So, you will take a long time to reach the shooter, who is probably moving around himself. In fact, unless he sticks around waiting to be killed by responding LEOs, as most shooters of this type do, the shooter is going to simply leave, before a perimeter can be established. But, public relations wise, it looks good.
The problem with communications between the various agencies is not the Sheriff’s fault. CSPD has its own dispatch center. It does not share facilities or frequencies with the Sheriff’s office. It had the opportunity to do so, but chose to have its own facility. On site communications were not handled well, it is true. But, by the time onsite communications became necessary, the shooter had left the campus and everyone was dead.
The fact that the onsite supervisor held back rescue personnel until the building was partially secure, was the correct response. What happens if you let unarmed paramedics run into the build and they encounter the shooter, who neutralizes them? Who is going to treat the wounded? If the paramedics had been allowed to enter and had been shot by the shooter, the public would have crucified Israel for that. This is NOT a video game.
Bills will not stop this type of shooting. What stops these kind of attacks is to have strict entry control, screening, and efficiently trained and equipped [armed] personnel to address an armed assault. We are now over one beyond MSDHS and virtually no school system in the state has upgraded their security to adequately address this type of threat. Broward County passed a sales tax increase to fund upgrading school security. However, it does not go into effect until July, 2019. So there is no telling when adequate security will be in place. And, of course, the security measures in place today are almost the same as they were in 2018. Feel safer, now?
The Promise Program was signed onto by every single Broward County politician, including the State Attorney and the Chief of the Circuit Court. All of them are still in office. Almost everyone in the county was against metal detectors. This was because they were expensive and they “made the schools look like prisons”. As for arming teachers, that is fine, if those teachers are properly trained and supervised. Knowing teachers, as I do, I am also not in favor of arming teachers, in large schools and school districts. The Broward County School system can have all of the school resource officers that it wants. The school board can have its own sworn LEA. In fact, the Broward County School Board already has sworn LEOs who work directly for the School System, not for the Sheriff or a municipal LEA. All the board has to do is hire, train and assign its own LEOs. Know why the School Board uses LEOs from other agencies for SROs? Liability. If the SRO arrests someone, the SRO’s parent agency assumes the liability for his actions. The Sheriff has far more law enforcement duties that simply patrolling schools. The Sheriff;s Office, like most LEAs today, is understaffed.
Whether the training for a mass shooter situation was adequate or not, is moot, in this case. The shooter was on site for 8 minutes. He began shooting a little over 2 minutes after he entered the campus. He finished 5 minutes later, when he was trying to shoot through a third floor window at fleeing students outside the building. He dumped his gear and was off campus approximately i minute later. So, everything after that point had NO effect on the shooting incident. I realize that this is the third or fourth time I have pointed this out, but you seem unable to grasp that.
Should all of these short comings reflect upon the Sheriff? Yes. Do they rise to the level of requiring suspension for incompetence? Not historically. On the other hand, should the agency which was directly responsible for the safety and security of the students in its charge, the Broward County School Board, be held responsible for this historic failure? Yes. Did they suffer any penalty for that performance? No. Why not? They proved to be as incompetent as the Sheriff.
I could care less that Sheriff Israel was suspended for incompetence. He was incompetent, in more ways than just his response to the two shootings. But, the suspension was based solely upon the public reaction to the MSDHS shooting. The public wanted an official scapegoat. The School Board suffered no suspensions. The School Board Superintendent suffered no negative job actions and is still on the job today. As I have pointed out, nothing the Sheriff’s Office did, or did not do, allowed the shooting to happen. The actions of a single deputy might have limited the carnage, if he had acted differently. Then again, it might have had the same result, none. And, as I have pointed out, historically, Sheriffs in Florida do not get suspended for “incompetence”. See, the voters, in the county, can always recall elected officials, including the Sheriff, if they feel that he is incompetent. This did not happen here. The Sheriff was not accused of committing any criminal act.
The only reasons why Israel was suspended were to make it look like this shooting was all his fault so as to protect the other elected officials in the county, most notably the school board, and so that Governor DeSantis could pay back some political supporters. The Governor appointed a security consultant who had experience in school shooting prevention as the acting Sheriff. Why would he do that, do you suppose? It was all politics. It was all a feel good move. And, it did nothing to make anyone safer. If you understand that and are still satisfied that the suspension of Israel makes Broward County and its school children safer, that is fine. As long as you KNOW the truth.
I provided amazing leadership. Just amazing, I am telling you!
Expect CNN to hire this turd.