Former Broward Sheriff’s Deputy Scot Peterson Charged With 11 Counts Tied to Parkland Shooting
“The FDLE investigation shows former Deputy Peterson did absolutely nothing to mitigate the MSD shooting that killed 17 children, teachers and staff and injured 17 others.”
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) announced Tuesday afternoon that officials arrested former Broward Sheriff’s Deputy Scot Peterson and charged him with “seven counts of neglect of a child, three counts of culpable negligence, and one count of perjury.”
Peterson has faced criticism for not entering Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in February 2018 during a shooting that killed 17 and injured 17 others.
*This is breaking news. I will update as needed.
The FDLE and the Broward State Attorney’s Office spent 15 months investigating the shooting, which included interviewing 184 witnesses and viewing hours of video. They devoted over 800 hours to the investigation.
From WPTV:
“The FDLE investigation shows former Deputy Peterson did absolutely nothing to mitigate the MSD shooting that killed 17 children, teachers and staff and injured 17 others,” said Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Rick Swearingen. “There can be no excuse for his complete inaction and no question that his inaction cost lives.”
BSO said following its own internal investigation, Sheriff Gregory Tony determined that Peterson and another law enforcement officer, Sergeant Brian Miller, neglected their duties during the school shooting.
They were both terminated and can no longer serve as deputies with the Broward Sheriff’s Office.
Peterson’s arrest warrant stated:
“Deputy Scot Peterson, while acting as a caregiver, willfully neglected; [REDACTED] by failing to immediately take action, as he was trained and as is required of a caregiver, to stop the active shooter, Nikolas Cruz.”
The warrant went onto say Peterson “in failing to, or refusing to, address Nikolas Cruz’ actions, exhibited a reckless indifference to or grossly careless disregard for others.”
The FDLE stated that not only did Peterson not investigate the shooting, but he also “retreated while victims were being shot inside the school.”
He then “directed other law enforcement who arrived on scene to remain 500 feet away from the building.”
Peterson resigned and retired shortly after the shooting. The Broward County Sheriff’s Office officially fired Peterson upon release of the investigation its own investigation. The office also fired Peterson’s supervisor Sergeant Brian Miller.
Authorities set Peterson’s bond at $102,000. If convicted on all the charges, he can face up to 97 years in state prison.
Broward County Sheriff Gregory Tony said that “[I]t’s never too late for accountability and justice.” Tony promised “to address deficiencies and improving the Broward Sheriff’s Office.”
Scot Peterson- Warrant .pdf by on Scribd
[Featured image via YouTube]
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Comments
Face’s “97 years in prison” my ass! He should die in the same manor those he took an oath to protect! But he will probably get a slap on the wrist and walk away with his pension! More Goberment corruption!
Thanks for the timely update Mary.
He can hire Avenatti to defend him. Oh wait. Avenatti’s law license just got suspended. Well then he can hire F. Lee Baily then.
I suppose you mention Lee Bailey in jest since he is really old now and was disbarred.
I am troubled by this desire to criminalize his cowardice. Other than the perjury charge, this all seems extralegal to me.
Mr. Yancey, it was not merely his cowardice to do his job, when a reasonable person should expect him to, but the fact that he kept others fully equipped and ready to do their job, from entering the school. It’s not, imho, the number of lives and injuries he might have prevented, but the active prevention of any timely action by others.
I agree completely. I am a retired Peace Officer with 28 years on the job here in Colorado. 1) that is what the job is. You protect those kids at the risk of your own life if that is necessary. 2) you do not stop the response. You brief them as they come and help them coordinate their response. Too many kids and teachers died or were wounded to let the [expletive deleted] get by with it.
Subotai Bahadur
The fact he told others to stay 500 feet away is what troubles me. Why? Did he think it would make him look less like a coward?
Perjury perhaps. But, neglect of a child. I think they are stretching it here. Are they also going to charge the FBI Agents who ignored Cruz’s online threats?
This strikes me as part of the criminalization of everything.
Elian Gonzalez was unavailable for comment…
What a crock.
There is NO POSSIBLE WAY that the prosecution can get a convict for neglect of a child against Peterson. Peterson was not in loco parentis, in this case. He was acting as a first responding public safety officer. Now, there is actually case law which establishes that the school administration DOES act in loco parentis and that THEY DO have legal responsibility to protect the minor students under their care. A LEO does not share this legal responsibility, even under these circumstances. So, these are throw away charges.
The charges for culpable negligence are also spurious. The prosecution is going to have to prove that Peterson’s decision not to enter the building, upon his arrival, was DIRECTLY responsible for the deaths of the named individuals. Considering the nature of the building, the circumstances existing at the time and the verified timeline, this is going to be an incredibly steep uphill battle. If he had entered, he MIGHT have stopped the shooting if: 1) he found the shooter before he completed shooting everyone who was eventually shot and 2) he was not injured or killed by the shooter before he was able to stop the shooting spree. In other words, if everything went exactly as the investigators hoped, these people MIGHT still be alive. That is an incredibly high standard to prove.
Now, the perjury charge is not only provable, but a good thing. A conviction, which should not be that difficult to prove, will not only result in criminal culpability for Peterson’s actions, but should be able to revoke his pension, as untruthfulness in office is ground for denying or revoking a Florida state pension.
But, this is nothing more than another attempt at scapegoating. Once again, the people who were actually in loco parentis, under Florida case law, the Broward County School Board, the School Superintendent, and the actual employees of Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School, escape penalty for their incompetence. The people who were actually culpably negligent, because they failed to adequately protect the school, the School Board, Superintendent and the administrator of the school, skate again.
There have been two contradictory rulings as regards Petersens Civil Obligations. A United States District Court Judge ruled that Petersen bore no duty and dismissed the case following established law. Not surprisingly a State Court Judge found that Florida Law put Petersen in loco parentis.
I think all of the charges except perjury are a stretch. But this is about vengeance not justice.
If I remember correctly Peterson was the resource officer for the school. If that is the case he was no longer just another officer responding to a call. That may be why they found him in loco parentis.
Being assigned to the school does not make him a school employee. If he was assigned to a shopping mall he would not be an employee of the mall. He remains a LEO and he responds as an LEO, just as any LEO stationed off campus would.
See, the reason why school districts use LEOs from local LEAs is specifically because those LEOs do not work for the school system. It is to limit the liability of the school system. In Florida every school system in the state cam have a sworn LEA. In fact, the Broward County School System actually has a very small sworn law enforcement division which handles criminal matters within the school system. Metro-Dade School System has a huge LE division which includes uniformed officers as well as investigators.
If he had entered, he MIGHT have stopped the shooting if: 1) he found the shooter before he completed shooting everyone who was eventually shot and 2) he was not injured or killed by the shooter before he was able to stop the shooting spree. In other words, if everything went exactly as the investigators hoped, these people MIGHT still be alive. That is an incredibly high standard to prove.
This doesn’t seem terribly relevant. It’s unreasonable to demand that he succeed in his law-enforcement mission, but it’s not unreasonable to insist that he try.
It’s seems he’s guilty of dereliction of duty. Although he didn’t have a responsibility to actually protect or save anyone, he did have a duty to perform and failed even make an attempt to perform it.
Then there’s this:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/judge-tosses-parkland-shooting-lawsuit-cops-and-schools-had-no-duty-to-protect-students-she-says/ar-BBR6uqc
To which I made the following comment (abbr.):
“Certainly, when in a public school, the children are in the care and custody of the state.”
Comments?
Dave, I’ll respond to both you and Tom, here.
Tom, in order for a conviction for culpable negligence can be returned, it has to be shown that the actions of the accused directly caused the injury sustained, beyond a reasonable doubt. Now, while Peterson MIGHT have stopped Cruz from shooing ALL the people, whom he shot, if he [Peterson} had entered the school immediately, if he had located Cruz immediately and if he had engaged and neutralized him immediately upon contact. That is a lot of ifs and immediatelies. The more ifs you introduce the greater the amount of reasonable doubt which occurs.
Dave, In reference to your statement, No. When in school, the courts have ruled that the minor children are in the care and custody of the school system, not the “state” as a whole. In fact, in Florida, the School Board, which controls the schools, and the Sheriff’s Office are both Constitutional entities and are independent from each other. So, only the School Board, and its employees, are in loco parentis while children are under their care [in school].
Now, Judge Henning’s ruling has to be viewed in a very limited way. Henning appears to make the assumption that Peterson’s failure to enter was possible misfeasance. In other words, his actions were not clearly proper, under law. Therefor, she refused to grant him qualified immunity. However, she did not rule that he was liable for his actions. At this point, no court of law has ruled that any of the victims would have been spared if Peterson had immediately entered the building.
What no one has mentioned, yet, is that former Sheriff Scott Israel is scheduled for a hearing on his suspension, from office, before the Florida Senate on June 18, 2019. It is interesting that Peterson should be charged at this time, especially considering the number and type of charges filed.
From a legal perspective it’s highly doubtful he, Peterson, will be convicted. Neither common law nor statutory law mandate any person to expose themselves to extreme harm or risk of life, regardless of their post or duty. Notwithstanding, a coward is and always shall be. Shame on you Peterson.
I think they will have a tough time if the law is followed, but he had done a horrible job with the shooting. If he acted in accord with laws and rules, despite not agreeing with his actions taken, it is wrong to prosecute him for that.
Unfortunately, this is such an emotionally charged case that we might see this go through, in spite of laws and rules that were in place. Cowards used to be shot in the armed services, so this seems like it is an offshoot of that. Add to that the horrendous regard police are given these days, where any incidents that happen and are put up on social media automatically have the police called the bad guys without any facts being known other than the video shown. More often than not those videos are edited or pushed in a light in favor of the perpetrator of criminal acts looking to sway public opinion.
An interesting fact, since body cams have become required in more and more places, police brutality claims have gone way down. It isn’t the response of force from police that has changed, it is that the body cams show the police to be acting in the way they should, that is appropriate to the situations.
This anti-police movement is something Obama pushed, hard, and it may very well impact this case.
David Hogg once asked if a police officer can’t or won’t protect students, how can anyone expect armed, but untrained, teachers and administrators to do so?
There’s a fairly simple answer to that question:
In the event of a school shooting, teachers are in the line of fire. They don’t have to make a decision (like a cop outside the building) to expose themselves to danger, they’re already in danger. Because in a school shooting teachers are already in danger, they have the best reason and purpose in the world to respond appropriately – to save their own lives.
The governor of Colorado once stated that he could count on one hand the number of teachers who wanted to be armed.
My response to that: Well then, arm them. Let the bad guys worry about which ones they may be.
I thought the Supreme 9 had rule police had no duty to act in these situations.
SCOTUS ruled in favor of the town in Town of Castle Rock v. Gonzalez in a civil case and held there was no constitutionally guaranteed right of police protection for a civilian in that context.
This is a criminal case and a different context. I have some questions and doubts about the alleged crimes and suspect that the perjury charge would likely be the strongest. I would speculate that an offense along the line of the failure of an officer to uphold an official duty would be the next strongest. But I am not a Florida crim defense attorney and have not read the statutes and really studied the issues.
hindsight is 20/20–we weren’t there–regardless of the legal ramifications/consequences, peterson failed to at least try and confront/kill the shooter–very much a personal decision for any of us–in the moment, you have to decide for yourself–whether he spends a few years or the rest of his life behind bars, he will have to live with his decision
have seen panic dehumanize some of the strongest people i’ve ever known
If I understand the many comments on this thread by lawyers, there is no legal standard establishing when police are expected to do their jobs. Not only running away but a senior officer ordering others to stay away cannot be prosecuted successfully? Then why are so heavily armed, armored and trained specifically to run towards dangerous situations to contain and stop them? So where does accountability begin? Maybe it’s our lawyers who are the problem?
I swear these threads often sound like moot court at the Coney Island School of Law and Dance. How about a little more energy focused on how we WIN at fighting for justice instead?
I suspect that we will find that this goes higher up than Peterson. I expect official Obama policy practiced by the school superintendent Robert Runcie, an Arne Duncan acolyte.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2018/04/20/obama-education-chief-arne-duncan-parkland-students-moving-country/
He was recently re-elected;
https://www.hollywoodgazette.com/2019/03/20/broward-county-school-board-votes-to-retain-superintendent-robert-w-runcie/
Peterson deserves to die in prison but he just may be the fall guy in this to protect the Obama political network.
Perhaps the problem is with our civilians in not understanding the doctrine of criminal law and a capricious desire to criminalize everything. Including criminalization after the fact.
He had “ONE JOB”. He was trained, licensed, equipped, drilled for, and (supposedly) prepared to do his ONE JOB. He failed, miserably, he prevented others from rescue attempts, and then he LIED ABOUT IT ALL TO ADVANCE S DECEITFUL AND INAPPROPRIATE “NARRATIVE” ABOUT (1) GOTTA GRAB ALL THE GUNS and (2) CAN’T HAVE ARMED PEOPLE ON SCHOOL GROUNDS.
I mourn for lost children betrayed by a faithless protector.
He did have a job – and his employer should have provided training for this situation. Am I remembering wrong, but didn’t the Broward County Sheriff Dept. train him to act in this manner during a live shooting situation? If that is the case, it seems to me that he acted in accordance to his training. And if he had gone against company policy, he could have faced repercussions at work. I am not excusing his cowardice – a righteous man would have gone in anyway, policies be d—-d. But I am thinking it is more the fault of the Dept. (and the sheriff) than his – or at least equal culpability.
I just read that the officer had finished 2 training classes on how to handle a mass shooting. As part of the class he was told that the policy was to confront a shooter.
Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE)
——————————-
Should be changed to Florida Law Enforcement Department (FLED)to more accurately reflect their true actions.
As a Floridian this is a surprise yet welcomed. Soon, the state senate will debate and vote on permanently removing Coward County Sheriff Scott Israel for his incompetence and dereliction of duty. Good riddance. This is one of the many legacies of Israel and asinine liberal policies that he instituted at BSO. I truly respect and honor our law enforcement here in Florida. But as for Peterson and Israel they are dirty PIGS!
Law enforcement isn’t under any legal requirement to run into a building by themselves when there is an active shooter. They can nail him on the perjury charge but the rest are firing offenses, not prosecutable crimes. The Supreme court has affirmed this. It doesn’t surprise me to see this level of pandering and virtue signaling from Florida prosecutors. After all, they’ve made it an art form. What they are doing though, is wrong and they’ll never be made to pay for it.
As for the cowardice charge… yeah, it’s really easy for us to scream “coward” when we most likely will never have to face that choice. You may strongly believe you’d have rushed into that building blind by yourself and “taken care of business” but until you’re put in that situation, you don’t know what you’d actually do. This guy wasn’t SWAT, he was a school resource officer.
The SRO’s “ONE JOB” has never been seen as providing armed response to an active shooter. They have traditionally been there for 2 reasons. The first is to be a PR arm for the department; to make the students comfortable with police in a setting where they aren’t being detained, arrested, etc. The second is to provide intel to the departments of the ongoings of these kids when they aren’t in school.
To this point, many of the SRO’s in Florida prevented by their departments from doing their law enforcement job of writing citations and making arrests of the students violating the laws. That is more of their ONE JOB than active shooter response.
I’ve never been a fan of Scott’s move to have SRO’s at every school for defensive purposes. This is not what LEOs train for and not what they do their whole career. You’re putting a round peg in a square hole. Even the patrol units that respond are getting active shooter training maybe twice a year for no more than 8 hours. This is a political band-aid, not a solution.
I couldn’t disagree more. When the first four Coral Springs PD officers arrived on scene the found BCSO deputies standing in the parking lot with their thumbs up their a##es. The asked the deputies where the shooter was, and they deputies said they didn’t know. But the police officers saw a body lying outside one building and could see bullet holes in the third floor windows so they surmised that’s where the shooter was. When the officers went toward that building they found Peterson, Peterson confirmed their professional guess; that the shooter was last known to be in that building.
So the four Coral Springs PD officers ran past the useless BCSO deputies and went in. They found wounded and took them outside, then returned and continued to search the building. Another group of Coral Spring police officers arrived and entered the building from the opposite end. To avoid shooting each other they deconflicted by searching different floors.
These were not SWAT officers. But they had been trained to deal with active shooters. And at least one BCSO deputy wasn’t a coward and apparently knew what he needed to do. According to the report issued by Sherriff Israel’s office, an SRO from a school about four miles away heard about the mass shooting on his radio, sped over, and went into the school buildings with more Coral Springs PD officers as they arrived.
So I have no clue what Israel’s policy was. Go in immediately or take cover, form a perimeter, and wait for a more competent police dept. to arrive or the shooter to run out of ammo (this may or may not provided Peterson with a defense against the charges but the new Sheriff obviously thinks his office’s policy is clear). Fortunately more competent officers from a different department did arrive. And a lot of good their perimeter did. When Cruz’s gun jammed he dropped it, mixed in with the students, and got through their perimeter. And given all the confrontations Cruz had had with these people and that they had a description of him as the shooter someone should have recognized him.
An officer from a different department, Coconut Creek, did what the BCSO deputies should have done and recognized him from the description about an hour after the shooting and a mile away from the school, and arrested him.
There is no point in “establishing a perimeter” if these deputies were going to let everyone through it without establishing the identity of each individual. Granted, this was not what one would normally consider a hostage situation. But it is near universally common in terrorist/hostage situations that should the attempt fail the hostage takers will attempt to escape by mingling with their victims that I thought any idiot would know that. Apparently not every idiot does know this, and they were working for Sheriff Israel that day.
So, basically, all but one BCSO deputy did f*&k all in this situation. Their presence and indeed very existence was utterly pointless.
In case you think I’m talking entirely out of my @$$ I was a member of a ship’s Security Reaction Force when I was in the Navy. All we did was train to deal with hostage and active shooter situations as well as riot control should an angry mob get through pier security and approach our moored ship (and there are a lot of foreign ports where local police/security forces are responsible for controlling access to the pier who won’t work too hard at it). We weren’t the police so we didn’t arrest people, we didn’t write traffic or parking tickets, just that.
And being on an SRF was a collateral duty. In other words a part time job so to speak. But Sailors are expected to be just as competent at their collateral duties as they are at their primpary duty. So despite the fact it wasn’t my “day job” I would have done what I had trained to do. I would have gotten my team together, gathered what information was available, briefed them on the situation, the mission, execution of the mission, admin and logistics, the comms plan and we would have confronted the threat. Now, you have a tiny little point but in a different kind of situation. The Navy classifies boardings as compliant, non-compliant, and hostile/opposed. We do not send regular Sailors assigned to a ship’s boarding team in to deal with what we know will be a hostile/opposed boarding. We do train ship’s company boarding teams to deal with hostile/opposed situations because a non-compliant boarding can easily turn into one and the Sailors will have to know how to fight their way out. But when we know from the start it’s going to be a hostile/opposed we leave that to either the SEALs or MEUSOC Marines who do that for a living. But that’s a different situation as the ship itself and embarked helo has plenty of capability to ensure the suspect vessel goes nowhere. Especially since the ship will be travelling with in company with other ships. Nowhere that is except to the bottom if the suspect vessel tries to run.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=85&v=aw0gDbMZ9tM
Japan Coast Guard Sinks North Korean Spy Ship
This is the JCG’s Trurugi class, specifically designed to deal with the fast, heavily armed NORK spy vessels. Here the 20mm cannon proved a bit light so the JCG followed on with two, more heavily armed classes of vessels also designed for the anti-NORK spy ship role. The Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force (Japanese Navy) has their own anti-NORK spy ship patrol vessels; the Hayabusa class which just cuts t the chase with a 76mm gun. The Japanese have no sense of humor about NORK spy ships because in the past the vessels have kidnapped Japanese nationals and forced them to work in various capacities. In the video you can hear them hailing the spy vessel and ordering it to stop but of course these boats never do, so the Japanese will sink them. Unlike USN vessels these patrol vessels do not have permanently embarked helos although some of the JCG classes have helo decks which can temporarily handle helos.
The SRF is in a different situation then are the boarding teams. When there are intruders inside the skin of the ship the SRF has to deal with the situation Right Now. There is no choice in the matter. If you doubt I would have acted in accordance with my training let me remind you that cowardice in the face of the enemy is a court martial offense. Unlike deputy Peterson who thought he could resign, retire, collect his pension, and be in the clear I always knew that for me that was never going to be an option. Knowing this I trained harder.
The BCSO did everything wrong. I knew one of the Dallas PD officers who trained his and other departments in active shooter situations (he was also one of the officers who shot Jabari, the gorilla that escaped from his enclosure at the Dallas zoo in 2004 and began attacking people). As he told me, everything changed after Columbine. Police officers do not wait, they go in and confront the threat. That’s precisely what the Coral Springs PD officers did. They performed professionally, courageously, and more importantly properly. They never found Cruz but they rescued casualties that had it been up to Peterson and the other BCSO deputies would have died. Thanks to them the body count wasn’t higher.
The BCSO behaved like they never heard of Columbine and nearly all the deputies save one used pre-Columbine doctrine. Their doctrine was twenty years out of date and the kindest words you can use to describe how their performance is “sheer incompetence.”
While BSO did not handle the MSDHS shooting well, a couple of things have to be mentioned concerning your post.
First, the CSPD officers arrived after the shooting was over and Cruz had left the campus. By that time, it was no longer an active shooter situation, even though the responding officers did not know that Cruz had left. The CSPD officers did not encounter Cruz, nor did they stop him from harming anyone. Just to keep this in perspective.
As to a perimeter not being necessary. You undermine that assertion yourself. Because there was no perimeter established, Cruz was able to escape the campus and remain at large for the next hour. Also, as no perimeter was established, responders and others outside Bldg. 12 were extremely lucky that Cruz decided to abandon his weapon in the school and choose escape over assaulting those outside. These things are not static video game scenarios, where the object is to enter, locate villains and engage them. In these scenarios, the responder often has little or no information. It was not known, at the time, how many shooters were involved. It was known, at least it was reportedly reported to Peterson, that there was at least one armed with a rifle. The exact location of the shooter(s) was unknown. And, the intent of the shooter(s), beyond shooting people was unknown. Now, remember those aerial shots of the students being marched out, single file? This looks suspiciously like a controlled exit, not simply letting run away.
Then you have entry methods. The accepted method for entry into an unknown active shooter situation is to utilize a four man diamond formation. The entry team had to sweep or secure both the route ahead and behind at all times to avoid ambush. The team does NOT simply run willy-nilly toward the sound of gunfire. That was why it took 5-8 minutes for the entry team in Virginia Beach to locate and engage the shooter there, recently. Where you have enough people for two or more entry teams, or as more personnel arrive, the exits from the building are sealed from the outside. This is to contain the threat within the building or to engage it if attempts to escape into the community. It is not usually a good idea to have more than one entry team enter, until solid control of the scene is established. The reason for that is, under extremely high stress conditions, it is not unlikely for a person to simply shoot any armed person whom he may confront. So friendly fire incidents have to be avoided. The chances of this are reduced as the amount of training and experience increases.
Now, one last thing. Once the shooter has entered the building, he has won the engagement. Casualties can not be avoided. They can only be minimized. In 2000, this was driven home to the entire nation, by the Columbine High School massacre. The Sheriff’s office followed the established protocol for such an incident. It was essentially blamed for the massacre. So, a new protocol was developed. This called for a team of comprised of the first 2-4 responding officers to enter the building, attempt to locate the shooter and engage. No one practices single person entries. Why, because it reduces the chances for success. No one practices flooding a facility from multiple directions either. Every agency in the country practices the same thing, controlled, team entry and sweeping. But, here we are almost 20 years and several similar incidents later and the school officials have still, STILL, not done the one thing that actually stops these types of attacks. There is no effective entry control on these sites. NONE. Once you let the fox into the chicken coup, you are going to lose chickens. How often does the Navy post armed guards at the entry points of the ship, especially in potentially hostile ports? Yet, kn one seems to want to acknowledge that, no matter what the lone SRO officer might have done, people there were going to be casualties. Why? Because the people responsible for the security of the facility, the Broward County School Board and its employees, simply refused to address a potential threat.
What happened here was that, because of a lack of security, let alone effective security, an armed intruder was allowed to enter the facility and a classroom building. This was not the fault of the Sheriff’s Office nor the SRO. It was entirely the fault of the school system and its employees, who saw Cruz and were advised that he was armed and failed to notify the office and the SRO. Peterson was not notified until the shooting started and he did not arrive until most, if not all, of the casualties on the first floor had already occurred. Whether or not he should have immediately entered the building would depend upon exactly what was transpiring at the time and his knowledge of events. Yet, everyone is going out of their way to blame the Sheriff’s Office and Peterson. The culpability of the school system is largely ignored. The culpability of thee parents, for not demanding that sufficient security measures be put in place to prevent this type of attack. A scapegoat had to be found, and it was found in the persons of Dep. Peterson, the Broward Sheriff’s Office and Sheriff Israel. Now, if people are comfortable with that, that is up to them. Just so that they know that their children are not significantly safer today than they were 14 months ago.
As you said, let’s keep things in perspective.
A) The Coral Springs PD expected to encounter Cruz and it was still an active shooter situation. Peterson told them that the shooter’s last known location was the building they already suspected he was in. They went in with the mindset that they would. The BCSO deputies also thought the shooter was still active.
That’s why they still refused to go in. And had the Coral Springs PD not arrived more victims would have bled out and died. This is not speculation on my part but an established fact.
B) Please don’t substitute your words for mine. I never said that a perimeter is unnecessary. I said they are “pointless” IF you don’t establish each individual’s identity before letting them through it. I said that this is standard practice in every terrorist/hostage situation as it “nearly universal” that if the attempt fails the hostage takers will attempt to escape by mixing in with their erstwhile victims. I said that I thought every idiot understood this but apparently not the idiots working for Sheriff Israel that day. “Granted, this was not what one would normally consider a hostage situation,” but that’s precisely what Cruz did and all the BCSO did was usher everybody out.
C) You say no perimeter had been established. Fine with me if that’s your opinion. That reinforces my point that (except with one notable exception which I made it a point to mention), “…all but one BCSO deputy did f*&k all in this situation. Their presence and indeed very existence was utterly pointless.” The Coral Springs PD officers arrived on the scene and, “… found BCSO deputies standing in the parking lot with their thumbs up their a##es.”
We all know they didn’t go into the buildings to clear them. I was under the impression their excuse was that it was Sheriff Israel’s policy that they remain outside and establish a perimeter (a policy that is now twenty years out-of-date and every well trained law enforcement agency considers obsolete). So, you say they didn’t establish a perimeter? Even better in terms of making my point which apparently you entirely agree with even if you didn’t understand it the first time around (porous perimeters being “pointless vs. perimeters being unnecessary). That they contributed absolutely nothing to resolving this situation and the BCSO deputies might as well not have been there at all.
D) “Then you have entry methods. The accepted method for entry into an unknown active shooter situation is to utilize a four man diamond formation. The entry team had to sweep or secure both the route ahead and behind at all times to avoid ambush. The team does NOT simply run willy-nilly toward the sound of gunfire.”
At what point did I say the team advances willy-nilly toward the sound of gunfire? In fact, I said the exact opposite.
“I would have done what I had trained to do. I would have gotten my team together, gathered what information was available, briefed them on the situation, the mission, execution of the mission, admin and logistics, the comms plan and we would have confronted the threat.”
Do you see, “Let’s charge into the unknown without a plan, boys!” in there?
I will not dispute your assertion that the accepted method is to utilize a four man diamond formation. We used different formations aboard naval vessels but then that’s a specialized environment given that conditions exist in their passageways that don’t exist in the wide open hallways in a school. But note I stressed that the Coral Springs PD went into the school in four man teams. Apparently they knew what they were doing.
E) “Now, one last thing. Once the shooter has entered the building, he has won the engagement. Casualties can not be avoided. They can only be minimized. In 2000, this was driven home to the entire nation, by the Columbine High School massacre. The Sheriff’s office followed the established protocol for such an incident. It was essentially blamed for the massacre. So, a new protocol was developed. This called for a team of comprised of the first 2-4 responding officers to enter the building, attempt to locate the shooter and engage. No one practices single person entries…”
Again, this conflicts with what I wrote, how? I wrote that I knew one of the Dallas PD officers who trained his and other departments in dealing with active shooter situations, and “As he told me, everything changed after Columbine. Police officers do not wait, they go in and confront the threat. That’s precisely what the Coral Springs PD officers did.” Note, I emphasized they did so in four man teams. The one BCSO deputy who entered the school buildings did so in company with Coral Springs PD as more arrived.
I don’t fault Peterson for not going in alone. I would not have gone in alone. Did you actually get the idea that I would have when I clearly wrote that in accordance with my training I would have gathered my team?
I fault Peterson for telling arriving BCSO deputies to stay 500 feet away when you, I, and the Coral Springs PD officers know that once you have enough responders on hand then you go in. Don’t wait.
Apparently Peterson thought he could just hang back and when the s**t hit the fan resign, retire, and collect his pension. Unlike Peterson, “I always knew that for me that was never going to be an option.” I wrote that cowardice in the face of the enemy is a court martial offense. The actual title of Article 99 is “Misbehavior Before the Enemy” since while it covers all the cowardly acts one might think of such as running away or throwing away your weapons it covers more than that such as leaving your post to plunder or pillage. One of the elements is “(8) willfully fails to do his utmost to encounter, engage, capture, or destroy any enemy troops, combatants, vessels, aircraft, or any other thing, which it is his duty so to encounter, engage, capture, or destroy; or…” (element (9) is not relevant here).
This is what I fault Peterson for. Here’s an example of someone who didn’t fail to do his utmost.
https://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=80612
“CITATION:
For heroism while serving at Naval Station Norfolk Security Detachment, Norfolk, Virginia on 24 March 2014. While performing his duties as Chief of the Guard, Petty Officer Mayo was alerted to a suspicious individual walking towards USS MAHAN (DDG 72) on Pier 1, Naval Station Norfolk. Petty Officer Mayo pursued the individual up the brow of the ship while both he and the Quarterdeck watch-standers directed the individual to stop and provide identification. Failing to comply, the individual approached the Quarterdeck, attacked and disarmed the Petty Officer of the Watch. After boarding the ship, Petty Officer Mayo realized that the Petty Officer of the Watch no longer had control of her weapon. With complete and total disregard for his own personal safety, Petty Officer Mayo immediately placed himself between the Petty Officer of the Watch and the assailant. While fearlessly engaging the assailant and shielding the Petty Officer of the Watch, Petty Officer Mayo was fatally wounded. His exceptionally brave actions saved the lives of four watch-standers and ensured the safety of the entire crew of USS MAHAN (DDG 72). By his courageous and prompt actions in the face of great personal risk, Petty Officer Mayo prevented the loss of lives, thereby reflecting great credit upon himself and upholding the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.
For the President,
JONATHAN W. GREENERT
Admiral, United States Navy”
He bought time for an armed officer and another armed watch stander to arrive at the Quarterdeck and shoot the assailant dead.
The reason why we set Quarterdeck watches as well as establish other layers of security. As you said once the shooter is inside the building (or the skin of the ship in my case) he has “won” in the sense that there will be casualties, and the only thing possible at that point is to mitigate the amount of casualties. PO2 Mayo knew this which is why he acted like he did; if the intruder got past him then the intruder would have “won” and there would have been a bloodbath aboard USS Mahon. So Petty Officer Mayo made up his mind that the intruder wasn’t going to get past him.
What burns me is that the only reason he’s dead is that the civilian police who were supposed to provide multiple layers of security to ensure that no intruder would get as far as the pier failed at every single level. For instance, the civilian base police officer at the base entry checkpoint informed the intruder, who apparently had a vendor’s ID that allowed him entry at certain times for certain purposes, that his ID was not valid at that time and he would need to turn his truck around. Instead the guy drove straight on base and the civilian police sentry who was aware an unauthorized intruder now on base didn’t even report it to anyone such as his supervisor.
Which is why I am expressing such utter contempt for Peterson and the other BCSO deputies who didn’t do a damn thing.
So cry me a river if Peterson goes away for a few years and even loses his pension. That’s the maximum penalty he’s going to face. Do you know the maximum penalty I would have faced if I had behaved like Peterson per Article 99?
“shall be punished by death or such punishment as a court- martial may direct.”
The knowledge I could be dead whether I performed my duties or not concentrates the mind. Which is why I wrote I would have acted in accordance with my training. I’m not saying I’m a hero but since I knew I could face the death penalty if I failed to “do my utmost” in the performance of my duties, I may as well do my duty. Which motivated me to train harder because I saw that was the best way to, if not guarantee my life, give me a fighting chance.
A) Whether one “expects” to encounter a shooter on premises, this does not constitute an active shooter situation. And active shooter situation exists only so long as shots are being fired. Once that stops, you now have a barricaded hostage situation. This is what happened at the Pulse nightclub. Dynamic entry [running inside to engage a villain]attempts ceased when he ceased fire and containment and negotiation operations began.
Now, the CSPD officers entered after the last shot was fired, so, no active shooter. They entered in a manner consistent with protocols for entering any large building where there is a chance of encountering a hostile, armed person. should BSO personnel have gone in at the same time? That is a judgement call. Now, you have no knowledge of WHY BSO personnel chose not enter at that particular time. That is a judgement call on YOUR part. What we do know is that the on-scene control was abysmal. Peterson failed to do a good job of initial control. Responding sergeants failed to assume command on-scene in a timely manner. And, when the responding captain tried to set up a perimeter to contain the shooter after the shooting had stopped, she was roundly criticized, largely by people with no experience in law enforcement tactics.
B) Pointless is a synonym for unnecessary. Sorry. And, once they got the perimeter set up, they were looking for potential suspects. That you are not aware of how they were doing it, or it does not follow YOUR particular idea of how it should be done is irrelevant.
Actually, in the vast majority of active shooter situations, the shooter does not attempt to escape. Usually they remain on-scene and either engage responding LEOs or they kill themselves.
C) I fail to see your point here. How many people died after the shooting stopped? You have no idea. Claiming that the entry made by the CSPD saved lives is a guess. Now, as I have said previously, the tactics employed by the Sheriff’s Office sucked. Tactical response can be either active or passive, but it has to be ongoing. In this case, it stalled. What the entry by the CSPD officers did is to restart the response. Yes the BSO personnel on the scene made egregious errors. But, there is not one iota of evidence that any casualties occurred because of the action of the Sheriff’s Office at MSDHS.
D) You really have to read the timeline that I posted in an earlier post in this thread. There were two deputies on scene, prior to the cessation of the shooting. The rest of the deputies, including the sergeant arrived on campus after the last shot had been fired. CSPD arrived after they did.
While the after-action response was clearly a mess, this did not affect the shooter’s actions. Cruz had already shot and killed several people, before Peterson even knew he was on the campus. All the casualties on the first floor had been committed before Petersen even reached the building. Peterson meets with Medina, the employee who initially saw Cruz, but did not call it in, a full minute after the shooting has begun. WE do not know if Peterson is aware that shots are being fired, as he is at the school office.He may have been responding to the fire alarm, which Cruz triggered. He jumps into a golf cart, with Medina, and heads for Bldg 12. He arrives there 1 minute and 47 seconds after Cruz has begun shooting. Cruz is just shooting his last victim on the first floor. 15 seconds later Cruz fires several shots on the second floor. No one is hit. A minute later, Cruz engages multiple victims on the third floor. The first responding deputy has just arrived on campus. One minute later, Cruz shoots his last victim. Cruz has been shooting for approximately 4 minutes and is done. He still takes time to attempt to shoot at people outside the building from a closed third floor window. 5 minutes after the first shot, Cruz has dumped his rifle and vest and left the building. In the recent Virginia Beach shooting, officers did not engage the shooter until he was 7-9 minutes into his shooting. According to the Chief of Police there, officers arrived in approximately 2 minutes after the first shots were fired and engaged the gunman, on the second floor, 5-7 minutes later. They would have missed Cruz.
At this point the active shooter incident is over. And, CSPD has yet to arrive. Five minutes later, CSPD has arrived and decides to enter the building. But, they were more seven minutes too late to stop Cruz from shooting anyone. The point is that nothing that BSO did that day can be shown to have affected the number of people shot.
E) “As he told me, everything changed after Columbine. Police officers do not wait, they go in and confront the threat. That’s precisely what the Coral Springs PD officers did.” This is highly oversimplified. If your DPD buddy has trained LEOs in active shooter situations, then he should know that the minimum number of officers who enter is 2. 4 is the preferred number. And more can be utilized if available. In the Virginia Beach incident, one of the entry officers was hit. If he had been operating alone against a rifle, and had failed to hit and injure the shooter seriously enough to incapacitate him, he has not only accomplished nothing but we now have an additional shooting victim. For that reason, no one trains to do it. Now, in a situation of this type, an officer may choose to enter alone. Not only can he gather intelligence which may be of use to responding officers and the incident commander, but he might just get lucky and neutralize the attacker. BUT, it is not something which any department, to my knowledge, trains its officers to do.
While Peterson’s performance was horrendous. It does not rise to the level of criminal behavior. Cowardice IS a crime, under the UCMJ. It is not, usually, under state or federal laws. Nonfeasance only addressed in a few statutes. Misfeasance, is almost never addressed, being reserved for civil penalty. Only malfeasance is addressed at all broadly in criminal law. And usually malfeasance requires an overt act, not the lack of one. Cowardice, in non-military professions, is usually an offense which can result in termination, as it did in this case.
Re PO Mayo. Yep, that is why naval ships have entry control points which are manned by armed personnel, sufficient to foil intrusion. But, the Mayo situation is something which LEOs face several times a year. What happened was that the watch was lax enough that a suspicious person was able to disarm an armed security officer or LEO. And, either the officer disarmed, or another officer is then injured or killed defending himself. Almost any LEO would do the same thing, probably including Dep. Peterson.
But, in Mayo’s case, you want to blame the civilian LEOs manning the perimeter of the base. Unfortunately this is not who was responsible for PO Mayo’s death. The Quarterdeck Watch is supposed to maintain the security of the ship and not allow unauthorized entry. The commander of the Watch is supposed to maintain sufficient strength at each point of entry, as well as roving patrols, to guarantee that security. And, it is the responsibility of each individual member of the Watch to safeguard and maintain control of their individual weapons. Know what killed PO Mayo? Failures on the part of the Watch. The first problem was the loss of control of the weapon assigned to her, by the CPO. The next problem was that there was, apparently, insufficient forces immediately available to keep the assailant from shooting Mayo. Now, in the Mayo case, as in the MSDHS case, security personnel knew of an intrusion and did not report it. In the Mayo case, there were several apparent failures, by naval personnel, in addition to the inaction of the LEO manning the checkpoint, which resulted in Mayo’s death. And, those personnel should have been disciplined. Yes, people are injured and die when security people fail to do their jobs, properly. My point is that, so far, only the Sheriff’s office has paid any significant price for the failures. and, so far, no evidence has been presented that the Sheriff’s Office committed any acts which directly led to the injury or death of anyone during this incident. On the other hand, there is ample evidence that the organization directly responsible for security at the school, the School Board, as well as the employees of that organization, failed to adequately protect the children under their care, in this specific case. Now, when I see School Board members suspended by the Governor, the Superintendent fired, as well as school employees charged under the same statutes that Peterson was, then, I’ll be happy to entertain an argument that people who failed to perform their duty in that incident should be facing a century in jail.
Mac, your arguments grow sillier and sillier. And in fact you apparently don’t need to know the facts; you know you’re right and the facts would just get in the way. So it is going to be useless to respond point by point to your baseless assertions.
Fact: an active shooter incident is over when you clear the building (or ship) and confirm it is over. It is not, as you counterfactually claim, when you can retroactively assert, “Ah, that was the last shot” with 20/20 hindsight. That goes against every security SOP I’ve ever read or even heard of.
“If your DPD buddy has trained LEOs in active shooter situations, then he should know that the minimum number of officers who enter is 2. 4 is the preferred number. And more can be utilized if available.”
We also didn’t spend any time at all deciding that water is wet or the sun rises in East and sets in the West. Why do keep bringing up this totally irrelevant point? Irrelevant because nobody is arguing otherwise? Is it because you know you’re increasingly desperate to somehow maintain the appearance that you are right, and the only way to do it is argue against a straw man?
“If he had been operating alone against a rifle, and had failed to hit and injure the shooter seriously enough to incapacitate him, he has not only accomplished nothing but we now have an additional shooting victim.”
Did I mention ice is cold and fire is hot? The Dallas PD officer and I didn’t spend a lot of time working that out, either. Why are you going on about it?
“How many people died after the shooting stopped? You have no idea.”
Yes, I do have an idea, based upon what the Coral Springs PD found inside the building when they entered the building. Students dying of blood loss. I’m going by their reports. Perhaps you should, too.
“You really have to read the timeline that I posted in an earlier post in this thread. There were two deputies on scene, prior to the cessation of the shooting.”
No, there were three standing there listening to Cruz shooting up the place, at least. Where are you getting your timeline, Sheriff Israel’s “fact check” website?
“But, in Mayo’s case, you want to blame the civilian LEOs manning the perimeter of the base.”
Yes, of course. I want to blame the civilian LEOs manning the base entry points. It’s like you know me. Did you note that I also “want” to blame other layers of the civilian police force that were also supposed to prevent an intruder? Because, again that’s only who I “want” to blame, right? Apparently Big Navy also “wanted” to blame the civilian police officers since they fired the base security officer, i.e. the civilian in charge of those civilian police officers.
https://wtkr.com/2015/03/17/navy-investigation-individual-errors-at-gate-were-predominant-contributing-factors-in-fatal-shooting-on-uss-mahan/
“Navy Investigation: ‘Individual errors at gate were predominant contributing factors’ in fatal shooting on USS Mahan
Posted 7:06 pm, March 17, 2015, by Doris Taylor, Updated at 03:45PM, March 20, 2015”
I moonlight as a writer for this TV station under the pseudonym Doris Taylor. You caught me! I had this article written months before the official report came out. Based entirely on who I wanted to blame. Damn, I can’t get away with anything while you’re around. Life’s just not fair.
Or, or, alternate scenario, people.
Whatever you do, don’t follow the link to the JAGMAN investigation into the shooting aboard USS Mahan I provided earlier. The fact that I’m informing you of the findings of that report would get in the way of your wishful thinking that I’m indulging in speculative fantasy based upon who I want to blame.
Never let the facts get in the way of your army of straw men, Mac.
I’m not even going to res[pond to your lame attempts to not address my statements concerning the MSDHS shooting.
But, the Mayo incident is a classic cover-up. According to your cited report, the civilian LEO at the gate failed to follow procedure and allowed an unknown person to enter the base. For that he should have been terminated. However, that individual was sighted, challenged and, apparently pursued while still on the wharf by naval security personnel. Their job was to keep him from getting aboard the ship. He still managed to gain access to the deck, where he encountered the POOW who drew her sidearm, pointed it at him and told him to stop. He said, “Give me that gun,” lunged at the POOW and took the pistol away from her. Mayo Stepped in front of the now disarmed POOW and shielded her while the armed intruder fired numerous shots. So, even though the Mahan security detail was notified of the subject approaching on foot, they failed to stop him on the pier. They failed to stop him prior to attaining the deck. They failed to stop him from disarming one of the watch. And, they failed to stop him from fatally shooting Mayo. Do you know who was directly responsible for Mayo’s death? The POOW who lost control of her weapon. Now, just for a moment, consider what might have happened had the intruder had a couple of pounds of HE strapped to his body and gotten on deck.
There s nothing wrong with drawing her weapon, given an assumed size and strength difference. But, when the subject told her to give him the gun and then physically attacked her, she should have shot him. She should have shot him several times. Instead, she allowed a larger, stronger man to ARM himself while disarming her. Perhaps she was not suited to be a watch stander. Perhaps she was not properly trained. Rule number one is that when you have a firearm deployed and someone attacks you, with the intention of taking that weapon away from you, you have to assume this is for the purpose of using that weapon against you. This is a deadly force situation and you should treat it as such. Shoot the bastard, before he disarms you and shoots you.
But, the Navy does what it does best, CYA. Even though there were critical failures at every point in the multi-layer security program, they decided to blame it all on the civilian employee manning the first checkpoint. Fail to stop an intruder at the pier checkpoint because it is understaffed, not a problem. Fail to effectively intercept the intruder on the pier, ho hum. Fail to deny the intruder access to the deck, it happens. Fail to take adequate measures to maintain control of your duty weapon, mistakes happen. A sailor gets killed by the intruder with the POOW’s weapon, somebody has to be responsible. It must have been the civilian at the front gate. Fire him. And, we’ll put a Lt Commander in charge of the security program, instead of a Lieutenant. Give Mayo a medal, posthumously. There all fixed.
My bad. The civilian police manning the front gate failed to even establish he intruder’s identity at all. And as I noted, they failed to use established turn around procedures, and failed to notify anyone that an intruder was then on base.
The JAGMAN investigation into the shooting aboard the Mahon notes several other of their responsibilities they failed in, as well as at other levels in the civilian base police/security force. Which if you’re interested in you can read about here:
https://www.jag.navy.mil/library/investigations/MAHAN%20JAGMAN.pdf
Apparently like Scott Peterson they just weren’t very interested in doing their jobs.
The impression I get about Peterson is that he had gone what we in the Navy called ROAD. Retired On Active Duty. He’s, what, 57 years old? In Kali that’s well over the age a police officer (or fireman, EMT, etc.) can collect their lucrative “public safety” pension. I know of several in Kali like that. One of my best friends (he was the best man at my wedding) tells me about his brother in law. He is a police officer in a major police force on the San Francisco peninsula and will tell pretty much anyone that since he’s within fifteen years of retirement he’s not going to take any risks on anyone else’s behalf. Yes, you read that right, he couldn’t actually collect his pension for another fifteen years at the time my friend told me this story. But he was acting as if he was already retired. My friend and his wife would go over to her sister’s house on Christmas, for instance. And there’s his squad car in the driveway and he’s inside in uniform opening presents with his kids. While he’s getting paid to be on patrol, working.
ROAD.
Again, when I heard about Scott Peterson that guy and several others such as the no-load civilian base police at Naval Station Norfolk were the first people I thought of. I know the type.
This is a political band-aid, not a solution.
But it’s not even a solution as the “problem” is a freak occurrence, like lightning strikes or attacks by electric eels. For every school afflicted with an atrocity, there were, on the same day, over 130,000 American schools which did not see such an atrocity, and almost the same number which never will. Sure, it would be great to have a magic wand which reduce the number to zero. But even without a magic wand, this is not a problem anywhere near the top of things for schools to worry about.
While cowardice in a LEO is not a desirable trait, I wasn’t aware it was against the law.
There is one and only one person responsible for this tragedy. Nicholas Cruz. The charges — except for perjury – are all unknowable what-ifs. What if Peterson had charged in and received a bullet int he head? What if he had fallen down a stair case?
The State of Florida contends School Resource Officers have an additional duty. These Officers have a separate and as yet undefined fiduciary relationship with the students.
The future will tell us whether that duty includes going alone into a deadly situation. A situation where you may likely be killed, kill innocent students, be killed and be cut off from directing other res-ponders, or lost in the morass of a building.
The wrong rulings will open the flood gates to lawsuits that claim the police should have done something else.
Vengeance will come at a price.
More than just Cruz is responsible. The democrats created the environment and enabled Cruz to commit crime after crime and go unchecked by school officials and law enforcement that adapted and were following obama’s “promise program’ guidelines.
While there may be some fault which lay with certain authorities, it is my thought that the majority fault lies with Cruz, by far. In my opinion, I feel it is unfair to persecute Peterson for the criminal act of another.
While he should or should not lose his job (I do not know the facts well enough), Peterson should not lose his pension (i.e. a retroactive punishment) nor be incarcerated for a crime he did not commit. Evidently, he was employed and built a pension fund and his superiors deemed him worthy to keep his job, therefore his pension should remain intact – as it should be for any employee unless it is determined that the history of the employee was averse. He must have performed his job acceptably until that particular day; although performance on that day is still under scrutiny and yet to be adjudicated in the light of employer policy, training and support.
I disagree. Because of stupid Obama policies which essentially paid local authorities to ignore violent crimes committed by minorities, and the greed of those local authorities as well as the desire for idiots like Sheriff Israel to be able to report lower crime rates Cruz was in a position to commit this atrocity.
Of course your crime statistics ware going to lower crime rates if you turn a blind eye to crime.
The newly- elected Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot announced when he sworn in a list of crimes his office will not prosecute. My modest prediction? The statistics for certain misdemeanors and even state jail felonies such as criminal trespass and theft will be way, way down in 2019 over 2018. Break out the champagne!
Of course Cruz is responsible. But since he had committed plenty of felonies that authorities chose to ignore I equally blame his enablers. Because of them Cruz could pass a NICS check and buy his firearms.
Modern day policing is a mess and getting worse. Two Sacramento Police officers will spend the rest of their lives looking over their shoulders for DOING EXACTLY WHAT THEY WERE TRAINED TO DO. They chased, confronted, then used the appropriate force option to stop suspect Clark. Now the california legislature is in the process of passing AB931, which will add more levels of second guessing, despite the existence of Graham v Conner. And now we have Scott Peterson being criminally charged for NOT acting aggressively enough. We used to have a legal system based on logic and reason. The application and making of law should be thoughtful and devoid of emotion. Now we have politicians, government officials, legal “professionals” and others who let emotion drive decisions and law making (I understand there are very vocal and even violent members of the public who inject extreme emotion into the public discourse, but these officials and lawmakers can not be influenced by these groups). I GUARANTEE, decisions such as Scott Peterson being arrested and AB931 being passed will lead to more societal chaos. When emotions drive lawmaking, the law of unintended consequences will soon follow.
I would never fault police officers who did exactly what they were trained to do. I fault Scott Peterson not for failing to act “aggressively enough.” I fault Peterson and his fellow BCSO deputies for failing to act AT ALL.
One of my favorite police blogs is Second City Cop.
http://secondcitycop.blogspot.com/
When I read it I wonder why he remains on the job with the Chicago PD. Because the city government never backs them up and blames the police for failing to fight crime. And by failing to fight crime I mean failing to fix the problems their own policies create. And their policies create problems because they don’t even know the conditions in their own city. For instance, the new mayor Lori Lightfoot constantly blames crime on poverty. For instance, in one recent blog post Second City Cop notes a keen observer’s observation:
“Lightfoot really shows how much she doesn’t know this city. She’s falling back on the age-old bullshit excuse of neighborhoods having no investment, but as the mayor of this city, she should know that isn’t the case at all. Let’s take the shooting on the 1200 block of North Mason for example – Lightfoot says it was due to lack of schools, parks, grocery stores and coffee shops. However…within a mere two mile radius there is Hatch School, Whittier School, Flagg Elementary School, St. Angela’s Catholic School, Brunson Math and Science Specialty School, LaFollette Park, Andersen Park, Davis Park, Taylor Park, Jewel, Pete’s Market, Food 4 Less, Walmart, and a fucking Dunkin Donuts.
Now what’s your excuse, Mayor Lightfoot?”
Then there’s the fact that CPD’s “merit promotion” system is apparently based on who you know rather than actual merit. Second City Cop points out that the multiple layers of high ranking supervisors have never made a felony arrest, haven’t been on fifty arrest reports in any capacity, and haven’t even made a misdemeanor arrest in at least ten years.
So since the city government has no clue about the conditions in Chicago, the conditions that cause crime, and the high ranking police officials have no idea what actual police officers do, nobody backs up the officers actually doing the work. In fact, they do the easiest thing and blame those officers since they’re the lowest level that can sustain the hit in the eyes of the clueless, misinformed, and uninformed.
As opposed to, say state DA Kim Foxx who not only dropped all the well-founded charges against Jussie Smollet but clearly refuses to enforce the law when it needs to be enforced.
Fun fact: of the 19 individuals arrested on gun charges over the weekend as of this afternoon 11 of them are already back on the street either on their own recognizance or ridiculously low bail amounts. I’m not in favor of gun control particularly the kind they have in Chicago (neither is Second City Cop BTW) but seven of those release are previously convicted felons; it’s illegal for them to have guns.
It’s ridiculous but who do city and police administrators, and the press, blame for the high crime rate? The patrol cops. I suppose for not being Johnny-on-the-spot when the dangerous felons who keep getting released as a matter of city policy commit more violent crimes.
This is the scapegoat to keep Sheriff Scott Israel out of trouble.
Also, I believe that the Supremes, in all their wisdom, have opined that the police have no duty to protect any individual
I don’t know if this loser will get what he deserves in court but I can say as a former combat Marine and former Law Enforcement, Peterson is a total chickenshit coward and should be ashamed of himself. He should also have that unbelievably generous pension stopped.
I have to agree with Sanddog up above. Certainly Peterson should be fired for failing to do his job properly, but that’s not a crime- for civilians. And Peterson is a civilian. There are multiple court decisions showing police and first responders are under no legal obligation to endanger themselves. Usually the position taken by their government employers to avoid liability for themselves if their employees fail to act. I know that in some cases potential rescuers have been prevented from attempting rescues because all the proper equipment wasn’t yet there, or the responders there hadn’t received officially sanctioned training in performing a rescue. As if training were a magic elixir that could cover every conceivable situation.
Police are para-military, not military. They’re not governed by the UCMJ, they’re governed by everyday law that all other civilians are governed by. Cowardice is a crime under the UCMJ, not in civilian land. Disobeying an order is a crime under the UCMJ, it’s a firing offense in civilian land. There’s a whole host of things that are UCMJ crimes, but not civilian world crimes.
Do note that everyone here, and columnists across the nation, are freely calling Peterson a coward. Depending on written or verbal, it’s libel or slander. Peterson will never sue, because under U.S. law, truth is a defense against both. (Not so in Britain or our neighbor to the North.) I’m pretty sure no one wants a court decision affirming that they are, indeed, a coward.
Police Officers are not Delta Force. Even Delta Force retreated when then encountered heavy gunfire from Qusay and Huday Hussein in the home they were holed up in.
Under Federal Qualified Immunity when has to have violated “clearly established federal law or constitutional rights to be subjected to a Federal Civil Suit. This indictment seeks to make new law.
Seems to me, the reason the media is out to get Scot Peterson is that their thinking is that police are to protect the citizens so we can’t have our own guns. As usual, the show and the hype are more important to the Narrative than the legal outcome.
The shooting stripped away the perception of what law enforcement can and cannot do and what individual officers may or may not choose to do. The often intended perception is that the police must provide individual protection. “Hey… just shelter in place and you really don’t need a firearm.. the police will protect you no matter what.” When really bad things happen, then the real limitations are shown. To me the Left wants that view and now they have to cover for this.
Peterson was faced with initially going it alone. That is tough but interfering with others going in … bad choice. The active shooter scenario old school.. set up a perimeter.. went out with Columbine. The best time to intercede is as soon as possible to create chaos for the shooter/attacker. That is dangerous for the police but while they can’t be ordered into war like the military… it is in the general description of general public safety.
Except for perjury, he is off the hook.. but… is now the scapegoat for the Dem establishment. Their failures cannot be questioned.
You’re right. This has nothing to do with any idea that people should let LE protect them. This is all about political cover-up. All of it.
As it becomes clearer that not making immediate entry, alone, probably did not affect the outcome, people are trying to make a case that Peterson somehow “interfered” with others going in. He did no such thing. Under the policies of the BSO, he, being the senior deputy on the scene, was in command of the scene and responding officers, until relieved. The responding deputies, except for the sergeant who arrived, followed procedure. The sergeant, being the ranking officer, should have assumed command of the scene upon arrival. As for the “hero” paramedics, who complained so loudly about SO not giving them clearance to enter, they would have screamed even louder, of a lack of “police protection” if their members were shot and/or killed.
Even if Peterson had run into the school immediately, the body count was already 11 dead and and as many wounded. Even if Peterson had heard shots on the third floor, run up the stairs and shot Cruz dead, we might very well have the same number of casualties. And, it was all the responsibility of the School system. But, the politicians on the School Board, and the Superintendent had to be protected. Them we have all of the politicians who signed on to that horrific Promise Program. They all had to be protected. Then we have the parents of the slain and injured children. They have to be protected, even though they did not demand the school system have effective security in place to prevent the incident from occurring. Then we have the FBI, which failed to pass on credible threat information. Protected. But, someone has to be responsible. Who? Let’s blame it on a lone deputy and a toad Sheriff, who no one really likes. Let them be the responsible parties and everyone else will be a victim. Then we can all crawl back into our little cocoons and feel safe. Until the next time some guy with a gun walks onto a school campus and starts shooting people.
Then we have the fact that Peterson is arrested on all of these trumped up charges, 14 months after the incident and a little more than a week before Sheriff Israel is scheduled to contest his suspension before the Florida Senate. All of this is nothing more than political cover. First for all the county politicians who shared responsibility for the initial incident and then for the Governor, who suspended the Sheriff as a political pay-off. And, the grounds for that suspension are really shaky. If the voters of Broward County wished Israel removed they could have simply recalled him. That did not happen. This is ALL politics. Nothing more.
I agree with the political cover up, this just reeks of it. So be on the lookout for what they are trying to distract from.
I don’t think anyone would argue that Peterson was derelict and acted in a cowardly fashion, however, these charges strike me as more of a “Throw the steaming pile at the wall and see what sticks”.
Now as far as the perjury…well that’s all on him.
There are sins of commission and sins omission. He is guilty of being an accessory to murder by his omission of confronting the shooter.
I am glad to see they are throwing the book at him. Even if it wasn’t his job to help, by doing nothing when he had the means and opportunity, he practically became an accomplice.
Think about it.
If the deputy actually were an accomplice of the shooter, what would he have done differently?
1. Not stop him shooting.
2. Let him escape the school grounds.