Florida | Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion - Part 35
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Florida Tag

The trial of Noor Salman, widow of the Pulse nightclub shooter Omar Mateen, has made public a handful of startling revelations. Salman is accused of aiding late her husband who murdered 49 people. She's also, "charged with obstruction and providing material support to a terrorist organization." Mateen pledged allegiance to ISIS and was killed by police after the attack. The incident was used by anti-gun activists to push for more gun control.

What in the world is going on at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School? Tuesday, two students were arrested for bringing weapons to school (one brought a knife, the other brought a razor), a third was arrested for making threats on Snapchat, and a Broward County deputy assigned to patrol the high school was busted sleeping in his patrol car when the brother of the Parkland shooter was trespassing on school property. The officer was suspended with pay.

Last month, Kemberlee asked, What in the world is going on with the Broward County Sheriff’s Department?, and this week we learn that Broward Country school officials and at least one sheriff's deputy recommended in September 2016 that the Stoneman Douglas High School shooter be involuntarily committed. In an almost unbelievable twist, the sheriff's deputy who recommended Nikolas Cruz be committed for psychological evaluation under the Baker Act is none other than school safety officer Scot Peterson.  That's right, the same Scot Peterson who was forced to resign after reports surfaced that he hid outside the school while Cruz carried out his bloody rampage unhindered.

The recovery operations continue after the collapse of Florida International University pedestrian bridge. As crews labored to lift, cut and dig through 950-tons of debris, the death toll has risen to six people, with 10 more reported as sustaining serious injury. While the causes of the disaster are still being investigated, there is news that cracks in the structure were reported to the state's transportation agency two days before the collapse.

Earlier today Florida Governor Rick Scott signed into law gun control measures meant to address concerns after the Parkland school shooting. One provision provides that all firearm sales are limited to persons at least 21 years old. Previously that age minimum only applied to handguns.

The more we learn about the law enforcement response, or lack thereof, to the Parkland school shooting, the worse the situation gets. Scot Peterson, the armed school deputy who stayed outside while 17 people were murdered claimed he heard shots outside of the school, which would explain his failure to engage the shooter. Peterson resigned after being placed on unpaid suspension for his failure to act.

Great news for the first amendment in Florida, assuming the bill survives Florida's Senate, of course. Despite their name, campus free speech zones are often used to marginalize free speech and allow the veritable persecution of "wrong" speech. From Florida local news, WCTV: Florida's House of Representatives...

The latest Florida school shooting is not just tragic, but as one reader pointed out, atrocious. Atrocious because every law enforcement agency involved ignored eleventy billion (approximately) red flags. As more information becomes available, it's looking more and more like there are some serious problems within the Broward County Sherrif's department. We've chronicled several of those here, here, and here.