Tuesday, March 19, AD 2024 6:51am

Don’t Worry: The State Will Protect You!

The main purpose behind the Second Amendment is to give the American people a last ditch defense of liberty against tyranny, but guns also come in handy for private defense.  As illustrated by the failure of the FBI, the local school, the Sheriff’s department, and various governmental agencies, to deal with the Florida shooter, who, for years, may as well have been wearing a sign stating: Warning: Ticking Time Bomb!, anyone who thinks government can defend them against this type of threat is an idiot.  Now we have this revelation from Sheriff Drop-the-Ball who has been loudly calling for gun control since the Florida shooting to cover the manifest malfeasance of his own office:

The armed officer stationed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., resigned Thursday after an internal review found he did not enter the school during last week’s deadly shooting.

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel announced Deputy Scot Peterson chose to resign after Israel suspended him without pay.

“Scot Peterson was absolutely on campus through this entire event. He was armed. He was in uniform,” Israel said at a press conference.

“After seeing video, witness statements and Scot Peterson’s very own statement, I decided this morning to suspend [him] without pay pending an internal investigation,” he continued.

Israel said Peterson chose to resign as he had met the necessary requirements for retirement. The sheriff noted that the investigation would continue.

“We’re not going to disclose the video at this time, and we may never disclose the video, depending on the prosecution and the criminal case,” Israel said. “But what I saw was a deputy arrive at the west side of building 12, take up a position — and he never went in.”

When asked by a reporter what Peterson should have done, Israel said the deputy should have “went in, addressed the killer, killed the killer.”

Go here to read the rest.  I have known a lot of cops during my 36 years at the bar for various reasons, and they come in all shapes and sizes, but none of them have been charged with cowardice, which is the likely explanation for the non-action of the Deputy.  Of course, it is possible that he may have only been carrying out departmental standard operating procedures in an active shooting situation, in which case he is being used as a scapegoat by Sheriff Drop-the-Ball, which wouldn’t surprise me in the least.  All will come out, no doubt, in the tsunami of lawsuits about to descend on Broward County.

What this underlines is what the cops I know have told me over and over again, echoed by judges at the hundreds of order of protection cases I have been involved in, people must provide for their own private security because the State cannot, at least not in a timely manner.  As the saying goes, when seconds count, the police are only minutes away.   The Second Amendment is all about defense, and this debacle demonstrates how badly it is needed.

 

 

 

 

Update:  This story keeps getting better and better.  Deputy Scot Peterson in a 2016 investigation of the home life of Cruz, the future shooter, refused to share information on Cruz with state agencies.  I doubt if he decided to do that on his own, and he was probably reflecting the policy of the Broward County Sheriff’s Department.  Yep, gun confiscation would be a cure for this type of government bungling.

Update 2:  Now we learn that the Broward County Sheriff’s department had four deputies on site and they did nothing until officers of the Coral Springs police department arrived and went into the school. Go here to read all about it.  It is now apparent that the aftermath of this debacle has been largely an attempt by Sheriff Drop-the-Ball to conceal how badly his office botched this before and during the shooting.

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Frank
Frank
Friday, February 23, AD 2018 8:17am

But for the deaths involved this story would be something out of Monty Python. In the leftist fever swamps of Twitter, into which I can’t seem to stop myself from peeking every now and then, the revelation of the failure of the “school resource officer” (huh?) to do his job is being either excused because, you know, he didn’t want to die, or held up as proof that having armed guards in schools is no solution. The latter seems equivalent to arguing that seat belts are of no use because driver x got killed when not wearing his. Even aside from all the (at least circumstantial) evidence that the entire post-incident media storm has been scripted and controlled right down to the talking points being uttered by the students, these silly statements reveal a terrible lack of rationality in the anti-Second Amendment crowd. How much more important have Supreme Court appointments just become, as states and possibly Congress will begin passing more and more restrictive “gun control” laws?

Art Deco
Friday, February 23, AD 2018 8:46am

I suspect it’s a general rule where liberals control the police that police are expected to stand down and law enforcement is confounded with social work. You see gross examples of this in other high profile cases from time to time. Wayne LaPierre pointed out about 20 years ago that Kipland Kinkel could have been prosecuted under a bevy of state and federal statutes on the books ‘ere he ever staged his massacre, but neither the state’s attorney nor the U.S. Attorney had ever done so. There were over 20 complaints to police about Cruz and his brother but neither one had ever been held accountable by police or courts in Florida.

The sheriff is an elected official, a Democrat, and had a long career in municipal law enforcement in the county. Odds are he got the Democratic nomination by telling the lawyers, school teachers, and social workers who run the local Democratic committee what they wanted to hear.

One thing we all might try is to abolish the juvenile justice system. Have ordinary penal courts and municipal courts execute their fact finding function and then turn defendants under the age of 9 over to the family court for custody and supervision hearings. For defendants over 9, sentence them according to a schedule of penalties for juveniles delineated in the penal code and then (while they are serving them) turn them over to the family court for a set of custody and supervision hearings to determine their status and residence apart from their penal servitude. Ideally, a state prison system would be strongly age-graded with juvenile convicts serving sentences in dedicated facilities with 3-5 age cohorts each. The use of corporal punishment for juveniles (birch, cane, and pillory) would be bog standard. No records would be sealed or confidential should a youth land in the clutches of the court system past his 18th birthday and in camera proceedings would not be used for defendants past their 14th birthday.

Art Deco
Friday, February 23, AD 2018 8:51am

You had an elderly deputy who (one might guess) was of genus timeserverus. The schools division of your sheriff’s department properly has as its institutional mission dealing with disciplinary problems, and that very seldom includes black swan events like this one. I betcha he was just about the last person in the department (bar the property clerk) who had the disposition and skills to deal with the situation properly.

Greg Mockeridge
Greg Mockeridge
Friday, February 23, AD 2018 9:53am

In the public high school I attended in Detroit, there were two cops assigned to the school. Word was the derelict cops were the ones assigned to the schools.

That may be the case in Parkland, Florida.

Art Deco
Friday, February 23, AD 2018 10:42am

Every human organization of a certain dimension has inadequate people you cannot justify firing. Derelict cops in Detroit should be placed in administrative positions, not put out on patrol (even in schools). (Ideally, Detroit would have a handsomely staffed and capably led metro police force, not what it has today).

Ernst Schreiber
Ernst Schreiber
Friday, February 23, AD 2018 10:54am

Yep, gun confiscation would be a cure for this type of government bungling.

This is what has me exasperated with Trump’s calls for “common sense” reforms to existing laws. What additional laws do we really want passed for local, state and federal agencies to not enforce?

T. Shaw
T. Shaw
Friday, February 23, AD 2018 11:50am

No gun is illegal. There is no such thing as a bad gun. No gun (pistol grip, bayonet lug, high-cap mag, etc.) ever hurt anybody. Each of my guns promised never to hurt anybody unless it was justified. They all are undocumented. I named each one Dreamer one through ten.

Ernst Schreiber: There hasn’t been a school mass shooting in NY or CT since January 2013 when CT and NY passed feel-good, translation [expletive deleted] assault rifle (pistol grip, bayonet lug, flash suppressor) and high-cap magazine bans. Boss Cuomo’s law specifically stated that the state may not keep statistics on compliance because he knew that nobody would comply and you can’t lock up 500,0000 New Yorkers. I saw articles re: CT’s law that estimated over 400,000 people in CT did not comply.

The mind of a 54 year-old works differently from that of a 20 year-old. At 67 years of age, I would like to think I would be able to do better; but who can say?

One cannot vouch for one’s marksmanship or courage until one has been tested.

Foxfier
Admin
Friday, February 23, AD 2018 4:20pm

They needed someone to blame– it was starting to get to be big news exactly how freaking often that kid should have been arrested. The attempt to blame it on the FBI started falling flat when it turned out that they’d been called to his house 39 times, besides the stuff that happened at school.

So they chose the guy who was following standard policy, and basic tactics, by waiting until there was at least one other officer there. If you hear shots, you don’t wait for specialists…but you aren’t supposed to fly solo, either; you wait for there to be at least one other cop.

Not doing that puts the kids at even bigger risk, because you have a rather good chance of being shot and giving all your supplies to the shooter(s), as well as making it much harder for your backup to do anything effective.

Your update is correct; the whole sweeping-stuff-under-the-rug thing was police policy…by demand of the school.
We know this because Trayvon Martin was another student from this school, folks warned the school district then that their policies would have this kind of effect, and the school…doubled down.
With full cooperation of the police force.

Here are the guys who put in the FOIAs and sent the letters. Which were ignored.
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2018/02/21/its-too-late-broward-county-school-board-beginning-to-admit-their-mistakes/

Foxfier
Admin
Friday, February 23, AD 2018 4:33pm

T. Shaw
The mind of a 54 year-old works differently from that of a 20 year-old. At 67 years of age, I would like to think I would be able to do better; but who can say?
One cannot vouch for one’s marksmanship or courage until one has been tested.

*nod*
That’s why training is so important. However you train is likely to be exactly what you do, when the crud hits the fan– notice how many of the kids who died heroes were JROTC, that is, they’d at the very least thought about what to do in combat, if not actually gamed it out? Or the Oregon community college shooting– prior service Army guy’s training said “I’m in rushing distance but not armed, he’s armed and a threat, CHARGE AND TACKLE.”

Contrast with the various heroes at other shootings, where they were the rare ones who didn’t do what they were trained to– the teacher holding a door shut, and dying as he ordered his kids out the windows. A couple of silly college kids that went “…wait, that door doesn’t lock. How about I flip this table in front of it, rather than hoping he won’t see us under the wide open table desks?” The kid at a tribal school who died a hero, with his pencil sticking out of his killer when the corpse finally cooled. The guy at the Portland mall who took his gun in when he knew it could get him banned for life, because that would be a stupid reason to die. The dozens of pizza kids who lose their jobs after having to resist with deadly force…when it’s store policy to sit there and take the beating or death.

Most people, cops, soldiers, anything, do what their training is when things get bad. That’s why the Navy has Battle Stations and various emergency drills, and it works.

The insanity comes in when there’s a policy that guarantees that there will not be two lawfully armed people in the area when things go wrong; if there was at least an option for concealed carry, the school resource officer could have a chance of, oh, going to the front office and meeting up with Mr. Brown, who’s a CCD holder that also volunteered to get training to be back-up in case of an active shooter. Throw on a crossing guard vest, and go in. Takes maybe a minute, and vastly lowers the likelihood of a shooter being able to get a free gun.
Let employees or volunteers at the school who are concealed carry permit holders carry, and you increase the chance the killer will kill himself. (usually they have to be cornered by police before they shoot themselves, but a “helpless victim” being a threat seems to BSoD them)

Art Deco
Friday, February 23, AD 2018 7:16pm

We know this because Trayvon Martin was another student from this school, folks warned the school district then that their policies would have this kind of effect, and the school…doubled down.

Trayvon Martin was enrolled at the high school which covered Miami Gardens in Dade County. He never lived in Broward County.

Art Deco
Friday, February 23, AD 2018 9:30pm

https://legalinsurrection.com/2018/02/parkland-shooting-fbi-tip-ignored-he-wants-to-kill-people-and-hes-so-into-isis/#more-242773

Evidently the municipal police in Coral Gables, Fla. were less than impressed with the performance of the Sheriff’s deputies. It’s either a troublesome institutional culture or it’s poor procedure. Not just that one guy.

Philip Nachazel
Philip Nachazel
Saturday, February 24, AD 2018 5:11am

Art Deco.

Four stood by their patrol cars, guns drawn… waiting. (?)
According to the link you provided.
Incredible.

Our Nation is coming apart at the seams.

I came across this article this morning that sums it up.
The divisions are evident;

http://spiritdaily.org/blog/news/a-nation-dividisible

Clinton
Clinton
Saturday, February 24, AD 2018 8:36am

As Ben Shapiro pointed out in his radio show, the Broward County
Sheriff knew his deputies had stood behind their cars at the scene
and didn’t enter the school until the Coral Gables police arrived.
And yet this same sheriff had the gall to appear at the “town hall
meeting” staged by CNN to accuse the NRA and the Trump
administration of having blood on their hands, when he knew three
of his own deputies had simply watched the shooting from the safety
of their cars. Myself, I find it difficult to believe that those four officers
all held back voluntarily– it’s my own opinion that they were ordered
to remain in position. I suppose we’ll all find out, eventually. However,
no one in the media nor the Broward County Sheriff’s Department is
likely to issue any apologies to the NRA or supporters of the 2nd
Amendment.

Ben Shapiro’s thoughts on these most recent revelations:
(warning– a touch of rough language).
https://youtu.be/4x8hCgRydcs

Foxfier
Admin
Saturday, February 24, AD 2018 8:58am

Art-
typo; school *policy*.

Shared by the districts. And directly addressed five years ago.

Which you’d know, if you’d clicked on the link and even skimmed it.
Since you don’t want to, here’s the quote:
In 2012 and 2013 while doing research into the Trayvon Martin shooting we discovered an alarming set of school policies being enacted in Miami-Dade and Broward County Florida. The policies were called “diversionary programs” and were essentially about stopping High School students from being arrested. Law enforcement was instructed to avoid arrests and defer criminal conduct to school administrators.

Students who engaged in violence, drug sales, robberies, burglaries, theft and other various crimes were intentionally kept out of the criminal justice system. County administrators and School Superintendents told local and county law enforcement officers to stop arresting students.

T. Shaw
T. Shaw
Saturday, February 24, AD 2018 10:27am

They think they’ll retake Congress with these lies.

They push the guns/NRA false witness/libels/slanders so as to keep the sheep in the fold. Unlimited incompetence is a hallmark of unlimited government.

T. Shaw
T. Shaw
Saturday, February 24, AD 2018 10:29am

FYI

Its other hallmarks include (not limited to) unlimited injustice.

exNOAAman
exNOAAman
Saturday, February 24, AD 2018 11:23am
Philip Nachazel
Philip Nachazel
Saturday, February 24, AD 2018 11:36am

(Students who engage in violence, drug sales, robberies, burglaries, theft and other various crimes were intentionally kept out of the criminal justice system. County administrators and School Superintendents told local and county law enforcement officers to stop arresting students.)

…. picking my jaw up off the table.

Teachers carrying hand guns to class?
Why would they need too?
Screwed up policies might be a reasonable place to start. Is Nancy Pelosi the author of “Diversionary Programs” for Miami Dade and Broward Counties?
Maybe while visiting Florida she would trial balloon this obtuse idea.
After all, she’s a taco shy of a combo platter.

Foxfier
Admin
Saturday, February 24, AD 2018 2:03pm

EXNOAAMan-
it’s definitely a good one. Well, effective; freaking horrific more than good, and an example of why this place is so horrible….

But instead folks are charging off after the people who had to live with the policies, when as best we can tell at this time it was 7 minutes between when Cruz entered the school to when he left.
Not when he started shooting, but entered the building.
First 911 call was a 2:23, two minutes after he entered.
911/Dispatch was told he ran across the tennis courts at 2:27, and the football field at 2:28.

So when the latest tidbit from CNN happened, with the Coral Springs cops showing up? They should have heard, on their radios, that the suspect had already left the area, so no, no kids were being shot when there were actually enough cops to enter the building.
(Fire code, we know there have to be two stairs inside of the building– so you need at least two to clear, besides basic tactics needing at least two.)

Which explains why CNN sat on that tidbit until they needed a distraction from them calling a living hero from the shooting a liar, and then other news outlets actually reporting that yes, CNN had ignored anything they didn’t want to hear.

Foxfier
Admin
Saturday, February 24, AD 2018 2:08pm

Philip-
it’s basically the same policy that Seattle’s police were forced to use by Holder’s DoJ; it doesn’t matter if you have on video a ton of “black” kids breaking the law, you need to arrest them in proportion to the population or b charged with hate crimes.

Philip Nachazel
Philip Nachazel
Sunday, February 25, AD 2018 11:20am

Hi Foxfier.
“Something is afoot at the Circle K.”
It might as well be Bill and Ted’s semi-excellent Adventure when it comes to these “considerations.” God forbid a law enforcement officer does a good job keeping the streets safe in fear of being labeled as a racist or “worse,” a hate monger!

I’m sorry Foxfier. I’m in the sticks. Beautiful country to roam and take in God’s natural splendors. Trying to wrap my head around the complexites of urban community give and take is beyond my simplistic mind. Old school.
That’s me. You do wrong to another and you suffer the consequences.
Hate speech?
A pastor was fined for reciting Scripture on the public square. Fined under the Hate Speech laws. You know what….the haters are the ones making up the laws. They hate Truth and anyone who will publicly give witness to Truth.
The tolerant left are the most intolerant nasty vermin to crawl out from under the landfill.

Hate speech?
Turn the tables of the money changer’s over. Now.

Mary De Voe
Sunday, February 25, AD 2018 2:38pm

“Hate speech?” Hatred is not one of the capital sins. A person has to will to hate. Who decides what is hatred or discrimination?
Only TRUTH is allowed in a court of law. How can the court criminalize TRUTH? Only TRUTH has freedom of speech. How can the court criminalize TRUTH without removing all unalienable human rights from the people? How can the court subvert the TRUTH? How can the court supplant the TRUTH with an agenda? How can the court impose injustice? through Godlessness.

Foxfier
Admin
Sunday, February 25, AD 2018 3:48pm

There’s a reason my husband took a pay cut and moved to the far side of the country, leaving us for six months, in order to get us away from Seattle.

T.Shaw
T.Shaw
Sunday, February 25, AD 2018 6:23pm

For too long big government has failed the people and the solutions have been giving it more power and more money.

Old Rock Song:
“And when you ask ’em, ‘How much should we give?’
“Ooh, they only answer ‘More! More! More!’, y’all”

“. . . the Fed has attained an unprecedented prominence – precisely because of its past policy failures.” (Well, nobody in power squawked when it created out of air $3.5 trillion in banks reserves and relieved the banks of a similar amount of UST bonds and mortgage-related securities; and for 10 years kept rates at near-zero). That’s from Dr. Henry Kaufman’s (Dr. Doom’s) recent book, Tectonic Shifts in Financial Markets: People, Policies, and Institutions. Anybody younger than 35 years-old has experienced only disinflation and falling interest rates.

The foolishness of policy-makers and market participants led to the 2008 financial crisis and its long-running aftermath. Einstein’s definition of insanity. Greenspan and Bernanke failed to see deep changes in financial markets – securitizations; repeal of Glass-Steagall (here I disagree); increased concentration of markets – handful of megabanks dominating. Dodd-Frank worsened the concentration of financial risks may engender a more fragile financial system and more dependence on the always-wrong Fed.

Philip Nachazel
Philip Nachazel
Sunday, February 25, AD 2018 8:01pm

Foxfier.

Congratulations.
The lure of rural life is worth the pay change. At least we feel that it is. A saying that applies to our spectacular peninsula goes like this; view of the bay for half the pay.
Sleeping Bear National Park and Lakeshore is our backyard. I did my “hard time” in Orange county years ago. Not in jail..but in traffic. It’s about the same thing…stuck on the 405 for hours is definitely hard time.

Foxfier
Admin
Monday, February 26, AD 2018 7:46am

Sadly, husband’s job isn’t really rural– but we aren’t in the middle of the blob anymore, and if I really wanted to sit down and not see a house or anything, there’s sandy scrub in sprinting distance even for me! The El Paso blob is definitely less oozy than the Seattle blob.

Philip Nachazel
Philip Nachazel
Monday, February 26, AD 2018 8:47am

blob….. ☺

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