Cowardice and betrayal of trust in Broward County

By now, I'm sure most of my readers are aware that four Broward County deputy sheriffs - including the school security officer - cowered outside the Parkwood school buildings and refused to go in to confront the shooter as he was murdering 17 of his former classmates.  (I won't name him.  He doesn't deserve to be remembered as a human being.  Let his name be forgotten.)

When it comes to the deputies' conduct, I don't think anyone has said it better than my friend and comrade Lawdog.

I'll go so far as to say that there is no dishonour in turning in your badge after the Academy if you realize that you can't walk into an on-going gunfight and shoot the critter pulling the trigger in the face until he changes shape or catches fire -- as long as you do it before the actual bullets start going "bang".

If you come to me -- or your boss -- on a quiet afternoon and say, "I've thought about it, and I don't think I can do the needful to save kids" then all honour to you, and I wish you peace and happiness in another profession.

But if you wait until the bangs and the stinks and the screams are in progress to decide that you just can't do it ... you, sir, are a useless oath-breaking bucket of squid chum, who is parasitising a position, a uniform, and a salary that could be held by someone who can do the needful.

And -- quite frankly -- if you wear a badge, and you hide behind a car while children under your protection are getting killed, you should have the common [deleted] decency to take your sidearm, find a quiet country road somewhere, and Do The Proper Thing.

There's more at the link.  Please go read the whole thing.  He says what needs to be said.

However, it's also emerged that Broward County policies in schools as a whole were so slewed towards covering up and/or ignoring actual crimes as to constitute malfeasance in office, not only on the part of those deputies concerned, but probably by the sheriff's department as a whole.

Broward County schools intentionally created polices from 2010 through 2016 that culminated in the 2018 mass school shooting in Parkland.  We know this with great specificity because five years ago we warned Broward County Florida school board members this could happen.

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.

Unfortunately, the school board mandated policies came into conflict with law and order. The problem of the conflicted policy -vs- legality worsened over time as the police excused much more than misdemeanor crimes.  Over time this culminated in police officers falsifying documents, hiding criminal activity, lying on official police reports and even hiding stolen merchandise police retrieved from high school students.

Again, more at the link.

Given that police were called to the shooter's home no less than 39 times before his massacre of his former classmates, yet did nothing, one must assume that those policies were being actively implemented, both in and out of school.

There's blood on the shooter's hands, sure;  but I think there's just as much blood on the hands of the Broward County Sheriff's Office, and on the Sheriff's, and on the hands of every deputy involved, either before or during the tragedy.  Will anything be done about it?  I hope so . . . but I doubt it.  Those involved have too much incentive to cover for each other, lest they endanger themselves.




Peter