Friday, February 23, 2018

Time for Scott Israel to Resign


If he had any self-respect Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel would resign his position. His department failed to act when it was informed, over and over again, that Nikolas Cruz was dangerous. Its deputy, Scott Peterson, stationed at M. S. Douglas High School during the massacre, stayed out of the way, leaving the children unprotected. And the first police officers on the scene were not from Broward County, but from Cold Springs. See Instapundit for the details.

Instead of resigning, Sheriff Israel, a proud Hillary Clinton supporter, is out and around on television promoting gun control. He is providing us with a portrait in cowardice.

And then there is this. You knew that this was part of the problem, didn’t you? But you, as I, refrained from saying anything… because we await the evidence.

Were you to ask why local authorities, from school officials to the sheriff’s office let Nikolas Cruz to run free, the answer seems to have something to do with an Obama era policy—keep minority children in school. The policy required everyone to overlook delinquent youths from minority groups, the better to keep the minority crime statistics down.

Jack Cashill reports for The American Thinker:

"We're not compromising school safety. We're really saving the lives of kids," boasted Michaelle Valbrun-Pope, executive director of Student Support Initiatives for Broward County Public Schools, in August 2017.

Valbrun-Pope was referring to what an article by Jeffrey Benzing in Public Source calls the "Broward County Solution." As Benzing relates, Broward County used to lead the state of Florida in sending students to the state's juvenile justice system. County leaders responded with a perfectly progressive solution: "lower arrests by not making arrests."

Authorities agreed to treat twelve different misdemeanor offenses as school-related issues, not criminal ones. The results impressed the people who initiated the program. Arrests dropped from more than a thousand in 2011-2012 to less than four hundred just four years later.

One particular motivation behind programs like Broward County's was the pressure from multiple sources to reduce the statistical disparity between black and Hispanic student arrests on one hand and white and Asian student arrests on the other. Benzing writes, for instance, how a Denver organization called "Padres & Jóvenes Unidos" successfully advocated for a program like Broward's to help achieve "racial and education equity" in Denver schools.

By virtue of his name alone, Nikolas de Jesús Cruz, the adopted son of Lynda and Roger Cruz, became a statistical Hispanic. As such, authorities at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland had every reason not to report his troubling and likely criminal behavior to the police.

There you have it.

6 comments:

James said...

Stuart as you pointed out so well the Left has really changed what is considered acceptable behavior. That deputy was probably thinking if I go after that guy I'll lose my job. This is probably true, but it also show he has forgotten what his "job" really is and he and his boss should resign. As a matter of fact everyone who knew of this problem and was in a position to act, but didn't should resign.

Anonymous said...

I can understand why there is a big desire to blame guns. At every level there was a human failure to take responsibility to do their jobs or to actually care for other people.
1. The police knew about the shooter and visited him, but did not follow up by entering his name in the NICS. https://www.fbi.gov/services/cjis/nics thereby making it possible for this person to pass a background check and buy a gun
2. The FBI knew about this person and failed to pass that information to the local FBI for investigation
3. The school failed to take adequate action when they knew this person and basically did little to help this individual
4. The school used cameras that were set on a delay that misled those police who did respond and it was not the local police who responded first thereby allowing confusion
5. The police officer that was on site failed to act thereby allowing the shooter to kill unimpeded
6. The students knew this person and did nothing to ameliorate the downward trajectory of this person's life
7. I would bet if one checked social medial that many of these students bullied and put down this individual thereby further isolating and alienating him to the point of him wanting to hurt those who had added to the hurt in his life
8. The psychiatric community total failed this individual.
I could go on, but suffice it to say that all along this sorted tale is human failure. One way to avoid responsibility and not to actually do something that would address what I have mentioned is to blame something other that the people who all KNEW and this is not to address the cultural rot that makes these things possible. Every problem is a human problem. The device utilized, whether that be guns, pipe/ other types of explosive devices, bombs, gas, knives, cars/trucks, et al are only a means not the perpetrator. Blaming things is just a way to avoid responsibility.

Stuart Schneiderman said...

Exactly....

Redacted said...

All good points, Schneiderman. And let's not forget that Deppity Dawg Peterson was doing exactly what I suspect he was trained to do and what most, if not all, police departments demand as proper "procedure": when faced with a possible armed suspect, hide behind a rock and call for backup.

It would be interesting to know how many citizens have been maimed or murdered waiting for "backup" to arrive. As they say, call the cops and order a pizza and see which get there first.

I have nothing against LEOs, and I'm glad the cops in my town are vigilant...

But the police are not your friend.

I note without further comment that the heroic young man who disarmed a potential mass killer in Amarillo a few days ago was shot by the police.

Redacted said...

The new #MeToo...

https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-srMU3hdRxag/Wo_r22ysbCI/AAAAAAADEWs/cyxVhdws0HUALhtoH2nfBIMksFNUO-upwCLcBGAs/s1600/untitled.jpg

Christopher B said...

Information coming out now on Instapundit that at least three more Broward deputies responded before the Coral Springs PD arrived but didn't engage, either.