‘Coward of Broward’ Sheriff’s Deputy Says He ‘Did Nothing Wrong’ During Parkland Shooting
National Review Online,
by
Mairead McArdle
Original Article
Posted By: MissMolly,
5/5/2019 6:43:09 AM
Disgraced former Broward County sheriff’s deputy Scot Peterson, who failed to act to stop the shooter who killed 17 at Parkland, Fla.’s Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School last year, struck a defiant stance in a recent report he sent to a state commission studying the tragedy, saying that he believes he did nothing wrong. Peterson, who was nicknamed the “coward of Broward” after he failed to enter the building where a former student was gunning down victims with an AR-15 rifle, said in the 14-page report that he has been made a “personal and political scapegoat”
Reply 1 - Posted by:
chumley 5/5/2019 7:02:05 AM (No. 77713)
If he had any sense of human decency he would live out the rest of his life in shame and never show his face again. Nor would he accept a pension for a job he clearly was never fit to do. Of course, he does not have that decency or he wouldn´t have cowered behind a column and listened to innocent people being murdered when he was the only one with the means to stop it.
20 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
JunkYardDog 5/5/2019 7:38:31 AM (No. 77696)
Scot Peterson: I did nothing wrong.
The Rest Of The World: You did nothing RIGHT. You didn´t ENGAGE the shooter. You rode around in a golf cart but did not ENTER THE BUILDING. You let people DIE,
32 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
blueline 5/5/2019 7:45:57 AM (No. 77712)
The Coward is reviled by none more than the officers who daily "protect and serve". He had ONE job to do: find and stop that killer. Nothing else matters in that moment. Nothing.
Every SRO I´ve spoken with since that day has nothing but venom for this weasel. He has brought shame and disgrace upon our profession, and compounds it every time he shows his face or opens his mouth.
Meanwhile tomorrow, thousands of SROs will suit up, put on the duty belt, and dare a killer to attempt this at their school.
11 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
nina584 5/5/2019 8:07:04 AM (No. 77711)
No picture of the coward. First mistake of this article.
13 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
dadofboys 5/5/2019 8:09:45 AM (No. 77710)
"Coward" is a mighty big word to throw around. Does any of us know what we will do when faced with the big moment of truth. How many police officers have actually had to make the conscious decision to go into a live fire situation. That is different than getting shot at and firing back. Read "The Red Badge of Courage". For heavens sake, this guy was a school security guard not a SWAT team member. Based on this coverage I don´t think the press will be happy until this man commits suicide. Just a thought.
12 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
MickTurn 5/5/2019 8:56:31 AM (No. 77705)
Operative words: He Did Nothing!
18 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
curious1 5/5/2019 9:13:00 AM (No. 77700)
This is also a good time to reiterate what many so-called adults in this country forget: the police are not legally liable for your protection in public. Every state in the union has some form of statute to that effect.
Remember that the next time you think ´some´ gun control´ is OK; after all, we can call the police. The courts have repeated found that adults are responsible for their own security. And their children´s.
So why let politicians unconstitutionally cramp your ability to do that? Unless you have a slave mentality and want government to ´take care of you´.
11 people like this.
What he did was clearly demonstrate the SRO as fantasy when the chips are down. Thousands of schools have these $100k per annum officers within. I cannot recall one shooting incident prevented by SROs. The best they can do, if willing, is run to the sound of gunfire - then already too late.
6 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
agrunt 5/5/2019 10:54:30 AM (No. 77704)
#8 you are right. Can you imagine the lawyers and Monday quarterbacks suing after any engagement . There is a wonderful book - "Dial 911 and Die." The book goes through far too many times when a person will call for help and for one reason of another it does not arrive on time. You must be able to defend you and yours.
4 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
fayebeck 5/5/2019 11:02:17 AM (No. 77707)
Why is this cop being criticized for doing the same thing as a swat team would? I remember one "school shooting" in which the commanding officer said that he is not going to send his officers into the building and risk their safety.
5 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
hershey 5/5/2019 11:13:57 AM (No. 77702)
In reply to the $100K SRO pay, I call B.S...speaking as a 7 year veteran of the job, and +30 years in several departments. A lot of us do it for way less than that, more of a ´part time´ job that is actually ´full time´..
That being said, he should have had the gonads to go in and at least try to stop the shooter. I spent a lot of hours walking corridors and checking on the 6 schools in our district, and playing ´whatif´ games in my mind, and that was before ´active shooter drills´ and ´special´ gizmos to lock doors...
You either have what it takes to put yourself in danger, or you don´t...no three ways about it.
9 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
jacksin5 5/5/2019 11:28:11 AM (No. 77701)
Does anyone know beforehand which side of the "Fight or Flight" curve they will land on?
We applaud Heroes because they go towards danger, rather than away from it.
6 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
red1066 5/5/2019 11:50:42 AM (No. 77709)
In defense of #9 #12, in Maryland, those police probably do make 100K a year. I don´t know about other states, but here in Maryland 100k isn´t an enormous amount of money as a salary. It´s large, but not really out of place with many positions. My wife makes more than that as a teacher.
3 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
joew9 5/5/2019 11:53:54 AM (No. 77703)
I think I am in disagreement with most everyone. I don´t think he did much of anything wrong. He didn´t run into an unknown situation like some kind of invincible Rambo. He didn´t know if there were 20 guys with guns. He might have been running into pointless certain death. At most he could have caused the attacker/s to use up one bullet in their cache of perhaps thousands. And then his dead body would have been a trip hazard for more appropriately armed police.
People are analyzing this like it´s the plot of some action movie. But it´s not. It´s real life. The bullets were not blanks and the blood was not fake.
4 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
Nevadadad46 5/5/2019 12:17:42 PM (No. 77697)
"You can do no wrong if you place your ship alongside that of the enemy!" Nelson´s dicta to his Captains on the eve of the battle of Trafalgar.
"Do what is right, not what you think the high headquarters wants or what you think will make you look good."
General Norman Schwarzkopf
"To the sound of the guns- rush there, for there you will find the enemy!" An obscure Revolutionary War captain to his men.
Sometimes, doing what is in the book is not at all what you must do to save lives
Me!!
3 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
Norgay 5/5/2019 12:47:51 PM (No. 77708)
As the courts have ruled numerous times that Law Enforcement has no obligation to protect the citizenry of their jurisdiction. He by preciously set presidents, didn’t do anything wrong legally.
Having said that, morally he’s a walking pile of crap. He was obviously just there to promote PC culture and to collect a biweekly paycheck doing his time until the big retirement. I hope he never has a restful day again.
Additionally after all the all to many incidents like Parkland, it’s a given fact that the sooner a armed responder makes contact with a gunman the sooner the event is over. And the casualty count goes down. While I don’t like to see Law enforcement militarized, they need to adopt the military mindset that you have to run to the sounds of the guns. I am retired military and work on an Air Force base. If there ever is a active shooter on base I know that there’s a fire team running to the gun fire not waiting for it to end.
2 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
DVC 5/5/2019 12:57:18 PM (No. 77706)
There should be posters up everywhere in the town he lives in with his picture, and under it, it should say.
Spit on this man.
5 people like this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
DVC 5/5/2019 12:58:47 PM (No. 77714)
Sad attempt, #6.
Coward is exactly the correct word. And if I was in that position and I did what he did, I would be a coward, too.
8 people like this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
daisey 5/5/2019 2:45:01 PM (No. 77698)
School security guard, but also a sheriff’s deputy. He chose to hide, not help. His choice. Choices have consequences.
3 people like this.
Below, you will find ...
Most Recent Articles posted by "MissMolly"
and
Most Active Articles (last 48 hours)