It seems that Florida has indicted the school resource officer who did nothing last year during the horrific school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
Agents with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement have charged Peterson with seven counts of child neglect, three counts of culpable negligence, and one count of perjury after a 15-month investigation, the agency said.This is the correct conclusion. I was a resource officer for the last 16 years of my career and the message was plain, from the Sheriff through the trainers, from our command, even among the peers. You Go In.
"The FDLE investigation shows former Deputy Peterson did absolutely nothing to mitigate the MSD shooting that killed 17 children, teachers and staff and injured 17 others,” FDLE Commissioner Rick Swearingen said in a news release. "There can be no excuse for his complete inaction and no question that his inaction cost lives."
A resource officer has just one job. End the threat. I knew that my buddies would be along shortly, but that it was my responsibility to move toward the threat, engage it, and end it.
This may be the first time that a police officer has ever been charged with a felony for failing to do his job, and I'm sure that the police unions all over the country are going to have a collective aneurysm, but it is the proper conclusion.
8 comments:
While I agree that Mr. Peterson deserves to be horse-whipped, tarred & feathered and driven out of town with the word COWARD branded on his forehead; I cannot help but wonder how these charges will stand up in light of the 2005 Supreme Court ruling that police officers do not have the duty to protect a person from harm. Personally, I hope that the prosecutors in this case know what they're doing and selected these particular charges because they believe that they can get convictions on them.
Compared to San Juan County Deputy Bradford at the Aztec NM School shooting who broke out a window and, along with a Farmington, NM officer, entered the school and started tracking the shooter.
I don't know what intent will have to do with the charges in Florida. But while I can see him getting fired for not doing his job, I can't see charges like this sticking, and they smack more of political prosecution rather than an attempt at justice. If this works, I can see where this can be badly abused in the future, given the right politicians and publicity. If a person does his job, as in Baltimore, and people disagree, he can be filed on. If a person, ala Baltimore again, doesn't do his job to stay out of trouble and the right people disagree, he could be filed on. Going to be interesting.
DaveS, "Such statements are (wrongly) based on two cases: Warren v. District of Columbia, 444 A.2d. 1, D.C. Ct. of Appeals (1981), and Town of Castle Rock v. Gonzales, 454 U.S. 748 (2005)."
Read more on this subject: https://thatweemsguy.com/2019/06/05/precedent-but-not-that-precedent/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
That Peterson shirked his duties and shall be held accountable by the full force of law is proper. Yet, if others like the ex-Sheriff, school superintendent Runcie, and impeached ex-AG Holder are not likewise held accountable, the result will be that Peterson is nothing more than a scapegoat to satisfy the people who have been calling for his head on a platter.
Rick
Good grief. For clarification: "...shirked his duties is not in dispute and that he shall be...."
Rick
Les, this case is not likely to yield a precedent. I agree that there is a political component to the criminal prosecution of Peterson. If the others, notably ex-Sheriff and school superintendent Runcie are not charged we will know that Peterson was the sacrifice to political expediency. (That is not to argue against Peterson's negligence and culpability.)
Rick
Let's HOPE he goes down for it.
Ultimately I am reluctant to overly chastize this person without a lot more knowledge. We don't know what he heard, saw, or knew. We can doubt under the administration he was under, active shooter drills were ever done, or thought about. People under stress sometimes act in a fashion they would never dream they would. If he had some immunizaton by drills he might have acted completely different, just as if he had another active shooter incident, he might have been the hero. The way these charges were broached, they do have all the appearance of politicians needing a scapegoat.
Post a Comment