I support the principle behind the charges. He is a failure in my eyes and a coward.
However, I do think the court is going to have a have a battle with this case.
Between Scott Israel's department policies, internal dept politics, and the media attention it might he hard to find a jury that is unbiased.
Wasn't Peterson the fall guy? The ranking officer on the scene told deputies to set up a staging area and perimeter, instead of entering the building. None of the deputies entered because of this Captain's order, no lawmen entered the building until Parkland Police arrived and their officers rushed past the idle deputies.
The entire situation was a massive clusterfuck.
There was reports of gunfire and that officers took fire from inside the building. That is why a lot of officers stayed in cover until they could get a location of where the reported shots were coming from. Second, the sheriffs office did not have a policy involving active shooters - which left judgement up to the on scene commander. So between this, trying to set up a perimeter which obviously failed, once the local PD arrived they started rushing into the building not knowing if there was truly fire coming from the windows and ran into deputy cross fire. They also charged in from a wide open space which left most of the officers open to fire. However, at this point the active shooter had fled the school. There was also issues with the radio traffic as well, fire alarms were going off, and a bunch of other shit was just overwhelming dispatch.
Overall, lots of failure on everyone's part. It's just that Peterson is legit the fall guy and Scott Israel immediately went on the political defensive and was talking shit about his own deputy.
Morally you could argue that peterson failed and you can argue on the principle of being a police officer he failed to do his duty. However, he technically did not break any dept policies as they did not exist and technically he did not break any laws by not going in.
I mean, I think he failed as an officer, but he has to carry the weight knowing people died under his watch. Do I think it is fair for him to possibility spend the rest of his life in prison? Not really, I think this needs to be a situation in which police dept's are responsible for setting up active shooter policies, train for such events, and there needs to be laws put in place that address this issue.
If Peterson is going to be held accountable, so does the sheriff and everyone else involved. The suspect had red flags and was known to be a risk and yet no one did anything. Peterson is a small piece of this puzzle and to shift all blame onto him is to basically ignore all the failures involved.
Bunch of idiots, really. Most, if not all, police departments do not faff about with staging areas and planning when they're rushing to an active shooter, especially in a school. It's get there as fast as you can and stop the threat. Period. I know Metro Nashville doesn't bullshit around if it comes to a school shooting. They're told that if it were to happen they get their asses in the building and find the guy
I looked into it more and Peterson was stationed at the school, which I did not realize before. He had the potential to act even before the Captain arrived. However the revelation that Deputies were not trained to handle shootings and there was no policy for shootings means that neither were prepared to handle this situation. The Sheriff as well as these two Deputies share the most responsibility here.
I feel bad for this guy to an extent, obviously he dropped the ball.. but I have to think he was terrified, putting myself in his position I want to confidently say I would've acted, but damn, that's a whole lot of fear when you really put yourself in his shoes.
No one’s job description should have the possible requirement of needing to enter a school and intercept someone armed with military grade weapons.
That being said, Id rather die a hero then live my entire life in complete despair and shame. The guy’s life is pretty much over anyways.
They take an oath when they become an officer, and it covers this. That's part of the job unfortunately. If you aren't going to protect and put others before yourself, especially children, then perhaps another line of work is suitable for you.
An oath is not legally enforceable.
I don't see this getting far. He had no legal duty of care to the victims. He fucked up and his actions could have saved lives, but there is really no remedy in the law for that beyond just firing him.
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