Marjory Stoneman Douglas “9th Grade” Building.
By: Sharon Aron Baron
South Florida law enforcement officers are sounding off after the news broke that Deputy Scot Peterson along with three others never went after the gunman who killed 17 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas.
On Thursday, Broward Sheriff Scott Israel announced that Peterson, 54, resigned after an investigation revealed that Peterson, a school resource officer who Israel said was supposed to protect the school, never entered the building while it was under attack by gunman Nikolas Cruz.
Law enforcement officers, many from the Broward Sheriff’s Office, speaking out on online forums frequented by officers, are angry at not only the deputy, but the sheriff, and have posted their thoughts anonymously.
“We now find out Coral Springs made entry first while the spineless SRD [school resource deputy] was shivering in his boots outside. Unarmed teachers had more courage than you. I don’t know how you can look at yourself in the mirror. If there was even the slightest chance you could have saved one of the 17 lives lost you should have taken it.’
“Sheriff Israel, It might be time to take a serious look at who you assigned as school resource deputies. How many will even qualify with a rifle? Your tough talk is all that, TALK. You talk about the safety of the children as if your hands are tied. What about extra staffing? Your entourage of colonels on TV looked shell-shocked when asked questions by the press. Their salary would best be spent on actual first responders that might make a difference. It might be time to stop your pandering to the press and find some solutions to your obviously problem ridden department.”
“Complete failure on all fronts. Kudos to Coral Springs and the true professional cops. BSO has become a second class agency under Sheriff Israel. You can blame the FBI, You can blame the guns, the truth is that BSO needs a major overhaul.”
“Deputy Scot Peterson you sir are a COWARD! You will now live the rest of your life knowing 17 students/coaches/teachers were killed in all those four minutes you were hiding like a coward. Now you resign/retire and take your pension. It’s already shown that you sir are not a MAN. You did not even stay around to face the investigation. Do me a favor and never EVER call yourself a former or ex Deputy. You do not represent this agency and never have!”
“Sheriff Israel, you sir need to resign and the community will soon demand it for you to either resign or be recalled. To all the other hard-working deputies, Thank you for what you every day to keep this community safe from criminals.”
“This topic has been burning up Facebook. The majority of deputy opinions is that the old team concept protocol was replaced to first deputy on scene, first deputy in. Hope someone has a policy and procedures manual and lesson plans. If something doesn’t benefit Sheriff Israel, it won’t be there long.”
“You can bet BSO is in full “cover-our-ass” mode along with the FBI and anyone else involved in this cluster****. Thank goodness the liberals are making this all about gun control to take the heat off the screw-ups. Unfortunately however, there are legions of attorneys getting ready for the pay days of their life. As hard as Sheriff Israel is trying to conceal the truth by throwing a handful of deputies under the bus, the truth will eventually come out. This is going to cost the taxpayers of Broward County millions. And Israel will continue with his media appearances, photo ops, political events until he get reelected. The saga continues.”
“Sheriff, the media and law enforcement personnel need you to be the leader to answer why the breakdown occurred at the MSD Mass Murder scene. The school is in your jurisdiction and BSO failed. What happened here?”
“Who was the deputy who was giving the 20 minute delayed information to all the First Responders on the radio? Everyone is reporting that it cost many students their lives! Coral Springs Police wants to know. That deputy caused incredible confusion and is just as responsible as the schools SRD. Who is that person?”
“If that deputy charged into a firefight against a shooter armed with an AR-15 alone and armed with a pistol in a training situation, he would be called out for an officer safety violation. Not committing suicide does not amount to being a coward.”
“Scot Peterson needs to go to JAIL. His kids were being slaughtered, teachers killed, and he stood outside? Coward.”
“Imagine this: a psycho killer comes into a school with an AR-15 and starts to shoot students, then comes a coward cop with a 9mm pistol and won’t go into the building because he feels It is not a fair fight. You stupid sonnnn*****”
“This narcissistic Sheriff tells the world the SRD’s name and basically calls that deputy a coward, but what about you Israel? WHAT ABOUT YOU ASSHOLE? Are you too busy pandering to the Wilton Manors residents, showing them the new wraps for gay pride you’re gonna put on cruisers? Looking to take another photo-op with the criminal Hillary Clinton? Too busy pandering to CAIR scheduling a recruitment fair at a CAIR controlled Mosque? You Israel have failed too many times the people of Broward and your mistakes for lack of STRONG LEADERSHIP HAVE COST PEOPLE LIVES. You are not a Sheriff….leader of men, but a piece of crap looking for the next PR opportunity from some immoral anti-American group. Best thing you can do is resign! If not, I believe the Governor will!”
“While the SRO completely failed those he was entrusted in protecting there is another question that needs to be addressed. Why is the Command not addressing the Parkland Captain for her incompetence in telling first responders to set a perimeter and evacuate the school. During this entire incident she failed to lead, gave completely wrong orders, and failed to own up to her responsibility of being the incident commander. This is because she is another unqualified Fort Lauderdale PD retiree given a position by Sheriff Israel that he choose over much more qualified candidates for the Parkland Captain position. This is also compounded by an incompetent Major that oversees this District. Sheriff Israel you pass blame to others when you should look in the mirror because many of these issues are staring right back at you ‘It’s You’!”
“That SRD has resigned and is 10-7 [out of service]. What about the inabilities to lead by the wannabe sheriff? Who’s the sheriff?”
“Maybe Israel can head over to the Phases or Cemetery Village and have a roundtable discussion with bagels about how he should lead.”
“I recently retired as an SRO. I am disgusted by Peterson abandoning those kids. I’ve known the guy for many years and gave him the benefit of the doubt, but after today, I’m freaking pissed off. If he was afraid to go inside do something. I don’t care if you bark like a dog and pretend your K-9 but do something. I do blame the sheriff for his complacent attitude for all these years. We all know juveniles have been becoming more violent each year and what has he done. Pushed for civil citation and promise. He should have been standing on Mike Satz desk and demanding a more aggressive prosecution on juvenile crime. Instead he was too busy kissing the public defender on the ass. Shameful, resign already and do everyone a favor.”
“Nothing but deflections when confronted with facts. Not gonna work in the Parkland community, lawyers are standing in line and all the truth is gonna come out.”
“Broward Sheriff such as other local agencies continue to hire 20-year-olds with no life experience, military or educational background making them the worse of law enforcement. Coral Springs Police ran in there without thinking twice, why? They all have a bachelor degree and are former US military service members. This coward had 33 years under his belt, more than decade of those working as a SRO, all this while living for free on or close to campus, making six figures and still didn’t go inside to save these children. He was clearly a ZERO to law enforcement. I do not care how many awards he has received through out his career. Whoever sits here and defends this coward, is as much of a coward as this coward.”
“From someone with an advanced degree, I can tell you having a bachelors has absolutely nothing to do with courage.”
“In-fact, Sheriff Israel has a bachelors and he has failed like that of a coward to properly communicate and prepare his deputies. Make-no-mistake about it, deputies of Broward are very able and capable of performing job with valor, but the Sheriff holds many back.”