Broward County Sheriff’s Deputy Defends Himself
BY Herschel Smith
6 years, 10 months ago
Broward Deputy Scot Peterson says he is no coward.
The longtime campus cop at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High has been nationally ridiculed over the last week for his response to a mass shooter on campus — including by no less than President Donald Trump, who on Monday proclaimed that he likely would have charged in himself, even unarmed.
On Monday, Peterson pushed back against the critics in his first public statement, essentially arguing he did the right things in an uncertain, chaotic situation. “Allegations that Mr. Peterson was a coward and that his performance, under the circumstances, failed to meet the standards of police officers are patently untrue,” according to the statement sent from Fort Lauderdale attorney Joseph DiRuzzo.
Last week, Broward Sheriff Scott Israel took the extraordinary step of singling out Peterson for failing to engage with confessed killer Nikolas Cruz as he gunned down 17 people — an accusation that has turned the one-time school resource officer of the year into a political scapegoat for a string of local and federal law enforcement errors revolving around Cruz.
Peterson said he did not storm the halls looking for the shooter because he initially “heard gunshots but believed those gunshots were originating from outside of the buildings on the school campus,” according to the statement. “BSO trains its officers that in the event of outdoor gunfire one is to seek cover and assess the situation in order to communicate what one observes with other law enforcement.”
He “took up a tactical position” between two other buildings next to Building 12, where Cruz spent six minutes unleashing gunfire with an AR-15 assault-style rifle.
Sounds great, doesn’t it? A “tactical position.” Except I don’t believe him. I can hear gun fire outside, and I can hear it coming from a building, and I have never mistaken the two.
I told you guys, the deputies were following department procedure. It isn’t procedure to put their own lives at risk. It’s procedure to wait until help arrives, hopefully a SWAT team and dogs, and then take a building room by room according to clearing procedures.
I’ve done that too, i.e., take a building room by room before I was going to enter it, the building being a home in a bad part of town (my mother-in-law’s home), and having been vacant for weeks at a time, with me preparing to go inside and work all night long to repair and sell it. And the home had evidence of having been entered while I wasn’t there.
But this isn’t that. This is a school full of children, and if you had been there you would have done the same thing I would have. We would have entered the building and hunted the shooter. The police will always protect themselves first and foremost – by procedure. By intent. Got it?
On February 27, 2018 at 12:33 am, J said:
Roscoe P. Coltrain and Boss Hogg can’t get enough Facetime on MSM.
And they will continue, as it is the “Red” Necks that they approve of.
On February 27, 2018 at 8:20 am, Heywood said:
Remember…go home safe is their first priority!
On February 27, 2018 at 10:18 am, moe mensale said:
I can’t fault Peterson for swinging back. He’s going to be the fall guy for this fiasco, as well as the other 3 as yet unnamed deputies. Regardless, Sheriff Israel bears full responsibility for the actions and inactions of his entire department. An honorable man would do the right thing.
On February 27, 2018 at 12:33 pm, Longbow said:
“An honorable man would do the right thing.”
You mean Seppuku? Maybe we can see it on LiveLeak?
On February 27, 2018 at 1:48 pm, Georgiaboy61 said:
Re: “Broward Deputy Scot Peterson says he is no coward.”
Peterson is not only a coward, he has now revealed via his ridiculous statements that he is a liar.
In the old days, when the word “honor” still meant something to the average man, Peterson would have been handed a revolver and one bullet, and then told to go into the next room and do the right thing. Too bad we no longer live in such a time.
On February 27, 2018 at 1:55 pm, Herschel Smith said:
@Georgiaboy,
A man can’t live forever. And it matters how you die.
On February 27, 2018 at 5:19 pm, Georgiaboy61 said:
Re: “A man can’t live forever. And it matters how you die.”
Precisely my point. Our civilization and our society used to contain men who understood that certain fates were worse than death. Traditional manhood was sacrificial, when necessary, to protect the aged, infirm, the weak and the children. Allowing the law of the jungle in society, where the strong preyed upon the weak, was seen as evil and would have been unthinkable.
Men also risked their lives in defiance of tyranny and to free the oppressed. The insignia of the U.S. Army Special Forces contains a Sykes-Fairburn dagger, pointed upward, superimposed upon crossed arrows, against a heraldic shield bearing the inscription, “De Oppresso Liber,” Latin for “To Free the Oppressed.” Once, those words meant something to Americans, not only to elite soldiers, but to common men as well.
Do we still live in a culture which honors those lofty values? I honestly do not know; you tell me. There are undoubtedly individual men who still honor those words, but as for the wider society, I am not nearly-so-optimistic.
This is not to say that men of that time threw their lives away cavalierly; they did not. Rather, it is to recall a time when honor and courage were virtues widely-celebrated in our culture – and men strove to live up to those lofty expectations. Cowardice was shameful, not something to be celebrated.
In those now-bygone days, little boys wanted to grow up to be just like John Wayne, James Arness, or one of the other great cowboy western stars. People still believed in heroes then; today, heroes are tough to find anywhere in pop culture – and when you do find them, they are apt to be post-modern caricatures of them – traditional males need not apply. Today, the role of the villain is reserved for those kinds of men! Today, many kids have the ambition of getting rich and famous. People who risk their lives for others are seen as fools, saps who didn’t know how to play the game.
Yes, I am cynical, I admit… but I have ample reason for being so, would you not agree?
On February 27, 2018 at 10:03 pm, Jorge said:
“Men also risked their lives in defiance of tyranny and to free the oppressed. The insignia of the U.S. Army Special Forces contains a Sykes-Fairburn dagger, pointed upward, superimposed upon crossed arrows, against a heraldic shield bearing the inscription, “De Oppresso Liber,” Latin for “To Free the Oppressed.” Once, those words meant something to Americans, not only to elite soldiers, but to common men as well.”
While the police motto is 1*.
I had hopes the gung ho shoot everything attitude would at least correspond with a willingness to intervene when someone really, really needs to be shot, but apparently not. This isn’t even a judgement call situation. If you have any decency, you act.