SRO Scot Peterson and Parkland's long shadow

"You have no idea what it's like to be a coward... See these horrors and... do nothing..."- I don't think I've ever seen any actor approach the deep sorrow and sadness Harris Yullin reached in this Star Trek: DS9 episode Duet (1993).

As the news of the Parkland school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglass High School broke, and the news reports of what the School Resource Officer (SRO) did and did not do I was filled with a great swell of pity for the man.  Today, that SRO, Scot Peterson was found Not Guilty after being charged with child neglect for failing to confront NRA-Trained MAGA Gunman Nicholas Cruz;

A jury has acquitted on all counts the former school resource officer who stayed outside during the February 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida – absolving him of wrongdoing in the rare trial of a law enforcement officer for his response to a mass shooting.  Scot Peterson, 60, took off his glasses and wept in court as the judge read the verdict, which found him not guilty of seven counts of felony child neglect, three counts of culpable negligence and one count of perjury.

Look, Peterson was afraid.  He thought his last few years of Policing could be a nice day-to-day hall monitor job.  Glad handing with the teachers and talking trash with the students.Instead, Parkland joined the ever-growing list of mass shooting massacres.  I won't say unthinkable because mass shootings are a daily occurrence and fact of day-to-day life in America.  Everywhere.  At any time.

Thinking people have a sense of what they might or might not do in such a situation.  Of course, I have been a SRO and always feared such an encounter during my time.  It's never far from your mind.

Of course, after the shooting the vile bloated creature stepped in to bloviate about what his fat ass would have done if only he had been there, "I think, I really believe I’d run in there even if I didn’t have a weapon.  They weren't exactly Medal of Honor winners, alright?  They way they performed was frankly, disgusting."

That fat fucking coward.  That racist fucking Traitor.  As if a man who made sure to skip out of service when it was his time declaring his hypothetical heroics is the epitome of Republican Courage.  When've seen this type of tough-guy nonsense from Sean Hannity, from that child-raping chickenhawk coward Ted Nugent, from so many rightwing internet warriors.  This, of course, was before Trump incited an Insurrection and successfully delayed the peaceful transfer of power in the United States.  This is before Trump and his Republican con-conspirators thought to override the will of the American people by bureaucratic legerdemain so that his Russian conspiring ass could remain in office.

No one knows what they're gonna do until the bullets start flying.  And I sure would like to have a country in which we didn't need Hero Cops going into a school to confront yet another Mass Shooter.  But, we don't live in that Nation, we live in a Nation in which Gun Nuts, the NRA, the Firearms Industry, and the Republican Party have an alliance to sell as many guns as possible, to strike down as many gun laws as possible, and to ensure there are as many mass shootings as possible because Gun Violence makes them money and gives them political power.  But, to blame this one man for decades of vile NRA perfidy and Republican treachery was too much for a Jury today.

Additional:

I had forgotten that denying the reality of the Parkland School shooting gave rise (much in the same way that Alex Jones profited mightily on False Flagging Newton) to the odious Major Traitor Greene who trod on her cloven hoofs after David Hogg in Washington DC berating him for having the temerity to survive and speak out against the blood soaked vile beliefs of Gun nuts and MAGA.

The Revenge of the Thin Blue Line 22: School's Resource Officers are out for Summer

Anti-Copaganda

"You have no idea what it's like to be a coward." (Duet- DS9 1993) 

Cowardice is a very strong charge.  But, I don't know what to make of the Officers inability or lack of understanding at what was going to happen at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.  But, reading this report from parents and on-lookers screaming at the assembling Officers to, "Go in There! Go in There!" leaves a lump in my stomach and makes me want to just walk in and quit tomorrow.

The School Resource Officer (SRO) Program has been a monumental failure.  I'm not just talking about the failure of the Officers involved in the latest mass murder school shooting but, the execution and whole scope of the program itself.

First and foremost, FUCK YOU TED CRUZ schools shouldn't have to be hardened into Super Max Prisons in order for We, the People to have any piece of mind yet as you listen to every proposal by conservatives they refuse to address the reason for school shootings (i.e. the proliferation of easily obtainable firearms and the Republican refusal to enforce any restrictions on the sale or purchase of firearms).  Disgusting fat slimy fuck Ted Cruz went on and on and on about fucking doors as the culprit in the Mass Shooting.  As if rightwingers didn't demonstrate on January 6th that Rightwing Terrorists can easily go through windows too.

The Republican playbook after these shootings remains the same; set up an alternate cause, it used to be mental health or video games, today's excuse is "doors".  Then obfuscate and deflect and run out the clock.  In a week or two, the public will be distracted by the price of gas or baby formula and Republicans can cash their latest check from the Russian Intelligence Services funneled to them through the NRA.

Republicans not only refuse to adopt common sense already proven gun laws to reduce gun violence in America they also refuse to enforce the laws already in existence.  It's part and parcel of the Republican two-step with guns wherein they get to claim gun laws don't work (Look at Chicago, they always scream) while also purposely undermining the those gun laws so they can claim they don't work.

I've read the two Officers exchanged gunfire and then lost contact with Ramos eventually, a Border Patrol Ofc went inside and shot the killer.  Contradicting earlier reporting Ramos wasn't wearing body armor, wasn't confronted and responding officers apparently cowered and dithered outside for 40 minutes as Ramos executed 21 people. Unlike, rightwing fantasies of gunplay when real bullets fly prudence does demand you seek cover but, you can not allow this as a responding Officer you've got to go in IMMEDIATELY.  Now, I'm not as base and vile as Ted Cruz or the other elected Republicans, I understand that going up against Ramos is almost certain death, AR-15 vs. handgun, but why don't rank and file Police understand what their predecessors knew?  I.e. More Guns = More Gun Violence Q.E.D.  

Republican gun policies have ensured Officers are going to be outgunned initially and letting the Firearm Industry flood the Nation with high-powered, easily obtainable weapons is not freedom.  It is not liberty.  It is not Lawful.  It is a Murder-Suicide Pact.  Police Departments, by their very nature tend to be conservative, but, why have Officers by and large moved into the Reactionary framework of the MAGA mindset?

For one, Use of Force training for Police has completely warped their minds.  Villainous psycho Dave Grossman has taught a whole slew of Officers to be trigger happy and expect an ambush at a moment's notice leading to too many Officers acting as though their daily routine patrol is a convoy in fucking Fallujah.  This heightened danger mode and constant fight or flight response is a stress that the human body can not tolerate. 

SROs are nothing more than a way to introduce state violence onto juveniles, especially and overwhelmingly on minorities, at an early age.  Additionally, as rightwing anti-tax bullshit continues to put a squeeze onto communities, Departments and municipalities have increasingly turned to School Officers to extract money from families and overwhelmingly Police target minorities.  Often because white parents always, always, always put a stink if their child is to be ticketed.

Juveniles shouldn't be subjected or treated to police enforcement in this manner.  Fortunately, last July my Governor JB Pritzker and the Illinois legislature outlawed lying to juvenile suspects during interviews and interrogations especially the classic tactic of claiming you have evidence when you do not.  A time worn tactic to elicit a confession.  This was illustrated in The Wire when Bunk and the Detective Lieutenant fool the black juvenile suspect with a copy machine pretending it's a lie detector and the Cops wondering "How many years you figure we been doin' this same shit?" Another replies, "20 at least".  

Of course, perhaps even worse than the use of Police against Juveniles the image that made the rounds on Twitter was of all the schools in which a School Resource Officer failed to stop the shooter.  I don't know if it's wholly accurate but, it does reflect reality of unrestricted gun violence in America.  Police Officers are seen routinely killing unarmed black people on video and seemingly never stopping mass shooters. 

"But you’re not black,” the Cobb County Lt. Greg Abbott interrupted. “Remember, we only kill black people. Yeah, we only kill black people, right? All the videos you’ve seen, have you seen any white people get killed?”

As a former School Resource Officer I have 3 words for Ted Cruz, Greg Abbott, Ken Paxton, Dan Patrick and the Republican Party

"We know what does prevent crime... which is...
going after those with serious mental illness," Ted Cruz

GO FUCK YOURSELVES... 

You slimy fat cowardly fucks.  Look Republicans don't GIVE A FUCK how many kids or teachers died.  They don't care.  They aren't going to do ANYTHING. At all.  Republicans DON'T GIVE A FUCK.  Allying with the NRA has strengthened Republicans across the country, the influx of money from Russia and Vladimir Putin has just been a nice bonus.

Once again, the ONLY plan Republicans have when faced with the murderous consequences of the proliferation of guns Republicans have championed and enshrined into Law is too suggest More Guns.

More Guns! More Guns! More Guns!

If more guns made people safer, war zones would be the safest places in the World.

I'm not even going to get into the SRO program and how states like Texas have used Police Officers in schools as a way to extract money from children and to bully and harass minorities.  (That's another post entirely)  But, of course, OF FUCKING COURSE, a Cop in every school is one of the Republicans ridiculous non-solutions to this.  Even though, there were 3 Officers on scene who exchanged gunfire with the murderer.  

Look, I'm not going to denigrate the Deputies or Officers who shot at him.  But, you have to stop him.  You just have too.  You can not let him get inside.  Because this level of slaughter is what happens if you let him get away/inside.  Now, this is a huge ask, in fact it's asking the Officers to lay down their lives because one or more would most certainly have been fatally wounded.

Republican Gun Policies ensures that Officers are going to get shot by these gunmen and Cops are not ready to handle that truth because they've been trained to view non-black people with guns as allies.  But, Republican Gun Legislation is a Fucking Death Sentence for Officers, I wish they'd realize this.

Besides signing an Anti-CRT Law last year, Greg Abbott signed legislation to do away with Texas gun restrictions and to ensure no Federal Gun Laws will be enforced.

And look Conservatives are always cavalier with other peoples' lives.  We witnessed this after Parkland when it was revealed the SRO failed to go in while NRA trained and MAGA Lover Nikolas Cruz shot 34 people, killing 17, and Faux News ran hundreds of hours of programming blaming the Officer and the FBI for the shooting while disgusting fat slob Traitor Trump claimed if only he was there he would have stopped the shooter! If only!!

And in a shameless bit of hypocrisy, Republicans Tailgunner Ted Cruz and Criminal General Ken Paxton also call for arming Teachers.  Mind you Republicans just last week, were claiming Teachers are Groomers and indoctrinating children with CRT and Cultural Marxism.

The brutal truth is Republicans don't care and enjoy when Liberals are upset by these school shootings. Republicans simply don't care except to get mad when their faults are pointed out.  Listen to Republicans screech and holler at Beto O'Rourke.  They are more angry at being "disrespected" and correctly blamed for their failures, than the dead children happening because of their policies.  THEY DON'T CARE.

Anyway I await my village's time in the gun barrel.  I simply hope I have enough presence of mind and fortitude in the moment to face down the shooter.