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.

2:1 ratio is a BIG WIN for the NRA in the latest school shooting in St. Louis

So... a former student of Central Visual and Performing Arts High School, retuned a year after graduation loaded with a dozen magazines (≈360 rounds) with the intent of performing a massacre.  The doors were locked thus initially stymieing the attempt.  But, he managed to kill a 61 year old teacher and a 16 year old.  Another 7 students were injured by ricochets and rounds as well.

It seems the slain teacher, Jean Kuczka, bravely placed herself between the students and the gunman.  This breaks my heart, asking an elderly teacher to sacrifice herself because the Republican Party and NRA have decreed we can not have sane gun restrictions and non-proliferation of firearms in America.

Now, make no mistake this (2 killed, 7 wounded) is about the best outcome you can have in these school shooting situations, created specifically and explicitly, by the venal cowardice and avarice of Gun Manufacturers and their paid politicians, 

"If there’s somebody who has a will, they’re going to figure out, we don’t want to make it easy for them,” Metropolitan Police Chief Michael Sack said. “We just got to do the best we can to extend that time it takes them to get into the building to buy us time to respond.”

And it's not going to stop because the Gun Nuts, the 3% of Americans who own 50% of the guns, are fanatics and will be more than willing to engage in widespread terrorism, if laws are passed to restrict and outlaw their guns.

Alex Jones, an avatar of the sickness and madness afflicting the Nation, said it a decade ago after the Sandy Hook massacre while screaming at the odious Piers Morgan, 

"I'm here to tell you, 1776 will commence again if you try to take our firearms. It doesn't matter how many lemmings you get out there on the street begging for them to have their guns taken. We will not relinquish them. Do you understand?"

So, 2:1 is the about the best ratio you can hope for in these situations.  Because school shootings are not stopped by random Good Guys with guns, but usually when the gunman's gun jams (as it apparently did in this situation as well) and he either shoots himself with his back-up weapon or is taken into custody.  Gun Nuts, the NRA, and the Firearms Industry have declared asymmetrical warfare on the United States and they are winning.

Now, for the gun nuts and rightwingers it's easy in this above school shooting to just say St. Louis is exactly like Chicago (dog whistle: blacks blacks blackity black black black) and everyone knows that gun crime only happens in those Democrat controlled cities.  Thus, providing the cover the Republicans need to further weaken gun laws, ensure the sales of more guns, and go back to complaining about the price of gas.

But, to make matters worse, the rapid transformation of Voice Over Internet and other communications hacks, has allowed an overseas terrorist or terrorist cell to make as many as 100 false in-progress K-12 school shooting hoax calls, dozens to various colleges, and apparently 26 False reports of bombs or shooters in Minnesota alone.

America is awash in easily obtainable firearms.  And therefore we are not safer, we are not a more polite Nation, crime isn't down (or is it?) I guess it depends on what lie a Republican wants to spew...  But, We, the People are being held hostage by Six out-of-touch Supremely Unjust buffoons perverse interpretation of a sentence constructed 250 years ago and the billions of dollars which flows into the blood soaked hands of a group of elitists in the Republican Party and the ever-expanding Firearms Industrial-Complex.

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.

Republican 2nd Amendment Hero murders 14 children and a teacher in Texas (apparently it's 21 total murdered)

"Texans have long cherished the right that was confirmed by the Second Amendment, but conferred by God.” - Greg Abbott 2021 requesting the Injustices of The Supreme Court help expand Gun Violence.

Firstly, Republicans love when children are murdered.

A 18 year old took his SCOTUS approved, Republican mandated, NRA protected, and Christian blessed rifle and murdered 14 children in a Texas Elementary School.  Texas is the Holy Land for Rightwing beliefs (although it will be soon supplanted by Florida) and in Texas the Gun is King, the Gun is Lord.  Children are the sacrifice the Holey Dread Lord Our Moloch requires... (apparently it's up to 21 people murdered so anyone trained in understanding asymmetric warfare can tell you a 21-to-1 ratio is something any terrorist or guerrilla solider will gladly accept and the NRA in their War on the United States of America gladly accepts this ratio of gun deaths to tyrants overthrown (i.e. INFINITE) 

I am 100% certain when Rightwing propagandists heard there was a mass shooting in a Texas School they shouted 'Oh No! Not in Texas! Land of the Gun!!!'  But, then when they heard the shooters name was "Hispanic" conservatives shouted 'Oh Yes! Now we can run with our standard playbook!'

You see after every mass shooting conservatives trot out the same tired gun nut playbook;

• It's too soon to talk about it! 
• Don't politicize a tragedy!
• Gun-Free School Zones are to blame!
• Thoughts & Prayers...
• Arm Teachers!  Errr this one may be on the outs since conservatives have transitioned to All Teachers are Groomers instilling CRT and Cultural Marxism...
• What about Black on Black crime? 
• CHICAGO!!!
• FREEEEEEEEEEEEDUMB!!!
• Oh and the ever present bad faith people who demand a 5000 word memorandum explaining precisely, exactly how this can be stopped...

This doesn't even cover the list of rightwing mantras they shout after each of these incidents.  Nor does it address the concerted effort conservatives undertake to spread lies and misinformation, create fake social media accounts so they can claim the shooter is a leftist.  This time, it'll be easy for the usual rightwing suspects on Youtube and Faux News, to say the name Salvador Ramos and let their bigoted followers conclude, "It's an Illegal Immigrant invited in by Joe Biden and the Demmycrats are to Blame!!!" (The New York Times coverage had to include a paragraph that while the town Uvlade is near the US-Mexico border most of the people living there have lived in the region for decades).

Police Officers then dutifully engage in their part of the unending drama, by standing around with their ridiculous tactical AR-15's slung in front of them.  Great job guys.

Meanwhile, I'm sure Texas Ted Ralphie Cruz will show his machismo by cooking some more bacon on the end of his a borrowed gun barrel.

What's always important to Republicans after these mass sacrifices is that no gun be made to feel discomfort...  Known Criminal Ken Paxton, wearing his cheapest looking campaign shirt,, took to the airwaves to console every gun and potential mass shooter that don't worry Texas won't inhibit your gun rampage.  Republicans are a Death Cult who have nothing to offer the American People...

Illinois Active Shooter School Shooting Drills don't work and are a trauma inducing event

A fascinating aspect of human psychology is the difficulty in dropping a prized theory.  For instance training people to face an active shooter.  Everyone wants to believe that practice with men clomping around swearing with loud bangs, screams and simunitions will allow people to break out of a freeze response and fight or flee.

Tom Clancy loved this theory and incorporated it into Jack Ryan's pistol training in the novel Patriot Games (1987).  After healing from the IRA attack in London, Ryan goes to meet Sgt Maj Noah Breckenridge and finds himself in a darkened room without explanation.  Breckenridge throws two firecrackers at him and screams for him to engage his target.  Ryan's first shots are misses but, Jack recovers and hits center mass.

This concept of "reality-based" training found it's way to schools.  Multiple states adopted "Active Shooter" simulation training and in 2019, the Illinois legislature adopted the same.  Well, the reality is people play-acting murdering students didn't prepare the children to respond to school shootings but, instead traumatized the fuck out of them.

Adverse Childhood Experiences (Ace's) is a detailed guide to common traumas facing children.  It's an extremely important aspect of studying children's pyschology because Ace's is a very important determining factor for later life struggles.  This is, of course, coupled with the ludicrous and murderous conservative doctrine of encouraging babies to rush the shooter.   And you have a receipt for sociological ills and the continuation of traumatized children growing into broken adults.  Of course, in the United States what must never happen is guns must never ever be hurt or inconvenienced.  Also, it's totally fucking cool to stalk victims of school shootings on the street like Perjury Traitor Greene did with David Hogg or crap your Alex Jones inspired theory that all school shootings are false flags all over Twitter*.

It's also useless to conduct a couple active shooting drills a year as if they are fire or tornado drills, where you orderly line-up and march outside to your pre-planned rally point or hunker down under a desk.  In order for any reactions to a chaotic school shooting to become second nature you need to train all the time, like a Jocko Willink or Pat McNamara.  So, while it feels like such active shooter training should work reality shows it doesn't.

*- Now that Elon Musk has "purchased" Twitter, Free Speech demands that all gun nut propaganda and threats of violence towards gun control activists never shall be infringed!

Today's School Shooting is brought to you by

For you, the day Bison graced your village was the most important day of your life. But for me, it was Tuesday.

It's another Tuesday in America.  I'm already well behind on the latest school shooting.  Of course.

The details are more visceral now as one of students sheltering in place captured digital audio and video of the 15 year old(!) shooter telling the students he is a sheriff's deputy and "it's safe to come out."

3 teenage lives were cut short.  8 others wounded and now facing decades of physical and emotional healing.  The shooter taken into custody, of course, because some people are inherently good and just having a bad day and thus aren't shot on sight.  Or "justifiably" killed while resisting arrest.

Gun Humping Extremists have been conducting a massive social experiment: More Guns = Safer Nation.  This is demonstrably untrue.  The United States is awash in guns.  And thus we are beset with deaths and woundings from guns.

There have been other high profile shootings recently as well as little talked about mass killings:

• In a widely-viewed incident in Lubbock, Texas a child custody dispute turned deadly when a little man decided he'd use his big gun to murder a guy.  The responses to this Fox News post calling it self-defense is the whole crux of the rightwing fascination with guns.
• In Fort Wayne, a twenty year old killed his little sister, mother and father and then himself.  His grandmother escaped.  This happened the same day as the Michigan school shooting.
• In Georgia, a domestic dispute ended in 4 deaths including an officer in recruit training.  This happened the same day as the Michigan school shooting.

Gun Nuts want the power to kill at a moment's notice and then claim self-defense.  Conservatives have set up a nice Catch-22 (call it the Rittenhouse-22 if you like) Bring a gun into a fraught or dangerous situation, escalate the incident, then use the escalation as justification for "self-defense".  1) Start a Fight. 2) Kill the guy if he Fights back.  It's basic Might makes Right.  Bring a Gun and say you were in fear of your life and anyone you shoot becomes a "lawful" act.

As a corollary the US has been faced with a large scale Catch-22.  Gun Makers and the NRA have ensured criminals have easy access to firearms and produce more and more everyday.  Flood the United States with weapons and then declare since All the "Bad Guys" have guns only a "Good Guy" with a gun can stop them.  An unstoppable circle. 

Which leads us to public support for stricter gun laws and gun control; the Republican Party is 100% unified against any gun control and when all levels of government are taken into account, Republicans have majority of government.  

Republicans have steadily worked towards making the Gun the Final Arbiter of Law.  When Mad Nazi Cawthorn, Major Traitor Greene, or Lauren Dick Flasher Boebert parade around with guns they are explicitly stating they will use them to settle all disputes.  They don't have to or even try to make any cogent or coherent arguments.  For example:

Famously, Australia enacted strict gun regulations and controls in 1996 after the Port Arthur massacre.  Since then, Zero Mass Shootings...

Meanwhile in the United States, Total killed and wounded by gunfire every year is now approaching 100,000.  The Gun Violence Archive, uses only verified data, therefore it's not subject to the NRA lies and Gun Nut fantasies of guns being used a Million times a year to defend LIFE!

I have always assumed that when you get down to it NRA, gun manufacturers, Republican poseurs and phonies, or ostentatious gun display nuts, really don't believe that more guns, less regulations, and Stand your Ground laws make Americans safer but, do it for the political power, monetary gain and the #OwntheLibs lolz...

But, when you pretend to be something for long enough that's what you are.  In reality, gun nuts don't believe they will ever be on the wrong side of a barrel.  And those killed and wounded by guns?  Well, to get back to The Deserving & The Undeserving they had it coming (for voting for DemocRATs, for being in a gun free zone, for any number of rightwing fantasies about the power of the gun).

Conservatives and Guns have turned the US into a Failed State.

Another day another shooting. Another weekend in Chicago another dozen shot.

The shooting at Reynolds High School east of Portland, Oregon is the 74th school shooting since the Massacre at Sandy Hook in Newton. The problem is the proliferation of guns.

Guns. Guns. Guns.

Of course, besides flooding the Nation with hundreds of millions of firearms the other issue equally to blame for the Gun Violence is the existence Right-Wing Tea Party ideology which creates thousands of conservative drones ready to conduct Domestic Terrorist attacks over the faux scandals of Umbrella-Gate, the rescuing of an American POW, or when Alex Jones proclaims every shooting is a False Flag.

Everything else is a secondary issue. Without the guns, we would not be losing 30,000 Americans with another 100,000 a year at least wounded by gunfire. Of course, we'll never how many people are wounded each and every year by gun humping fanatics because the NRA and Republican Party will fight every effort to stop Gun Violence.

This is something you expect in an African Nation which having just thrown off the shackles of Western Imperialism, became embroiled in a Civil War, then a Military Junta followed by a Communist Revolution and then a Right-Wing coup d'état.

Not here. Not in the USA; the Beacon of Freedom, the Shining City on a Hill, the World's so-called Greatest Democratic Republic.

Right-Wingers and Republicans always proclaim every one of these Conservative Domestic Terrorist attacks are actually done by Leftists and registered Democrats.

And why wouldn't lying Republicans claim this? The Media won't call them out for their lies. The American Right has a strong fascist streak.

"Here are the 3 rules of Fascism; Make Shit up, Scream it Loudly, and then Kill People." - Eddie Izzard, Chicago Theater 06/09/14.

But, consider what the NRA and conservatives have embraced as the cause and solution. Mental Illness and a Federal Database to catalogue those suffering from it.

Apparently within the epistemically closed right-wing fart bubble they are unaware of how committal was used in the past as a weapon. Today's involuntary committal forms have several declarations that must be signed by the complainant. They affirm the complainant has no legal case against the person to be committed, there is no pending financial dispute and state the nature of their relationship.

Now, as a corollary, Conservatives claim Liberalism is a mental disease.

So, the question is based on these right-wing claims about Liberalism and the political ideology of mass shooters would the NRA and conservative gun humpers support confiscating all guns owned by registered Democrats and self-proclaimed Liberals?

Because US Congressmen are paralyzed or complicit. State Governments have Tea Party madmen increasing the availability of Guns and engaging in murderous schemes granting every right-wing domestic terrorist the ability to carry weapons anywhere while adopting vague laws which ensure every confrontation will descend into gun fights.

The Republican Party, their conservative drones and Tea Party Domestic Terrorists have done their job. They've sundered the Nation.