School Resource Officer stayed outside during Florida School Shooting

[RussFeingoldWasRobbed]

"But I was in fear of my life!"

[dead0man]

He once defended the practice of letting cops live in trailers on school property rent free.  link, but that's just regular assholes looking out for their graft.  Then there is this.

From the NY Times

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[publicunofficial]

People are going to drive this dude to suicide.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

People are going to drive this dude to suicide.

He's shown his desire to stay upright, at the cost of how many students?  Sad!

[dead0man]

People are going to drive this dude to suicide.

I said that out loud to my wife about 20 seconds into the first time hearing about him.  Someone is probably watching him (and quietly shaming him too).

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Maybe the newbie political activist high schoolers can march in front of his house saying #NeverAgain !

[Doimper]

People are going to drive this dude to suicide.

In all sincerity, this guy is going to regret what happened for the rest of his life without the world shaming him. He's a deputy, not someone trained to make a solo run at a dude with an AR-15.

[emailking]

No excuses, he deserves plenty of the burden here...he isn't simply a "good guy with a gun" he's a trained officer. If he's folding under the pressure of kids being slaughtered he should have never signed up for the job, this is honestly criminal negligence.

But how was he supposed to know he would fold under the pressure? He may very well have thought he would confront a gunman in this scenario, until it happened. It's not like you can have a realistic test ahead of time whether your sense of duty can successfully override your evolutionary survival instinct.

[tinman64]

I understand he's taken early retirement.

[Fight for Trump]

People are going to drive this dude to suicide.

In all sincerity, this guy is going to regret what happened for the rest of his life without the world shaming him. He's a deputy, not someone trained to make a solo run at a dude with an AR-15.

It is cruel to shame him for his actions, but he was an armed sworn police officer with a duty to uphold the law and maintain order. He was the most trained and capable person on-site to mitigate damage and save lives, and he chose to stand outside while children were getting massacred inside. He didn't need to chase down the shooter and take him down like a scene from a Hollywood movie - many unarmed teachers and students saved lives that day without trying to take down the shooter. Some gave their lives doing it. I'm not going to call him a bad person, but he blew it big time, and his actions (or rather, inaction) are damaging to his profession and the thousands of school resource officers out there who would've done the right thing if they were in his shoes.

[Hollywood]

You could make the argument that if there was a teacher licensed to utilize his gun in the school, he might have succeeded where this LEO failed.  However, the teacher might have failed to do anything due to fear.  I know in my own heart that I would have confronted the shooter.  However, my greatest fear is not getting shot.  Instead, the greater fear is that I will shoot an innocent student that surprises me turning a corner in the hallway or popping into my peripheral vision.  That would haunt me.  

While I'm angry about the situation, I have sympathy for this officer.  He has to live with the shame of doing nothing.  He has to live with that nightmare.   I don't need or want to be apart of this firing squad of people who find satisfaction or outlet to express there rage and hate.  It won't do me a lick of good bashing him.  The media wants to cast him as the Villain in this shooting.  He is neither the villain nor the enemy.  The enemy includes the media members and politicians seeking to distract the conversation away from the gun control reforms that 80% of us find agreeable.

[emailking]

I know in my own heart that I would have confronted the shooter.

Unless you've done it before, then no, you absolutely do not know that.

[Joey1996]

Not a resource officer a sheriff's deputy. Criminal negligence

[Brittain33]

This guy is going to have to live with the consequences of his actions and I can not imagine what that will be like.

The model here--that a sheriff's deputy heard assault rifle fire in a school and decided to take cover rather than rush in and most likely give his life to maybe stop the massacre--tells us everything we need to know about the "more guns"/"arm the lunchladies" solution the NRA is pushing. Wishful thinking.

[Brittain33]

I know in my own heart that I would have confronted the shooter.

Unless you've done it before, then no, you absolutely do not know that.

Right. We have several millennia of war literature to prove that, no, no one has any idea if he will be a hero or if he will take flight when faced with the unthinkable.

[Joey1996]

Lawsuits are coming, this is just pathetic.

https://twitter.com/NoahCRothman/status/967151941007675393

[ProudModerate2]

but muh good guy with a gun

The trained deputy froze.
So let's give Larry the Science Teacher a gun.

Completely agree.
Most police officers throughout the entire nation, have been trained that to stop a shooter (without hostages), they need to enter the facility ASAP, and engage!
They have been trained for this .... they are being paid for this .... they were hired knowing they need to do this.
So if an actual police officer cant/wont, what on Earth makes the NRA and the Orange Slug believe that an "armed teacher" can/will do what is necessary to protect our children?

[ProudModerate2]

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This is a funny statement, coming from a Narcissist.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

People are going to drive this dude to suicide.

In all sincerity, this guy is going to regret what happened for the rest of his life without the world shaming him. He's a deputy, not someone trained to make a solo run at a dude with an AR-15.

It is cruel to shame him for his actions, but he was an armed sworn police officer with a duty to uphold the law and maintain order. He was the most trained and capable person on-site to mitigate damage and save lives, and he chose to stand outside while children were getting massacred inside. He didn't need to chase down the shooter and take him down like a scene from a Hollywood movie - many unarmed teachers and students saved lives that day without trying to take down the shooter. Some gave their lives doing it. I'm not going to call him a bad person, but he blew it big time, and his actions (or rather, inaction) are damaging to his profession and the thousands of school resource officers out there who would've done the right thing if they were in his shoes.

 No,  they do not.

What this example shows is that the whole 'good guy witth a gun' NONSENSE the Republicans and NRA socks like to peddle is a crock of santorum.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/23/politics/parkland-school-shooting-broward-deputies/index.html

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[Atlas Has Shrugged]

People are going to drive this dude to suicide.

In all sincerity, this guy is going to regret what happened for the rest of his life without the world shaming him. He's a deputy, not someone trained to make a solo run at a dude with an AR-15.

The dereliction of duty aside, you have a point in that most of his detractors would do the exact same thing.

[Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Bodies for Biden]

Four sheriffs deputies hid during the shooting.

Somebody said there were two other officers assigned to that school who failed to enter?   So that would be a total of six good guys with guns who went AWOL.

[emailking]

Lawsuits are coming, this is just pathetic.

https://twitter.com/NoahCRothman/status/967151941007675393

Joey, you keep castigating this guy, but you didn't answer my question. You said "If he's folding under the pressure of kids being slaughtered he should have never signed up for the job, this is honestly criminal negligence." But how was he supposed to know he would fold under the pressure?

[Koharu]

I refuse to call the officer names or blame him. I do, however, think it is an excellent example of why a "good guy with a gun" is not the answer. The shooter went to this school. He knew where the officers were. He would know where armed teachers were, too, and would get the jump on them.

No excuses, he deserves plenty of the burden here...he isn't simply a "good guy with a gun" he's a trained officer. If he's folding under the pressure of kids being slaughtered he should have never signed up for the job, this is honestly criminal negligence.

The fact that a trained officer froze is exactly my point. He's someone who has been trained for this type of situation and he still froze. Expecting a "good guy with a gun," who has nowhere near that level of training, to step in and solve the problem is ridiculous.

And honestly, until you're in that situation, you have no idea if you can handle it. Obviously he should no longer be a police officer, but I won't throw stones at him, either.

[The Dowager Mod]

And the dips***s that want to arm teachers expect miss Krabapple to leap into action with her trusty Glock 9mm and take on a shooter with an AR-15.

[Stranger in a strange land]

I refuse to call the officer names or blame him. I do, however, think it is an excellent example of why a "good guy with a gun" is not the answer. The shooter went to this school. He knew where the officers were. He would know where armed teachers were, too, and would get the jump on them.

No excuses, he deserves plenty of the burden here...he isn't simply a "good guy with a gun" he's a trained officer. If he's folding under the pressure of kids being slaughtered he should have never signed up for the job, this is honestly criminal negligence.

The fact that a trained officer froze is exactly my point. He's someone who has been trained for this type of situation and he still froze. Expecting a "good guy with a gun," who has nowhere near that level of training, to step in and solve the problem is ridiculous.

And honestly, until you're in that situation, you have no idea if you can handle it. Obviously he should no longer be a police officer, but I won't throw stones at him, either.

They were police officers, not poorly-paid, untrained security guards. ALL police get training in how to handle an active shooter: Columbine was nearly 20 years ago, and there have been dozens of mass shootings and terror attacks since then. This is cowardice and incompetence, pure and simple, and casts real doubt on whether a "good guy with a gun" can really be a deterrent to a mass shooting.