Broward County releases video showing armed officer standing around during a mass shooting.

Broward County has released video showing the armed school resource officer Scot Peterson standing around while Nikolas Cruz was killing people. Washington Post. Peterson has been branded a coward for not responding to the mass shooting. Peterson claims he thought the shooting was coming from outside so he did not enter the building. Peterson has been suspended and is under investigation for his actions. The video was released on a judges order. 

My Comment:

Not much to say about this one other than it confirms what we expected. Scot Peterson was cowardly and did not to his job. All he had to do was confront the gunman. He might not have survived but it was his job to protect the students at the school and he failed to do so. And given how so many of these mass shooters kill themselves or surrender after confronted he could have saved many lives. But he didn't, either because he was a coward or because he was a complete idiot. 

I don't really buy his excuse either. I don't understand why he claims that he thought the gunfire was coming from inside when the video shows a bunch of people running from the building. If he really thought the shooting was from the outside why didn't he stop them from running into danger? All he did is stand around in either case. 

I do have to say that I don't want to make it sound like Peterson was the only person who screwed up here. He was only the one that the media is focusing on while ignoring the actions of other officers, school officials and the FBI. 

Peterson may have been a coward but he was just one of the last people to fail the students at the school. The police chief, Scott Israel, along with the school board, put into place policies from the Obama Justice Department that made sure that Nikolas Cruz wasn't arrested for his long history of crimes. The FBI didn't investigate Cruz even after he was reported twice. And other officers failed to enter the crime scene until after Cruz had fled. 

So yes, we can condemn the obvious cowardice and stupidity of Scot Peterson. But he should not be alone in that condemnation. The entire system failed the victims of Cruz and Peterson was just a small cog in that machine...