Former school resource officer Scot Peterson arrested for failing to act during the Parkland massacre.

A memorial to the dead at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school. Politico/Getty. 

Former school resource officer Scot Peterson has been arrested on multiple charges related to his failure to act to prevent the Parkland Florida school massacre. Politico. Peterson was charged with 7 counts of child neglect, three counts of negligence and one count of perjury.  The investigation found that Peterson did "absolutely nothing" while a gunman killed 17 people and wounded 17 more. The report also stated that Peterson heard gunshots but did nothing to investigate them. Families of the victim cheered the arrest as they have long condemned Peterson as the "coward of Broward". 

The report on the Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school shooting can be found here.

My Comment:

It's about time that Scot Peterson faced the music. His actions that day were horrible and cost many young people their lives. Had he done anything at all more lives could have been saved. It didn't even necessarily mean that he had to engage and kill the gunman, even if he helped evacuate students more people would have lived. But apparently he didn't even do that. 

I think Peterson more than earned his nickname, the coward of Broward. As a police officer he had a duty to try and help protect those students. He may have failed or even died in the process but that's part of being a police officer. I'd go further and say that it was his duty as a human being to at least try to help instead of standing there looking out for himself. We have a larger responsibility to protect children and I think it's reasonable to expect people to risk their lives to protect them.

I think there is a very good chance that if Peterson had decided to fight back he'd be considered a hero now, not a coward. Even if the attacker had shot and killed him, he would have at least bought more time for students to escape or for other police to arrive. And Nikolas Cruz may have ran out of ammo quicker too if he got into a gunfight with a cop. 

And I also think that there was a very good chance that Peterson could have stopped the shooting. He had a decent chance of catching Cruz unaware and could have shot and killed/incapacitated him. And if not, many of these mass shooters, especially losers like Cruz, kill themselves when confronted by cops. Even showing up might have been enough for Cruz to turn his gun on himself, though I do admit doing so with an AR might have been difficult. 

Had Peterson acted one of the worst school shootings in American history could have gone much differently. He probably couldn't have stopped the attack entirely, but at the very least he could have made sure it didn't reach double digit deaths. Instead, he didn't and 17 people lost their lives and 17 more were wounded. 

If Peterson had done something I think the conversation in this country about gun rights would be different. People have a visceral disgust of school shootings compared to other mass attacks and if Peterson had done something he would have not only proven the "good guy with a gun" theory right yet again but he probably would have reduced the outrage. His cowardice not only cost lives it mad America a little less free as new laws were passed in the wake of this shooting. 

I have said for a long time that the most important thing when it comes to mass shootings is having someone willing to fight back. When nobody is willing to confront a gunman than that gunman is free to kill as many people as he wants until he runs out of ammo or someone steps up. In this case nobody stepped up until it was too late. 

Does Peterson deserve these charges and will they get a conviction? I think the first part of that question is pretty clear, at least for the felony child endangerment charges. The misdemeanor charges, including perjury I'm not so sure about as I haven't read the report, but I think it's pretty obvious that he put those students at risk by not acting. 

A conviction seems likely as well. Outrage over this case is strong enough that a fair trial is actually a concern. Peterson may be a scoundrel but he does deserve the same rights as anyone else, but I'm guessing that everyone in Florida hates him enough that they just might convict out of spite. Even without that factor, barring some huge exculpatory evidence put out by the defense, my guess is that Peterson will be convicted on all the charges against him.