What We Knew About Parkland Was Bad, Now We Know It Was Even Worse

I did a summary awhile ago of all the myriad failures that led to, and occurred during, the Parkland shooting.

The incredible sordid failure of the school system to deal with him can be read in the school's own censored report. Well, their own report had 50% of the content censored and blacked out. But not to worry, in yet another demonstration of the spectacular failure of the school system in dealing with the situation from start to finish, the censorship can and was easily removed in Adobe and can be read at the Sun Sentinel's site for it.

Reading it and you can see all the myriad of behaviors exhibited, all the indicators that the schmuck was likely to commit the act and the complete and utter failure to appropriately respond by the school system. Add to that a complete failure of security at the school, including a failure to follow up on recommendations a security expert hired by the flipping school board had made prior to the shooting. None of the recommendations were implemented and most were pretty darn common-sensical.

But wait, it gets worse.

The latest article by the Sun Sentinel on the work of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement shows the law enforcement response was even worse than we had known then.

The Sun Sentinel: Who made key mistakes in Parkland school shooting? Nine months later, no one held accountable

Some highlights of the new information:

We knew that Deputy and Coward Scott Perterson, now getting a pension of over $8,000 per month, did not even try to engage the shooter, enter the building or rescue anyone. But did you know the first supervisor to arrive similarly not only did not enter the building but stayed far away from it? He did not get on the radio and supervise and in fact did nothing for 10 minutes?

The senior sheriff's officer eventually on site Captain Jan Jordan was apparently frozen and completely ineffective on scene, and called for a perimeter to be setup rather than a rapid entrance to engage the killer and save people?

Capt. Jan Jordan, the sheriff’s Parkland district commander, was “overwhelmed,” a Coconut Creek Deputy Chief Greg Lees told commission investigators. “I could see it,” he said. “I tried to help her.”

Sheriff’s Lt. Stephen O’Neill described Jordan’s manner of speech during the crisis as “dream-like” and called the command structure “ineffective” and “not engaged with the problem.”

Oh, and if you ever wondered, in a mass shooting event if someone is coming to save you, you don;t need to wonder any more you are really on your own:

Eight deputies arrived in time to hear shots but didn’t go in after the shooter,

Let that one sink in. Eight deputies on scene failed to enter while the shooting was going on. Not just one, eight.

The worst part is the commission isn't near done yet and I expect even more failures to be brought to light.

Blaming the NRA was an easy distraction from this massive ball of suck and fail.

The School turned a blind eye, Law Enforcement dropped every possible ball, the sheriff lied, and a whole lot of people died. Their deaths, or at the very least many of their deaths, could have been avoided had people just done the jobs they signed up for and were getting paid, and paid damn well, to do.