Prosecuted for being a Coward?

[Stapes]

What do you think? As much as I see the guy as the worst kind of coward I don't see it as a prosecutable crime. Fired? reviled? sure. Put in jail with 11 counts against you I'm going to say it all gets thrown out. Seems like a political stunt by the prosecutors office.


https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-48521988

Florida school shooting: Parkland officer arrested over inaction



An armed officer who stood outside a Florida school as a gunman killed 17 people has been arrested and faces multiple charges, including child neglect and perjury.
Scot Peterson, a security guard at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, did not enter as shots rang out last year and later resigned.
US President Donald Trump called him a "coward" for not acting.
Mr Peterson said he did not know where the gunfire was coming from.
Seventeen students were killed in the massacre in Parkland on Valentine's Day in 2018.
Nikolas Cruz, 19, a former student at the school, has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder. Police have said he admitted the shooting.

Soon afterwards, authorities released footage showing Mr Peterson waiting outside the school as the shooting was taking place.
Following an investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), Mr Peterson was arrested on Tuesday on seven counts of neglect of a child, three counts of culpable negligence and one count of perjury.
The investigation showed Mr Peterson "did absolutely nothing" to prevent the shooting, FDLE Commissioner Rick Swearingen said in a statement.
"There can be no excuse for his complete inaction and no question that his inaction cost lives," he added.

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel voiced his anger after viewing the footage of Mr Peterson remaining outside the building for four minutes while the killings were taking place. The shooting lasted just six minutes.
"I am devastated. Sick to my stomach. He never went in," Sheriff Israel said, adding that he should have entered and "killed the killer".
President Trump said the officer "certainly did a poor job" and branded him a coward.
Mr Peterson maintained he believed the shots were coming from outside the school.
He told NBC that he "didn't get it right", but added: "Those are my kids in there. I never would have sat there and let my kids get slaughtered."

[beagleboy]

I'm not a fan.

It's cool and all that everyone thinks they are a tough guy who will rush into extremely dangerous situations to save the world but in reality, fear takes over for many people. I'm not a fan of charging someone with a crime for not taking what are really rather heroic steps.

[VinceBordenIII]

What do you think? As much as I see the guy as the worst kind of coward I don't see it as a prosecutable crime. Fired? reviled? sure. Put in jail with 11 counts against you I'm going to say it all gets thrown out. Seems like a political stunt by the prosecutors office.


https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-48521988

Florida school shooting: Parkland officer arrested over inaction



An armed officer who stood outside a Florida school as a gunman killed 17 people has been arrested and faces multiple charges, including child neglect and perjury.
Scot Peterson, a security guard at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, did not enter as shots rang out last year and later resigned.
US President Donald Trump called him a "coward" for not acting.
Mr Peterson said he did not know where the gunfire was coming from.
Seventeen students were killed in the massacre in Parkland on Valentine's Day in 2018.
Nikolas Cruz, 19, a former student at the school, has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder. Police have said he admitted the shooting.

Soon afterwards, authorities released footage showing Mr Peterson waiting outside the school as the shooting was taking place.
Following an investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), Mr Peterson was arrested on Tuesday on seven counts of neglect of a child, three counts of culpable negligence and one count of perjury.
The investigation showed Mr Peterson "did absolutely nothing" to prevent the shooting, FDLE Commissioner Rick Swearingen said in a statement.
"There can be no excuse for his complete inaction and no question that his inaction cost lives," he added.

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel voiced his anger after viewing the footage of Mr Peterson remaining outside the building for four minutes while the killings were taking place. The shooting lasted just six minutes.
"I am devastated. Sick to my stomach. He never went in," Sheriff Israel said, adding that he should have entered and "killed the killer".
President Trump said the officer "certainly did a poor job" and branded him a coward.
Mr Peterson maintained he believed the shots were coming from outside the school.
He told NBC that he "didn't get it right", but added: "Those are my kids in there. I never would have sat there and let my kids get slaughtered."

This is "pound of flesh" stuff. They'll drop the charges.
Guy's a cunt, though. He wanted to live too badly.

[PimpDaddy]

He wanted to live. What a loser.

[CHEEZY17]

I'm on the fence. I see validity in both sides. On one hand we all like to think that we'd be the hero and save everyone when in reality it's probably unlikely; especially since most of us here, I'd suspect, aren't armed or trained to handle a situation like that. The flip side to that is that he was armed, trained, on the scene and chose to stand down while kids died. In other words, the exact type of scenario he gets paid and trained to deal with so we don't have to. He chose his profession.

[AnalHamster]

I don't think anyone knows how they'd react in a situation like that without experiencing it. He definitely needs to be in another line of work if he can't overcome his cower instinct, but I wouldn't prosecute him for it. I don't see the child negligence or culpable negligence charges sticking anyway, y'all just shouldn't make prosecutors or judges elected positions. They presumably have him cold on the perjury charge though so I expect he'll plead out or shoot himself in the head. A televised trial with nightly coverage of Nancy Grace calling him a cowardly pussy won't be appealing.

[Wut]

I'm not a fan.

It's cool and all that everyone thinks they are a tough guy who will rush into extremely dangerous situations to save the world but in reality, fear takes over for many people. I'm not a fan of charging someone with a crime for not taking what are really rather heroic steps.

x2

x3

[Stapes]

I had read somewhere that the police are under no legal requirement to put their life in jeopardy to protect the public. Most officers do all the time but if that legal standard is true then there is no case against this guy.

[Antknot]

Should be prosecuted on the perjury change in any case.