More than two months after the Parkland, Fla., shooting in which 17 people were killed and 17 others wounded — mostly students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School — Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel received a vote of “no confidence” from local deputies.
On Thursday, 85 percent of members of the Broward Sheriff’s Office Deputies Association voted that they have no confidence in Israel’s leadership and are petitioning Florida Gov. Rick Scott to “make change and replace the sheriff with somebody who is capable of amazing leadership.”
Out of 628 union members who voted, 534 voted “no confidence.” Suffice it to say, this is a victory for the Parkland teens.
Union President Jeff Bell admonished Israel after the vote, saying, “Amazing leadership starts from the top, and there is no amazing leadership here. We are a ship out at seas with no power — adrift.”
“He fails to listen to the people,” Bell added of Israel. “He fails to listen to the membership and he wants to blame everybody else for his problems.”
During the CNN town hall after the Parkland shooting, Israel, along with several Parkland teens, blamed lack of gun control as the reason why the shooting happened and boasted on his “amazing leadership.”
Following the town hall, however, it was reported that four of Israel’s deputies stood outside the high school as the shooting occurred. In addition to the deputies’ inaction, the Broward County Sheriff’s Office received almost 50 calls about the Parkland shooter before the shooting took place in February. That’s not “amazing leadership.”
What’s sad in addition to all of this is that the Parkland teens who have been out there telling the world how they believe they can reduce gun violence through legislative action still aren’t seeing the whole picture. The Parkland shooting happened not only because of a massive failure in law enforcement on the part of both local police and the FBI, but also the failure of the school to respond to repeated reports that the shooter was dangerous.
The irony in all of this is that Parkland students like David Hogg assert again and again that only Democrats have their best interests in mind. Israel serves in an elected position as a Democrat.
It’s nearly impossible to reduce gun violence with restrictive gun laws if law enforcement isn’t doing their job. It’s nearly impossible to protect schools if school districts aren’t taking the necessary precautions (i.e., metal detectors, secure entry points, etc.) to implement them.
But what happened in Broward County to Israel is a step in the right direction. There’s no arguing that.
