Fla. school officer waited outside building for 4 minutes as killings happened, sheriff says
February 23, 2018 by admin
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A Marjory Stoneman Douglas school resource officer has been suspended without pay after Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said video shows him taking up a defensive position during the shooting but never entering the school.
Israel announced Thursday that the decision to suspend Deputy Scot Peterson was made after reviewing video from the shooting and taking statements from witnesses and Peterson himself, Israel said.
“He should have went in, addressed the killer, killed the killer,” Israel said.
Peterson was armed and on campus during the shooting Israel said. Since he met the requirements for retirement, Peterson opted to resign after he was told he was being suspended, Israel said.
Israel said that the video shows Peterson arrived at the west side of Building 12, where most of the killing happened. He then took up a position but “never went in.”
The video shows that Peterson remained outside the building for upward of four minutes during the shooting, which lasted about six minutes, Israel said. Aside from getting “on his radio,” Peterson did “nothing” while standing outside the building, Israel said.
When the shooting started, Peterson was in an office dealing with a “school-related issue,” Israel said.
When asked by reporters to describe how the video made him feel, Israel responded, “Sick to my stomach” and “devastated.”
“It doesn’t matter who went in first, it doesn’t matter in what order you went in,” he said. “What matters is that when we in law enforcement arrive at an active shooter, we go in and address the target and that’s what should have been done.”
Peterson was named school resource officer of the year in the city of Parkland in 2014, after he had been with the school for five years, records show. According to a booklet announcing the award, Peterson had been “proven to be reliable in handling issues with tact and judgment” and was active in mentoring and counseling students that year.
Peterson was also nominated for Parkland deputy of the year in 2017, an internal memo from the sheriff’s office dated March 27, 2017, shows.
Two other deputies were placed on restricted duty while the sheriff’s office investigates whether they “could’ve” or “should’ve” done more while dealing with suspect, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, amid the 23 calls they received involving Cruz or his brother since 2008, Israel said.
Of those calls, investigators feel that two cases “deserve extra scrutiny” to see if there was a policy violation by the deputies involved.
Cruz was arrested shortly after the shooting and is charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder. He is being held in a Broward County jail.
On Wednesday, Israel announced that Broward County sheriff’s deputies would now be carrying AR-15 rifles on school grounds within the district, adding that one of the ways to make schools safer is to evaluate the number of school resource officers on campuses.
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White House praises Oregon program of mileage tax for infrastructure funds
February 22, 2018 by admin
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The White House is touting a pilot vehicle mileage tax program in Oregon as a reasonable means to fund infrastructure investment, suggesting a potential revenue stream for public works.
The administration’s Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) in an outlook report released Wednesday highlighted Oregon’s OReGO program, which charges its volunteers 1.7 cents for every mile they travel on the state’s public roads. The program then awards its participants with credits for the state’s fuel taxes.
“Oregon officials have a program that allows consumer choice, is based on an open technological platform, and is administratively feasible,” the report states.
The administration argues that programs like the one in Oregon “increase efficiency and raise needed revenues to pay for infrastructure improvements and additions to capacity.”
The suggestion provides a window into the administration’s thinking for possible funding sources after President TrumpDonald John TrumpAccuser says Trump should be afraid of the truth Woman behind pro-Trump Facebook page denies being influenced by Russians Shulkin says he has White House approval to root out ‘subversion’ at VA MORE last week unveiled his long-awaited infrastructure framework, which would focus on public-private partnerships and the use of state and local government funds.
The plan proposed $200 billion of direct federal investment over the course of 10 years with the goal of generating an overall package of $1.5 trillion. While the idea is that the private sector and state and local governments will foot the rest of the bill, Democrats have denounced the $200 billion as too low a number to have a meaningful impact on a rebuilding initiative.
Meanwhile, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have questioned revenue sources for the proposal.
Industry leaders have long pushed for an increase to the federal gas tax as a means to help the struggling Highway Trust Fund, which pays for road projects. The fund receives revenue from the 18.4-cent-per-gallon gas tax, which has not been raised in 25 years. As a result, the fund’s purchasing power has eroded over time and the fund is heading for another shortfall at the end of 2020.
Trump, during a bipartisan meeting with lawmakers at the White House last week, supported a 25-cent increase to both the gas and diesel taxes, according to Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), who is the top Democrat on the Environment and Public Works Committee.
But the administration’s economic report alludes to concerns over an increase to these levies, a move that also remains deeply unpopular among Republican lawmakers.
“[T]hese taxes are imperfect because they fail to encourage efficient use of existing roadways and to signal the value of any potential additional capacity,” the report says of the diesel and gas taxes.
The White House also noted that the use of electric vehicles is making fuel taxes less efficient and instead emphasized the potential for a vehicle mileage tax to create “sustainable” income sources.
“Although the design and implementation of such taxes has many challenges, VMT taxes can raise needed revenues in a sustainable way while providing the right signals regarding the value of consumption and supply, helping public officials to understand the value of current uses of roads and highways and to plan for the future,” the report says.
In addition to the pilot program in Oregon, the White House noted that California has tested a simulation program for a tax on vehicle miles traveled.