Zero tolerance, asymmetric warfare and violence against the Constitution

Parkland shootings, and the manipulation of American students

By Desmond McGrath

Zero tolerance – "refusal to accept antisocial behavior, typically by strict and uncompromising application of the law."

As discussed in my last article "Cui Bono? Why are the warning signs of impending violence always ignored?," the Florida Senate implemented a Zero Tolerance Policy via "Task Force on School Safety", Report Number 00-32, October 1999. Yet this was completely neutered under the Obama/Holder DOJ "Promise Program" as discussed in "A HISTORY OF ZERO TOLERANCE IN SCHOOLS," October 6, 2016 by Anna Deavere Smith.

"The Department of Education recently released a #RethinkDiscipline campaign to raise awareness about how harsh discipline practices affect students, and the Obama administration has issued a series of best practices for school resource officers to decrease on-campus arrests. How else can we undo the lasting effects of zero tolerance and tough-on-crime policies of the '80s and '90s?"

Note that post-election there was an official release on Dec 9, 2016: White House Report: The Continuing Need To Rethink Discipline:

"Ending Corporal Punishment in Schools: Last month, the Department of Education sent a letter urging state leaders to end the use of corporal punishment in schools."

This essentially nullified the Florida Senate Report 00-32 recommendations from 1999:

"Discipline

The task force concluded that it would like to assist school districts that choose to use corporal punishment by providing the necessary tools to legally implement the policy. The appendix contains an overview and history of related law, some examples of policies from districts that use corporal punishment, as well as a "use of force matrix" specifically for educators."

Spare the Rod, Spoil the Child causing other children to die:

Now with the release of the surveillance video, we can see Deputy Scot Peterson, milling around talking on the radio like he was on a smoke break. In the New York Times article "Parkland Shooting Surveillance Video Shows Deputy Remained Outside" By Patricia Mazzei March 15, 2018 the following is noted:

"Mr. Peterson also told other law enforcement officers who raced to the school to stay outside. Coral Springs officers, the first to arrive on the scene, pushed into the building anyway. By then, the gunman had already fled." Bold Emphasis mine

Where did Scot Peterson get the idea to stay outside and request others to do the same?

Turing a tragedy into a political opportunity:

Given that Sheriff Israel has long been a vocal proponent of gun control, and he broke with the Florida Sheriffs Association on the state's stand-your-ground law after the shooting of Trayvon Martin, is he heeding the following advice?:

"You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it's an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before." – Rahm Emanuel

Sheriff Israel's solution to the recent tragedy was as reported in a BUZZFEED article "This Florida Sheriff Just Called Out The NRA For Failing Students By Not Supporting Gun Control" about a CNN town hall.

"An 18-year-old kid should not have a rifle. Bump stocks should be illegal," Israel said. "They should be outlawed forever. Automatic rifles should be outlawed forever. And anybody who says different – we're calling BS on that."......

"As Israel spoke, the sheriff's office tweeted lines from his remarks"

There can be no doubt that the Broward County Sheriff's office is actively engaged in the politicizing of this event and using their resources to foment a political agenda encouraging people to vote in favor of gun control in violation of the Bill of Rights. But it must be remembered:

1. It was the Broward County Sheriff's office, the FBI and others that ignored the warning signs of the clear and present danger that Nicolas Cruz posed to the student body, not the NRA.

2. Was it the policies fomented out of the Obama/Holder DOJ, the Promise Program and Rethink Discipline implemented by the formerly demoted Chicago educational supervisor Robert Runcie now administrator of the Broward County Schools and the Broward County Sherriff's Department that overruled the Florida Senate Report 00-32 and created the environment that turned a blind eye to Nicolas Cruz's transgressions and potential for violence? This did not originate with the NRA.

3. Was it either personal incompetence, cowardice, lack of training or specific instructions from up the chain of command that were the root cause of Scot Petersons failure to engage the shooter and also try and stop the Cape Coral Officers from doing the same? Again, the NRA had nothing to do with this.

Note: As reported in Twitchy "'But blame the NRA, right?' Just when you thought the Broward Sheriff's Office couldn't POSSIBLY look worse..." Judicial Watch obtained the training guidelines for Broward County officers, which show that the first deputies on the scene that day were not going by the book:


Scot Peterson took a course of action opposite to the Broward County procedures he was allegedly trained to follow. Then three more officers arrived and again took a course of action opposite to the Broward County procedures they were allegedly trained to follow. Yet all of them were allegedly instructed based on the following premise, from Judicial Watch:

"If you are on scene or in the area and hear gunshots, you should immediately access what you have and prepare to respond. Remember, every time you hear a gunshot in an active shooter incident; you have to believe that is another victim being killed."

Why did two different groups of officers shirk their responsibilities and training and refuse to enter the building, deferring instead to the Cape Coral Officers who rushed right in without a moment's hesitation ignoring Scot Peterson's request to not enter? Did someone higher up tell these deputies to stand down?

Who cares about the deaths in Chicago?

Is it not coincidental that "Never let a crisis go to waste" Rahm Emanuel is now the current Mayor of Chicago whence Broward's own superintendent, Robert Runcie, came and brought some administrative staff with him after his demotion and transfer within the Chicago Public School System.

Chicago Shooting Statistics, Year to Date https://heyjackass.com/category/2018-stats/:

Shot & Killed: 85
Shot & Wounded: 368
Total Shot: 453
Total Homicides: 103

Figure 1 From https://heyjackass.com/
New York and "Zero Tolerance"

Familiarity breeds contempt and there is seldom any organized public outcry about the systemic violence and shootings in Chicago as discussed in a Daily Mail Article By Ashley Collman, 15 November 2016 "A tale of two cities: Why have murders soared in Chicago and plummeted in New York City?

Figure 2 From aforementioned Daily Mail Article

'The chief law enforcement officer in any city serves at the pleasure of the mayor, so the mayor in effect sets the agenda for the way in which law enforcement's activities will be conducted,' James Pasco, executive director of the National Fraternal Order of Police union, said.

He continued: 'Emanuel has chosen to meddle in police department policies and procedures, and the results are also obvious. There's been a total politicization of the Chicago Police Department's approach to public safety.'

Even though significant blame lays at the feet of Rahm Emanuel for a total politicization of the Chicago Police Department's approach to public safety; he is never called out for it due to his favored status on the left. There is clearly no "Zero Tolerance" Policy being applied in Chicago as was in New York City, which is described in some detail, the long slow path of "How New York Became Safe: The Full Story": City Journal Special Edition 2009. By George L. Kelling, Professor at the School of Criminal Justice at Rutgers University in Newark and a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.

"(I)n 1989, Robert Kiley, chairman of the board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, asked the transit police (then located within the NYCTA) to focus on minor offenses; a year later, he hired as its chief William Bratton, who immediately zeroed in on disorder, especially fare beating. And in the early nineties, the NYCTA adopted similar policing methods for Penn Station and Grand Central Terminal". ...

"When Kiley was struggling to restore order in the subway, he had to withstand pressure from powerful opponents: the New York Civil Liberties Union, the mayor's office (which had suggested bringing portable kitchens and showers into the subway for the homeless), the police commissioner, and the transit police. In fact, it was after the transit cops resisted Operation Enforcement, Kiley's first effort to restore order, that he hired Bratton". ...

"Clearly, Giuliani and Bratton were heroes in reclaiming public spaces. But Glazer, Sturz, Gunn, Kiley, Biederman, and others were stalwarts as well. They set the stage for what was to follow. Current mayor Michael Bloomberg and police commissioner Ray Kelly also deserve kudos; rather than overturning the Bratton/Giuliani innovations and going their own way – as new administrators are wont to do – they adopted, refined, and strengthened them."

Restoring Law and Order without doing violence to the Constitution:

As in the NYC experience, the "Zero Tolerance" for things like "fare Jumping" and graffiti turned the city around and dramatically reduced all manner of crime, without a politically motivated assault on the Bill of Rights and the Right to Bear Arms. If the Florida Senate "Zero Tolerance" Policy had remained in effect, there is a high degree of probability that Nicolas Cruz would not have had the opportunity to commit his murders. Once the shooting started, had the Broward County Sherriff's Deputies not "Stood Down" for some mysterious reason, the shooter would have had to engage them and not the helpless students resulting in less students killed or wounded. Yet nonchalantly:

After leaving the school, Mr. Cruz walked to a Walmart, and bought a drink at a Subway. He also stopped at a McDonald's. He was arrested by the police without incident as he walked down a residential street at 3:41 p.m. (As if he was in no fear of being shot. Comment Mine)

Now the solution, according to Sherriff Israel is "An 18-year-old kid should not have a rifle" when the recruitment age for most police forces is 18 and for military service 17(with parental consent) and 18 (without parental consent).

The full-on assault is now underway against the Second Amendment and the NRA by a highly organized group of students and individuals like NRA-basher Emma Gonzalez (Whose Father Fled Castro's Gun-outlawing Cuba) Celebrated as Hero by Cuba's Media and cheered on by Sherriff Israel "We do need to have some gun control and reform. ... Anybody who says different, I don't know about other people, but Emma (Gonzalez) and I – we're calling BS on that".

The question becomes: Why is all the focus on the NRA and the Second Amendment and none on the minutia of details that culminated in the tragedy? Details like:

9/24/2017 – A Mississippi bail bondsman, Ben Bennight told the FBI that a commenter identifying himself as "Nikolas Cruz" had left a message on his YouTube channel that read, "I'm going to be a professional school shooter." (Isn't it odd that he used the term professional – 'engaged in a specified activity as one's main paid occupation rather than as a pastime.')

Or the dozens of complaints to the Sherriff's office and the FBI? Or how the Promise Program and the lessening of school safety protocols contributed to the tragedy?

Figure 3 Scene after Collapse by Pedro Portal pportal@miamiherald.com,
FIU bridge collapse, '"The Devil is in the details, but so is salvation."

As the former quote by Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, who masterfully guided the US Navy Nuclear Submarine program, suggests, one can never overlook the smallest details that lead up to a tragedy. In the recent Florida International University bridge collapse, there are many investigators both government and private sector who are going through all the elements with a fine-tooth comb, from the evidence at the scene back through the paper trail for all of the contributing factors that lead to the collapse. There is no unified rallying cry for increased Concrete Controls or Rebar/Pre-stress/Post- tension regulations because no such claims can made until all the evidence is reviewed. Likewise, dedicated journalists like at the Miami Herald are looking into the companies that were involved in the design and construction of the bridge. "Meet MCM and FIGG, the two firms behind FIU's collapsed pedestrian bridge" March 15, 2018, by David Smiley, Nicholas Nehamas, Sarah Blaskey, Ben Wieder And Douglas Hanks.

Another engineering and consulting company involved in the bridge project was Miami's Bolton, Perez and Associates, which told the Miami Herald that it was hired to administer contracts but not for any design work.

"We are not going to speculate on the cause at this time," John W. Bolton, the director of construction services, said of the collapse.

Yet the rallying cry now is the NRA, Guns and Second Amendment are all to blame and not the authorities who shirked their responsibilities in preventing Nicolas Cruz from achieving his self-declared ambition.

Students take charge of gun-safety movement with some help from existing groups:

Now high school kids, succumbing to Agitprop walked out nationwide as if they are organizing to storm the Bastille.

"the appalling thing in the French Revolution is not the tumult but the design. Through all the fire and smoke we perceive the evidence of calculating organization. The managers remain studiously concealed and masked; but there is no doubt about their presence from the first." (Lord Acton, Lectures on the French Revolution, p. 97.)

In the header titled article in the Washington Post by David Weigel and Wesley Lowery February 21, they note the following:

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence is starting to talk to students about rallies planned for March and expects to set aside money to help students who can't afford to travel to the events. Giffords, formerly known as Americans for Responsible Solutions, shared "some context on gun violence protection" with students who requested it, according to Peter Ambler, the group's executive director.

"It's important to recognize that in every single way possible this is an authentically grass-roots, student-led movement," Ambler said. "Of course, we're reaching out and trying to lift them up, and give them the resources we can muster to make them successful. But we have been sort of at arm's length, in the background doing whatever we can to support them."

I am not for a moment underestimating the sincerity, determination and ingenuity of high school students, but they are not highly trained organizers and it is not conspiracy theory to evoke Lord Acton and "perceive the evidence of calculating organization." As noted in the Breitbart article. "Teen Gun Protest Funded, Promoted by Dozens of Left-Wingers, Including George Soros-Backed Moveon.org"

It did not take long after a former student at a Florida high school with a history of mental health issues gunned down 17 people last month for the left in the United States to use the tragedy to advance its anti-Trump, anti-America, anti-gun agenda.

What took so long to fire Andrew McCabe?

There were some who wondered what took so long for Nicolas Cruz to finally fulfill his threats and dreams of being a "professional school shooter." In a New York Post Opinion "A second special counsel should be investigating the FBI leaks" by Michael Goodwin, March 17, 2018, the question could be asked as to why it took so long to fire Andrew McCabe.

McCabe is among the top law enforcement officials and others in Barack Obama's administration who appear to have used their official powers to try to prevent or undermine Trump's presidency, yet there is no single investigation focused on this dark chapter in American life. This politicized double standard must end....

... The same is true for former FBI Director James Comey despite serious suspicions about his conduct. Similarly, top Obama officials, such as James Clapper, Susan Rice, John Brennan and Loretta Lynch, who likely played various dirty tricks against Trump, are no longer subject to internal probes.

A criminal investigation, then, is the only way to find out who did what, and to connect the dots between various agencies, such as the FBI and State Department, that reportedly worked secretly to help elect Hillary Clinton.

Of course you could add Lois G. Lerner of the IRS to that list and watch the YouTube video Catherine Engelbrecht Slams IRS Abuse, Weaponizing of Government where she details the personal attack she, her husband and their company endured when governmental alphabet agencies were used against them for their conservative leanings like goons from a Chicago political machine.

Asymmetric Warfare and the Weaponizing of Government doing Violence to the Constitution:

By virtue of 5 U.S. Code § 3331 – Oath of office

An individual, except the President, elected or appointed to an office of honor or profit in the civil service or uniformed services, shall take the following oath: "I, AB, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God." This section does not affect other oaths required by law. (Pub. L. 89–554, Sept. 6, 1966, 80 Stat. 424.)

With the firing of McCabe, it is the first genuine step at truly draining the swamp, because people in the position of McCabe and others should use the power of their office to defend the constitution and not secretly support any particular political party or ideology. In fact, for an individual in a position of power and authority to support a cause or political ideology that is hell bent for leather on destroying the Constitution and undermining the Bill of Rights is doing violence against the Constitution in treasonous and willful violation of their oath of office.

It is of interest to note that one of the things that both McCabe and Comey are allegedly accused of is the leaking of information. This begs a very serious question that should not be lightly asked, given the repeated warnings that both the Broward County Sherriff's Department and the FBI had of Nicolas Cruz's malevolent intentions. Given that a Mississippi bail bondsman, Ben Bennight noted Nicolas Cruz's intentions by virtue of his YouTube posts and alerted the FBI, who did nothing; what groups with a vested interest in foisting their anti-Second Amendment attack against "We the People" were also aware of the same YouTube posting or were apprised of the fact by those who share their political ideology within some law enforcement agencies and once alerted quietly organized while lying in wait for Nicolas Cruz to pull the trigger as a virus and antidote concocted in the same laboratory to launch an asymmetric ambush on the Constitution, Bill of Rights and NRA?

Responsibility for the Parkland Shooting:

It is time for Sherriff Israel to accept responsibility for systemic failures within the Broward County Sherriff's Department and stop using the tragedy to foment a political agenda intent in doing violence to the very Constitution and Bill of Rights he was sworn to defend against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

"Responsibility is a unique concept... You may share it with others, but your portion is not diminished. You may delegate it, but it is still with you... If responsibility is rightfully yours, no evasion, or ignorance or passing the blame can shift the burden to someone else. Unless you can point your finger at the man who is responsible when something goes wrong, then you have never had anyone really responsible." ― Hyman G. Rickover

Zero Tolerance for defilers of the Constitution:

Its high time that "We the People" adopt a position of Zero Tolerance and refuse to accept anti-Constitutional behavior and corruption by not only our elected officials, including Sherriff's, but the wide swath of public servants whose political ideology is diametrically opposed to their oath of office and intent on treasonous destruction of our unalienable rights as guaranteed by our Constitution and Bill of Rights. Time is rapidly running out before our right to bear arms is infringed and relegated to the dustbin of history, by those with a political agenda to concentrate power in Washington; to quote William Jefferson Clinton: "The purpose of government is to rein in the rights of the people"

Had Hillary Clinton not been defeated by Donald J. Trump, there would have never been a Russian influence investigation based on a fake dossier paid for by the Elect Hillary Campaign. It would be a combined 3rd Clinton and 3rd Obama Presidency and all the rats that already baled from the sinking SS Hillary and those like McCabe would even more firmly entrenched to foment the final assault on the second amendment, leaving "We the People" as powerless to protect our other rights as the "tank man" was at Tiananmen Square. "If the personal freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution inhibit the government's ability to govern the people, we should look to limit those guarantees." William Jefferson Clinton

Figure 4 Tank Man at Tiananmen Square.
American students should learn from China's Tiananmen Square and Fidel's Cuba:

American students rushing to the streets to protest egged on by Agents Provocateurs of the far left and conned into willingly giving up their right to bear arms should learn about Tiananmen Square; "The Chinese Communist Party prohibits public discussion on what occurred 28 years ago and there is no mention of it in text books or in classrooms" where students went to the streets to protest for democratic reforms and an end to systemic government corruption, between April 14th and June 4th 1989. Communist Party apologists testily acknowledge a death toll in the low hundreds and perversely pin China's economic success on the crackdown, while cruelly blaming the victims of violence for the trouble. Yet "At least 10,000 people died in Tiananmen Square massacre, secret British cable from the time alleged", in addition to over 40,000 injured.

All should be equally wary when Cuban media makes a hero of Emma Gonzales as discussed here by Humberto Fontova, like they have done for Che, and also read Humberto's other book "Exposing the Real Che Guevara: And the Useful Idiots Who Idolize Him "

"Che Guevara co-founded a regime dedicated to abolishing almost everything today's millennials hold dear. Most victims of his firing squad massacres were Cuban youths in their twenties. Many as young as 16. Some even younger.

Carlos Machado was 15 years old in 1963 when the bullets from a Che-commanded firing squad shattered his body. His twin brother and father collapsed beside Carlos from the same volley. All had resisted Castro and Che's theft of their humble family farm, all refused blindfolds and all died sneering at their Communist murderers, as did thousands of their valiant countrymen."

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. – George Santayana

Desmond McGrath
Lifetime Member of the NRA and adopted Cajun.

© Desmond McGrath