One of Florida’s most favored, always direct, unabashed sheriffs was already on the air while Galveston County, Texas law enforcement authorities were processing the enormous crime scene involving a mass shooting this morning at Santa Fe High School in Texas. Armed with his service weapon and a coopted agenda forged by Polk County, Florida law enforcement and the Polk County School Board, Sheriff Grady Judd took to social media platforms and delineated what the 111 public schools in his jurisdiction will have in terms of enhanced school safety measures.
For one, his stated commitment for the next school year is that the Polk County Sheriff’s Office will assign a school resource deputy to each and every public school in his jurisdiction. He subsequently used the word “forever” before any media reporters asked for what duration.
As to school district transportation, Sheriff Judd alluded to realigning his detectives’ caseloads to where, if necessitated, they will suit-up and ride the school busses to quell end-of-school-year and beginning-of-semester feistiness and excitability which often produces fights and other misbehaviors. In that light, Judd recognized the fact that schools ordinarily are subject to threats at the end of the school year, making it crystal clear that anyone rendering threats will be arrested without kid-glove treatment by law enforcement. The way he put it, “There will be no diversion programs.” That is cop-speak for turning over custody to a juvenile arrestee’s parents; no “Get out of jail” card will be issued.
Polk County School Superintendent Jacqueline Byrd assured parents of all possible measures to complete the school year with utmost focus on safety, including barring all backpacks on campuses. Although some may find that extreme and unrealistic since books/supplies must be toted around, Byrd’s justification in doing so makes sense. She said, “This will help us make sure nothing [harmful] can get into the schools by any means… We want to make sure that if a [law enforcement] officer is on campus, they don’t have to figure out where something is entering, how it’s getting in, and what we need to do.”
Some school districts around the nation have enacted similar methodologies, such as mandating backpacks made of clear-skin, see-through materials so that faculty and law enforcement can have an eyeball on students’ belongings. That becomes a debate for privacy versus safety. It’s an option whereby practical heads prevail and depraved mindsets are made to feel X-rayed.
Notice that the Left only cares about banning guns.
None of them even ask how this kid was able to get guns inside the school in the first place.
School security is the answer, not more unconstitutional #GunControl laws.
— Mark Pantano (@TheMarkPantano) May 18, 2018
It was reported that today’s Santa Fe school shooter wore a “Born to Kill” T-shirt, combat-style boots, and a trench coat…attire reminiscent of that worn by the two sadistic killers who perpetrated mass murder at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999. As Sheriff Judd pointedly expressed, “…a shirt with ‘Born to Kill’ on it? That’s a clue.”
It is also being bandied about that the Santa Fe teen suspect is a student at the very school to which he brazenly brought a shotgun concealed by his long coat…yelling Surprise! before opening fire. Law enforcement academies teach police recruits to observe people and the environments in which they interact. In the Santa Fe case, one would (should) think it odd for a student to come to school dressed in a trench coat and combat boots during otherwise warm weather. It is believed the long attire successfully concealed the killer’s shotgun. Although he also smuggled in a revolver, the shotgun did the most severe damage. Without metal detectors in place, a long gun covered by a long coat flowed unimpeded and did the job.
Is American society now so rooted in informal layers of rights, wants and needs that we subconsciously block-out someone’s dubious dress code clearly ill-suiting its climate, consciously filing it away as self-expressionism and just a projection of identity, without aforethought or afterthought? Some folks people-watch and some do not. For those who do, where does the imagery get filed? Is it processed at all? This kid’s trench coat was fashioned with pins emblematic of hate organizations and ideologies, with Nazism and Satanism among many others. It was all right there like a billboard wrapping a public bus.
Since the bloodbath inflicted by the two Columbine killers in 1999, many have labeled them and other mass shooters “outcasts.” Aren’t all shooters? Despite pedigree variations denoting where they were born, where they grew up, what kind of dress code each adhered to, one thread remains throughout: all portray utter failure in employing coping mechanisms to climb out from the depths of their depraved thoughts…instead opting to arm, aim, and shoot.
Albeit after today’s arming, aiming, and shooting which culminated in impromptu executions of individuals on the cusp of Memorial Day weekend with the end of the school year in sight, ten souls are no more. A 17-year-old barbarically exacted his inexplicable brand of settling scores with not necessarily those who specifically may have bullied him but pretty much anyone who was sharing the same school air.
I can entertain that some depraved individuals suffer gross mental disarray and are so entrenched in darkness that reason is not so easy to surface, let alone engender coping mechanisms. That defers to the See something, say something mantra again. Someone somewhere along the spectrum of each of these grotesque life-snubbing shooters had to have gotten that undeniable gut feeling from direct or indirect messaging, enough to sound an alarm loud enough for authorities to answer the call.
While the Santa Fe school crime scene was being forensically picked, other cops destined for premises frequented by their apprehended, identified murderer. Naturally, with search warrants procured by law enforcers, the perpetrator’s home was the first stop away from school grounds. Like walking on a trail except in reverse, police learned the firepower used was owned by the killer’s dad. We can expect to read subsequent stories regarding its legality and how his son got ahold of it. Certainly, law enforcement will have myriad questions, one or more of which will go along the lines of Did you not notice your son’s indifferent behavior or anything out of the ordinary? We shall see.
The shooter’s social media pages indicated numerous tell-tale signs that he had more than a few things ticking in his cranium. Those details will be splashed across screens over the next few weeks.
Police personnel interviewed students, some of whom readily identified the shooter as “weird” and quirky. “He was kind of weird, I guess…he never seemed that right,” said Santa Fe sophomore Alec Neal. “This year, what weirded me out was he started wearing a trench coat…I know earlier in the year he told me he was buying knives off of Amazon.” Signs, signs, everywhere there’s signs.
That goes in line with the See something, say something credo we hear more of yet seem to see little to zero application. Why else would we have to keep repeating the phrase? In that regard, victimization in Santa Fe goes beyond those who were cut down in first-period activities this morning. Emotional scars are now permanent not only from the mass murder spree itself but also from the infinite knowledge-base that signs were present although reactions were somehow subdued. Surely that cuts deep. That is not to cast blame but to recognize we have survivors to support. Perhaps from those survivors we can learn nuances to help piece together a puzzle before recurrence in Santa Fe or elsewhere.
A few who knew well enough claimed the shooter was often bullied, presumably because of his peculiar persona. The press released some material implicating the teen’s support of bisexuality. Could those same details have been catalysts motivating a high school student to visit mayhem and death upon anyone in his shotgun’s line of fire? It would seem so rhetorical. He is alive to talk about his influence, so we may get to hear a mass shooter’s blueprint through which we may learn something to thwart similar incidents as well.
As for Polk County, Florida’s chief law enforcement executive, Sheriff Judd raises public safety points and, as he typically does, puts his money where his mouth is. As for “naysayers”,” Judd telegraphed, “I always want to be blamed for overdoing it than to be blamed for underdoing it.” Who can argue with a candid promissory like that? Same goes for those who are unsure of observations under the See something, say something discussion point: I’d rather shake embarrassment than host a lifelong scar.
Putting punctuation to his all-encompassing press conference this afternoon, Sheriff Judd spoke for the entire law enforcement community when he guaranteed, “We will run into danger to save your child!” Extend that pact beyond the school realm because that premise applies to anyone of any age everywhere.
Even though I respect him dearly, I semi-agree with Mark Pantano’s tweet above: “School security is the answer.” It is merely part of the overall resolve we seek for our nation’s school systems.
Bear in mind, though, that we shouldn’t place all our eggs in a sole basket and trust none will feel pressure and utopia will ensue. Sheriff Judd said it also: some will get through the defenses and people may get hurt regardless of warriors on the frontline. We must not couch the shoulders of law enforcers and school teachers with the stopgap mentality that they will smell evil’s approach and repel the stench. No one-size-fits-all exists for this dynamic. There are multi-dimensions which comprise each monster and many individuals among society stand close to their trek before school grounds are encroached.
All the security mechanisms and all the armed guardians are part and parcel, but why wait until the phantom is on the doorstep or prancing past lockers?
Speaking at a vigil right now in Santa Fe, Senator Ted Cruz (R – Texas) thanked the first responders who dashed into the school. He also recognized the teachers who corralled their students away from the gunfire. Sen. Cruz wondered what has happened in our culture that this kind of evil can snatch innocent young lives. He is not alone.
Take heed, my friends. As Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) messaged during tonight’s vigil: We are all in this together. Indeed, as it should be.
