Judge: Broward Coward Had No Duty to Protect Students

A federal judge threw out a suit against Broward County ruling that there is no consitutional duty for the police to protect people. 

The Sheriff’s office (and Office Scot Peterson in particular) came under fire last year for the woefully inadequate response to the Parkland high school shooting last year. Instead of intervening, Peterson sought cover, and hid until more help arrived. 

Apparently that was his Constitutional right.

Orlanda Sun has more: 

U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom dismissed a suit filed by 15 students who claimed they were traumatized by the crisis in February. The suit named six defendants, including the Broward school district and the Broward Sheriff’s Office, as well as school deputy Scot Peterson and campus monitor Andrew Medina.

Bloom ruled that the two agencies had no constitutional duty to protect students who were not in custody.

“The claim arises from the actions of [shooter Nikolas] Cruz, a third party, and not a state actor,” she wrote in a ruling Dec. 12. “Thus, the critical question the Court analyzes is whether defendants had a constitutional duty to protect plaintiffs from the actions of Cruz.

“As previously stated, for such a duty to exist on the part of defendants, plaintiffs would have to be considered to be in custody” — for example, as prisoners or patients of a mental hospital, she wrote.