Earlier today President Trump hosted a meeting with teachers, student and parents affected by recent school shootings.  The President began the session by stating his intent to listen to each view and perspective and then move forward.

The stories told by some meeting participants were quite emotional; others were very deliberate and focused on both short-term and longer term issues. Outside the room both sides of the political continuum are very passionate on this issue; and it doesn’t help to have the deafening drumbeat of ideological U.S. media politicizing the discussion whenever possible.

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While speaking during a White House ceremony earlier today President Trump announced he has directed Attorney General Jeff Sessions to develop regulations surrounding “bump fire stocks”, noting the intended regulation would be an actionable step to help prevent future mass shootings.

During his remarks President Trump noted: “We cannot merely take actions that make us feel like we are making a difference, we must actually make a difference.” The decision to eliminate ‘bump-fire stocks’ is smart policy and politically.

On the policy side the regulatory move is in line with already existing rules on firearms that ban auto-fire weapons. On the political side the memorandum stops opposition from saying the President is not taking action; the regulatory memorandum reflects action taken by President Trump that was not taken by President Obama.

(From the memorandum) After the deadly mass murder in Las Vegas, Nevada, on October 1, 2017, I asked my Administration to fully review how the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives regulates bump fire stocks and similar devices.

Although the Obama Administration repeatedly concluded that particular bump stock type devices were lawful to purchase and possess, I sought further clarification of the law restricting fully automatic machineguns.

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If Nikolas Cruz had been arrested for his prior criminal behavior he would not have passed a background check for a firearm purchase.  The issue was/is not the background check; the issue was/is the lack of a prior arrest.  Hence, the Broward County school and law enforcement policy is ultimately what failed.

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I don’t say this lightly, but the lawyers have the easiest case for ‘wrongful death’ lawsuits in the history of this type of litigation. The county policy constructed by public officials (School Board and Superintendent), and the county law enforcement policy that was specifically and intentionally designed to ignore unlawful behavior (Broward Sheriff), is the very definition of intentional gross negligence.

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CTH has intentionally stayed away from discussion of the Parkland school shooting as we watched and reviewed the response.  However, it’s time to call the Broward School Board officials to task and simultaneously prepare the class-action lawyers to cripple the system.

Broward County schools intentionally created polices from 2010 through 2016 that culminated in the 2018 mass school shooting in Parkland.  We know this with great specificity because five years ago we warned Broward County Florida school board members this could happen.

In 2012 and 2013 while doing research into the Trayvon Martin shooting we discovered an alarming set of school policies being enacted in Miami-Dade and Broward County Florida.  The policies were called “diversionary programs” and were essentially about stopping High School students from being arrested. Law enforcement was instructed to avoid arrests and defer criminal conduct to school administrators.

Students who engaged in violence, drug sales, robberies, burglaries, theft and other various crimes were intentionally kept out of the criminal justice system.  County administrators and School Superintendents told local and county law enforcement officers to stop arresting students.

2013 […] Broward, the nation’s seventh largest district, had the highest number of school-related arrests in Florida in the 2011-2012 school year, according to state data. Seventy-one percent of the 1,062 arrests made were for misdemeanor offenses. (more)

Unfortunately, the school board mandated policies came into conflict with law and order. The problem of the conflicted policy -vs- legality worsened over time as the police excused much more than misdemeanor crimes.  Over time this culminated in police officers falsifying documents, hiding criminal activity, lying on official police reports and even hiding stolen merchandise police retrieved from high school students.

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President Donald Trump, accompanied by First-Lady Melania Trump, traveled to Broward Health North Hospital in Pompano Beach, Florida, to visit some of the shooting victims from Marjory Stoneman High School and thank the doctors, medical staff and first responders.

President Trump delivered brief remarks to the traveling press pool while colluding with Dr. Igor Nichiporenko and discussing the hospital’s efforts.

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Broward County Florida Sheriff’s Office confirmed they have a suspect in custody in connection to a school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland, a suburb of Fort Lauderdale, that may have injured as many as 20 to 40 people.  Broward County public schools twitter feed here. Broward Sheriff twitter feed here.

The shooter was described as wearing a black hat, a maroon or burgundy colored shirt and black pants.  Gateway Pundit is identifying the shooter as “Nicholas de Jesus Cruz”, possibly a former student, 5′-8″. Miami Herald reports:

  According to law enforcement sources, the shooter, former student Nicolas de Jesus Cruz, is in custody. Helicopter footage shortly before 4 showed police frisking a handcuffed young man outside a squad car. Dressed in a maroon shirt and dark trousers, he was placed in the squad car as TV choppers filmed the scene. He gave no visible sign of being injured, but authorities have said Cruz was transported to Broward Health North.

A teacher at the school told the Miami Herald that Cruz, 19, had been identified as a potential threat to fellow students in the past.

“We were told last year that he wasn’t allowed on campus with a backpack on him,” said math teacher Jim Gard, who said the former student suspected in the shootings had been in his class last year. “There were problems with him last year threatening students, and I guess he was asked to leave campus.” (more)

Police have notified area hospitals they will receive patients as a result of the shooting. The conditions of the victims were not clear, though Sen. Bill Nelson told FOX News there were “many deaths” at the school.

Parkland is a Fort Lauderdale suburb of 30,000 people just east of the Everglades. The National Council on Home Safety and Security recently placed the city on its list of the 10 safest cities in Florida.  President Donald Trump tweeted his condolences to the victims this afternoon.

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Speaking at a law enforcement appreciation event on Saturday January 13th, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo said he anticipates having a news conference in about a week regarding the investigation into the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.  However, according to attending media, “he doesn’t expect the update to include shooter Stephen Paddock’s motive”.

Last Friday a federal judge released more than a dozen search warrant affidavits filed by the FBI in the initial weeks following the Vegas shooting. The judge released the documents in response to a lawsuit filed by a group of media organizations.
The search warrants’ present a snapshot of the evidence investigators were looking into around the first two weeks of October 2017.  The shooting took place on Sunday October 1st around 10:00pm (local). Example release below:
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Earlier today President Trump held a roundtable meeting on prison reform. Participants included AG Jeff Sessions, Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin, Kansas Governor Brownback and several prison reform experts. Video and Transcript below:

[Transcript] 1:55 P.M. EST – THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. And today we are going to be discussing the important topic of prison reform. I want to thank Attorney General Sessions, Governor Bevin of Kentucky, Governor Brownback of Kansas, and other prison reform experts who are here. We have the best in the country.
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Wow.  Follow up to THIS STORY – In a stunning rebuke to federal prosecutors a federal court judge has thrown out the case against Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy “with prejudice”.  Bundy and his sons cannot be retried, and will walk free.

In order for a federal judge to completely dismiss a case of this significance indicates the court has found serious and compelling evidence of “gross misconduct” on the part of the prosecuting team.

LAS VEGAS — Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, his two sons and a militia member will not face a retrial on charges that they led an armed rebellion against federal agents in 2014.

A federal judge on Monday said the federal prosecutors’ conduct was “outrageous” and “violated due process rights” of the defendants.

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Justice-time for Christmas !!  Against revelations of egregious prosecutorial misconduct, and withholding Brady evidence from the defense, Chief U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro has declared a mistrial in the federal case against Nevada Rancher Cliven Bundy.

NEVADA – A federal judge declared a mistrial Wednesday in the case of a Nevada rancher accused of leading an armed standoff against the government in 2014, blaming prosecutors for withholding key evidence from defense lawyers, including records about the conduct of FBI and Bureau of Land Management agents.

Chief U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro in Las Vegas dismissed a jury seated last month for the long-awaited trial of Cliven Bundy, his sons Ryan and Ammon Bundy and self-styled Montana militia leader Ryan Payne.

The decision is the latest in a string of failed prosecutions in Nevada and Oregon against those who have opposed federal control of vast swaths of land in Western states.

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