Tapper Vs Israel: Let's Keep Story in Context

Jake Tapper is GRILLING Sheriff Scott Israel here!

All the talk about the security guard misses the main point.  If this security guard failed in his duties, he is responsible for his actions.  If the training procedures were insufficient, they need to be examined.  End of security guard story.

@14:35 Tapper is moving in the exact same direction Dana Loesch moved during the Town Hall meeting.  He mentions the medical personal that wanted to enter the building and Sheriff Israel rightly answers.  If the shooter is still active, medical personal needs to wait before entering the building.  After the Sheriff answers, Tapper brings up the issue again quoting the medical personal.  This is where Tapper is catering to emotions.  He should have said, "Fair enough, it seems the medical personal determined it was safe to enter, that will need to be examined" then move to his next point.

Sheriff Israel is making a clear point--despite ALL the evidence about this shooter, if the laws do not allow law enforcement to arrest someone, then this is a policy issue.  Tapper will get very specific with the history of this shooter (something Loesch did at the Town Hall and was boo'd by the crowd).

@14:55 Tapper gets into the "red flags" on the shooter.  This is the real issue at hand!  Sheriff Israel stops Tapper and makes his main point; (@16:32)
"The whole crux of this is giving law enforcement, giving deputies, giving police officers, not only in Broward County, but but in Fl and around the nation, expanded power to be able to do something more than just write a report, that's the whole reason I went on CNN..."

Tapper: "Isn't making a threat against a school a crime?"

Israel: "Not if a person doesn't have the ability to carry it out.  You can say, non-specific threat, I'm gonna go to a school...we need it to be a crime, or at least we need to be able to say, non-specific threat, when an assault is a threat, [it is] coupled with the apparent ability to carry it out.  If a person doesn't have the apparent ability to carry it out it's not a crime."

(Tapper injects here, and does exactly what Dana Loesch did, this is an exact repeat of the Town Hall meeting)

Tapper: He lays out a specific incidenet from Decemebmer 2016 of the shooter wanting to buy a gun and deputy Peterson knowing of this, then Tapper asks exactly what Loesch did, "That's not enough?"

Israel: "That's not enough!"  He males a similar plea to change the laws so he can take action against someone and arrest them, or better yet, take them to a medical facility stating that if someone is arrested, they can get out of jail.  He asks for continued medical help and when they get out of that facility, they are stamped by a doctor to take their guns away from them for a long period of time!  He then tells Tapper that Governor Scott has a new proposal that is in the right direction to doing this.

STOP HERE...if what Sheriff Israel is saying is indeed true, then he is in the clear.  If he cannot arrest someone after making all those threats the shooter did, that is a law policy issue.

Then Tapper presses more specifics (@18:18)
A woman who took the shooter in after his mother died with his brother and he put a gun to his brother's head.  "That's a crime!" states Tapper, then asking, "Where you aware of that incident?"

Israel: "No, I wasn't aware of that incident...it was in Palm Beach County, agreeing that is indeed a crime."  (side bar: Sheriff Israel needs to be aware of everything about this shooter at this point.  He got away with it at the Town Hall meeting getting grilled by Dana Loesch.  I get it, he is under insane amounts of stress, but somebody needed to prep him before going in TV)

Tapper: He goes into another specific incident about "a school shooter in the making" then confronts Israel, "No report was even initiated.  At this point sir, You understand how the public, seeing red flag after red flag after red flag, hearing warning after warning after warning, they hear that your office did not even initiate a report when they got a call seeing this guy could be a school shooter in the making.  How could there not even be a report on this one?"  Again, we are right back to the Town Hall meeting with Dana Loesch here.  I do not get why Tapper never mentions the Baker Act!

Israel at this points sums up his position that, "We all make mistakes...the General or President is not responsible for a deserter."  In other words, he as Sheriff is not responsible for those working under him that goofed, failed, or let something slip past them.

Tapper then jumps on Israel and asks, "Are you really not taking any responsibility for the multiple red flags that were brought to the attention of the Broward Sheriff's office about this shooter before the incident?"

We are right back to Dana Loesch and the Town Hall meeting!  This is where Sheriff Israel jumped shark!  After ALL the specific warnings, what is Sherrif Israel responsible for as leader of Broward County Sheriff?"

The argument Tapper is making is after all these warnings and nothing was done, claiming, "Isn't THAT the issue sir!"

So we are back to the issue of law.  
If this shooter could not be arrested and detained in a mental hospital then Sheriff Israel is correct.  What could he have done?

If his staff overlooked specific events that could have arrested the shooter, then he must step down after this tragic event.  He will have NO respect as a leader.  He must take the fall, not Officer Peterson.

In the end, he will be gone.  They need to clean house.  But, they must be able to listen to what he is saying about the law as well.  IF the only solution is to cut his head off, that is failure!  They need to go over this case with a microscope and see where the law failed in order for law enforcement to take action!

Tapper concludes with the Promise Program, another program implemented that only makes law and policy more complicated and closes with a letter from State Representative Bill Hagar asking Sheriff Israel to resign. 

I broke down the Town Hall play-by-play and encourage others to read this to get a better context.