By Laura Loomer, 7-3-18, at Big League Politics:
High level sources within the Broward County Sheriff’s office exclusively revealed to Big League Politics that disgraced Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel will be removed from his position as Sheriff next week.
According to the source, Sheriff Israel is being removed from office for criminal issues, not malfeasance, following an investigation conducted by the office of Governor Rick Scott, and he is allegedly being investigated by the IRS. Sheriff Israel is aware of his pending removal and Governor Scott is expected to release a statement in the coming week.
During the IG’s testimony last week, FBI director Christopher Wray was asked about the Parkland school shooting. When asked, Wray declined to answer any questions about the shooting and Sheriff Israel, citing that it was an active FBI investigation. Following the Parkland shooting, Governor Scott called for Director Wray to resign over the FBI’s failure to properly investigate Nikolas Cruz, 19, the school shooter whose plans to carry out a school shooting were reported to the FBI twice prior to the shooting on Valentine’s Day.
“We constantly promote ‘see something, say something,’ and a courageous person did just that to the FBI. And the FBI failed to act. ‘See something, say something’ is an incredibly important tool and people must have confidence in the follow through from law enforcement. The FBI Director needs to resign,” Governor Scott said.
Sheriff Israel has been under heavy criticism for his handling of the of the Parkland school shooting after it was revealed that police officers were called to the home of the Parkland shooter 45 times prior to the school shooting.
In May, it was revealed that MSD high school and the Broward County Sheriff’s office were keeping quiet the fact that Sheriff Israel’s son, Brett, had allegedly assaulted a 14 year old student on campus in an act of bullying.
Most recently, Sheriff Israel received a massive amount of backlash after the Broward County Sheriff’s office tweeted a picture of a new custom made Broward sheriff’s car that read, “Our new #dodge #charger. Do you like the paint job?”
The tweet sparked outrage online from Republicans and Democrats alike who quipped that the Broward Sheriff’s office should use the funds to pay for better officer training, not new cars. Leaders on both sides of the aisle have called for Sheriff Israel to resign or be removed by the Governor for his extreme dereliction of duty and failure to prevent one of the worst schools shootings in US history.
During the GOP Primary debate in Florida last week, Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam and Rep. Ron DeSantis were asked about the Parkland school shooting. Both Putnam and DeSantis called for the removal of Scott Israel while asserting their support of the Second Amendment.
“I would have removed that sheriff from Broward County. He failed his citizens and he should have been removed,” DeSantis said.
“Sheriff Israel is under investigation and he needs to go,” Putnam said.
In the days following the Parkland shooting, Sheriff Scott Israel was confronted and asked about his support of and affiliation with the Democratic Party and why he chose to blame guns instead of holding his department and the FBI accountable. Unable to withstand tough questioning, Sheriff Israel became flustered and ended the interview after saying, “the only person accountable for this killing is the detestable, cowardly, murderer. He is solely responsible for this horrific act.” However, as the investigation into Parkland has shown, both Sheriff Israel and the FBI dropped the ball and are to blame for their failure to prevent the shooting despite receiving multiple warning signs.
~~~~~~~~~
Very shortly after the shooting, it was widely known that the sheriff’s office had been called to Cruz’ house numerous times. We also quickly learned that his officers crouched behind their vehicles rather than immediately entering the school. Sheriff Israel and those officers should have all been fired in February when this information was known to the public.
We also learned that FBI agent(s) failed to enter Cruz’ information into the NICS data base, so those are the agents that need firing in the FBI, and not necessarily Director Wray as Governor Scott suggested – at least not for this incident. I would say any agent who is derelict in his job to keep that information up to date is subject to immediate release from the FBI.
Better late than never in Sheriff Israel’s case, but law enforcement in this country really needs to give accountability a higher priority.
~Kathy
Categories: Political
Pesky Truth 
I didn’t like this guy from the first interview I saw when he was congratulating himself for being such a great and wonderful Sheriff. Unfortunately, he’s gone downhill from there. He is exactly the kind of political product that we shouldn’t have in any kind of important position. Among all of the screw-ups he presided over, I feel sure that one or more of them contributed to the carnage at the high school.
LikeLike
Now that you mention it…he struck me early on too, as one of those guys who thought more of himself than anyone else did. And he really gave me an uneasy feeling when I saw his comfort level with the muslims – way too much of that mutual admiration society.
He is as almost as responsible as the shooter for the loss of lives in that town and those people will be much better off with someone new as their sheriff.
LikeLike
Amen to your comments, Kathy.
What is so hard for people to understand about the magical power of accountability? When this inept sheriff finally loses his job you can bet your last dollar every sheriff in the country will be paying attention and stepping up his or her game. It’s that simple.
LikeLike
Agreed, CW, it is just that simple, and that’s as it should be. That will last for a while, people will relax and go back to their sloppy ways, until the next one happens.
Except for the FBI – we know there’s no accountability there and none likely in the foreseeable future.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I agree. FBI, Sheriff, whoever deals with someone like this shooter 45 times and does nothing is liable for some responsibility for the murders of innocents.
The only problem I see is that in PA the office of sheriff is an elected one and I don’t think anyone can remove an elected official…
LikeLiked by 1 person
From what little I’ve read on the topic, tannngl, it’s done mostly by recall and the criteria varies from state to state, and even from county to county within the state. Some of them have to serve a minimum of their term before they can be fired, ex. 1/4 of their term in some states, 120 days of their term in other states…and that may explain why Governor Scott had to wait until now to fire Israel.
I remember our Governor Abbott trying to get Sanctuary Sally (Austin/Bexar County) removed via legislation stating sheriffs had to cooperate with ICE and other federal officers. Not sure where it ended up, but it probably fizzled out.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I thought it was something like that when I saw the FLA governor was involved.
LikeLike
Thanks.
LikeLiked by 1 person