By Matt Agorist
In the weeks since the tragic shooting occurred in Parkland, Florida, we have learned that cops cowered outside instead of helping, the police and FBI were all warned on multiple occasions that the alleged shooter, Nikolas Cruz, told people he was going to shoot up the school, nearly two dozen people reported Cruz for death threats, and first responders were told to stand down. Now, we are finding out that the surveillance footage from the school — which the public has a right to see — is being deliberately kept secret by the Broward county sheriff — which many say is illegal.
Broward county sheriff Scott Israel, who has already been caught contradicting the official story, is claiming that the surveillance footage must remain secret.
The South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Miami Herald and CNN have filed an open records lawsuit against the Israel and school Superintendent Robert Runcie for their role in this secrecy.
Officials claim that the video is exempt from Florida sunshine laws because its release would somehow put lives at risk and expose the district’s security system. However, as the NY Post reports, this is not true.
First, disclosure of the videos would pose no danger to students because Building 12, where the shooting took place, will be demolished.
Second, key investigative records, transcripts and logs in the active criminal probe against the Parkland school shooter have already been released to the public. Israel himself coughed up call logs documenting 23 times the shooter’s family or neighbors called deputies to the house. Additional dispatch records obtained by local and national media outlets revealed 22 more calls to law enforcement dating back to 2008 that had not been initially communicated by the selectively disclosing sheriff.
Moreover, the open-records lawsuit notes that Israel has already publicly described in detail what the video shows about Peterson’s actions: He arrived at the west side of Building 12, took position, got on his radio, had a view of the western entry of Building 12 but never went in for “upwards of four minutes” while the shooter slaughtered 17 innocent students and teachers.
By refusing to release the video, police are creating an environment that fosters distrust, and rightfully so.
In case after case of “terror” attacks in the United States, the surveillance footage is immediately released in almost every incident. However, in Parkland and Las Vegas — two shootings that have been surrounded by controversy and cover ups — the public has seen nothing.
Within hours of a terrorist attack in New York City, the surveillance footage of Akayed Ullah walking into the underground tunnel between Times Square and the Port Authority Bus Terminal and detonating a crudely-made pipe bomb was released.
Before that, a suspect, identified as Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov, rented a pickup truck, drove it onto a busy bicycle path and mowed down innocent people before getting out and brandishing toy guns. Almost immediately after the horrific attack that left 8 dead and a dozen more injured, video of Saipov, an Uzbekistan native, was released.
It has been months since the attack in Vegas and officials have yet to release a single still image of Stephan Paddock in the Mandalay Bay Casino. This is in spite of the thousands of cameras both inside and outside of the casino.
Now, it appears, this same secrecy and cover-up is going to happen in Parkland. Hopefully, for the sake of the victims and their families, and in the interest of the public, the lawsuits will resolve successfully, and the evidence will be released — even if it is damning to the image of the Broward sheriff. Indeed, the Broward Circuit Court agrees.
“If there were shortcomings,” Broward Circuit Court Judge Charles Greene concluded, “the public has the right to know.”
Matt Agorist is an honorably discharged veteran of the USMC and former intelligence operator directly tasked by the NSA. This prior experience gives him unique insight into the world of government corruption and the American police state. Agorist has been an independent journalist for over a decade and has been featured on mainstream networks around the world. Agorist is also the Editor at Large at the Free Thought Project, where this article first appeared. Follow @MattAgorist on Twitter, Steemit, and now on Facebook.
Bullshit, since its been just another hoax, what surveillance cameras are we talking about? What can that be on that cameras? Morons planning it? Its just the same old lying rhetoric.
Has anyone even seen any blood? What hazmat team was hired to clean up all this unseen blood? Which undertakers took care of the bodies?
Is this another Sandy Hook? Probably.
Cruz is a patsy.
A teacher being interviewed said she saw a guy in full body armor and a mask inside shooting.
That teacher was lying. Parkland was another completely fake staged Hoax event in which nobody died.
From the moment this “school shooting” first appeared on the fake news media it was apparent that this was a carefully orchestrated “false flag” event. Each and every one of these, with the possible exception of Columbine, has been presented by organizations of our own government or by agencies of our own government. This includes the atrocity of 09-11-2001, and whether anyone actually died or not. All of the mass media are now a part of the criminal enterprise, a private municipal corporation that has become the ruler of this country. As George W. Bush indicated, the constitution is just a damned piece of paper. We have no “rights” whatever; we have only those “privileges” that the government sees fit to extend to us at any given moment. A cop, soldier, or postal worker, or even the weather bureau people, can terminate those “privileges” at any time the corporation feels it to be expedient by just shooting and killing you. Why do you think all of these various agencies bought up billions of bullets?
Thank you Activist Post for bringing up the most obvious discrepancy in this case. The police said they used the school’s camera footage to identify Nikolas Cruz prior to arresting him. Okay.. so the evidence should be there if the public could only see it. So why the secrecy? Answer: There is no evidence. There is not one person – on video or otherwise – who saw this kid with a gun in his hands. Once again we are meant to take the State at it’s word. Once again we are supposed to believe the official story while being given ZERO proof.
They quit teaching logic, philology, geography , ethics along with history and government.The list is just part of what your children do not know. There is no hard proof anyone was hurt. Tearing down a crime scene is standard protocol for a false flag government operation. Emotional statements made by non emotional children are standard also. No lawsuits by family members and no funerals or well wishers at the many hospitals. Check all bank accounts of anyone featured on Television. That kid from a California school, he should be in jail for false statements period.
Short version, if you were born after 1990, except in rare circumstances you are probably dumber than a 1960 forth graded. Good luck on the drive home from work.
Just like all the other phony mass shootings. Nobody died or got hurt. There were two reasons this was carried out in DWS’s district, to distract from the Nunes memo which was stirring national interest and as a bonus, a gun grab.