'Slap in the face': Dad of Parkland school shooting victim blasts Kamala's 'photo op' visit at massacre site to 'push an agenda'



The father of a victim of the horrific Parkland school shooting slammed Vice President Kamala Harris for a "photo op" appearance at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School to "push an agenda."

Vice President Harris appeared at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Saturday. Harris used the chilling backdrop of the school terrorized by a mass shooter to announce two gun control actions devised by the Biden administration.

Harris noted that the school appears to be "frozen in time." The macabre school building still has bullet-pocked walls, shoes left behind by fleeing students, and floors covered in blood of the casualties and the 17 victims who were injured.

Harris touted the new National Extreme Risk Protection Order Resource Center created by President Joe Biden’sDepartment of Justice. The new entity will train state and local officials on procedures to apply red flag laws to confiscate firearms from gun owners who are a threat to themselves or others. As Blaze News reported on Saturday, conservatives bashed the new center that intends to bolster red flag laws to confiscate firearms from threatening gun owners.

Harris also boasted the Biden administration's $750 million grant program that provides technical assistance and training to the 21 states and the District of Columbia that have enacted red flag laws.

The White House press release states: "The Biden-Harris Administration made $750 million in federal funding to implement state crisis intervention programs, which includes red flag programs, mental health courts, drug courts, and veteran treatment courts."

"Harris also called on both Congress and states without red flag laws to adopt them," according to the Associated Press.

Critics have pointed out that red flag laws allow the government to confiscate firearms from legal gun owners without due process.

On Feb. 14, 2018, a mass shooter took the lives of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. One of the fatal victims of the tragic Parkland school shooting was 14-year-old Alaina Petty.

Ryan Petty, the father of Alaina, was critical of Harris using the school to "push an agenda."

Petty told Fox News, "The vice president and the White House's Office of Gun Violence Prevention made it very clear to families early on that nothing short of new gun control was going to satisfy them in protecting our nation's schools. And that is just a slap in the face to those of us that have worked for six years now to try to protect our nation's schools."

"There are so many ways that we can protect our kids and our teachers at school that don't require the infringement on the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding gun owners around the country," Petty added. "But the vice president and the Office of Gun Violence Prevention don't want to hear any of those solutions. What they want to do is create an opportunity for the vice president to spout gun control talking points at a site that, quite frankly, is hallowed ground at this point."

The distraught father declared, "What's frustrating to me is that this building should have been demolished years ago, and it's now being used as a photo op for politicians that want to push an agenda."

In recent months, the site of the school shooting massacre has been visited frequently by government officials.

The AP reported, "Education Secretary Miguel Cardona toured it in January, and several members of Congress, mostly Democrats, have gone through since law enforcement returned custody of the building to the school district last summer. FBI Director Christopher Wray and Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle visited the building in recent days."

Petty continued, "But politicians, quite frankly, don't understand what it takes to protect our nation's schools. They don't understand the causes of the Parkland tragedy. They don't understand what led to the tragedy and are just there to push their gun control agenda. I'm tired of it. It needs to stop. The building needs to be demolished."

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School is scheduled to be demolished this summer.

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Breaking: Jury recommends life in prison for Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz, not death penalty



A Florida jury has unanimously recommended that Nikolas Cruz be sentenced to life in prison for the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida, that killed 17 people.

Cruz, 24, pleaded guilty last year to the murders of 14 students and three staff members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and 17 charges of attempted murder. The mass shooting was among the deadliest in United States history.

Prosecutors sought to prove that Cruz's crimes met the criteria to receive the death penalty under Florida law. During a three-month sentencing trial, they argued the shooting was premeditated, heinous, and cruel. They called survivors of the shooting to testify and presented videos captured by cell phones showing terrified students calling for help or hiding for their lives.

Teachers and students testified about seeing their peers killed. Families of the victims also gave heartrending statements.

Cruz's lawyers argued that lifelong mental health disorders the defendant developed as a result of his biological mother's substance abuse during pregnancy were mitigating factors that must be considered before sentencing. They said that Cruz's adoptive mother was not able to properly care for him and that his severe mental and emotional deficits did not receive proper treatment.

Florida law requires that jurors be in unanimous agreement in order to hand down a death sentence. Anything short of unanimous agreement results in life in prison, Reuters reports.

The jury said that in each of the 17 counts of first-degree murder, the state had established beyond a reasonable doubt the existence of aggravating factors that warrant possible execution. However, one or more jurors said those factors did not outweigh the mitigating factors presented by the defense.

He will receive life in prison without the possibility of parole.

After pleading guilty last year, Cruz issued a statement apologizing for his crimes.

"I am very sorry for what I did and I have to live with it every day. And if I were to get a second chance, I would do everything in my power to try to help others," Cruz said. "I am doing this for you and I do not care if you do not believe me, and I love you, and I know you don't believe me but I have to live with this every day and it brings me nightmares and I can't live with myself sometimes, but I try to push through because I know that's what you would want me to do."

Florida man with 'disturbing fascination' with school shootings arrested for placing dead animals at Parkland memorial: Report

Florida man with 'disturbing fascination' with school shootings arrested for placing dead animals at Parkland memorial: Report



A man who police say has a "disturbing fascination" with mass school shootings, both real and fictional, has been arrested for allegedly leaving dead animals at a memorial dedicated to those who died in the school shooting in Parkland, Florida.

On August 4, Robert Mondragon, 29, was arrested after various dead animals were discovered at a memorial for the 17 people murdered at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14, 2018. On July 20 of this year, a school crossing guard noticed the carcass of a dead duck, its chest cavity cut open, on a memorial bench. The next day, the crossing guard found a dead raccoon, and a deputy found a dead opossum on July 31.

Police said that surveillance video shows a white Nissan with either black rims or no rims pulling up to the memorial garden, located just outside the school property, on July 30 at around 11 p.m. local time.

A deputy spotted a similar-looking vehicle the next day and pulled the driver — Mondragon — over for illegally tinted windows. When the deputy looked into the vehicle, he could see "bird feathers and blood on the front passenger side floorboard," the Broward County Sheriff's Office reported.

When asked about the blood, Mondragon allegedly told the officer that "he had the dead bird in his car because he likes ‘the metal and blood smell that emit from the dead animal,'" the police report states.

Mondragon was arrested a few days later and charged with three counts of disfiguring a tomb or monument, five counts of violating probation for battery and indecent exposure, and one count of violating a risk protection order. He is currently being held without bond in North Broward Bureau detention facility.

Police said that Mondragon has a "disturbing fascination" with school shootings, including fictional depictions of them. The tattoos on his face allegedly resemble those of the fictional character Tate Langdon from the TV show "American Horror Story." According to WPEC West Palm Beach, Langdon's character is based on the Columbine shooting in 1999.

On his phone, police also reportedly found pictures of Mondragon posing with dead animals, as well as internet searches about school shootings. Police say that at some point earlier this year, Mondragon even retraced the steps that the Parkland shooter took on the day of the shooting four years ago.

Mondragon's arrest and alleged actions coincide with the shooter's trial. Though the shooter has already pled guilty, a jury must still determine whether he will serve life in prison or receive the death penalty.

Mondragon is also allegedly under investigation by the ATF for unrelated issues.


Gov. Ron DeSantis suspends 4 members of Broward County School Board for alleged incompetence, neglect, misuse of authority



Four members of the Broward County School Board in Florida have been suspended by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis for "a pattern of emboldening unacceptable behavior, including fraud and mismanagement."

Patricia Good, Donna Korn, Ann Murray and Laurie Rich Levinson have all been suspended from the board, effective immediately. DeSantis has appointed Torey Alston, Manual "Nandy" A. Serrano, Ryan Reiter, and Kevin Tynan as interim members in their stead.

"It is my duty to suspend people from office when there is clear evidence of incompetence, neglect of duty, misfeasance or malfeasance," DeSantis said in a statement. "This action is in the best interest of the residents and students of Broward County and all citizens of Florida."

\u201cThe Governor suspends 4 @browardschools board members. Effective now.\u201d
— Frog Capital (@Frog Capital) 1661535612

DeSantis suspended the members at the behest of a grand jury which had been impaneled by the state supreme court after the horrific school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, back in February 2018. The job of the grand jury was to determine whether there had been any instances of fraud or mismanagement that may have caused lapses in security and safety in area schools.

The grand jury found that school safety had supposedly been "such a low priority" for the suspended board members that an alarm which some have suggested could have saved lives at MSD "remains uninstalled at multiple schools."

The grand jury report further claimed that "students continue to be educated in unsafe, aging, decrepit, moldy buildings that were supposed to have been renovated years ago."

The grand jury even claimed that the suspended board members routinely neglected their duties in favor of building their brands.

"Broward County has provided a cornucopia of examples of an almost fanatical desire to control data and use it to manipulate public perception, including that surrounding safety," the grand jury report states. The suspended members "are seemingly obsessed with the optics of any situation and control of public impressions of their activities."

However, critics of the grand jury claim that its report focuses mainly on the SMART Program, a public safety measure approved by voters in 2014 intended to improve campus safety. The report discusses the ballooning costs of the program and some questionable decisions made by the accused board members, as well as former superintendent Robert Runcie. The grand jury's myopic fixation on the SMART Program, critics say, was time and energy diverted from the original mission of the grand jury, which was to examine the events and the district's decisions leading up to the MSD shooting.

"It is disgusting that on the backs of these families to have a bait-and-switch grand jury,” said Levinson, one of the suspended board members. “The majority of the report has nothing to do with Marjory Stoneman Douglas."

Levinson is term-limited and therefore cannot seek re-election. However, fellow suspended board member Korn is in the midst of a run-off campaign for re-election, and she said in a statement last week, "[W]hile I respect the grand jury process, I stand on my record."

The grand jury also pointed a finger at former board member Rosalind Osgood and would likely have recommended her suspension, except she is no longer a board member.

Former superintendent Runcie resigned last year after he was indicted for allegedly lying to the grand jury. He has pled not guilty, though it is unclear when his trial will be held.

DeSantis Suspends Four School Board Members For ‘Incompetence’ In Stoneman Douglas Shooting

'These are inexcusable actions by school board members'

Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz issues lengthy statement after pleading guilty to mass killing at high school: ‘I love you ... I’m sorry’



Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz issued a lengthy statement after he pleaded guilty to killing 17 people and injuring 17 more during a 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

Cruz pleaded guilty Wednesday to 17 charges of first-degree murder as well as 17 charges of attempted murder.

What are the details?

After entering the guilty plea, the 23-year-old Cruz addressed Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer and said he believed that the victims and their families ought to determine whether he receives the death penalty or a life sentence.

"I am very sorry for what I did and I have to live with it every day. And if I were to get a second chance, I would do everything in my power to try to help others," Cruz said. "I am doing this for you and I do not care if you do not believe me, and I love you, and I know you don't believe me but I have to live with this every day and it brings me nightmares and I can't live with myself sometimes, but I try to push through because I know that's what you would want me to do."

According to Fox News, Cruz added, "I hate drugs, and I believe this country would do better if everyone would stop smoking marijuana and doing all these drugs and causing racism and violence out in the streets. I'm sorry, and I can't even watch TV anymore. I just want you to know that I'm really sorry, and I hope you give me a chance to try to help others. I believe it's your decision to decide where I go — whether I live or die. Not the jury's. I believe it's your decision. I'm sorry."

Cruz will now face a jury that will decide whether he should serve a life term in prison or seek the death penalty.

Scherer will begin juror screenings next month with hopes testimony can begin in January.

What else?

Cruz's guilty plea comes just one day after Parkland victims and their families received a $25 million settlement with Broward County Public Schools.

In a statement on behalf of some of the parents, Attorney David Brill said, "There isn't enough money in existence that would compensate the victims and their families adequately. But this settlement provides a measure of justice and accountability to them and the other families and victims."

RNC Night 1 Rejects Hollywood Host For Night Dominated By Everyday Americans

RNC Night 1 Rejects Hollywood Host For Night Dominated By Everyday Americans

For many loyal corporate media consumers the convention provided the longest slice of counter-programming they'd been treated to in years.