ORLANDO, Fla. — Almost two years after a massacre at an Orlando nightclub left 49 people dead and 53 injured, some of the surviving victims were filing a lawsuit in federal court Thursday saying the city and police didn’t do enough to try to stop the shooter.
More than 35 victims have signed on as plaintiffs, accusing the city and its officers violated the Constitutional rights of those who were injured and killed on June 12, 2016, when Omar Mateen opened fire at Pulse. Mateen pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group during a three-hour standoff before he was killed in a shootout with police.…
Plaintiffs contend that officers should have more aggressively confronted Mateen to prevent mass casualties. The lawsuit names Orlando Police Department Officer Adam Gruler, who worked an extra-duty shift at the nightclub that evening. The lawsuit says that Gruler “abandoned his post” and, during that time, Mateen walked in, looked around, walked out to retrieve weapons and returned to the club.
Pulse nightclub shooting survivors sue Orlando, its police.
I have to believe some lawyers are very ignorant with the SCOTUS decisions regarding No Duty to Protect. Either that or are behaving like true ambulance chasers and don’t give a damn about how much money and disappointment this lawsuit is going to cost to the clients.
Unfortunately I think the victims and relatives have been misguided or have unfortunate expectations brought about an erroneous idea of what Law Enforcement is supposed to do.
“I believe victims of the Pulse shooting deserve better. We deserved better,” victim Keinon Carter said during the news conference Thursday. “We deserved to be rescued sooner by law enforcement.”
And from the legal standpoint we know the answer: The Police has no duty to protect.
You are on your own.
Add this lawsuit to the lawsuit against Broward Sheriff’s Office and it is going to be interesting for Florida Law Enforcement in its legal future.
It’s too bad the lawyers aren’t directing their the line of attack into the realm of “shall not be infringed”, for disarming honest citizens in “Government-mandated Predator Hunting Ground and Defenseless Victim Enclosures”. Of course the idiot Fla Supreme Court would take the approach that since the victims had a choice to not enter into the mandated GFZ then the 2nd wasn’t violated……. or some such twisted idea.
I hope this lawsuit gets lots of publicity.
I hope I see some of the victims and the families of those killed get their airtime raking the Orlando Police over the coals. Three hours containing and building a perimeter while too damn many bled to death. But I bet that Command Center was Faaaabulous!
I remember ten years ago reading a novel, where the protagonist rakes a stuffed shirt OPD SWAT Officer for their previous miserable record, “Kill many hostages lately?” (Deeper Blue, John Ringo)
Just to repeat Miguel and everyone else, “YOU are your own First Responder.”
Yes, the police have no duty to protect an individual, but rather “society” at large. That however begs the questions of (a) how many people does that mean and (b) can “society” sue the police for failure to protect e.g. by a class-action lawsuit.
Clearly the answer to (a) is more than one, but what is it? If the whole population has to die before police can be called on failure to perform, or if the answer to (b) is no as well, then police are basically unaccountable if they fail to do their jobs.
Perhaps the Pulse and Parkland lawsuits might bring some insight. For instance, if a deputy is tasked with protecting a school, how many of the school’s population must die or be injured before he can be deemed to have failed to (even try to) protect “the school” as opposed to individual students and/or teachers?
(b) can “society” sue the police for failure to protect e.g. by a class-action lawsuit.
I have a feeling that some judge or government lawyer would try to twist the decision in DeShaney vs Winnebago County Department of Social Services to apply it to these cases against Orlando and Coward County. The way I read it, essentially the supreme court decision says that even if the government screws up and does not do it’s job correctly to protect others, the government still cannot be held responsible.
“I deserve…”, “We deserve…”. No one deserves anything.
I wonder if they have betters standing? grounds? legitimacy? to sue for not allowing medical attention to the wounded or allowing them to be evacuated.
Interesting possibility. The usual scenario is failure to take helpful action. In this case, we’re dealing with an action that WAS taken, which resulted in injury.