February 25, 2018

74 Florida Republican Lawmakers Are Calling for the Sheriff in the Parkland Shooting to Be Suspended

Read the letter they sent Florida Governor Rick Scott.

Lannis Waters/ZUMA

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Hours after Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel called his own leadership during the recent Parkland, Florida shooting “amazing” in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, 74 Republican lawmakers are calling for Israel to be suspended for “incompetence and neglect of duty.”

Israel has faced mounting criticism for his department’s response before and after the shooting that left 17 people dead at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14. On Sunday morning, Florida Gov. Rick Scott ordered the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate the sheriff’s office’s handling of the attack. But Scott stopped short of suspending Israel, despite the urging of the Florida Republican caucus. 

“In the years leading up to this unspeakable tragedy, Sheriff Israel, his deputies, and staff ignored repeated warning signs about the violent, erratic, threatening, and antisocial behavior of Nikolas Jacob Cruz,” wrote the Speaker of the Florida House, Richard Corcoran.

Read the rest of Corcoran’s letter here:

One of the first calls for Israel’s ouster came on Saturday, when Florida State Rep. Bill Hager (R-Boca Raton) demanded the governor remove Israel from power altogether. Israel defended himself in response, arguing that Hager’s claims were “riddled with factual errors, unsupported gossip, and falsehoods.” Here’s the full text of his reply:

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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