Note: This post is intended to be (wryly) humorous...but within the humor, is there a kernel of truth regarding the training vs. common sense, as applied to modern-day policing?
Link: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news...oct02,0,6912453.story?coll=orl-home-headlines
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Deputy resigns after seeing video of school-bus tirade
By Jim Buynak | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted October 2, 2003
TAVARES -- A deputy sheriff who made profanity-laced threats to shoot Lake County high school students riding a bus resigned after his actions were caught on videotape, officials said Wednesday.
"Do you think one of you want to have a bullet in your [expletive] head? No, because I will come here with a gun in my hand and I will kill you," Lake Deputy Glen R. Guzman could be heard shouting on an audio disc of the incident.
When the students, who could be heard in the background, refused to be quiet, Guzman told them deputies were searching for a gun on the bus and yelled, "Everybody sit down and shut the [expletive] up." Still later, when some students appeared to be heckling the deputy, he said loudly: "Keep your [expletive] on the seat. If I wanted [expletive] humor, I would ask for it."
Friday, Guzman resigned from the department, where he had worked since April 2001. Deputies did not find a weapon during the search, according to a report.
The incident began shortly after 3 p.m. Sept. 15 when Guzman and another deputy were investigating a complaint from Lake school officials that a bus driver heard one student telling another that someone had a gun in a backpack.
The driver, Brenda Carton, pulled over the bus on U.S. Highway 27 and Lake Louisa Drive in Clermont, where the deputies boarded the bus and began searching and questioning the East Ridge High School students.
The confrontation was recorded on videotape, because every Lake district bus is equipped with a video camera, said Janice Karst, public information officer for Lake schools.
On Sept. 23, school officials turned the tape over to the Sheriff's Office, which immediately suspended Guzman without pay. School officials declined to release the tape, which courts have exempted from Florida public records law, but the Sheriff's Office did release an audio recording.
During the sheriff's investigation, a student told detectives that Guzman's actions shocked and scared her.
"He is suppose to make us feel calm in the situation, not make us scared in how he was threatening us to shoot us," the girl is quoted as saying in the internal investigation report.
On Sept. 25, Guzman was told of the investigation, and he asked to see the videotape. He watched the tape and resigned the next day.
Guzman, 30, who was an Orange County corrections officer before being hired by Lake County, had an unblemished record. He could not be reached for comment, because no current phone or address could be found.
Top officials with the Sheriff's Office said Guzman's actions were appalling but not necessarily criminal.
Because no one on the bus has made a complaint against Guzman, the Sheriff's Office does not intend to seek charges, said Maj. Claude Gnann. Late Wednesday, he said the internal investigation report will be handed over to the State Attorney's Office to determine whether any charges are warranted.
Criminal or not, Gnann said, Guzman's actions were not acceptable.
"That wouldn't have been proper behavior on a prison bus, much less a school bus," Gnann said. "It wouldn't be proper in a barroom, for that matter."
Gnann, who said he watched the tape at least three times, said it did not appear Guzman was threatened by a report of a gun on the bus, but that he was just "showing off" in front of the teenagers.
"The fashion he chose to do it was incredibly out of line," Gnann said. He said the deputy apparently knew some of the students.
The bus incident happened two days before a brawl at East Ridge that led to the arrest of 19 students. Some of those students on the bus were arrested in the fight, Gnann said.
"But," he said, "there is no link between the two [incidents]."
Link: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news...oct02,0,6912453.story?coll=orl-home-headlines
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Deputy resigns after seeing video of school-bus tirade
By Jim Buynak | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted October 2, 2003
TAVARES -- A deputy sheriff who made profanity-laced threats to shoot Lake County high school students riding a bus resigned after his actions were caught on videotape, officials said Wednesday.
"Do you think one of you want to have a bullet in your [expletive] head? No, because I will come here with a gun in my hand and I will kill you," Lake Deputy Glen R. Guzman could be heard shouting on an audio disc of the incident.
When the students, who could be heard in the background, refused to be quiet, Guzman told them deputies were searching for a gun on the bus and yelled, "Everybody sit down and shut the [expletive] up." Still later, when some students appeared to be heckling the deputy, he said loudly: "Keep your [expletive] on the seat. If I wanted [expletive] humor, I would ask for it."
Friday, Guzman resigned from the department, where he had worked since April 2001. Deputies did not find a weapon during the search, according to a report.
The incident began shortly after 3 p.m. Sept. 15 when Guzman and another deputy were investigating a complaint from Lake school officials that a bus driver heard one student telling another that someone had a gun in a backpack.
The driver, Brenda Carton, pulled over the bus on U.S. Highway 27 and Lake Louisa Drive in Clermont, where the deputies boarded the bus and began searching and questioning the East Ridge High School students.
The confrontation was recorded on videotape, because every Lake district bus is equipped with a video camera, said Janice Karst, public information officer for Lake schools.
On Sept. 23, school officials turned the tape over to the Sheriff's Office, which immediately suspended Guzman without pay. School officials declined to release the tape, which courts have exempted from Florida public records law, but the Sheriff's Office did release an audio recording.
During the sheriff's investigation, a student told detectives that Guzman's actions shocked and scared her.
"He is suppose to make us feel calm in the situation, not make us scared in how he was threatening us to shoot us," the girl is quoted as saying in the internal investigation report.
On Sept. 25, Guzman was told of the investigation, and he asked to see the videotape. He watched the tape and resigned the next day.
Guzman, 30, who was an Orange County corrections officer before being hired by Lake County, had an unblemished record. He could not be reached for comment, because no current phone or address could be found.
Top officials with the Sheriff's Office said Guzman's actions were appalling but not necessarily criminal.
Because no one on the bus has made a complaint against Guzman, the Sheriff's Office does not intend to seek charges, said Maj. Claude Gnann. Late Wednesday, he said the internal investigation report will be handed over to the State Attorney's Office to determine whether any charges are warranted.
Criminal or not, Gnann said, Guzman's actions were not acceptable.
"That wouldn't have been proper behavior on a prison bus, much less a school bus," Gnann said. "It wouldn't be proper in a barroom, for that matter."
Gnann, who said he watched the tape at least three times, said it did not appear Guzman was threatened by a report of a gun on the bus, but that he was just "showing off" in front of the teenagers.
"The fashion he chose to do it was incredibly out of line," Gnann said. He said the deputy apparently knew some of the students.
The bus incident happened two days before a brawl at East Ridge that led to the arrest of 19 students. Some of those students on the bus were arrested in the fight, Gnann said.
"But," he said, "there is no link between the two [incidents]."
