Pima County sheriff Clarence Dupnik has come under fire for referring to his state, Arizona, as a ‘mecca for prejudice and bigotry.’ Those are harsh words, but is the sheriff just calling it as he sees it?
The longer version (7 minutes) where Sheriff Dupnik talks about his thoughts. He does not call out a specific group or person here either. He just talks about the history of threats against Gabby Giffords and also about the level of anger in the rhetoric in this country.
It is important to note that Sheriff Dupnik called no individual or group by name. Perhaps those who follow the sheriff’s politics know to whom he is referring. I do not. Is Arizona a mecca for bigotry? If yes, what has made it that way? Is it just about immigration or do other political issues come in to play? Congresswoman Giffords was a strong supporter of increased border security.
Moonhowlings featured a post on Sheriff Clarence Dupnik last spring. He felt it was stupid to throw illegal immigrants in jail at tax payer expensive when he could just turn them over to the border control. At the time, it was also determined that the mayor of Tucson also opposed the new Arizona legislation, SB 1070. He turned thousands of undocumented immigrants over to the border control.
As we return to the question, is Arizona a mecca of intolerance? Does the political climate in Arizona make this state more vulnerable to shootings and assassinations? Does the drug violence have any play in this discussion?
What the Sheriff said was simply common sense! We lived it here in PWC and it was unacceptable, I can’t imagine an entire state living in that kind of rhetoric.
The Sherriff should be immediately freed from his occupational ties to the state he hates so much in order to pursue opportunities in, say, California.
That’s not a decision for a Northern Virginia cartoon mouse, it’s a decision for the people of Pima County, Arizona, the ones that have kept him in office for 30 years.
I think the Sheriff reacted to the carnage and the impossible situation he and his officers have been put in over the past fews months. He should not have done what he did.
He reacted but badly. Kind of like guilty with an explanation…… Maybe 30 years is long enough for this man.
The fact that a POLITICIAN and a JUDGE was shot made this immediately a political situation – attempted assaisiation IS the federal charge… The fact the politician is a Democrat and the Judge appointed by G H W Bush makes is pretty non-partisan.
The fact that the politician and the judge liked each other and worked well together is something to ponder perhaps.
Uh-oh, Mo is grouchy this morning! Try some men’s underwear, Mo, they won’t pinch so bad. Have the little woman stitch-witch some lace on if it helps! So do you have any thoughts of your own on the topic? or are you satisfied with simply pointing out something obvious? Seriously, though, it’s a good thing you came along, otherwise I might have mistakenly thought it actually was my decision to make! You’ve got a knack for pointing out the obvious. Put that on your resume?
Don’t worry, Mo, Moon will be along any second to protect your sorry butt. 🙂
Of mice and men … squeak on, mouse.
@Slow,
As she has protected YOUR butt, on occassion?
Moe is quite capable of defending his own sorry butt.
“Sorry butt?” I can crack walnuts in the cleft of this finely chiseled masterpiece. Of course that’s my view and I do have bad eyes.
And the moral of the story is to never eat pecan pie from@Morris Davis
Things are definitely looking up.
Cato — it’s the moonpie you should avoid.
Having lived in PWC and felt the fear when one had the nerve to speak up against rising hatred and bigotry, I don’t think the sheriff is way off at all. I remember what it was like when the PWC police had to get involved and contact the Washington Post to urge them strongly to remove my home information that had been posted in their comment section about me. My husband freaked out and told me my big mouth was gonna get us “firebombed” and that I was risking the safety of our family. And WHY you may ask, did he say this, because I had the nerve to suggest that the rhetoric was reaching a level that unacceptable. I did receive hate e-mail from that article before they removed it from their website.
Although I agree that this guy Jared is simply a nutcase, we don’t KNOW what might have been influencing his derranged mental status. His target was only the Congresswoman, no one else. That he continued shooting is probably a manifestation of his break from reality, but had Congresswoman Gifford not been there, all those people would still be alive, that is for sure.
He’s a completely classless jerkoff, trying to exploit a tragedy to get his name in the papers and his stupid opinions out into the media.
@Juturna, up is the new down!
Slow,
Should Chief Deane have been removed from his duties because he spoke out about the intolerance that could ensure from our immigration policies, from the rhetoric being espoused? Oh wait, Greg and his minions DID try to do just that, lest we forget.
Too often these kinds of things are used to try to smear one political party or the other. Even if it’s not spelled out by name, some people want to connect dots between this one nut’s “Taxi Driver” spectacle and Glen Beck or Sarah Palin.
It’s nonsense. There’s plenty of hate to go around on both sides historically. When Reagan got shot, I was 15 years old and you could hear cheers across my high school. Then i went to college and on Main Street we all walked on concrete where someone had scrawled “Hinkley Had A Vision” – which stayed there for about 10 years.
Beck and Palin aren’t “revolutionaries” and we shouldn’t politicize this type of tragedy.
Elena, while I do not sympathize with everything Greg L or bvbl has ever done, and do not like the way they personalize issues, I do feel that Chief Deane should be removed. He fiddles while PWC burns.
“Prince William County is not now, nor has it ever been, a ‘sanctuary’ for illegal immigration” – Charlie Deane, 2007
Wrong!
Man….moment of silence? The cameras were clicking in almost a “whirring”.
How exactly is PWC burning Rick?
Rick, PWC wasn’t a sanctuary for illegal immigrants. If they did something wrong, they got arrested. No, they weren’t rounded up.
Why would someone remove a police chief who has done such a decent job that he has gained national stature? Your vision is very myopic on this one. You had expectations of your police force that they simply legally weren’t in a position to fulfill.
Dupnik has not changed his tune about the rhetoric in AZ. How many people have spent time stomping around AZ? It’s a lot more wild west than here. (I know Slowpoke has) In many ways, AZ is like a land time forgot.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the land. I have had some wonderful times in AZ. On the other hand, it reminds me very much of Deliverance with cactuses.
We don’t have neo-nazis stomping around our woods and fields hunting illegal immigrants. We don’t have a war over legislation going on a state wide level. To date, we don’t have the state being sued by the federal govt. it’s just different.
If groups don’t want to get blamed for violence or for violent rhetoric, then they need to be very careful about doing things that draw others to that conclusion. I include political groups, political campaigns, blogs, newspapers, electronic and otherwise.
Don’t put rife scopes next to other people’s names. Don’t use targets/bulls eyes, or other symbols, even though a bull’s eye is a bit different than a rifle scope. If you don’t do it in the first place, no one can say or think anything about it.
Responsible speech prevents being criticized. This should be a ‘live and learn’ for all groups.
Sure, groups can legally do many things. If they chose to be reckless, then they need to know there are consequences to making unwise choices.
The pissing contest the right and left are doing and the defensiveness are all making me sick. Just don’t do it. Anyone being criticized could…just come out and say ‘retrospectively, we made stupid choices.’ That would take care of a lot of finger pointing and would show responsibility.
You never know who is listening and what nut case is going to take your words and go act on those words. Any time someone has an audience, they must think more carefully about speech and the message they are sending.
Some of those who spew hate all the time (GB, KO, SH, RL for example) bring in millions of dollars for vitriollic speech. Others like blogs don’t make money but they still have some influence. All of us have a responsiblity to be aware that we don’t always know who is out there watching, reading, listening……
Rick, most of PWC wasn’t adversely affected by illegal immigration. Some older neighborhoods had many zoning, noise, overcrowding problems. Instead of showing up at BOCS with pictures of the problems, too many people focused on the immigration status of their neighbors and created a hostile, divisive atmosphere in which everyone had to live if only in having to acknowledge that, yes, we did live in that yahoo county that continually made the news in a negative manner. Again, the logical solution is to get involved in actually helping to clean up your neighborhood or move. Just supporting HSM and Greg verbally doesn’t cut it.
I don’t think the sheriff is far off in his assessment. If you asked the majority of people in this country which state had the most problems with immigration, I bet they’d say “Arizona”. Whether Arizona’s problems are worse is debatable but the rhetoric is certainly tenser there. And sometimes tension is all it takes to bring out the local loonies. (Even neighborhood issues can bring nuts out of hiding. I’ve had my car tire pinned and another neighbor had the lug nuts taken off of his after a particularly contentious meeting at which an issue of importance to everyone was discussed. All it took was speech about an issue to bring out the loonies.)
Recall when celebrity Sheriff Joe Arapio was front and center in the news a few months ago? One of the anonymous patriots who is critical of Sheriff Dupnik had this to say about Broadway Joe: “It was about time for Sheriff Joe to join the rest of the sane folks and give Obama and his administration the big old middle finger.” Apparently the propriety of a sheriff speaking out depends on whether what he has to say is agreeable or disagreeable to the self-annointed patriots.
Unfortunately, Fox News is going back to being Faux News. I gave them high marks for a day. Now things are digressing.
Too many on there are declaring that ‘the madman’ was deranged. The shooting was not political.
You know, I have listened pretty much non-stop since the shooting. It is my understanding that DHS, the FBI, and local law enforcement are all INVESTIGATING still. I would rather wait for an official ruling from those who have been dealing with the facts of the case before making such statements.
I don’t think we can simply dismiss him as a ‘madman.’ People with severe mental problems have all sorts of trigger events. It might be hearing something on TV, a flock of birds flying over, or cloud formations in the sky, just as examples. I once knew a kid who thought tree elves were talking to him. Sometimes things happened to make his tree elves act up. I don’t think anyone can say what does or does not act as a trigger.
This mentally ill kid obviously was obsessed with Gabby Giffords. I don’t think anyone knows. Psychology is still in its infancy stage. We know more about putting man on the moon than we do about mental illness.
I don’t believe for one second that the tone of America’s discourse has anything to do with the Arizona incident. I would be against any proposal, legislation, or amendment to reshape our first or second amendment rights because of the actions of 1 nutjob.
@Elena
You and I both know what was done to my family because I had a big mouth. Whoever did it knows and PWC knows.
@marin, I don’t think you are in a position to know all the facts that the investigators know. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t. I don’t claim to know.
Do you deny that rhetoric can set off crazy people? Apparently you just haven’t had the pleasure of knowing enough crazies.
A dog barking can set off a crazy nut job. Should we outlaw barking dogs?
I see where you are coming from but crushing the Constitution because some people are mental midgits OR because they’re just crazy is not prudent to the 99.99% of American’s that can behave like adults in society.
I’m not prepared to give our future generations less rights because one crazy person did something horrible.
“How exactly is PWC burning Rick?”
It was burning, it was turning into a ghetto area where the needs of a swelling underclass was outgrowing taxpayers’ ability to support their needs, and which middle-class taxpayers were fleeing from.
“Rick, PWC wasn’t a sanctuary for illegal immigrants. If they did something wrong, they got arrested.”
And then promptly released back into our community.
“the logical solution is to get involved in actually helping to clean up your neighborhood or move. Just supporting HSM and Greg verbally doesn’t cut it.”
As I’ve said, I/we would have moved if we had the money and slightly different family situation. My wife saw the influx of illegal immigrants as especially negative, her having seen earlier in life what happened to certain parts of DC. Supporting HSM is something I’m proud of. IMO they/we DID “save Manassas”.
“I don’t think anyone can say what does or does not act as a trigger. ”
The kid was apparently way into smoking pot, the left-wing band “anti-flag”, and witchcraft, not so much the “vast right wing conspiracy”.
Even as some outlets are now touting this man’s leanings to the left I’d like to caution against using his political idealogy to score points against our brothers and sisters here on the left.
It’s not a left/right issue.
It’s a nutjob vs. society. Focus on the loss and healing rather than trying to lay blame to a ‘side’.
I agree. But many left-leaning well-intentioned citizens are talking out loud about the blame Glen beck or Sarah Palin bear for this. Which is apparently not true.
@marinm
We’re just telling the dog to turn down the volume a bit
I don’t believe we necessarily need more gun laws, but I don’t know what the standards are in AZ. This is clearly, regardless of whether it has anything to do with any one policital issue, a mental health failing. Why was it that this person could not be forced to recieve a mental health evaluation?
The left has used its share of gun and shooting metaphors, including their sacrosanct Daily Kos putting a target on Giffords and other Democrats recently because they weren’t liberal enough. And the shooter was obsessed with Giffords as early as 2007, long before Sarah Palin was on anyone’s radar. I am disgusted with the smear campaign being perpetrated even all day today against Palin anyway, regardless of the facts. And I’m even more disgusted at any suggestion that political discourse (apparently meaning opposition to Obama’s policies) is to blame in any way for this tragedy. And where was the moment of silence for the Fort Hood victims?
This column in WaPo said it best today. If the left thinks Palin has blood on her hands, they should start washing their own, then, too. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/10/AR2011011003002.html?hpid=topnews
This will be interesting. The farther out we get, the clearer it will become that the left almost universally exhibited behavior worthy of no less than the father of lies, Satan himself. They almost immediately attempted to exploit a human tragedy to score political points (the proof is coming out in buckets now). For certain, this will polarize debate in this nation much more than it was before. I mean the more you read about what has been said by those on the left, it really starts to make the intelligent person sick to their stomach. Sad, really!
I can’t understand why Dupnik would continue to work for a state that he finds so morally reprehensible. He should look in the mirror at his own sickness for rushing to exploit and politicize this tragedy before he even had a shred of the facts. Disgusting.
Talk about cynical exploitation:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0111/47294_Page2.html
Slowpoke, Emma, do you really feel your own behavior is one bit better than the very people on the left that you are castigating?
Step back, soar up a few dozen feet, look down at your rantings. I have tried to keep the tone on this blog at a productive level for over 2 days. Each and every time I come back to it, you both have been ranting and raving at ‘the left.’
Meanwhile, Glenn Beck is on screaming and insulting the media for much the same reason.
Suggestion: stop going to your far right stops on the internet and I bet you will stop getting so aggitated. I don’t go to those spots. I haven’t heard the far left crap you all are supposedly being inundated with.
I went to the Washington Post and NPR for my news today and read/heard it all there. Now they’re “far right” spots? The point is that the left has not toned down its blame game one iota since yesterday despite the facts, and despite its own use of the same sort of imagery. It’s shameful.
And yes, I do get upset when the death of a little girl is used within minutes as political fodder.
Emma, if you listen to the videos, he doesn’t blame anyone other than the killer. He talks about political atmosphere. Why is it that you don’t hop on Sheriff Joe with the same zest? Could it be that you agree with Joe and not with Clarence? Fox has another sheriff who is on frequently who is a republican.
Who is the left?
I am seeing different opinions in all different papers. Can people disagree? I have only read the Wash. Post and the NYT today. The discussion coming out of tragedy is probably not a bad thing. I believe everyone needs to done things down. Is that going to harm anything if people think before engaging fingers or mouth?
Targets are not a good idea but targets as in bull’s eyes aren’t the same thing as a rifle scope. It is sort of the difference in a dart and an AK-47. Still, a dart can put your eye out or disfigure or even kill if hit in the right spot. So perhaps political rhetoric needs to change to other motifs to get the message of ‘beat the infidels’ out to the public.
There has been abuse. In fact, the point that the rifle scopes were taken down Sat. afternoon shows that someone thought …ewww…this is bad. This is in poor taste.
If one doesn’t want to be criticized, don’t put up things that have any hint of violence. And it doesn’t matter if the someone is left/right/ or center. Don’t do it.
Where are this kid’s parents?
@juturna, hiding from the media. I saw a neighbor interviewed today that said he had had several altercations with the father over neighborhood issues.
@Emma, as for the politico story, are you really comfortable with some un-named Democrat being named? I am not. For all I know, it was Gary Condit or John Edwards.
This blog sure has some diverse opinions.
From Drudge via Gateway Pundit, who has a WHOLE LOT on the shooting and the Left’s attempt to politicize this: http://gatewaypundit.rightnetwork.com/ (Just scroll down)
Jared Loughner has been making death threats by phone to many people in Pima County including staff of Pima Community College, radio personalities and local bloggers. When Pima County Sheriff’s Office was informed, his deputies assured the victims that he was being well managed by the mental health system. It was also suggested that further pressing of charges would be unnecessary and probably cause more problems than it solved as Jared Loughner has a family member that works for Pima County. Amy Loughner is a Natural Resource specialist for the Pima County Parks and Recreation
This is how we know that the shooter was mental. Also, we are not getting the left’s attacks from “far right” sites. We are getting it from DailyKos, CNN, MSNBC, New York Times, Krugman, etc. The sites are just reporting the attempts to politicize this and attempt to smear the “right” and the Tea Party.
If one does not want to be accused of extremism or racism or hatemongering or violence, then don’t be a CONSERVATIVE with targeting or bullseyes are use shooting jargon on websites or when talking about politics. The Left always gets a pass.
You know, I don’t like that website. I have never seen anything on it that I didn’t feel was laden with propoganda.
There is absolutely no verification that the sheriff’s office said any such thing. I have also not heard anything about him making death threats to anyone, especially at Pima Community College.
No one is giving anyone a pass. This has to stop. I cannot begin to express how frustrated I am.