Sheriff Dupnik's criticism of political 'vitriol' resonates with public

[gilliam]

Pima County Sheriff Clarence W. Dupnik, who is overseeing the investigation of Saturday’s mass shooting that critically wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D), became an overnight sensation with his remarks that the “vitriol” in today’s political discourse contributed to the incident and that Arizona has become “a mecca for prejudice and bigotry.”

Dupnik’s name was a top search term on Twitter Saturday night, with many of the tweets thanking him for his candor, and overnight, a Facebook page titled “Clarence Dupnik is my Hero” sprung up.

In a news conference Saturday evening, Dupnik condemned the “atmosphere of hatred and bigotry” that he said has gripped the nation and suggested that the 22-year-old suspect being held in the shooting was mentally ill and therefore more susceptible to overheated messages in the media.

“There’s reason to believe that this individual may have a mental issue. And I think people who are unbalanced are especially susceptible to vitriol,” he said during his televised remarks. “People tend to pooh-pooh this business about all the vitriol we hear inflaming the American public by people who make a living off of doing that. That may be free speech, but it’s not without consequences.”

voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2011/01/sheriff-dupniks-criticism-of-p.html

 

[estesbob]

My comments in another thread:

Since so many of those who are calling for peace and civility have spent the better part of the last day blaming everybody from Sarah Palin to Rush Limbaugh for this tragedy it is difficult for many of us to take them seriously. The truth is that it only took about 30 min. before the national media started speculating as to which conservative group or person they could blame. To their credit it appears the only mainstream media outlet that had not succumbed to this temptation was Fox news.

It is a myth that somehow the discourse today is more hateful or rougher than was in the past. Go back and look at the campaign slogans of Tafts opponents for instance
or read about the near caning to death of a member of the House of Representatives bya fellow member on the floor of the house. I find it rather ironic that the only time we start hearing cries for civility is after the Democrats have taking a drubbing in an election.

---

 

[Rich_Olszewski]

Pima County Sheriff Clarence W. Dupnik, who is overseeing the investigation of Saturday’s mass shooting that critically wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D), became an overnight sensation with his remarks that the “vitriol” in today’s political discourse contributed to the incident and that Arizona has become “a mecca for prejudice and bigotry.”

Dupnik’s name was a top search term on Twitter Saturday night, with many of the tweets thanking him for his candor, and overnight, a Facebook page titled “Clarence Dupnik is my Hero” sprung up.

In a news conference Saturday evening, Dupnik condemned the “atmosphere of hatred and bigotry” that he said has gripped the nation and suggested that the 22-year-old suspect being held in the shooting was mentally ill and therefore more susceptible to overheated messages in the media.

“There’s reason to believe that this individual may have a mental issue. And I think people who are unbalanced are especially susceptible to vitriol,” he said during his televised remarks. “People tend to pooh-pooh this business about all the vitriol we hear inflaming the American public by people who make a living off of doing that. That may be free speech, but it’s not without consequences.”

voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2011/01/sheriff-dupniks-criticism-of-p.html

The Tea Partyists hated her victory over their candidate. Does anyone see dots to be connected? Just wondering.

 

[gilliam]

The Tea Partyists hated her victory over their candidate. Does anyone see dots to be connected? Just wondering.

The local tea party in her district actually lost friends in the shooting yesterday. And losing a race doesn’t equate to hating the candidate out here. She is not someone who was easy to hate.

Tucson’s Tea Party is very small (about 500 members), almost all in thier 50s and 60s. There is no inidcation that the shooter even knew they existed nor was politically active in any way.

I can understand Sheriff Dupnik’s comment about mentally unstable people being susceptible to vitriol and those who are in the political arena need to lower the volume. But I also know that Dupnik is as political as any of the other politicians in our state and he has a bit of a battle going on right now with the Governor, Sheriff Joe and other sheriffs of counties that border his over how to handle the border. Dupnik, a Democrat, sides with the Obama approach.

 

[estesbob]

The Tea Partyists hated her victory over their candidate. Does anyone see dots to be connected? Just wondering.

And your evidence that the shooter had any connection to the tea party and/or Republican Party is……?

So far the only people who have tried to use this tragedy to score political points have been the Democrat Party-Al Sharpton, Jerrold Nadler, Emanuel Cleaver ,this sheriff, etc., etc., etc. .

All we have heard from Republican officials have been of condolences and asking for prayers for those killed and injured. The Democratic Party was trying to spin this tragedy for political purposes before we even knew what the death toll of this tragedy was. Shame on them. Shame on them. Shame on them.

 

[st_lucy]

The Tea Partyists hated her victory over their candidate. Does anyone see dots to be connected? Just wondering.

the democrates hated that they lost a ton of house seats this year does that mean we should lock up any/ and all dems?

This is a moranic statement and you should know better than that.

 

[He_Man]

The Tea Partyists hated her victory over their candidate. Does anyone see dots to be connected? Just wondering.

You are as connected to the shooter as the Tea Party is. Should we investigate you?

Stop posting foolish hearsay and try acting like you are a Catholic. Its embarrassing to the rest of us.

 

[bbarrick8383]

From my experience, liberals tend to be the ones to jump the gun, point fingers and say things that imo are extremely uncalled for.

When I first started reading the other thread related to this topic, before Scott LaFrance even pointed it out my thoughts were along the same line as his. How long before the first lib blames conservatism for this as if somehow their rhetoric calls for peace love and happiness and conservatives are screaming hate speech on the tv and radio all day long.

The Tea Partyists hated her victory over their candidate. Does anyone see dots to be connected? Just wondering.

Liberals have been trying to connect those dots ever since the incident took place. What happened should go beyond political affiliation. From what little evidence that exists, they guy was a loon and there is nothing that ties him to conservatism, Sean Hannity, Sarah Palin or anyone else to the right of the aisle.

 

[ishii]

The Tea Partyists hated her victory over their candidate. Does anyone see dots to be connected? Just wondering.

I agree with the rest of the posters- this comment is way over the top. We know very little or nothing of the killer’s motivation for this act, and it makes no sense to speculate. Of course there are those who will take any opportunity to exploit this tragedy to maximize blame on conservatives. Shame on anyone who would do so without any evidence.

Ishii

 

[CatholicBoy1957]

Pima County Sheriff Clarence W. Dupnik,

Refresh my memory, didn’t you tell someone on another thread to start this thread? It almost appears as though YOU started the thread.

The Tea Partyists hated her victory over their candidate. Does anyone see dots to be connected? Just wondering.

Does anyone see dots to be connected? No, I don’t. Why don’t you point them out for me? Just wondering.

 

[bbarrick8383]

Refresh my memory, didn’t you tell someone on another thread to start this thread? It almost appears as though YOU started the thread.

I believe he did, because people wanted to politicize the other thread. What he did was a good thing. Are you trying to blame him for something?

 

[gilliam]

Refresh my memory, didn’t you tell someone on another thread to start this thread? It almost appears as though YOU started the thread.

I asked somone if they would be willing to but they didn’t so I did

 

[mary_bobo]

The Tea Partyists hated her victory over their candidate. Does anyone see dots to be connected? Just wondering.

Irresponsible comment, Rich, and conjecture to boot.

 

[Rich_Olszewski]

the democrates hated that they lost a ton of house seats this year does that mean we should lock up any/ and all dems?

This is a moranic statement and you should know better than that.

Did I make a statement? I was asking a question and just wondering. Do you know the difference between a statement and a question? You ought to know better than to reply the way you did without knowing the difference.

 

[utah_rose]

Irresponsible comment, Rich, and conjecture to boot.

I agree. To me this guy has mental problems. The sheriff of all people loses credibility when he blames it on someone saying something before real motives can be established.

When are people, especially in the media, going to realize that that person needs to take responsibility for his actions. I knew this was going to happen. Now, if a conservative had been shot, they probably would have blamed it on the politicians actions, and the shooter would have been almost a hero in their eyes. The partisanship shows.

And I recall several incidents in the past, for example the Black Panthers exhaltation to “burn baby burn” and several inner cities WERE burned, but I don’t remember at that time ANYONE blaming them or the black community.

The Tea party OR other organizations didn’t go around telling people to shoot politicians they didn’t like. This is a little like the person who shot the abortionist doctor. Remember, the media blamed the pro-life people?

 

[CatholicBoy1957]

Are you trying to blame him for something?

No, I’m trying to blame someone else.

 

[ronnie_bonigli]

The Left, which just waits for something like this to happen so they can then hope and pray that there is some evidence that the nut listened to Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh once or twice and then use that to get them off the air, is predictably doing their little dance.

The most blatantly hypocritical of the Left-wing phonies so far appears to be Markos Moulitsas of the DailyKos, patterico.com/files/2011/01/Markos-1.jpg who was last night trying to tie the shooting to Sarah Palin, because she had once put out a facebook blog saying it’s time to “target” these congressmen in the coming election, and included Gabrielle Giffords as one of the “targets”.

Only problem for the hypocrite Markos Moulitsas is he did the SAME THING targeting congressmen with a BULLSEYE and included Gabrielle Giffords in his little rant. Of course he tried to scrub the evidence from his web site, but screen captures of the page have already been saved;
hillbuzz.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/screen-shot-2011-01-08-at-3-05-33-pm.png

not to mention other bloggers on his hate filled little website saying that Gabrielle Giffords “is dead to me” for not voting for Pelosi a couple of days ago. This post has also been scrubed from DailyKos. hillbuzz.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/screen-shot-2011-01-08-at-1-56-04-pm1.png

The way the left tries to rewrite history so they can paint their opponents as inspiring violence is downright Owellian.

 

[gilliam]

Sheriff Dupnik just inferred at a press conference that he would like to see the return of insane asylums.

Sheriff again decries “rhetoric of hatred, mistrust of govt, paranoia about govt” that inflames public daily, esp unbalanced people.

Sheriff also decries Arizona legislature for enacting gun laws that let nearly anybody buy and carry a gun.

 

[st_lucy]

Did I make a statement? I was asking a question and just wondering. Do you know the difference between a statement and a question? You ought to know better than to reply the way you did without knowing the difference.

Is this your defense? Really.

I don’t even know how to reply to such things. Try not to project ideas okay and than maybe someone will take you seriously.

 

[OrdinaryMelkite]

The Tea Partyists hated her victory over their candidate. Does anyone see dots to be connected? Just wondering.

I don’t see “Dots To Be Connected.”

Name me one Tea Partier who Actually Threatened Violence towards Jeffords because of Her Win.