Congratulations Sheriff Dupnik. You started the firestorm by opening your press conference blaming political rhetoric for the Tucson tragedy. In an interview you said you got that idea as you were preparing for the press conference. Deep thinking on your part.
Now, even though it’s the best kept secret in America, you got to arrest one of the shooting victims. I guess you got his attention with your rhetoric.
There is not one scintilla of fact that suggests your original charge was correct. The shooter ,Jared Loughner, unlike you , didn’t spend his life listening to talk radio. He wasn’t the least bit political. He was mentally ill.
But, the shooting victim you arrested this week after he, J. Eric Fuller shouted “you’re dead” at a Tea party spokeman during the taping of an ABC-TV town hall event hosted by Christianne Amanpour. Fuller took exception to comments made by Republican state Rep. Terri Proud and Tuscon Tea Party spokesman Trent Humphries. Humphries suggested debate about gun control should wait until the dead were buried. Fuller took a picture of Humphries and shouted, “you’re dead”. He then kept booing and making other remarks before deputies escorted him from the church.
He has since suggested a human necklace of ears with both of Sarah Palin’s ears, Rush Limbaugh’s, and to quote, the biggest of all in the center, Dick Cheney’s.
He is undergoing 72 hours of psychiatric evaluation.
In Loughner’s case, there seems to be no cause and effect. In Fuller’s case, his anger is directed in the same direction as that of Sheriff Dupnik.
Congratulations, Dupnik, you proved there could be a cause and effect with rhetoric and potential violence. Not in the case of the tragedy you ascribed it to, but in the case of poor Mr. Fuller, who took your theory to heart. Nice job, Mr. Lawman.
