Sheriff Dupnik and the Right Wing Attack Machine
One of the most irritatingly absurd and dishonest talking points that quickly emerged from the right wing’s loonier blogs after Sheriff Clarence Dupnik’s brave statement calling out the climate of extremist rhetoric is that Sheriff Dupnik himself is to blame for the mass murder.
As usual these days, what starts in the loony blogs doesn’t end in the loony blogs, and this ugly smear has now made it all the way to the pages of the Wall Street Journal. Here’s how John Fund spins it:
But he also has critics who say his department was well aware of Jared Loughner’s mental instability and may have been slow to respond to death threats the suspect made in the months leading up to Saturday’s rampage.
But here’s the key point that he somehow forgot to mention:
Dupnik said the suspected shooter has made death threats before and been contacted by law-enforcement officers. The threats weren’t against Giffords, Dupnik said.
I have some experience with how the police deal with death threats, unfortunately, and here’s the bottom line: unless there is a very direct threat on your life, the police will not and cannot do anything.
The idea that you can just call in the guys with the butterfly nets to haul away people like Loughner is a stupid fantasy, being promoted by the right wing because Sheriff Dupnik’s statement tweaked their vestigial consciences and they’re lashing out at him like vindictive morons.
Most of them are well aware that it’s a 100% bogus issue, but they promote it anyway. LGF reader Slumbering Behemoth says it well:
It’s simple. Without pointing at anyone directly, Dupnik shined a national spot light on the kind of over the top, violent political rhetoric that has been well documented here at LGF.
For this, he must be demonized and discredited at all costs by those who use such rhetoric, profit from such rhetoric, or give such rhetoric a free pass.
Much like telling The Church centuries ago that the universe does not revolve around the earth, Dupnik uttered a truth that certain vested interests do not want to be heard by anyone.
