Our View: Blame game unwise
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Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik was obviously upset after the death of his friend, Judge John Roll, the deaths of innocent bystanders and the severe injuries to Rep. Gabrielle Giffords following Saturday’s horrific shooting in Tucson.
In a press conference, Dupnik blamed the “prejudice and vitriol” in Arizona for the shooting.
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His statement in part said, “…I’d just like to say that when you look at unbalanced people, how they respond to the vitriol that comes out of certain people’s mouths about tearing down the government, the anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be outrageous. And, unfortunately, Arizona I believe has become sort of the capital. We have become the Mecca for prejudice and bigotry.”
This blame game became the obsequious topic for some of the Sunday morning TV shows.
Finger-pointing was a favorite activity no matter what national news outlet you might have been watching.
But hard news reports at the time we write this editorial, paint a different picture of the shooter.
His Internet postings are mostly incoherent. They are a mixture of blather about illiteracy in southern Arizona and the necessity to retire U.S. debt via gold and silver. Some reports say he was not religious, others say he was anti-abortion. Most tellingly, perhaps, was that he was dismissed in September by Pima Community College officials and his family was told he would need to have a mental health clearance to re-enroll.
And while authorities have said the gunman “targeted” Giffords, no motivation for the attack has been revealed. Was it due to outside influences, or perhaps just voices in his head?
When something as illogical as this shooting happens, the logical person wants to find a reason.
Today a “reason why” is not known.
Those who attempt to place blame for the tragedy at this point are just jumping to unfounded conclusions.
Source: http://www.svherald.com/content/our-view/2011/01/10/our-view-blame-game-unwise