Shooter ignored by Sheriff Dupnik?

Dupnik

Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik has been taking a lot of heat for blaming the Tuscon murders on his own state's climate of hate, Sarah Palin, talk radio, whatever.....  Well, it just may be that the sheriff is trying to cover his own butt for dropping the ball on Jared Loughner.  

In cases like this, local educators and metal health professionals are often familiar with the suspect, and are not surprised.  Loughner was a well known lunatic around town.  He was thrown out of college when a professor became worried that Lougnher might become violent in class.  Developing reports now indicate that Loughner may have made multiple death threats in the past, but the sheriff did not follow up due to a good old boy connection to the Loghner family. 

The Cholla Jumps, a blog by Tuscon native and SUNY graduate Jim Kelley, tells us:

This is the report that Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik has been dreading since the tragic event on Saturday January 8.

The sheriff has been editorializing and politicizing the event since he took the podium to report on the incident. His blaming of radio personalities and bloggers is a pre-emptive strike because Mr. Dupnik knows this tragedy lays at his feet and his office. Six people died on his watch and he could have prevented it.  He needs to step up and start apologizing to the families of the victims instead of spinning this event to serve his own political agenda.

Jared Loughner, pronounced by the Sheriff as Lock-ner, saying it was the Polish pronunciation. Of course he meant Scott or Irish but that isn’t the point. The point is he and his office have had previous contact with the alleged assailant in the past and that is how he knows how to pronounce the name.

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.

While we'll never know if this tragedy could have been prevented, it may be time for the incompetent clown Dupnik to resign and forgo his pension.