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Saturday, January 8, 2011
Politics / Media / News Jon Justice Responds to Dupnik Criticism
Posted by John Schuster on Sat, Jan 8, 2011 at 8:43 PM
Obviously, there are a million more pressing issues today, but here's an e-mail comment from KQTH FM 104.1 talk-show host Jon Justice in response to Dupnik's press conference editorializing about the polarizing role of talk radio.
Recognizing this is probably Dupnik's toughest day, and emotions understandable, Dupnik has focused on this belief in the past as well, and has singled out Justice, although he probably includes the likes of Glenn Beck in the mix as well. He editorialized at least twice, maybe three times, on the topic.
Here's the Justice e-mail response:
I feel incredibly bad for our brave Pima County Sheriff’s Officers who have to serve under Clarence Dupnik. Within hours of the horrific shooting that took place at the congresswoman’s event Dupnik was telling local media that talk radio and the media was partly to blame, only to repeat his statements again during the press conference that was receiving national attention. We have no idea at this point the motivation of this murderer’s act. Yet Dupnik took his moment in the spotlight to drive a political wedge into the event. They were reckless and dangerous statements made by someone who should have known better. He should have been using his time to help bring the community together. Instead his statements made Tucson appear to be a city full hate, bigotry and vitriol. To say, as Dupnik did, that comments made on the airwaves essentially motivated this person to commit this crime is exactly what he blamed talk radio of doing, inciting through pure rhetoric. It was complete misuse of his power and he owes the media in town, TV and radio, an apology for his horrible comments in the middle of such a tragic day. He should step down immediately from his position as Pima County Sheriff.
Comments (93)
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Seems like Mr. Justice is very angry on many things. Also he may not know what the sherriff and their team knows about what influenced the shooter. Also he perhaps should view the Olbermann special Saturday comment.
On the bright side, I never have to listen to Jon Justice. Dupnik nailed this one. It's easier to find a gun in Arizona than mental health care for those who need it. Sounds like Justice may be one of those in need.
It's interesting that the rightwing is angry when Dupnik never said anything about the rightwing - only about bigotry and intolerance.
It speaks volumes that rightwingers want to reflexively denounce all attacks on bigotry and intolerance.
Jon Justice's comments are exactly on target. Clarence Dupnik talks about vitriol, but he is the only one throwing it today.
Dupnik called it the way it is.
The neo-nazi and other hate activity has been rising significantly in the state.
His team has to deal with the effects.
The Red Cross used to have Arizona as safe to place foreign refugees. Tucson used to be on the top 10. In the last year, it has drop Arizona and flagged it as a place to avoid.
Boy is Jon right on. I was totally embarrassed to have to say to the world, this man is in charge of our Sheriff's Dept.
While Justice spews it out each day while on the air. There wasn't anything about Cong. Giffords, the nineteen shot, the six who died, especially a nine year old girl. It is all about Jon Justice. There is too much vitriolic rhetoric on all fronts, to the point, a simple event where people meet their elected official who represents them, can't be done without armed guards and a metal detector.
So remember about casting a stone.
The Sheriff must have hit a sensitive spot with Jon Justice...he was calling him out and all the other haters. Jon is just mad because the tables were turned around on him! The Sheriff spoke the truth that most public officials are scared to say.
This is exactly what is taking the credibility of our nation around the world to the lowest point. We try to ignore the issues and pretend that by concealing them under the rug will make them go away. It's well known of the bigotry and hate that exists in Arizona and many other parts of this great nation. The anti immigration agenda of their own Governor J. Brewer added to the accomplices like the Tea Party and the media clowns like Mr. in-Justice and Geraldo Rivera and the FOX News apparatus and their hypocrite message is similar to the speech and practices of the refusal of civil rights to the black population of the 60's.
Many politicians are only interested in pleasing the interest that put them in power and not in the best interest of the american people. Keeping 12 million+ immigrants in a political/social/economic limbo is probably the worse national strategy, and such, will continue to pollute ignorant and unstable minds to a point of no return and it will take us back to the extermination of the indians in the persona of latino immigrants.
Sheriff Dupnik spoke from his heart and I wholeheartedly support what he said. Conservatives are acting like their ranting and raving have nothing to do with what happened today. It is time for conservatives to be accountable for their words. If anything, Jon Justice owes this entire community an apology for stirring the coals of hatred and should quietly leave town. My Tucson, the little town I was born and raised in, has been savagely torn apart by conservatives who impose their will on others just like their ancestors did to people who were different than them. Jon Justice... Get outa town!
What a stretch for Dupnik to somehow tie this incident to talk radio. I've worked under this man for years and am fed up with his politics. How unprofessional. Dupnik has an obligation as an elected public servant, who owes it to all of you to come out and state the facts and properly inform the public. But instead, he used our tax dollars to spew rhetoric and personal conjecture. Trust me, as someone on the inside, there is nothing so far that relates this to talk radio. This was purely Dupnik’s personal theory. Next term won't come soon enough to finally vote him out of office.
Calling a radio station "The Truth," should be the first clue that something's rotten in Tucson. Deliver me from the revisionists who think Gabby's shooting wasn't precipitated by political divisiveness and hate talk. I visited Jared Loughner's youtube site and read his rants. Loughner may be a lone nut, but as Dupnick said, unbalanced people with guns, incited by hate talk do things that are unpredictable.
I send thoughts and prayers to the victims and their families, and to Jon Justice, I say, "Can't you shut up for at least one day?"
Dupnik is an embarrassment and so are all of you who are making this about politics! Come to your senses and realize that we will go nowhere as a community and as a nation unless we stop this ridiculous name-calling and division over every incident that happens!
Instead of yelling at each other, why aren't we more concerned about the victims? This is the time to unify hearts and mind and try to recover from this terrible tragedy!
We can have civil political discourse without vitriol and personal attacks at the proper time and place, but this isn't it!!!
Both Olberman and dupnik took this horrible situation and made it about politics. This is not about politics. This is about a mentally unstable jerk off who doesn't know right from wrong.
I am 65 and I have never seen so horrible as the liberal mean people taking every opportunity to tear people down and try to tie them to everything that appears to be against them. I want to be with the rest of the American people it is time to stop this and come together as Americans and solve problems. It is so sad that such people as K Olberman and C dupnik took this horrible situation and made it about politics. This is not about politics. This is about a mentally unstable jerk off who doesn't know right from wrong.
I cannot believe the comments posted here, nothing but hatred and bigotry. This is way this country stays so divided. To point the finger at any political view is insane and the most ridiculous thing to say that talk radio or conservatives are somehow brain washing people to commit horrific actions like this.
Most Americans were moved by Sheriff Dupnik's statemen, akin to Edward Morrow's "The fault , dear Brutus, lies not in our star..but ourselves."
I've never heard Mr Justice so I cannot speak to the content of his show, but the Sheriff spoke for many if not most of us in this country who waited, fervently hoping that this would never happen but expecting it to arise out of the lies, accusations, hatreds, fears and bigotries that have been poured out, fanned, incited or inflamed over the last few years.
As an attorney who prosecuted international crimes, I can speak with some justification that actions like these do not arise out of a vacuum, and even at Nuremberg there was testimony on the effects of infflammatory propaganda
In the moments that he spoke, Sheriff Dupnik was the conscience of America
I am ashamed to have to admit that Clarence Dupnik is the Sheriff of the county I live in. This shame comes not only from his actions and statements yesterday, but from many other things he has done and said.
The alleged shooter is a 22 year old dude, that by some accounts is was a pot smoking loner. Not your "typical" talk radio listener. Until there are more FACTS presented in this case to tie the 22 year old to some ideology, presuming what triggered him is pure speculation. Last time I looked, Law Enforcement Officers are supposed to present facts, not their "opinion". I'm sure Sheriff Dupnick was devastated by the loss and injury to friends of his, but a press conference was not the place to start the "blame game".
Froggey,
Liberals are not making this about politics. We are making this about artificially created hate and anger, which it most likely actually is. It is you who is making it about politics when you falsely claim we are making it about politics - a common conservative tactic.
It is precisely because the repugnicans and their ranting mouthpieces are the primary source of this artificially created hate and anger that you, Jon Justice (if that is his real name), and all your ilk then assume people are attacking you when they decry the rise in artificially created hate and anger. As I recall, Dupnik did not refer to any specific political party or group of "political entertainers" and yet all of the hate-mongers just assumed Dupnik was talking about them and took umbrage at his "unfair comments." As my grandmother used to say, "The dirty dog barks first."
To Jon Justice,
Why on earth would it be terrible to serve under someone just because he wishes that people would stop spreading hate? Your logic just boggles my mind. It is exactly that kind of constant stream of ad hominem attacks that serve to rile up disturbed minds like that of Jared Loughner.
Finally, as to the claims that the only thing that inspired Jared Loughner to attack Gabriel Giffords is that he is simply deranged, and that all the rampant hate-mongering has nothing to do with it, answer me this: Why is it that all of the attacks and violence against political or public figures - from the assassination of Lincoln (who, for those who know their history, was in the more liberal party of the time, regardless of the name of the party), to the lynchings after the Civil War, to JFK, to church burnings, to murders of legal abortion providers, and now to Gabriel Giffords - have all been committed by radical RIGHT WING nut-jobs against liberals? I can recall no attacks on conservatives by liberals. (And no, the attempted assassination of Ronald Regan does not count, as Hinkley had first targeted Jimmy Carter but was locked up before he could get to him. Hinkley was not inspired by hate, he was inspired by obsession.)
Conservatives have been using lies, hate, fear, and references to violence - thinly veiled or not - for about as long as this country has existed. When they swear off these tactics and actually stick to their promise, then I will believe them when they say they are upset when their calls for violence are eventually answered. Until then, I have no reason whatsoever to believe that conservatives are not secretly jumping for joy at this latest fulfillment of their oft' stated desires.
I don't understand why it's only the right ranting and raving caused this. I have countless articles of the left doing the same thing. This is not a time for pointing fingers and spewing political rhetoric from either side. This was someone who wanted to make a name for himself. Read his craziness. One post in December basically said "see me on TV soon". Sheriff said the suspect was "uncooperative" or did you all seem to miss that in the press conference (ie he doesn't know why the guy did it yet).
I find it absolutely incredulous the guilty conscience of the right wing angry old white retirees. You should feel guilty!!! The doom and gloom prophecies from the Glenn Becks and Faux News (while they themselves profit like elitists from getting the lemmings to worship their words about this country being destroyed simply because some poor people might get health insurance) spreads hatred in people looking for validation to their poisoned minds.
This amazing sheriff said what everyone in the country is thinking and that is this anti government rhetoric from extremely wealthy people who profit from angering the less fortunate at the expense of the less fortunate and the country as a whole MUST STOP!!!!
So - when the Ft Hood massacre took place, the alleged MSM and even the CIC were to quick to advise everyone to "not jump to conclusions" - though the shooters Islam ties were clear. NOW - the alleged MSM is saying its got to be Palin's fault, or Bush's fault, or the Tea Party's fault, though the AZ shooter's leftist ties are also clear. Hmmm... what's wrong with this picture???
Wow!!!! The level of "hate" speech from left here amazes me! Talk about casting stones!!!! For those of you who only watch sound bites of the Sheriff and the press conference, here's a tidbit of info for you. At the end of his last "blame talk radio" rant a reporter asked him if there was any evidence that that had anything to do with the motive in this case. AND HE SAID NO!!!!! Stop with the well he might know something we don't know ridiculousness! His comments were in themselves hateful and could be seen as stirring up those on the left. It's amazing how many stones we are all willing to cast here.
Dupnik nailed it. Jon (I refuse to call him "Justice") is just whining because he put himself in the list that Dupnik spoke of. There are those on both sides of the aisle who contribute to this vitriol, Dupnik carefully didn't say names.
Yes, as said above, my first thought was, "If the shoe fits, wear it, Jon." Just reading the other comments, the most angry and vitriolic are against Dupnik. Perhaps if Jon faced what Dupnik deals with everyday in his job as a result of uncontrolled anger, he'd "get it." It's so easy for Jon to sit and spew and rant on the radio...
Of course you will say that. You realize that people like you are to blame so you are trying to tear down others for telling it how it is. That is what you do, make a living off hate.
My original post apparently offended the fragile sensibilities of the house censor, so I'll limit this one to one fact we do know about the perp: The Communist Manifesto is among his favorite books. Now tell us again how his actions are a clear manifestation of an already addled mind further warped by too much conservative radio. How silly.
Another commenter makes a very, very good point. Most of the media and most elected officials were determined to NOT talk about the Ft. Hood shooter's Islamic bent, which was a documented fact, as a reason for the Ft. Hood massacre...but in this case no one has any hard proof about the Tucson man's religion or politics YET, but has already dubbed him the poster boy for all that is wrong with our society. Hello?? Way to be hypocritical.
People that are blaming talk radio for the tragedy in Arizona need to blame the Beatles for the Sharon Tate murders, Jodi Foster for shooting Ronald Reagan, and the Catcher in the Rye for shooting John Lennon. Everyone else realizes it was t...he action of a crazy gunman.
AZ,
Although I do agree with you when you assert these were the actions of a crazed gunman, I do not think you are correct to assert that political rhetoric is akin to art. Hell, using your logic we might as well hail Goebbels as the being greatest artist of all time. Yes, he was a crazed gunman – no one disagrees with that – but you are incorrect to assert that art and politically charged rhetoric are one and the same.
This guy was where the two extremes meet, which seems to be a mix of xenophobia, anti-establishment, anarchist, paranoid and beholden to no god to answer to or even what seems a scientific conscious guilt which probably makes the guy neither a Dem or Rep, as both are establishments AND probably shares certain beliefs of BOTH parties.... BUT.... The real point then should be that both sides are succeptable to the onslaught of negative exaggerations being portrayed in the political forum. The current venom is coming from some pretty obvious sources, AND now those same sources are more offended at a request to stop the demonizing than the possibility something they said could actually do harm to the unstable wackos, be them left right or as seen with this guy both and neither at the same time.
To the person who points out the communist manifesto, your part of the problem, at the very minimum mention he also mentions mine kamf (purp misspelled), showing he liked both extremes
ST are you saying Goebbells was not a major orchestrator and influencer in those atrocities the public allowed, called for and in many cases participated in against the gypsies, jews and innocent families???? His words turned unstable minds into unwavering executioners
Dupnik did NOT blame "conservative" radio, he said "talk" radio; he did not single out any particular entertainer, or network, or political party. If some of you want to assume that he was talking about your heroes, what does that say about you?
Hi Mac,
We agree, it seems. I was merely responding to AZ's comments. Goebbels was indeed responsible for all you say, and likely more. However, hos words turned stable minds into unwavering executioners.
For Justice and others like him, hate talk radio is his meal ticket. Manipulating the ignorant, the angry and the gullible can be very lucrative and he does not want to lose this source of income. Expect may more attacks on Dupnik from the likes of Limbaugh, Beck. Hannity, and Coulter.
Did anyone go to Jess Kelly's Kill the Bill shoot-out? I heard about it on talk radio. We'll take our government back and we can fly our flag - the one with the violent threat.
Every person has a responsibility to call out this pathetic, vile industry of entertainment radio, television built on hate, anger, lies, and conspiracy.
This is from an article whose link I posted but my comment was deleted for posting it. Or maybe the editor just doesn't want this information in the thread. This demonstrates that right wing talk radio fuels the kind of hatred that killed the judge.
firetown dot com has the story.
Murdered judge had received threats: “we should kill him, he should be dead”
Federal Judge John Roll was killed during a shooting in Arizona that also involved an attack on U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.
U.S. Marshal for Arizona David Gonzales confirmed to the Associated Press that the U.S. District Judge had died. He offered no other details on the shooting.
Arizona Central talked to Gonzales in 2009 after Roll allowed a $32 million civil-rights lawsuit to proceed against a local rancher. The case was filed by illegal immigrants and drew the ire of local talk radio hosts, who “spurred audiences into making threats.”
In one afternoon, Roll logged more than 200 phone calls. Callers threatened the judge and his family. They posted personal information about Roll online.”They said, ‘We should kill him. He should be dead,’ ” Gonzales said.
Both Roll and his wife were given a U.S. Marshals Service protection detail at the time. Roll called the month-long protection experience “unnerving and invasive.” According to Arizona Central, authorities identified four men believed to be responsible for the threats, but Roll declined to press charges at the recommendation of the Marshals Service.
Right wing talk radio hosts and their parasite callers threatened the judge. And now they're going after Sheriff Dupnkik. Anybody surprised? I'm sure the poor Sheriff, who is a hero as far as I'm concerned, will need body guards to protect him from the Arizona hate zombies.
Dupnik never named names, and never called out "right" or "left". It's telling that "conservative" radio hosts are the first to jump up and yell "NOT MY FAULT!" even though they were never singled out.
Guilty consciences? You better believe it. It's the same exact reason Sarah Palin started scrubbing her website of all references to her "target list". GUILT.
I'm actually kind of heartened by that, in a way, Mr. Justice. It means that somewhere in the depths of your thought process, you still HAVE vestiges of a conscience. Embrace it. Learn from it. And stop spewing this divisive "right vs left" rhetoric. You are part of the problem and I submit you know that all too well, even if you never have the guts to admit it in public.
Sorry...what I meant to say:
Boy, are you on the wrong side of this one, JUSTICE. Your sponsors are trembling...
(I was still stunned by Kyl's tepid response to the situation)
Sheriff Dupnik is an honest American citizen who is articulate and calls it like it is. The hate spewing right should be ashamed of bashing this man. Listen up and learn, it's time to be real about what such horrid negativity creates.
Yes, Jon Justice and the teabaggers are the real victims here (as always)!
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