As much as I am troubled by this incident, I find the conservative condemnation of this disingenuous and hypocritical.
First, the conservative blog-o-sphere has clearly seized upon this horrible event as a cudgel to beat Sheriff Dupnik. Mike McDaniel demonstrates this in the first sentence of his blog, where he claims the Sheriff "Dupnik immediately blamed conservative rhetoric." In point of fact, if you listen to the Sheriff's remarks, he never once mentions conservatives, Republicans, or tea-baggers. Rather, he talks about the vitriol that is present in today's political discourse. It touched a nerve with conservatives, because they are the predominant practitioners of this kind of bile-spewing and felt they needed to defend themselves. In a later interview the Sheriff explicitly called out both sides of the political divide, but the conservatives' bell had already been rung and they were slobbering.
Second, the militarization of policing is the direct result of decades of conservative hammering on government for "law and order." "Law and order" was, of course, never anything more than code for "put them niggers, spics and hippies in their place," but as a blunt instrument it resulted in those "unintended consequences" for which conservatives are always blaming government. In fact, conservatives have always had a love-hate relationship with law enforcement. Their authoritarian bent results in a large percentage of the law enforcement and military populations being conservative. They love cop shows and war movies and cheer waterboarding. But when it becomes clear that their policies have resulted in the kind of police state they had in mind for everyone else possibly being applied to them, they recoil in horror and deny they had anything to do with it.
Mike McDaniel, as a conservative and former SWAT "operator" is as responsible as anyone for the current state of militarized policing. Conservatives need to be careful what they wish for, they are likely to get it.
This is a bad dude. But he's no different than any of our native gangsters. Other than race, he'd fit in well in Italian or Russian Mafias, the Crips and Bloods, or any biker gang. Obviously he'd do well in any of the latino gangs.
The common denominator is that these gangs all feed off vice, and particularly drug vice. In this guy's case, instead of hanging out on street corners and doing drive-bys he's hanging out in remote canyons and ripping off other gangsters.
So, if we want to reduce the number of these scum on the border -- we'll never eliminate them, just as we'll never eliminate criminals in any other area -- find a way to allow those Mexicans and Central Americans who are only coming up here to work a way to get here easily and legally through controlled border crossings. Once this is done, the only ones crossing the borders in the out-back will be the narcos, and these can be shot.
He either has no shame, has no money for retirement and needs a position, or both. He killed an 18 year old girl in a automobile accident and then tried to blame her for speeding. He got busted shoplifting steaks by "hiding" them in his running shorts. His non-governmental career has been a joke. The man is not a serious candidate and needs to go down in flaming defeat to discourage him from ever trying again.
Grrrr -- I'm going to quit trying to cite authors. I'm clearly not paying enough attention to the details of the bylines. Mea culpa for not pursuing a journalism degree.
Still... Keep up the good work on Arpaio Mr. Lemons. Maybe, one day, we'll get a Justice Department attorney with the moxie to take down this (featherless) bastard and all his spawn.
(By the way, why the h*ll didn't Goddard go after him? It's not like you're the only one who sees through the crap.)
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First, the conservative blog-o-sphere has clearly seized upon this horrible event as a cudgel to beat Sheriff Dupnik. Mike McDaniel demonstrates this in the first sentence of his blog, where he claims the Sheriff "Dupnik immediately blamed conservative rhetoric." In point of fact, if you listen to the Sheriff's remarks, he never once mentions conservatives, Republicans, or tea-baggers. Rather, he talks about the vitriol that is present in today's political discourse. It touched a nerve with conservatives, because they are the predominant practitioners of this kind of bile-spewing and felt they needed to defend themselves. In a later interview the Sheriff explicitly called out both sides of the political divide, but the conservatives' bell had already been rung and they were slobbering.
Second, the militarization of policing is the direct result of decades of conservative hammering on government for "law and order." "Law and order" was, of course, never anything more than code for "put them niggers, spics and hippies in their place," but as a blunt instrument it resulted in those "unintended consequences" for which conservatives are always blaming government. In fact, conservatives have always had a love-hate relationship with law enforcement. Their authoritarian bent results in a large percentage of the law enforcement and military populations being conservative. They love cop shows and war movies and cheer waterboarding. But when it becomes clear that their policies have resulted in the kind of police state they had in mind for everyone else possibly being applied to them, they recoil in horror and deny they had anything to do with it.
Mike McDaniel, as a conservative and former SWAT "operator" is as responsible as anyone for the current state of militarized policing. Conservatives need to be careful what they wish for, they are likely to get it.
@levoth, Try reading the last sentence of my post again.
The common denominator is that these gangs all feed off vice, and particularly drug vice. In this guy's case, instead of hanging out on street corners and doing drive-bys he's hanging out in remote canyons and ripping off other gangsters.
So, if we want to reduce the number of these scum on the border -- we'll never eliminate them, just as we'll never eliminate criminals in any other area -- find a way to allow those Mexicans and Central Americans who are only coming up here to work a way to get here easily and legally through controlled border crossings. Once this is done, the only ones crossing the borders in the out-back will be the narcos, and these can be shot.
Still... Keep up the good work on Arpaio Mr. Lemons. Maybe, one day, we'll get a Justice Department attorney with the moxie to take down this (featherless) bastard and all his spawn.
(By the way, why the h*ll didn't Goddard go after him? It's not like you're the only one who sees through the crap.)