The Other McCain

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News From the Department of Obvious: Jared Loughner ‘Was Sick in the Head’

Posted on | January 12, 2011 | 13 Comments

Why New York Times reporters get the big bucks:

“He was a nihilist and loves causing chaos, and that is probably why he did the shooting, along with the fact he was sick in the head,” said Zane Gutierrez, 21 . . .
“Jared felt nothing existed but his subconscious,” Mr. Gutierrez said. “The dream world was what was real to Jared, not the day-to-day of our lives.”
“He would ask me constantly, ‘Do you see that blue tree over there?’ He would admit to seeing the sky as orange and the grass as blue,” Mr. Gutierrez said. “Normal people don’t talk about that stuff.”

Gutierrez and his buddy Loughner used to do target practice together.

So . . . you’ve got a nihilist wacko friend who likes shooting guns, and you don’t see that as maybe a problem or something? OK, never mind that part. In a story with three bylines and five “contributor” tags, the New York Times did manage to get some important news:

The police were sent to the home where Jared L. Loughner lived with his family on more than one occasion before the attack here on Saturday that left a congresswoman fighting for her life and six others dead, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department said on Tuesday.

That little news nugget tends to confirm the controversial blog post by Cholla Jumps:

[Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik] and his office have had previous contact with the alleged assailant in the past . . .
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. . . .
Every victim of his threats previously must also be wondering if this tragedy could have been prevented if they had been more aggressive in pursuing charges against Mr. Loughner. . . .
The Pima County Sheriff’s Department was aware of his violent nature and they failed to act appropriately.

Hmmmmm. Might be kind of interesting if, instead of Rush Limbaugh’s “vitriol” being to blame, the blame belongs with Sheriff Dupnik. Meanwhile at the Wall Street Journal, an eminent psychiatrist talks about more general failures of the mental-health system.

Category: Arizona, Crime

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