Remember the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords by Jarod Loughner, and how Sheriff Dupnik blamed it on conservative political rhetoric? Then it turned out that he dropped the ball with the troubled Loughner, whose mother was a county employee and colleague of the sheriff. I went so far as to propose that Dupnik might even have been tacitly involved in the shooting in a move to replace Giffords, a Blue Dog Democrat, with a more progressive House Representative with whom he might exercise more influence.
Admittedly, that was more a matter of spit and vinegar on my part, although I did think the theory had at least some merit. Now, after what recently happened just earlier this month, I am more convinced than ever that Dupnik is one evil motherfucker.
A Pima County Swat team, on the 5th of May, acting on what I have to suspect were trumped up charges of drug trafficking, attacked the home of Jose Guerena-a former Marine, a veteran with no criminal record. They went in with guns blazing. By the time it was over Guerena, their targeted victim, was dead, shot multiple times.
According to Guerena's wife, the Pima County Sheriff's charges are without merit, but the SWAT team removed what they alleged was "evidence" from the home, including a computer.
Dupnik recently survived a recall effort in Pima County, and I have to wonder if this might have been an attempt to stage a warning to his enemies-"don't fuck with me". It might also be a way to make him look tough on Latino drug gangs. The problem there is, while Guerena was Latino there is no evidence he was ever involved with any Latino gangs, or for that matter, drugs of any kind. No, he appears to have been nothing more nor less than a hard working husband and father of two who never knew why he was being targeted by the Pima County fascists that pass for a Sheriff's Department.
Or maybe he did. Maybe somebody at the Department had it in for him. Maybe it was personal. Or maybe it was professional. And maybe, just maybe, that person was Dupnik.
It also bears noting that none of the usual leftist suspects, including the Three Sonorans, are raising a ruckus about this, despite the fact that here is a Latino murdered by an Arizona Sheriff's Department. Not only are they not complaining, or so much as asking questions, they as of yet haven't mentioned it at all, nor has any of the liberal progressive bloggers in the Tucson area. But of course, Guerena was a law-abiding American citizen, while Dupnik is, after all, a liberal Democrat.
Do you even want to imagine what their reaction would be if the victim was an actual Mexican drug smuggler, and the Sheriff's Department was, say for example, that of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. The wolves would be descending on Phoenix and foaming at the mouth as I type this post.
Unfortunately, the video I attempted to embed here will not work right, but if you go to the post linked here you can get a sense of just how suspicious this whole sorry affair is.
