Jarred Loughner is to blame He pulled the trigger.
Now lets find out why his arrest in the past was covered up by the Sheriff in Pina county
Did Jared Loughner's Parents Miss Signs Their Son Had Problems?
SodaHead Living
2011/01/11 14:53:29
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It was just a matter of time before people were going to start targeting Jared Lee Loughner's parents in the deadly Arizona shooting massacre.
Randy and Amy Loughner have already been described as "loners." But now, a neighbor says they were devastated to learn that their only child has been charged with killing six people and wounding many others, including a U.S. congresswoman.
"And they feel guilty for what happened," Wayne Smith, 70, told KPHO-TV on Monday.
"They want to know, where did they fail? I told them they didn't fail. They taught him everything about right and wrong. We all know you can teach someone everything and have no control how it works out."
Amy Loughner has been in bed crying since Saturday, Smith said.
"They're both in there crying. He's crying and hanging on to me and she's not even out of bed," Smith told The Los Angeles Times.
Smith described the Loughners as very private ("I didn't even know their last name until Saturday"), and said they knew few people on their street, although they had lived in the neighborhood since before Jared was born 22 years ago.
Smith said Loughner's mother, Amy, had a good job with good retirement and pay, and Randy was a stay-at-home dad who liked to work on cars.
"He worshiped the boy," Smith said.
But Smith said Loughner's dad is also grieving for the victims.
"He's broken up about his son, but also about all those people who died," he said.
While we feel for Loughner's parents, no one can say there weren't signs of strange behavior coming from their son. After Loughner had five run-ins with Pima Community College campus police and violated the student code of conduct, the college suspended Loughner and delivered a letter of suspension to his parents' home. Police officers reportedly spoke with Loughner and his parents.
On Oct. 7, Pima sent a letter to Loughner telling him that if he intended to return to school, he would have to get a letter from a mental health official indicating "his presence at the College does not present a danger to himself or others."
Loughner is a 22-year-old man, an age at which many of us have long stopped listening to our parents. But we wonder if the Loughners ever sent Jared for that mental health clearance.
Randy and Amy Loughner have already been described as "loners." But now, a neighbor says they were devastated to learn that their only child has been charged with killing six people and wounding many others, including a U.S. congresswoman.
"And they feel guilty for what happened," Wayne Smith, 70, told KPHO-TV on Monday.
"They want to know, where did they fail? I told them they didn't fail. They taught him everything about right and wrong. We all know you can teach someone everything and have no control how it works out."
Amy Loughner has been in bed crying since Saturday, Smith said.
"They're both in there crying. He's crying and hanging on to me and she's not even out of bed," Smith told The Los Angeles Times.
Smith described the Loughners as very private ("I didn't even know their last name until Saturday"), and said they knew few people on their street, although they had lived in the neighborhood since before Jared was born 22 years ago.
Smith said Loughner's mother, Amy, had a good job with good retirement and pay, and Randy was a stay-at-home dad who liked to work on cars.
"He worshiped the boy," Smith said.
But Smith said Loughner's dad is also grieving for the victims.
"He's broken up about his son, but also about all those people who died," he said.
While we feel for Loughner's parents, no one can say there weren't signs of strange behavior coming from their son. After Loughner had five run-ins with Pima Community College campus police and violated the student code of conduct, the college suspended Loughner and delivered a letter of suspension to his parents' home. Police officers reportedly spoke with Loughner and his parents.
On Oct. 7, Pima sent a letter to Loughner telling him that if he intended to return to school, he would have to get a letter from a mental health official indicating "his presence at the College does not present a danger to himself or others."
Loughner is a 22-year-old man, an age at which many of us have long stopped listening to our parents. But we wonder if the Loughners ever sent Jared for that mental health clearance.
Read More: http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jan/10/nation/la-...
Top Opinion
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lin sugar lips 2011/01/12 00:00:15
When an adult child with signs of mental illness refuses to acknowledge them, parents have only a few choices, none of them good. You can withhold support: no extra money, no TV, no borrowing the family car. (Experts do not recommend withholding food and shelter, or throwing a child into the street unless you fear for your safety.) But in severe psychosis, the person may be unable to perceive reality well enough for this kind of discipline to work.
What I find disturbing is how Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik has been editorializing and politicizing the tragic event on Saturday January 8 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 peopl...
When an adult child with signs of mental illness refuses to acknowledge them, parents have only a few choices, none of them good. You can withhold support: no extra money, no TV, no borrowing the family car. (Experts do not recommend withholding food and shelter, or throwing a child into the street unless you fear for your safety.) But in severe psychosis, the person may be unable to perceive reality well enough for this kind of discipline to work.
What I find disturbing is how Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik has been editorializing and politicizing the tragic event on Saturday January 8 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 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. My sympathies and my heart goes out to her and the rest of Mr. Loughner’s family. This tragedy must be tearing them up inside wondering if they had done the right things in trying to manage Jared’s obvious mental instability.
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. Perhaps with a felony conviction he would never have been able to get the Glock 9mm Model 19 that he used to strike down the lives of six people and decimate 14 more.
This was not an act of politics. This was an act of a mentally disturbed young man hell bent on getting his 15 minutes of infamy. The Pima County Sheriff’s Department was aware of his violent nature and they failed to act appropriately. This tragedy leads right back to Sherriff Dupnik and all the spin in the world is not going to change that fact.
We need to start getting a handle on this...............from Columbine to VA Tech, the problem is expanding.
I also saw a neighbor interviewed who said he'd always felt sorry for the boy because he was never allowed to play outside with other kids... Maybe this was the case.. but maybe he didn't want to..??
Of course mental health problems are a different matter as some people cant be held responsible for what they do as a result. Would the parents be responsible then? If their son kept his problems to himself then no, if they were aware of his problems and didnt do anything to help him they share partcial rewsponsibility.
The parents have done more than express remorse. If the article I read on this site is to be believed, they are grieving not only for the son they've lost, but for the people he's hurt and killed. These parents deserve our sympathy, not our cross examination.
This is the sort of self-reflection that is needed. Olbermann is not accepting blame, but rather taking responsibility for the possibility that his words might have contributed to the current climate of hateful speech. If there is even a possibility that violent rhetoric might add to actual violence, then we owe it to ourselves to consider the possibility and attempt to find ways of toning down that rhetoric.
I for one join Keith Olbermann in saying - Violence, or the threat of violence, has no place in our democracy, and I apologize for and repudiate any act or any thing in my past that may have even inadvertently encouraged violence. I will honor The Civility Pledge: I will be civil in my public discourse and behavior. I will be respectful of others whether or not I agree with them. I will stand against incivility when I see it.