Don't Be Doped

Although this should be kept in mind where the wider situation is concerned, Peter Hitchens writes:

The left-wing media are full of attempts to blame the Arizona murders on some sort of wave of hatred engendered by 'right-wing' movements, radio stations etc. So far as I can see, there is absolutely no evidence for this. I have little liking for the raucous tone of the 'Tea Party' and the supposedly conservative talk radio hosts, who seem to me to be Reaganites without the charm or the Cold War to justify or excuse them, economic liberals, emptily belligerent abroad, uninterested in genuine conservative reform at home, and very far from conservative in any proper sense.

But this claim (as a sensible radio report from the BBC's Jonny Diamond made clear on the 'Today' programme this morning) is not necessarily the case. Evidence for it is scant, and the main reason for the connection being made is an outburst by a local sheriff. Only one of the victims could conceivably have been the target of political rage. The Judge who was killed was there by chance and the killer almost certainly didn't know who he was. More significantly the alleged killer is said to be an incoherent, cannabis-smoking (and possibly LSD-taking) loner from a dysfunctional and far-from-conservative home background. He is said to have a police record for possession of drug paraphernalia and another unspecified charge. Those who claim that the USA conducts a 'severe war on drugs' might note that this event resulted in a 'diversion programme', not several years in the slammer.

I would, as usual in such cases, ask whether he has in the past or at the present been prescribed anti-depressants or other drugs of this nature, as the culprits of such killings very often turn out to have been ingesting these substances. But it is worth mentioning that in this case cannabis, with its well-known association with serious mental illness, especially in those of school age, may have taken the place of such things. And if he has taken LSD, then the danger of total mental overthrow is even greater.