Gabrielle Giffords Shooting: Tucson, Arizona Protest Videos Show Climate

In the wake of the shooting of U.S. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and 13 others by Jared Loughner (who's insanely smiling for his mug shot in this ABC News photo), six of which were killed, not enough focus has been brought to bear on the Tucson, Arizona environment that the Congresswoman operated within.

A YouTube channel called JeremyINTucson1 provides a view in three protest event videos specifically directed at Congresswoman Giffords, and from her city of Tucson, Arizona.

The point I'm making here is that the climate of negative discorse about Congresswoman Giffords provided the crucible within which Jared Loughner's actions were planned out and eventually done. 

Here are the videos:

Second Gabby Protest Video (so named by JeremyINTucson1:



Third Gabby Protest Video:



Fourth Gabby Protest Video:



There's no "First" "Gabby Protest Video" for whatever reason. But from the videos, all in Tucson, and all against Congresswoman Giffords on the specific issue of healthcare, it should be clear that Loughner was not alone in Tucson, in his essential dislike for the involvement of government in our lives.

That should raise this question: to what extent were his own parents influential in his anti-government thinking, and did they make statements against Congresswoman Giffords?  (His parents aren't talking as of this writing.)

Also, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow created this segment outlining the threats and racist incidents over the Obama Health Care Reform Initiative:



As the video shows, a number of Democratic Congresspeople have received death or quasi-death threats from people opposing the Obama Health Care Initiative.  But Tucson stands out because of its climate of negative discourse against its Congressperson - in this case Gabrielle Giffords.   Moreover, what kind of influence did this culture have on the now-obviously mentally unstable Jared Loughner?

My view is the influence was considerable, and it was unchecked.   The result is what we're dealing with today.

It also why former Governor Sarah Palin's crosshairs map is so wrong: it contributes to this negative discourse just by its design.  As revealed on Anderson Cooper 360 this evening, Governor Palin herself called the crosshairs "bullseyes."

Shameful.

CNN's David Gergen is wrong here. Tucson is at fault. Sorry.