An eXileD interview with friends of Jared Lee Loughner
http://exiledonline.com/rivers-edge-redux-interview-with-jared-lee-loughners-tucson-friends/
QuoteA year ago this week, a 22-year old Army reject with a shaved head and a 9mm opened rapid-fire on a Congressional meet-and-greet outside a Tucson shopping mall, killing six and wounding 14, including a non-fatal headshot against Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. The day after the shooting, I flew to Tucson to look for stories. Upon landing I found my way to Sportsman's Wharehouse, the massive gun-shop where Loughner had purchased his Glock as easily as buying a bagel. At the counter I saw two kids Loughner's age with sleeve and neck tattoos indicating current or past membership in one of the area's many white power gangs. When I asked the guy behind the counter if the shooting had impacted sales, his manager cut me off and said staff weren't allowed to talk to press.
The fact that Tucson is considered "Arizona's Austin" says everything you need to know about the state. Tucson may be funkier than Phoenix, but it's still way too dark, way too Arizona, to ever attain Third Coast status. There's a big skinhead scene. The local airwaves are full of small-time nativist hate jocks. And the border is close, which means lots of cheap drugs, trafficking gangs, and dirty cops.
On my second night in Tucson, I was working in a ratty cafe called Shot in the Dark, an all-night worker cooperative around the corner from the Congress Hotel, where they cornered John Dillinger. I struck up a conversation with a scratched-up kid who was roughly Loughner's age. Tucson is a small town, and I asked him if he had known the killer. He said no, but for a six-pack and a box of smokes he'd introduce me to his brother's friend, who knew Loughner well. The next morning, in the blazing sun outside a taco joint, I met up with the brothers Taylor and Lance Sinclair (aged 19 and 22). They told me their story of having a ringside seat to Loughner's crack-up.
Thanks for the article, Cain. Was very interesting.
Nice.
I'm going to have to find that cafe...Because I know that area like the back of my hand, and I don't recognize the name.
One thing about the article: We don't have a "big skinhead scene". What we have is a population that tends to keep heads shaven, mostly because hair under a hat here in the summer is hell.
There is a TINY skinhead scene here, mostly in Central Filth and Marana. When I say "tiny", I mean less than a hundred. The author doesn't seem to know Tucson very well, whether or not the author is a Tucson native.
He is right about the wierd-ass radio jocks, but what he doesn't realize is that all of that shit is piped in from Phoenix. We have two (2) local shows, one teabagger and one that's more classic liberal (ie, not big Obama fans, imagine democrats in the mid-70s).
Fact: Everyone knows Loughner was a fruitcake...If you've seen his blogs, you'll know what I mean. There is no connection to any skinhead organizations (for one thing, there isn't one).
Lastly, crime from South of the border is basically non-existent in Tucson, mostly because there's no money here. The border violence happens in Nogales and Southern Chocise County, and then the human trafficking and drug trade goes straight to Phoenix. There are occasional attempts to use Tucson as a hub for drugs, but the success rate is TINY, because we have intensely stupid criminals here.
The author is right about the town being dark. Tucson has always been a little too wild and a little too gritty to ever be considered "Third Coast". It's a shitty little border city that eats everything that gets near it.
It also seems the kids were yanking the author's leg.
Party houses in Copper Creek? :lulz:
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on January 16, 2012, 03:18:52 PM
It also seems the kids were yanking the author's leg.
Party houses in Copper Creek? :lulz:
I must have been feeling really shitty to have missed that! Party houses in Copper Creek :lulz:
Quote from: The Freeky of SCIENCE! on January 16, 2012, 03:27:06 PM
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on January 16, 2012, 03:18:52 PM
It also seems the kids were yanking the author's leg.
Party houses in Copper Creek? :lulz:
I must have been feeling really shitty to have missed that! Party houses in Copper Creek :lulz:
Well, there's lots of empty houses, but you can't have an oil spot in your driveway without someone bitching, and no matter what kind of party you have, someone's gonna call the cops.
Yeah, for real.
Quote from: The Freeky of SCIENCE! on January 16, 2012, 03:36:30 PM
Yeah, for real.
Well, the house across from my folks, come to think of it, had parties all the time (the mom was a pot head herself), with people that would be about the right age...Only thing is, one of the kids that actually lived there was a stoolie, and everyone wound up getting busted. Only thing is, nothing harder than pot & beer was caught during the - count 'em - 3 raids (we have, as I have said, stupid criminals).
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on January 16, 2012, 03:42:17 PM
Quote from: The Freeky of SCIENCE! on January 16, 2012, 03:36:30 PM
Yeah, for real.
Well, the house across from my folks, come to think of it, had parties all the time (the mom was a pot head herself), with people that would be about the right age...Only thing is, one of the kids that actually lived there was a stoolie, and everyone wound up getting busted. Only thing is, nothing harder than pot & beer was caught during the - count 'em - 3 raids (we have, as I have said, stupid criminals).
For that neighborhood, pot and booze is shocking in itself.
Quote from: The Freeky of SCIENCE! on January 16, 2012, 03:44:03 PM
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on January 16, 2012, 03:42:17 PM
Quote from: The Freeky of SCIENCE! on January 16, 2012, 03:36:30 PM
Yeah, for real.
Well, the house across from my folks, come to think of it, had parties all the time (the mom was a pot head herself), with people that would be about the right age...Only thing is, one of the kids that actually lived there was a stoolie, and everyone wound up getting busted. Only thing is, nothing harder than pot & beer was caught during the - count 'em - 3 raids (we have, as I have said, stupid criminals).
For that neighborhood, pot and booze is shocking in itself.
WAT
For that neighborhood, booze and pot are almost required. Most of 'em are Calvinists...The regular rules don't apply to them, and the taps have hot & cold running hard liquor.
But meth? HAR! And no kids there can
afford heroin. That sort of thing happens in the country strip by CDO, and in the gated communities upslope to the East.
:lol: My bad. I've only ever been to your folk's house, so I dunno. :lol:
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on January 16, 2012, 01:08:03 AM
Nice.
I'm going to have to find that cafe...Because I know that area like the back of my hand, and I don't recognize the name.
Thanks to random coincidence, I've been there. It's a pretty shitty cafe and they've painted the tables black with some kind of cheap paint that sticks to the bottom of your cup and scratches right off with a fingernail.
Quote from: Nigel on January 16, 2012, 05:04:00 PM
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on January 16, 2012, 01:08:03 AM
Nice.
I'm going to have to find that cafe...Because I know that area like the back of my hand, and I don't recognize the name.
Thanks to random coincidence, I've been there. It's a pretty shitty cafe and they've painted the tables black with some kind of cheap paint that sticks to the bottom of your cup and scratches right off with a fingernail.
Oh, one of those.
It's dark maroon, not black.
And it's not paint.