Jerry Duncan wished he had a "dirty bomb" to kill every liberal in Fresno

Fresno Bee ^ | August 15, 2003 | Pablo Lopez and Matt Leedy

[Saundra Duffy]

Duncan's e-mail note ignites fury - Fresno council member wrote of using 'dirty bomb' to kill liberals.

Fresno residents and community leaders, outraged by an e-mail message in which City Council Member - Jerry Duncan wished he had a "dirty bomb" to kill every liberal in Fresno, called Thursday for his resignation, recall or reprimand.

[Chad Fairbanks]

I disagree with this guy completely and fully. WHat he said was not only outrageous, but lacking in commone sense. I mean, if he used a dirty bomb to kill all th eliberals, then that wouldn't leave any left for anyone else, and that's just greedy.

[mlo]

Care to chime in?

I think this is much ado about nothing. It's a harmless comment in an email where Jerry Duncan is just being Jerry Duncan.

If there are any Republicans that really object to this behavior and want to run against Duncan next time, so be it. If the voters don't like it they can vote for someone else.

Unlike the other case, which involves actual wrongdoing by the politician and where his supporters are inciting "war" to defend him at all costs.

[Saundra Duffy]

I'm glad that he is a patriot, but I still think that this was a stupid thing to say and even stupider to put in a documentable format (email).

Fair statement. But I still think the liberals set him up. You just know the liberals on the Council have written WORSE stuff in their emails but I think they deleted theirs because they were fore-warned.

[Saundra Duffy]

Jerry Duncan is a conservative Republican. I think Republicans should stand by him in this his time of need. We should not demand his resignation. We should defend free speech and the American way.

[Enterprise]

I think the Bee's tactics are despicable. IMHO they should be required to register as an official publication of the Democratic Party. They have plenty of ink to attack conservatives, but the well runs dry when they need to cover the misdeeds by the RATS in Sacramento.

[TheSpottedOwl]

Jerry Duncan is a conservative Republican. I think Republicans should stand by him in this his time of need. We should not demand his resignation. We should defend free speech and the American way.

Only liberals have free speech. Bustamante can use the N word. Larry Flynt can publicly throw a terrible curse on Bill O'Reilly. Alec Baldwin can publicly wish that a public official and his family death by stoning. Hillary Clinton can get caught making nasty comments about a Jewish person. Yawn...A Republican vents his frustration by wishing he had a dirty bomb to drop on all the liberals in Fresno. Whoa, that's serious!

Liberals are such hypocrites!

For the record, I disagree with using a dirty bomb. A daisy cutter, or a couple of Hellfire missiles would be so much more fun ;-)

[FairOpinion]

Thanks. People, probably just about everybody says things privately, among a trusted group of people, which would hurt them, if it got out, they make an unguarded comment or two -- that includes important people like CEO-s and politicians. But these days almost anything can get out, especially actual records, like e-mails.

Sometimes people regard e-mail as "just talking", but obviously it is something which provides a record.

Hard as it must be, I think politicians, CEO-s and everyone in responsible positions need to stop and think, because there are so many people are out there just waiting to pounce and play "gotcha".

I totally agree that the media is biased and lets the liberals get away with much worse things, but again, we need to take all that into account.

I hope this blows over and everyone will learn from it.

I think what Lott said was basically nothing, and look how it got twisted.

I think there is an Indian proverb that says something like: "The spoken (and written) word is like an arrow, once it's left your bow, you can't recall it".

[Freebird Forever]

I disagree with this guy completely and fully

Concur.

It would be virtually impossible to control collateral damage with the use of a dirty bomb.

Summery execution by firing squad is far more expedient.

[Leroy S. Mort]

Here they go again - going after a conservative Republican. This is about free speech in a free society. But because Jerry Duncan is a conservative, the liberal press is trying to "fry" him.

What did he do? Obviously, he was kidding around.

There are people out there, supposedly on the Right, who would do the same thing. Must be something in the water out there.....

[drjimmy]

It was suggested that they were warned and were able to DELETE their emails beforehand. FIGURES!
You have repeated variations of this in nearly every post. Where exactly was this "suggested"?

[CARepubGal]

This is a bad thing for him to think....How? Why is it that the Left can say a lot worse things about local state and federal officials and nobody screams "treason" ? GRRRR!

[ChemistCat]

I disagree with you. I think he should resign. It was an inappropriate thing to do, so inappropriate that I believe he has completely negated his capacity to lead his community. It shows childishness and such poor judgment that he doesn't deserve to hold any public office.

DARN IT, we need to be BETTER THAN THE LIBS. We owe it to our cause to stand above that kind of nonsense. Threats about bombs ARE NOT and NEVER WILL be funny. They weren't funny before terrorism, and they're not funny now. "Kidding around" isn't something our leaders should be doing in time of war.

Free speech? Bomb threats, even indirect, are not and never have been covered by free speech rights and you all know that.

I will not defend any conservative for doing things so wrong I would call for a lib to resign over them, and this is in that category.

[Denver Ditdat]

It was a stupid thing to say. He should have learned from the "real bullets" comment directed at Ah-nold. Lest any Freepers get too wrapped up in defending this guy, take a look at those threads from earlier this week and notice that wrath we were bringing down on that guy's head.

It's wrong when they do it, and it's wrong when we do it. Free speech has consequences.

[Texas Mom]

But making threats is stupid all the way around. Feel free to express your displeasure - leave the threats for the 12 year olds.

That wasn't a threat it was a off the cuff wish.. Democrats jump on everything and anything they can. As Rush said they get so funny when they aren't in power.

[Maccabee-AJB]

I agree with Autry on this one:

<< Mayor Alan Autry, who often is politically aligned with Duncan, said: "The comments are inappropriate in a public or private forum. The bad thing is that they were said. The good thing is Jerry has apologized and taken responsibility." >>

I don't think it's a silly misunderstanding, I think it was a STUPID move on Duncan's part. Sure, we're all made such sarcastic comments in private -- not that that's right -- but Cary Catalano is correct that he shouldn't have done it on city time with city equipment. It sets a bad precedent. Yeah, Cary blew it out of proportion, but that's Cary...he and I go WAY back, we were both involved in Fresno City College student government at the same time.

So, I'm not upset that the Bee did the story, but I think the slant of it was a bit over the top...but then, so was Jerry. Of course, the real issue here is not the statements, but the fact that Jerry is against the HRC, thus making his comments truly attackable by liberal standards.

Those of us who are Scripture-abiding Believers should abhor this kind of comment. I plan to tell Jerry -- next time I can catch him alone -- that I was disappointed in his comments, but that the reaction was over the top. But we all really need to look at ourselves if think this kind of comment is harmless. It's a stain on the soul that can only be removed by true contrition to God and the target of the words. We should be especially watchful since the Adversary is likely to put Fresno Bees out there to monitor our every wrong word and publish it for the world to see our sins.

(Same goes for Mr. Samuelian's indiscretions, BTW.)

[Lord_Baltar]

Yes bass, but in all fairness, if I remember correctly, some of the fine Folks around here defending Duncan, were also the same ones going crazy over the Idiot Baldwin's comments.

[Maccabee-AJB]

<< FWIW, here's my take:

1. Duncan has the right to say what he wants.
2. Duncan doesn't have the right to say what he wants without criticism.
3. If a public official says or writes that he wants to kill his opponents, that's not smart.
4. We'll never hear the end of this. For the next twenty years, this will make the rounds as "typical" of the sorts of things conservatives say. It will be like when Rush Limbaugh called Chelsea Clinton the White House dog. He apologized for it, never repeated it, and it was ten years ago. But every Democratic activist seems to remember it as all as they need to know about Rush Limbaugh. >>

PRECISELY...

[mlo]

Jerry Duncan is a conservative Republican. I think Republicans should stand by him in this his time of need. We should not demand his resignation. We should defend free speech and the American way.

I'm not calling for his resignation, although I respect the views of those here that are. As someone said, people treat email as "just talking" and who doesn't make tasteless jokes sometimes? This is not the same as having a real desire to kill anybody.

Regarding your logic expressed above though, there I see a big problem, and it's one where I'm obviously not alone.

If you want to defend someone just because he agrees with you politically, no matter what he did, then you are putting partisan interest ahead of principle. It is *precisely* the same thing that the Democrats did in defending Clinton from his multitude of crimes. When you do it for a Republican you are no better than they were.

Perversly, in the Samuelian case you've taken his defense to the extreme of denying any responsibility on his part (as does he, but he's lying) and trying to inflame an internal party fight to get your way. That is not in the interest of the party and it is not in the interest of principle. You are wrong on every level. You should be acting for Republicans not for a particular politician.

[JoeSchem]

I only wish there had been some way to let liberals surrender to the Soviet Union without the rest of America having to go along.