Free speech: the best defence against violent rhetoric

This article was published in The Guardian 13 January 2011

After the Arizona shooting, some are calling for legal restraint of political vitriol. But the answer is not less expression, but more.

After the shooting rampage that severely injured Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, killed six others and wounded about a dozen more persons who attended a neighbourhood meeting, the local sheriff, Clarence Dupnik, spoke for many when he blamed the episode on the vitriolic political rhetoric now prevalent in the United States. Sheriff Dupnik said:

"The anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be outrageous…[U]nfortunately, Arizona I think has become sort of the capital. We have become the Mecca for prejudice and bigotry."

As I write, it is far too soon to offer a firm judgment on the part played in causing these crimes by politicians who have glorified the use of weapons and by radio and television demagogues. Let us assume, however, that they did help to create a climate in which Jared Lee Loughner thought he was justified in trying to kill Congresswoman Giffords and those who gathered to meet her. If so, what is to be done?