The national media wolfpack has been in Tucson to cover the tragic Nancy Guthrie story. As a result, Tucson has been introduced to the nation.
That’s not good news for Tucson.
In typical fashion, the wolves have engaged in sensationalism, have second-guessed law enforcement, have dwelled on irrelevant political issues between Sheriff Nanos and others, and have mischaracterized Tucson and the Foothills.
Of more interest than the howling of the wolves is how their audiences have reacted to the coverage—in particular, what readers of on-line editions of the print media have written in response. The comments have similar themes, whether in the lowbrow New York Post or the highbrow Wall Street Journal.
Readers have especially criticized Sheriff Nanos, as the following sample comments show:
Smallish town sheriff in over his head and apparently not turning the whole investigation over to the FBI. Also seemed to be some early delays at getting the investigation started. Has made some dumb statements recently.
Shut Nanos up!
Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos is showing that he is the most useless sheriff of all time.
Sheriff Nanos is the Bagdad Bob of Tucson.
This sheriff is terrible. Can’t even speak well
The sheriff is a total buffoon. I almost expect him to announce he’s working hard to verify that the sun came up today.
The sheriff is a nut case.
It’s rare for a local law enforcement agency in a high profile or unusual case like this to have the experience to solve it and/or to refuse assistance from a more qualified external agency, such as the FBI. The problem that local sheriff or police departments have is over confidence with their investigators, or maybe it’s too much ego, but Nanos and the Pima County Sheriff’s department are in way over their head on this one.
Don’t beat up on the sheriff. It’s Mayberry. If the outcome miraculously turns out good, watch for Kash Patel to show up to get the credit for the FBI.
Comments about Tucson and Arizona weren’t much better and reflected the nation’s political divide:
You can’t expect too much from a desert backwater.
From sick Liberal politicians to incompetent sheriffs, Arizona has just gone downhill steadily.
Tucson has been blue forever.
Maybe the AZ GOP should get its act together and not push clueless candidates like Kari Lake and Blake Masters.
Some readers characterized Tucson as a small town. At least they were refuted by other readers:
Smallish town? Pima county/Tucson has more than 1 million people.
Pima County is not a “small town”. It is a large area encompassing, I believe, Phoenix. If I remember correctly, Phoenix is only about an hours’ drive from Tuscan [sic].
One reader got to the nut of the problem:
As sad as the Nancy G case is, the Sheriff has 1 million people in Pima County he is responsible to protect. Outside of Tucson proper, Pima County is a vast desert area with only the Sheriff dept to protect. He cannot devote 100% of his time and deputies to finding her. I wonder how many other crimes are being committed or unsolved because too many resources are focused on Nancy G and her home? Also, there are a lot of armchair Sheriffs in the media making noise.
Allow me to expound on the preceding comment.
It’s bizarre that a sheriff provides law enforcement to the Tucson suburb known as the Foothills, which is a suburban area of approximately 50,000 people—and which is where Nancy Guthrie’s house is located, as well as mine.
Just as bizarre, the sheriff provides the sole law enforcement to 36 percent of the Tucson metropolis. Why does he do this? Because a whopping 36 percent of the metropolis is unincorporated and thus doesn’t have its own police department.
It’s surprising that the crackerjack national media haven’t picked up on this. After all, in most urban and suburban parts of the country, this isn’t the case. Law enforcement is principally done by a municipal police department, and county sheriff deputies are irrelevant to most people and are almost never seen or mentioned.
The word “sheriff” conjures up images of John Wayne westerns, or Sheriff Andy Taylor in the TV series “Mayberry RFD,” or the gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone (although Virgil Earp was a marshal, not a sheriff). No wonder city slickers think that Tucson is a Podunk town.
Pima County is 9,000 square miles and extends to the Mexico border. There is no way that the Pima County Sheriff Department can cover all of this and, at the same time, patrol the unincorporated suburbs of Tucson as regularly as a municipal police department would.
This means that Nancy Guthrie’s neighborhood was getting the same law enforcement as Cow Belch, Ariz. Maybe an inquisitive reporter will investigate how this bizarre arrangement came to be and why it is tolerated by residents.
Mr. Cantoni can be reached at [email protected].
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