Winners And Losers - Granite Grok

Winners And Losers

“Anybody can become angry – that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way – that is not within everybody’s power and is not easy.”   Aristotle

Oh No Guns....and magazines...and ammoThis is one of those stories where a judge gets to pick the winners and losers .I read this article in the Union Leader 13 days ago about a guy who threatened another with a Shotgun at Eastside Plaza. The narrative written by Kathryn Marchocki, sums up the thesis as follows: Guy pulls into handicapped parking and takes up two spaces. Along comes another guy (with a handicapped placard) and he is indignant…angry perhaps about what he sees…perhaps, even because he was denied the space because of guy number one.

Guy Number 2 attempts to pull into a spot while being told to wait, which…I am only guessing here, only fueled his anger more. Now even more Angry, he pulls into the adjacent spot anyway inching in next the guy number one’s vehicle. Guy number one tells guy number two, “If you hit this vehicle with my infant daughter in it, it’s not going to go well for you,” At which point, Driggers claims  guy number two holds up an unloaded shotgun and responds,  “How well do you think it will go for you?”

“I just freaked out at that point and I called the cops,” said Craig Driggers, a weekend disc jockey at 106.3 Frank FM.

The Police show up and arrested Richard Sinotte (guy number 2) Sinotte told the Union Leader, “I did not point a weapon at him or threaten him. I was mad that he was taking up two handicapped parking spaces. ”  Sinotte goes on to tell the Union Leader that, he reached over to locked his passenger side door and roll up the window because, he claimed, Driggers was getting out of his Jeep.

Sinotte had the shotgun in his vehicle because he had just returned from Deer hunting, the article says.

So here is the question…Did Sinotte hold up the shotgun? Sinotte asserts he did not. Will Sinotte prevail? or will he be convicted?  It is going to come down to whether or not any additional “disinterested” witnesses corroborate what Driggers asserts. This, based on the news account is Driggers word against Sinottes.

But…here is what I learned in the meantime….Craig Driggers is a total hot head and a nut job. The wonders of facebook truly are amazing! So I sent him a private message. His response was astounding.  The first Sentence…

WFNQ-FM Weekend DJ Craig Driggers
WFNQ-FM Weekend DJ Craig Driggers

Richard, The gall you’ve exhibited in contacting me directly is stunning. I’m nearly as shocked by your numerous assumptions about my situation and your moral comparisons to your own, as I was by Sinotte’s actions that day.

You asked me to clear one thing up. I’ll actually clear up a few. Not because I feel a necessity to explain anything to you. I do it because, I want you to fully appreciate how incredibly inappropriate contacting me like this was, and, hopefully, engrain upon you how very wrong you actually are.

In your moral comparison, you stated you took your four year old granddaughter into the store to help shop. Good for you. My daughter is 20 months old, less than half your granddaughter’s age. You didn’t specify, but I’m going to assume your granddaughter was awake, and not having her afternoon nap. My daughter was.

My mother wouldn’t have allowed for a second my daughter to be awoken, simply to be present while she shopped. Had she been so selfish, the result would have been 45 minutes of shopping with a crying and fussy 20 month old, unnecessarily.

Did you know my daughter was 20 months? It’s in the article. Did you know she was napping? It’s in the article.

You seem like a smart and educated man, so, how dare you read a story, knowingly take bits and pieces from it to make moral comparisons that are, in fact, apples and oranges, and then contact me, the victim? What the hell is wrong with you!?

Now, to your, “one thing.” I couldn’t honestly care less how you interpret what I said to Sinotte, your apparent legal background notwithstanding. Video evidence will show quite clearly Sinotte pulling within inches of my vehicle. In a moment of panic, and fear for my daughter, I warned him that hitting my vehicle, occupied by a toddler wouldn’t go well. Financially and criminally were my thoughts at the time.

My toddler was in the vehicle. If you have a hard time wrapping your head around my state of mind at the time then your ignorance is equal only to your gall.

So, councilor, let’s imagine, given the details of the situation, I had instead said to Sinotte, “You hit this car, with my toddler in it, I’ll crack your skull open” Tell me, sir, what onus would have been placed upon Sinotte? If anything other than contacting 911 comes to mind, notify the Bar, because HE WAS THE AGRESSOR!

He brandished a shotgun in the public parking area of a grocery store. A place you yourself know is often occupied by children and the elderly.

But listen, Richard, I get it. You shop there. You see people park like jerks, and it really bothers you. I understand. When I see people park like jerks it bothers me as well. You read this story and thought you immediately spotted the devil. You said you’ve seen what I did, and sometimes people need those spaces, and other times they don’t.

My mother needed that space. Given the details regarding my daughter napping, you should understand that I didn’t want my mother to continue to walk any more than was necessary. I pulled into that space for mere seconds and made a minor mistake in the way I stopped. We’d have been gone in 25 more seconds. My mother was actively loading groceries when he pulled up. Another detail you may have intentionally decided to ignore.

Sinotte acted like an aggressive lunatic and escalated his actions to a felonious level AFTER being informed there was a toddler present. If you see equivalence there, then you need psychological help.

You should be ashamed of yourself for having contacted me, but I’ll tell you what, Richard; since you’ve decide to crusade against the victims in this case, (a father, a toddler, and a disabled woman) and, assuming you’re licensed to practice law in NH, why don’t you contact Sinotte and offer to defend him pro bono? I’d be eager to recount the details of that incident to you, and a judge, in court.

Oh, and thanks for the unnecessarily snarky and rude heads up. But honestly, I don’t give a shit what radio stations you listen to, you goddamn jerk.

Please don’t ever contact me again.

Snark? its what we do over here at Granite Grok…We love snark, Gall? nah….was just merely curious….So what did I learn?  Craig Driggers is an angry man, not in control of his emotions. My original message to him didn’t employ any swearing or personal attacks about his career, profession or anything else…I stuck to the circumstance. Yeah, I poked him with a sharp stick when I told him I wasn’t listening to Frank FM or that he showed poor judgement.

But here is the larger context. If it was inappropriate for me to send him a message, then why not tell me that and leave it at that? Why take the time energy and energy from angry emotions to write 717 condescending, churlish patronizing words to little “ol’ me?” I mean, think about this folks…who am I to Craig Driggers? Nothing!  Certainly, we’ve never met. I don’t sign his paycheck, he doesn’t pay rent to me…So basically, I am sans relevance.

So we have to wonder what else is bubbling underneath all of this…The Craig Driggers of this world suffer from narcissism…oh, its okay…I’m not being mean, most know that radio and TV personalities do. You’d think reading the post above, he’s the only one who has ever had a kid and that I haven’t the first clue about the challenges of kids…Hell, I had three! So, that pure narcissism, I would reckon…

I mean seriously…What person, knowing full well he or she has no business in a handicapped parking spot, would make use of one anyway? Oh wait, he did say his mother was disabled in that message, but that never came out in the news article. Usually disabled folks display a placard.  In summary this was “all about Craig” i.e. sleeping child….my mother would not allow…screaming child….all about him. Narcissism…

So why is all this important? It is really not. its just details…But at the end of the day such responses, thoughts and feedback give us all a window into the worlds, minds and hearts of people that are…well, a bit “fruitloops…” And that is important because what they say and do can have profound consequences on the lives of others. Telling the truth is not the hallmark of narcissists.

Questions of credibility will be revisited in a legal forum to test the credibility of what Craig Driggers accuses Richard Sinotte of doing. This post allows us doubt as to the truth of what Driggers says and lends credibility to Sinotte.

My initial knee-jerk first impression of Driggers after reading his response? “A run-of-the-mill Hoplophobe who saw a shotgun on the seat of a truck and decided to incorporate its presence in exerting power over Sinotte. I might be wrong, but the hothead sent me there.

As for Sinotte making us gun folks look bad? Withhold judgement for now…All the facts, ain’t in…and the person making the accusation has a credibility challenge facing him in this legal forum. Remember, There are winners and losers…Winners have credibility and losers do not.

Finally, there are some of those commenting in the Union Leader’s on line version. “Why is he Deer Hunting if he is disabled?”  In this day and age, that statement demonstrates how liberalism is mere hollow symbolism over substance. This whole notion of accommodation for the handicapped? Its a myth.

>