Justice for Brisenia

In 2009, nine year old Brisenia Flores begged for her life before being murdered in cold blood under orders from a founding member of the Minutemen Civil Defense Corp. Today, justice has been served:

A Pima County jury convicted Shawna Forde today of two counts of first-degree murder in the May 30, 2009 deaths of Arivaca residents Raul Junior Flores and his 9-year-old daughter, Brisenia.

The jury also convicted Forde of attempted first-degree murder in the shooting of Flores’ wife, Gina Gonzalez, as well as related aggravated assault and robbery counts.

Gonzlez started crying as soon as the first guilty verdict, the killing of her daughter, was read just before noon in a packed courtroom at Pima County Superior Court.

The jury deliberated for seven hours over two days. Jurors will now be asked if the death penalty ought to be considered.

AZStarnet.com

An expanded version of this post is available in Orange & Green

 

Quotes from a White Supremacist

The Arizona Daily Star has an article published today outlining the latest efforts by Russell “National Alliance” Pearce to force local law enforcement and officials to enact Operation Wetback throughout the state in the form of SB1070.

In the article, a white supremacist posing as a credible source is given the opportunity to spread his bigotry:

Glenn Spencer, president and founder of American Border Patrol, a nonprofit group that aerially monitors the border, favors stricter illegal-immigration policies.

He said he generally was in favor of Pearce’s bill, provided it includes sufficient limits on interagency information-sharing.

“It’s time we have to stretch the envelope” (on immigration enforcement), he said. “It’s time we have to take some firm action.” Loose immigration policies, he said, would be tantamount to “importing poverty” and would “destroy Arizona.”

Here’s a refresher, courtesy of the Southern Poverty Law Center on some of Mr. Spencer’s previous rants:

“Americans, especially white Americans, should get out of California — now, before it is too late to salvage the equity they have in their homes and the value of their businesses.”
— Glenn Spencer, “White Fight or Flight,” American Patrol website, 2003

And the Anti-Defamation League has this to say about him:

Spencer’s rhetoric departed sharply from that of legitimate immigration reform groups; Spencer did not target immigration so much as he targeted Hispanics, particularly those of Mexican origin, regardless of whether they were immigrants or not. Many of his writings and comments were simply thinly veiled diatribes against “Mexicans” (like many anti-Hispanic activists, Spencer rarely differentiated between Mexicans and Americans of Mexican descent). In a 1996 letter to the Los Angles Times, for example, Spencer said that “the Mexican culture is based on deceit.” Spencer denied the letter was racist. “It has nothing to do with race,” he said. “It has to do with culture…there’s no way to pass enough laws to protect yourself from a deceitful culture.”

linkage – .pdf warning

The Star should teach its apprentices the importance of researching who they’re using as quotable sources before allowing them free reign on its pages to escalate the already dangerous situation for Latinos in Arizona.

 

Minutemen Disband

Here’s a little ray of sunshine to help usher in the Spring. One of the biggest vigilante groups in Arizona has disbanded after realizing that their violent calls for revolution along the border with Mexico would, you know, actually cause violent revolution.

The group’s president, Carmen Mercer, of Tombstone, said she and the board’s two other directors voted to end the group’s five-year run because they were worried her recent “call to action” would attract the wrong people to the border.

On March 16, Mercer sent out an e-mail urging members to come to the border “locked, loaded and ready” and urged people to bring “long arms.” She proposed changing the group’s rules to allow members to track illegal immigrants and drug smugglers instead of just reporting the activity to the Border Patrol.

After receiving a big slew of responses with people taking them on their word, the group flinched and folded. Of course, there’s also that pesky money issue that has undermined their efforts. Under the leadership of recent Senate-hopeful Chris Simcox, they bilked their ignorant donors out of nearly two million dollars:

But while the Minuteman PAC spent $1.7 million during the last election cycle (as of Nov. 24), less than 9 cents of every dollar went to help candidates — either directly through contributions or indirectly through advertisements and mailings supporting or opposing specific candidates. By contrast, nine similar PACs spent, on average, nearly four times as much –about 34 cents of every dollar — on contributions to federal campaigns and on materials calling for the election or defeat of particular candidates.

2009 SPLC Intelligence Report Intelligence Report

With the recent escalation of political intimidation in the aftermath of the passage of health insurance reform, this is one less opportunity for the gun nuts to practice their shooting. It’s amazing that the Minutemen have more sense than the GOP leadership to provide an opening for gun violence; because we all know that if something isn’t done to lower the heat, bullets will eventually fly. This country’s history almost ensures it.

 

Ozark Minutemen’s First Lady Pleads Guilty

I swear that I wrote about this at the time, because it was so outrageous, but maybe it was like one of the million blog posts I concoct in the grey zone prior to passing out each night – only a few of them ever get published. Oh well, here it is:

SPRINGFIELD | The wife of a founder of the Ozarks Minutemen has pleaded guilty to lying about being raped and shot by three Hispanic men.

Angela D. Wilburn, 44, appeared in Greene County Associate Circuit Court on Tuesday and pleaded guilty to making a false report, a class B misdemeanor. Wilburn is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 3. She could face up to six months in prison and a $500 fine.

Wilburn is the wife of Brian Wilburn, who helped form the Ozarks Minutemen. She was charged with the crime in December, after calling 911 reporting someone had shot her.

Kansas City Star

Here’s hoping that the law enforcement agencies that were forced to investigate and untangle her race-based lies charge her for all of the resources they wasted. In addition to that, let the mocking begin for this part of the fairy tale:

Meanwhile, Wilburn’s husband, whose organization presents itself as a first line of defense against “criminal alien invaders,” told the Springfield News-Leader that his wife’s bogus report of being terrorized, sexually assaulted and shot by Mexican home invaders “had nothing to do with the Minutemen. It was just a bad decision on her part.”

SPLCenter.org

Does anyone really believe that?

 

Adopt-A-Highway Spot Moved for Vigilantes

The California Department of Transportation recently awarded a stretch of I-5 near the U.S./Mexico border to the San Diego Minutemen for their Adopt-A-Highway program. Controversial from the beginning, considering the track record of that particular group of vigilantes, Caltrans has reversed its decision and moved their cleanup location.

The California Department of Transportation said Monday that the group can’t sponsor a two-mile stretch of Interstate 5 near a Border Patrol checkpoint, saying it poses “a significant safety risk.”

“The risk is in the potential for disruption to the operation of the state highway as well as public safety concerns for the traveling public and volunteers in the program,” Caltrans district director Pedro Orso-Delgado said but did not elaborate.

Although the Minutemen will get another stretch on State Route 52 in San Diego—far from the Border Patrol checkpoint—even that might prove temporary. Caltrans said it was reconsidering whether the group was eligible for any piece of highway.

“We have received information during the past couple weeks that warrants a closer look at the San Diego Minutemen relative to the eligibility criteria for this program,” Orso-Delgado said. “The department will pursue this review in an expeditious fashion.”

linkage

Hmmm, I wonder if the vandalism at Ranchos Penasquitos had anything to do with it? Or how about the research done by the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center on the San Diego Minutemen’s various ties to white supremacist groups?

Caltrans should’ve done their homework. Let’s see if they end up issuing a mea culpa and revoking the permission altogether. It will be a small win in the fight to send these extremist haters back to the shadows where they belong.

 

Migrant Murder Caught on Video

So much for being over the top. Human Hunting Season, indeed.

And this one shows a target human being being gunned down.

mariachi mama alerted us yesterday in the comments to the second video, as well as the link to a DailyKos diary that raised the flag of awareness to the kossacks. Additionally, Dave Neiwert over at Orcinus says

The recent video of a Minuteman taking potshots at illegal crossers somewhere on the Mexico borderlands was disturbing not so much for the gunfire — the man operating the camera hadn’t seemed to hit anyone — as for the running narration he provided: he positively wanted one of the men to come within his range so he could shoot them. He wanted to kill them.

Which hits on the underlying current of this incident that spans way beyond whether it’s a fabrication or a murder caught on tape – the rhetoric of hate must be stopped. These vigilante movements are dangerous. They like to pretend that they’re patriots with their high-powered binoculars and lawn chairs, but really, they are just bigots roaming around the fronteralands in Winnebagos of Fury.

The Southern Poverty Law Center is calling for law enforcement to take immediate action to investigate this footage – I would also suggest contacting the congressional committees dealing with border issues and demand the same scrutiny

House of Representatives
Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law
Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren (D-CA)
Phone: (202) 225-3951
Website: LINK

Senate
Subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees and Border Security
Chairman Edward Kennedy (D-MA)
Phone: (202) 224-7878
Fax: (202) 228-0464
Website: LINK

This must not go unnoticed by the United States public.

 

Minutemen outnumbered by Human Activists

There is a story in the Oregonian about the Children of the Del Monte Human Raid

[link here] (Manny if you can, fix the linkage thingy… por favor) [Done!]

This is no longer America. I am no longer “fighting” to get my country “back”. I am now fighting for our right to BE. I am fighting so that we all can live together. I am fighting so that we can HAVE a country, a world, a planet.

As you can see, the Peace Activists, unlike the Hate Mongers, didn’t need to cover their faces or identities. Most of the Minutemen and their supporters wore headcoverings or bandanas. They looked and acted like terrorists. People stood right next to the “terrorists”, at many times they blocked their signs with their own or with their bodies, families. Which was much more effective than a typical stand-off where people took up sides on opposing streets. I think the Minutemen and their supporters were caught off guard by this tactic.

The below was written by a fellow Portland peace activist who goes by the name Joe Anybody. The “Seriously Pissed Off Grannies” (mostly made up of CodePinkers) are part of the notorious and effective Surge Brigade. They had been arrested during Fleet Week for attempting to block tanks in the street.

More photos are at Portland Indymedia’s site and I’m sure more stories and accounts will come out.

“I went to show support and solidarity against the HATE protest

I am posting the minutemen signs as “news to those who were not there” but don’t want to post these in a way to help spread their message

There is a 20 min video I took that I will post here on Indy Media by tomorrow morning at the latest.

It was a nice turnout of Human Right Supporters

The Seriously Pissed Off Grannies had a city Hall meeting on an un related issue of having TANKS on our city streets. When they came out of the front doors into the “protest zone” they were chanting and marching side by side. I didn’t quite hear well what they were saying …but I got it on film. When they came out with their march …..the energy ratcheted up and the minute men started getting louder to voice their (sic) message.

Those Grannies are everywhere…. (thank goodness)
Good Support and solidarity by lots of loving people for the Human Rights of all people.”

I am very honored to be a member of CodePink, a friend of Manny’s and most importantly – a human being. Wars are illegal. People aren’t.

Manny thank you for granting me the ability to post my thoughts on your most impressive blog.

Paz & Courage.

 

Thoughts on the Goldwater Institute Analysis

Let’s pick some nits, shall we?

Hispanic support for Republican candidates plummeted by 10 points, to 30 percent from 40 percent, between the 2004 presidential election to the 2006 congressional election debacle, costing the GOP as many as four congressional seats. In next year’s presidential election, Hispanic votes could make the difference in four Western states, including Arizona. If Republicans continue chasing Hispanic voters away, they can kiss their national electoral prospects goodbye.

The best way to reverse the trend is to get the immigration issue behind us as quickly as possible. Hispanic Americans are conservative on most social issues, including immigration, making them a natural constituency, or at least open to voting, for Republicans. But what Hispanics saw in Republicans who made the 2006 elections a referendum on deporting illegal immigrants was a face of hostility.

linkage

I suppose a good starting point is to state the obvious: Latinos are not a monolithic group.

We are as diverse within that umbrella term as the United States itself, if not more. I guarantee you that the politics of a Marielito is nowhere near the same as a Xicano activist in East Los Angeles or a Puertorriqueña in Nueva York – to provide a small example of what I’m talkin’ about.

However. I think there has been some consolidation of sentiments nationally despite our diversity, due to the fierce bickering over immigration reform. Mr. Bolick is right to characterize it as “hostility”. When the headlines ring out regarding the latest workplace raid, we pay attention to those officials who praise the gestapo actions of ICE. After all, the articles usually provide a laundry list of nationalities that were apprehended.

According to John Chakwin, special agent in charge for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 20 of the women who were detained were Mexican, three were Salvadoran, seven were from Honduras and one was from Nicaragua.

linkage

We are also aware that this hostile climate has reinforced a long-standing stereotype among non-Latinos that we are all border-hoppers.

Some neighbors said they hadn’t noticed anything unusual at New Century Roofing.

“We didn’t see anything suspicious, but there’s so many Hispanics that are employed in the labor force that it doesn’t surprise me,” one neighbor said.

linkage

If one can’t see why a statement like that is offensive, especially an elected official, then I suggest a leukotomy stat. Hispanic/Latino/Illegal – they’re all the same. Right?

Going back to the Goldwater Institute analysis, Bolick states:

The best common denominator for Republicans and Hispanics is religion. Two major recent studies found that religion is central to the lives and political beliefs of most Hispanics and that their approach to religion is deeply conservative. Most Hispanics pray at least once a day and attend church at least once a month; nearly half of Hispanic Catholics, twice as many as other Catholics, believe the Bible is the literal word of God.

No, no, no, no and hell no. Can you feel the propaganda waves bouncing off your face from the monitor?

“…their approach to religion is deeply conservative” – Speaking on this from a practicing Catholic point-of-view, it is true that the Church is (regrettably) tracking hard to the right, especially under this current Pope – but if you go to a predominately Latino parish you will see that the social justice/liberation theology wing of Catholicism is alive and well despite the hierarchy’s continued attempts to stamp it out or at least ignore it, hoping it’ll go away. It won’t.

It is troubling to me that the GOP thinks the best way to recover from their electoral woes is to do more illegal meshing of political and religious platforms. Having spirituality (sometimes it’s even within an organized religion, but not always) is, in my opinion, about discovering the best way to live your life within the context of a wider community – the world.

The authoritarian tendencies of the conservative dog-whistle that Bolick is tooting out is not something that will fly – especially if the outcomes threaten our families, educational systems and ability to live our culture unabated. Speaking of education, he goes on to say

Hispanics consistently rank education as one of the top issues of concern but currently favor Democrats on the issue by more than 2-1.

Republicans can change that equation by championing school choice among Hispanic families and voters.

Again – no. What would certainly get the attention of just about every single person in this country is to adequately fund the schools that are already in place. Equalize the ability for a barrio school to provide the same quality of education that you would find in an affluent area. You would get virtually no opposition for advocating that we pay teachers what they are worth, and ending the atrocity that is the No Child Left Behind Act that is straining the entire education system to the breaking point.

Ending his analysis, Bolick writes this:

Hispanic Republicans have won significant offices in Florida, New Mexico, New York and elsewhere. But in Arizona, the GOP seems decidedly unwelcoming: There are few Hispanic Republican officeholders across the state, and even conservative Hispanics cannot win contested primaries against opponents sounding anti-immigration themes.

The reason can be summed up in one word: Minutemen.

At all levels of government, the Republican party has allowed their public faces to be the most rabid of nativists in our midst. The GOP State Chairperson is not only one of the vigilantes, he was also the architect of Proposition 200. Plus, lets not forget that the now-retired JD Hayworth was a huge supporter of the Binocular Brigade. Oh, and how about the State Legislature’s darling conservative Russell Pearce?

And their candidates? Last fall, Randy Graf was out spooking everyone for Halloween with pregnant girls warning against invading hordes of Mexicans while Ron Drake was advocating for the Great Wall of America™.

These are not the voices of moderation. These are not voices who are even making an attempt to understand where the Latino community is coming from on the various issues of the day. It is a group who has chosen to define us in the most negative way possible. Take the Superintendent for Public Instruction, for example, in a Letter to the Editor to the AZRepublic in February:

In a column dated Jan. 29, 2007 “Let’s ditch ’50s mentality,” Republic editorial writer Linda Valdez criticizes me for one of my lawyer’s arguments in the Flores case.

This argument was that Tucson Unified should not be heard claiming that their English-language program suffers from lack of state funds. In fact, they waste huge amounts of the money they do receive on programs like “ethnic studies,” including “Raza” studies. (“La Raza” means “the race.”)

linkage

The discrediting of MEChA is something that the far-right has been trying to do for decades. It is part of a coordinated fear campaign that ties very strongly into the Reconquista myth. XicanoPwr has done the best dissection that I’ve seen on the tubes of how these nativists are trying to stamp out any efforts on our part to keep the indigenous cultura of this area alive.

When the Superintendent of Public Instruction directly targets programs that help equalize the education for young Latinos using macro-propaganda (La Raza means The People, you ignorant fool, as in ‘We, The People’) then policy recommendations from people like Clint Bolick and the Goldwater Institute are frivolous at best. It is just one example of how this campaign of division is no accident.

Nice try, though.

Crossposted at the ePluribus Media Community Site

 

Pedro Guzman Blogging and Other Musings

Here’s where things stand so far in blogtopia (y!sctp) with respect to coverage of Pedro Guzman‘s forced exile and subsequent disappearance:

The Mex Files, Disability Studies – Temple U., UnSpace, Dallas-Fort Worth Immigration Lawyer, And We Shall March, Intersections, BadCopNews, Courage Campaign, TBogg, Rook’s Rant, Guanabee, Left End of the Dial, kid oakland, The Liberal OC, Calitics, Daily Kos, The Latin Americanist, Tejas Cubbie, Why Now?, Beautiful Horizons, Crime Scene KC, Outside the Beltway, The Gimp Parade, Fetch me my axe, States Without Nations, The Bullwinkle Blog, Hullabaloo, scootmandubious, serpentine smile, The Latino Body, nazarian, onefivetwo, cannablog, PREGUNTAVER, All Spin Zone, QuizLaw, ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES, Fair Immigration Reform Movement, Pandagon, The Feminist Blog Network, I Am The Lizard Queen, Vox ex Machina, BlueBloggin

Lots of search engine hits over the weekend here, did this topic make its way to the corporate media while I was out fishing? If so, good, but as mariachi mama said in the comments here the other day, this type of blatant viciousness by ICE and other tentacles of the Department of Homeland Security happens everyday.

“Probable cause” for vehicle searches, requests for verification of citizenship at a workplace or even standard government services boil down to the same thing: skin color.

Again, not something that can be proven with charts and poll numbers. It is something that is experienced everyday by those with tierra-colored skin. I know because I am one of them.

There was a time when I thought that I had a persecution complex. But you can only ignore the sideways glances, the extra attention at checkpoints, the request for additional pieces of identification, the “where are you from” question so much before you just accept that this is the reality you must live.

This ‘probable cause’ is why vigilante groups like the Minutemen are racist, despite the howls of indignation you get from some of their members. When a group is committed to ferreting out “illegals”, it begs the question: How are they identifying them?

The answer to that is why you will find uncompromised deference towards the immigrant community at this blog. They are me, regardless of status. The key to brightening the future, however, is when the larger progressive community says ‘They are we too’. A humble blog like this can only do so much to raise the alarm that human rights abuses are occurring on a constant basis.

 

Arizona News Round-Up

Now that you’re done marking your calendars for Gila Bend’s Desert Scorpion Shrimp Festival, lets take another trip down the unbeaten path to see what’s going on in the Grand Canyon State.

Lake Havasu City – Mecca of Jet Skis, Boating, and…Rusty Buses

The double-decker bus in the English Village has hit the road.

Not that the bus could make it anywhere on its own. The bus was pulled Thursday from its base with a crane and then towed off the property through a donation by Steve Getter, owner of Steve’s Towing service.

Today’s News-Herald

I’m pretty sure that thing puts the Death in Death Ride. Anywho, heading up the highway towards Laughlin Kingman, the Mohave County Board of Supervisors grasp with the effects of Proposition 101 on rural areas.

The focus of Tuesday’s budget workshop for the Board of Supervisors seemed less about what the different county departments were asking for and more about what funds were being taken away from the county. The effects of Proposition 101 on the county’s coffers was repeatedly brought up by not only the Board but various department heads as well.

Proposition 101 was passed by voters in November. It limits the amount the county can increase the property tax rate to 2 percent each year plus new development.

Kingman Daily Miner

Heading east, the town of Williams is facing an emergency that will probably become an inevitability for the entire Southwest region – water woes

“We are finding ourselves, currently, in what I would term a water crisis. Williams has had water crises in the past,” said Wells. “This last winter created virtually no rainfall or snow of any amount and we are looking forward, as we always do, and we came to realize that, within a year, this town could be totally out of water. To compound things, our Dogtown I Well recently went down. The electric motor has burned out and we plan, at some point this summer, to replace the motor and get Dogtown I back up, so we currently only have one producing water well that is available for usage and our reservoirs are precariously low. June is the month of the year that tends to reduce the levels of our reservoirs rather dramatically. It is what I would term a crisis, because we know if the drought continues, and it is expected to continue, then within one year this community is out of water.”

Williams-Grand Canyon News

Continuing down I-40 to Flagstaff, the newest Democratic candidate for Congressional District 1 announced her bid.

Mary Kim Titla hopes to become the first Native American woman in Congress. She has announced her candidacy and plans to unseat Rick Renzi from Arizona’s Congressional District One.

Titla took her campaign race onto the winding woodland trail above Flagstaff’s Thorpe Park that has served as the route for the Native Americans for Community Action (NACA) Sacred Mountain Prayer Run for several years now.

Navajo Hopi Observer

Here is her campaign website to get more info on her candidacy. I recall her stint with Channel 12 in Phoenix, it’ll be interesting to see what happens.

Dipping south now towards Camp Verde, some residents will finally reap the rewards of the town getting their crap together.

In 1993 an election was held in Camp Verde to annex a large tract of the town into the sanitary district.

The landowners that were taken in have been paying taxes just like everyone else in the district. Only they haven’t been hooked up to anything. In many instances they have had to pay additional fees to have their septic systems repeatedly pumped.

That is going to change.

On Wednesday, sanitary district Chairman Rob Witt took a trip to Phoenix to the offices of the district bond council Fred Rosenfeld. There he signed the paperwork that finalized the last $11 million needed to finish the expansion project.

Camp Verde Bugle

Speaking of sewage – two vigilantes in Prescott are facing charges for harassment

A Prescott Police investigation has revealed that two members of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps had provoked the alleged attack by a man they photographed picking up the day labor at the corner of Lincoln and Grove avenues on May 18.

Lt. Ken Morley said that David Hunter and Bentley Bremmon could face misdemeanor harassment charges.

“They were harassing him to the point where Scott Blair got out of his truck and went after these two guys,” Morley said.

Prescott Daily Courier

And not really news, but definitely intriguing (at least to me), an excerpt from historical and creative writing out of the former mining hamlet of Jerome.

Lillie watched as the driver turned and started running down the rocky canyon road toward Jeome. She knew that he would probably run all the way to town. She wiped the handkerchief around her lace collar. It was hot. One of those spring days in Arizona that reminded you of just how hot it could be by the time summer came around. She knew that she should have waited for Jack to arrive from San Francisco, but she just couldn’t resist the idea of coming over the mountain in a stagecoach. She realized that soon there would be no more stagecoaches, and since it was only a day trip from Prescott to Jerome . . . well . . . She just hoped that the booming mining camp was all that it professed to be – the luxurious Hotel Montana, the spectacular view, the Opera House.

Lillie leaned her head out of the coach and surveyed her surroundings. They had just come down from the pass where they had been surrounded by pine woods and meadows. Then abruptly the terrain had changed. She was now in a small rocky canyon. Instead of pine forest, it was highland desert – red rock, manzanita, cactus, and desert flowers. Her eyes ran down the canyon to where it opened into the valley a couple of thousand feet below. She could see all the way across the valley to the massive red rock cliffs on the other side. Lazy white clouds drifted across the blue sky. The sun was growing hotter in the canyon.

Jerome Times

What’s going on in your part of the world?