Navarrette: No laughing matter

I can usually count on amusement from a band of border vigilantes and their Minuteman-tics.

In April 2006, when Sen. John McCain dared unemployed union members to pick lettuce to disprove his contention that Americans won’t do the jobs that immigrants do, an outraged group of Minutemen demonstrated outsideMcCain‘s office in Phoenix holding heads of lettuce — to show that they could pick lettuce if they had to. The produce was wrapped in cellophane and stamped with a bar code. The protesters picked lettuce all right — in a supermarket.

In October 2006, I wrote a commentary in which I lampooned the Minutemen for prowling “the U.S.-Mexico border chasing Mexicans — admittedly, not an easy thing to do when you’re carrying a lawn chair and a cooler of beer.” In response, Jim Gilchrist, co-founder of the Minuteman Project, wrote a rebuttal insisting that his volunteers “do not drink on duty.” When I tell that story to cops, they usually chuckle at the phrase “on duty.”

In February 2007, Gilchrist found himself in what turned into a long and bitter feud with directors of his own organization after they fired him over allegations of fraud, failure to secure nonprofit status, mismanagement and falsifying documents. Gilchrist sued the board, which retained control of the Minuteman name, and the board countersued. Gilchrist later launched a new group, Jim Gilchrist’s Minuteman Project.

But there’s nothing amusing about what occurred May 30 in the border town of Arivaca, Ariz., about 50 miles south of Tucson. Nine-year-old Brisenia Flores and her father, Raul, were shot and killed by intruders dressed in camouflage and impersonating law enforcement officers. Brisenia’s mother, Gina, was also shot but survived.

Officials have charged Shawna Forde, Jason Bush and Albert Gaxiola in the shootings. Forde, a native of Everett, Wash., is the founder of a border-watch group called Minutemen American Defense. Bush is also a member of the group. The Arizona Daily Star, citing a Pima County investigator and court filings, reported last week that Bush had made a “full confession” to the killings and named Forde, Gaxiola and other individuals — still being investigated — as involved in the attack.

While the murders were certainly hateful acts — the girl was reportedly killed to eliminate witnesses — this isn’t just a random hate crime. Authorities say it was part of a plot hatched by Forde and the others to rob suspected drug dealers and use the proceeds to fund Minutemen-style activities. The assailants purportedly believed that Raul Flores had a stash of drugs and money in the house, but authorities found no evidence of drug trafficking.

Since the killings, factions of the Minutemen organization have been desperately trying to dissociate themselves from Forde and Bush, attempting to portray them as rogue members who went off the deep end.

Not so fast. The Minutemen shouldn’t be allowed to disown Forde, Bush and any other border vigilantes incriminated in the investigation. Far from being outlanders, Forde and Bush were marinated in the vile and racist juices of an anti-illegal immigration movement that often seeks to dehumanize people it considers “illegal alien invaders.” And, from media reports, it seems that various factions of the organization welcomed Forde into their ranks over the years.

In fact, according to an alternative newspaper in Everett, a couple of years ago, Forde ran for the city council there unsuccessfully on an anti-illegal immigration platform. In June 2007, Forde co-sponsored an event dubbed the Illegal Immigration Summit where, according to the newspaper, she warned the audience that illegal immigrants would soon “outnumber real Americans” and that one would have to speak Spanish to get a job. The keynote speaker chimed in, warning that a “tsunami” of Mexican immigrants threatened the national identity, that “soft immigration laws” were destroying the country, and that Spanish would be the national language of the United States by 2030.

The speaker at Forde’s event? Jim Gilchrist.

Thanks Ruben. I can assume you received the emails detailing this event that the mainstream conservative media (Lou Dobbs, Sean Hannity and others) are falling all over themselves to ignore and run from.

It’s sad, while the right wing extremist movement is imploding, tossing blame this ways and that, that the anti Mexican extremists are still trying to justify the unjustifiable.

The hate commenters are in action where Navarrette posts his column, trying to justify the murder of Brisenia Flores and her father Raul with comments like…..

……..Their are thousands more murders, rapes, pedophiles, assaults and a big one–DUI Driving under the influence. This has become rampant in every city, town, neighborhood and community, throughout the United States……

This poster is correct. There are thousands of rapes, pedophiles, assaults and DUI, annually in America, most committed by good ol boy Patriots.

What causes this to deserve the attention of the media, is the fact that the crimes were committed by Minutemen, pseudo Patriots who claimed to keep Amerika safe. Who is keeping us safe from them?

And here is another one, an idiot who tries to justify the murder of this child by shifting the blame!

well mr navarrette’s opinion really matters here! PRO Illegal alien ALL the way! you do not report on a texas girl  that was raped and murdered? by two illegals? story here:

These idiots just don’t get it and never will.

Thanks Ruben, for a well written article.

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