Shawna Forde's web among the Minuteman movement drew in other radicals
By David Neiwert Saturday Sep 12, 2009 3:00pm
[Video via deedynamo at YouTube.]
The strange case of Shawna Forde, the Everett-based anti-immigration activist whose gang of Minutemen murdered a 9-year-old girl and her father in cold blood, took another interesting turn this week.
Scott North of the Everett Herald -- a classically dogged news reporter who has been on this case since the start -- reported this week that one of the people who helped Forde and her gang after the murders was none other than Arizona anti-immigrant activist Laine Lawless [real name: Roberta Dill], perhaps most noted for burning the Mexican flag in public and ranting about communists in the government (as in the video above):
A minuteman who says he helped bind a bullet wound May 30 for a co-defendant of border activist Shawna Forde now says he wasn’t alone when he went to provide medical assistance to the man in Arivaca, Ariz.
Chuck Stonex of Alamagordo, N.M., said Tuesday he was accompanied on the first-aid mission by Laine Lawless of Phoenix.
Lawless, who is known in Arizona for burning Mexican flags, recently made headlines for starting up a Web site claiming that Forde, formerly of Everett, is being railroaded on charges that she was involved in a double murder in Arivaca. Arizona prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
Stonex said it’s time for Lawless to publicly acknowledge that she met with Forde, 41, and co-defendant Jason Eugene Bush, 35, within hours of the killings. The meeting occurred at an Arivaca house that Stonex said he now believes was the home of Albert Gaxiola, the third defendant in the murder case.
“She was there, too. She saw everything that I saw,” Stonex said of Lawless. He had earlier decided to leave it up to Lawless to come forward as a witness — something Stonex said he did as soon as he learned that Forde and Bush were suspects in a double murder.
He changed his mind in part because of Lawless’ involvement with the Web site Justiceforshawnaforde.com.
“She’s making too many troubles and I think it is time for the rest of the story,” Stonex said.
Stephen Lemons at the Phoenix New Times has more about Lawless, including the fact that she recently attended a speech by Holocaust denier David Irving in the Phoenix area.
Lawless, in fact, has been a significant figure on the Minuteman front for some time now, not least because she formed one of the first spinoff groups. She played a key role in helping Chris Simcox organize one of his earlier versions of the Minutemen, the Civil Homeland Defense, and was one of the characters who showed up on video when the Minutemen first organized their border watch.
However, she got the boot shortly afterward, no doubt because she's such a lunatic that not even Simcox wanted to be associated with her. So she started up her own Minuteman offshoot, and it was shortly in the business of forming alliances with real neo-Nazis and even offering them advice on how to harass Latinos:
A prominent anti-immigration leader has secretly urged the nation's largest neo-Nazi group to launch a campaign of violence and harassment against undocumented workers in the United States.
Laine Lawless, who started a group called Border Guardians last year, sent an April 3 e-mail to Mark Martin, "SS commander" of the Western Ohio unit of the National Socialist Movement, which has 59 chapters in 30 states. It was titled, "How to GET RID OF THEM!"
The e-mail from Lawless, who was also an original member of Chris Simcox's vigilante militia before it morphed into the Minuteman Project in early 2005, detailed 11 suggestions for ways to harass and terrorize undocumented immigrants, including robbery and "beating up illegals" as they leave their workplace.
"Maybe some of your warriors for the race would be the kind of people willing to implement some of these ideas," Lawless wrote. "I'm not ready to come out on this. ... Please don't use my name. THANKS."
At the request of Lawless, who declined to respond to questions from the Intelligence Report, Martin posted her suggestions to a number of neo-Nazi bulletin boards. Those suggestions included:
-- "Steal the money from any illegal walking into a bank or check cashing place."
-- "Make every illegal alien feel the heat of being a person without status. ... I hear the rednecks in the South are beating up illegals as the textile mills have closed. Use your imagination."
-- "Discourage Spanish-speaking children from going to school. Be creative."
-- "Create an anonymous propaganda campaign warning that any further illegal immigrants will be shot, maimed or seriously messed-up upon crossing the border. This should be fairly easy to do, considering the hysteria of the Spanish language press, and how they view the Minutemen as 'racists & vigilantes.' "
Also, Rick Anderson at Seattle Weekly had a dynamite in-depth piece about Forde that is well worth reading.
Mind you, it still boggles my mind that we have a media that can make a fetish out of missing Yale students but ignore both this story and its real-world ramifications.
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If meaningful reform is passed I don't think a whole lot of Minnesotans would be too happy with him denying them coverage on such flimsy grounds. And I am pretty sure there is a Senator in that state that would bust his balls relentlessly on that one :)
marching with the rest of the loons?
of a 90 minute documentary called "how to burn a Mexican Flag."
Geez, a 90 minute video on how to burn a flag? These people and her are truly rethug nuts.
Right Wing Terrorism is nothing new but I am glad there is someone reporting about it.
Mostly the news would turn a blind eye to actual terrorism while focusing on people like Bill Ayers who never actually committed any act of violence (that I am aware of) but the people who not only will committ violence and those who encourage them are never looked at by the MSM.
Is it because the bomb going off gets more viewers then the investigation into an actual terrorist, not the guys who can't afford boots but the guys who are shooting doctors and security guards among others.
I am thankful for the bloggs and outside of the main stream media publications like The Nation because without them I would be lost in a sea of BS.
I keep reading it, even though we've been gone from Arizona for a couple of years. It had the clickon to the Seattle story back then when it was new. Used to be independent free papers; now all owned by the Village Coice conglomerate... but my favorite investigative reporters are still there, and training new ones. Paul Rubin's the best...
Did Lou Dobbs ever interview Lawless, holding her up as some sort of heroine?
If not, color me surprised.
I was going to respond to this and I was going to say that the only thing missing is Lou Dobbs. And I was going to say if Lou was somehow involved you could color me surprised! Then I read your post. Very strange for sure.
loves his paycheck MORE.
Think of the boycotts that would have occurred if he'd had her on his show. CNN is a Fox Noise-Wannabe; not the real deal, so their owner would not have the cajones of a Rupert Murdoch to allow Lou to go the Glenn Beck route.
*shakes head*
I can't believe some of the insane crap.
These people . . . UGH!
... I have never imagined the number of American people that can be so stupid. I should have got a hint from Jay Lenos Jay walking. Stupid me.
Someone with an eye patch talking about someone else’s distorted vision!
the teabaggers do today on their 9/12 fiasco?
real invaders of this land!
We have been here centuries (mestizos) and our indigent brethren since time immemorial.
Maybe 2012 will give us our relief!
That crazy old bitch gives all pirates a bad name. Most likely, she has a thing for hispanic men and is deeply bitter that they don't reciprocate.
Most likely.
Those that aren't insane are terminally stupid.
They're all dangerous.
*
She said, "If I were your mother, I'd wash your mouth out with soap." My reply would have been: "If you were my mother, I'd commit suicide."
You beat me to it. ;)
I rented Medea Goes to Jail. Tyler Perry. Wasn't even half good dog.
i must be in the dark...when did all the hate come to surface in america - has it always been here?
an African-American became the most powerful man in the Free World.
What you are seeing are those who are still fighting the Civil War, when the Native Americans lived on reservations; them Mexicans were pushed back beyond the Border and all good ****** KNEW THEIR PLACE.
What the world needs now
Is love, sweet love
It's the only thing
That there's just too little of
What the world needs now
Is love, sweet love
No not just for some
But for everyone
Minutemen make for frustrated wives.
That there were visiting militia from other states around the crime scene and players.
I commented and raised this point here and other places.
Of course Sheriff Joe is too busy SWATing/ticketing parking ticket perps and reefer fiends.
Republicans voice hatred for gays, Hispanics, liberals, immigrants (undocumented AND legal) femminists, science, socialism, athiests, academia, intellectuals, Jews, Catholics, Muslims, pagans, black people, brown people, red people, the disabled, veterans, the poor, Europe, Mexicans, Canadians, peace,etc, etc,...
ALL I have heard Republicans do is voice hatred of one group or another...
Other than the hatred of others- WHAT is the message of the Republicans??
And if a Mexican in Mexico, advocated burning the US flag, I bet they would be screaming for us to declare war...
that the media isn't covering this story.
This is an open and shut case of racsism and hatred. There's no controversy.
They'd rather show 2 or 3 screaming heads arguing over each other (I know why they do it, but what does it accomplish except give me a headache? I can never understand anyones point because they yell all of the time. That's great TV?!?).
Or show moronic old white people marching against... against, uhm... well, against something dammit! That black guy in the White House. There!
But mostly, it's easier to take a local story, like some missing white girls, and blow it up nationally. Less work. How accurate do you need to be when maybe only a couple of hundred people on earth know them. All of these missing people are sad stories. But, they're LOCAL stories.
And that's the largest problem with our media. They take the local, and make it national. And they take the national, and make it local. They go to some diner in Godforsaken, Alabama and ask local know-nothing's what they think of national polices. This is then taken as the gospel from the heartland. Do they then do the other side of the story and go to a diner in, say NJ, where union workers eat and ask the same question? Hell no! These workers aren't from the mythical heartland.
We, as a nation, are choking on the 'stupid' the media is shoving down our throats.
The Everett Herald is covering it, so much that I am sick of seeing Forde's ugly mug on my front porch. That woman is one sick bitch and I'll be glad when she fries.
this nutjub Forde and her ilks.
with the teabaggers telling them that Obama is their dream President.
It's unfortunate that Holocaust denial is almost exclusively used during racist meetings (at least, in the US)
The actual non racist truth of the holocaust is far more interesting and should be examined without such racist overtones. We might learn something.
Like what?
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