Remember how all those right-wing pundits proclaimed the Minutemen as being just like a neighborhood watch? Michelle Malkin called it "the mother of all neighborhood watches." Lou Dobbs labeled it "this country's biggest neighborhood watch program". Bill O'Reilly declared: "Talking Points applauds the Minutemen. They are in the great tradition of neighborhood watch groups."
Boy, that sure is some neighborhood watch:
Accused ringleader Shawna Forde told her family in recent months that she had begun recruiting members of the Aryan Nations and that she planned to begin robbing drug-cartel leaders, her brother Merrill Metzger said Monday in a telephone interview from Redding, Calif.
"She was talking about starting a revolution against the United States government," he said.
Here is a recording of the 911 call made by the victim who survived -- the mother of 9-year-old Brisenia Flores, who was shot "two or three times" while her mother lay nearby. As she's on the phone, you can hear the killers return and open fire on her again, and hear her return fire:
[Courtesy Arizona Star]
The accused shooter, Jason Eugene Bush, was charged Friday in the 1997 murder of a sleeping, homeless Hispanic man in Wenatchee, Wash.
"Bush has had long-standing ties to the Aryan Nations," Sgt. John Kruse of the Wenatchee police wrote in a statement filed in Chelan County Superior Court.
The Pima County Sheriff's Department arrested Forde, Bush and Arivaca resident Albert Robert Gaxiola on Friday and accused them of killing Raul Flores, 29, and his daughter Brisenia, 9, during a home invasion. Flores' wife was injured during the attack and returned fire, wounding Bush, investigators said.
Forde, 41, who has lived primarily in Everett, Wash., was the executive director of Minutemen American Defense, and she had named Bush the "operations director" for the group's border-watch activities along the Arizona-Mexico border.
... Forde's brother, Metzger, worked for the organization at its inception years ago, but he quit, he said, "when it started to get too deep."
He and other family members grew suspicious of Forde and started talking to police about her after her husband was shot in their Everett home in December.
That's why, Metzger said, he had an audio recorder running when she visited his Northern California home in early May.
"She sat right here on my couch and told me that she was going to start an underground militia. This militia was going to start robbing drug-cartel dealers — rob them and steal their money or drugs," Metzger said.
... Investigators think the May 30 robbery was intended to be the first in a series of such attacks intended to fund the border-watch group and a new venture, O'Connor said. Forde planned on starting a business of helping free kidnap victims in other countries, he said.
She also spoke of the venture to her brother, he said.
"She was telling me that they were going to start some sort of militia that was going to go overseas and aid and abet those who are kidnapped. She said she was going to go to Syria," he said.
I warned some time back that this was precisely the arc of flight that the Minuteman movement was taking:
This is, after all, an organization that has indicated it intends to expand its purview. And the concept of the Minutemen as a right-wing citizen vigilante force has uses well beyond even border patrols. These endorsements may wind up giving the Minutemen more than their 15 seconds of fame -- and that could be a problem for many years to come.
The problem, as always, is its inherent vigilantism:
The reality-based picture of the Minutemen that's emerging is not of a friendly "neighborhood watch" for the border, but of a chaotic collection of hatemongers who seem intent on a kind of populist mob rule fueled by angry paranoia. It becomes a cover not for law and order, but for the ugliest kind of brutal authoritarianism.
That, in fact, is the face that vigilantism has always revealed eventually, even in Montana. As the history of the vigilantes revealed later, their early "victories" over predators like Henry Plummer soon gave way to a vicious lawlessness in which people were summarily hanged not just for horse theft but for drunken misbehavior or breaking out of a jail.
... You see, vigilantism always claims to be about law and order and preserving "traditional values." It is always, in the end, about the brutal imposition of mob rule without regard to the humanity of its targets. The proof, in the end, lies in the strange fruit it inevitably produces.
This shouldn't surprise anyone, especially not those who have been following your writing for a while. The links between these people and the Christian Identity Movement, the militia movement, the white supremacists and the rest have been well know for years (at least partly thanks to your digging and reporting). Thank god you have been around.
What's more hideous than this group of racist fanatics is the fact that Fox thinks these people are just fine Americans. WTF!. Why no one at Fox hasn't been arrested for treason is baffling.
That sound you hear is the Fox goons backpedaling from responsibility.
This is very sad; it is very sickening.
I wonder if any of the Minutemen supporters like O'Reilly, Malkin, or Dobbs has reported on this and made any comments?
Remember all those stories they did about the Holocaust Museum shooting? Or the rightwing ties of Dr. Tiller's killer? Yeah, same story here.
Oh my, that literally makes me sick. Just another nut job, had nothing to do with the hate speech on tv and radio, yea right.
We were watching this for all those years, listening to BOR and thugs. We just had to stand here helpless to stop this. Still we have to sit back and just watch and wait for the next victim of the right wing.
To be sure Limbaugh will call these people hero's for killing drug dealers.
Is our government really going to stand by, and let these TV/radio fuckers do this to America? We know who they are, stop them now OBAMA!!!!!!!!
Holy fuck. Listened to the entire clip.
That lady is a hero. I just imagine how if they'd have killed her too that fucking asshole O'Reilly would've been spouting off on how the illegals did it.
The Eliminationists:
"Though the Patriot movement is fairly multifaceted, most Americans view it through media images that focus on a single facet; the often-pathetic collection of bunglers and fantasists known as the militia movement.
Moreover, they've been told that the militia movement is dead. And, in its 1990s form , it is, more or less. But it lives on in a dozen or more offshoots, many of them widely portrayed as mainstream organizations--the most notable being the anti-immigrant Minuteman movement, which provides a case study of how proto-fascism, through mainstreaming, becomes para-fascism."
-David Neiwert... Chap.7 p.133
Study the symptoms not the virus...
... they were'nt found in Maricopa County. Chances are the good Sherrif Joe would have pinned medals on them!
There's no way this could have occurred in Maricopa County. Why, Sheriff Joe has run all the illegals, drug dealers and cartel leaders out of there! Now there's so little crime in that area that ol' Nickel Bag can spend all of his time just running in folks who *might* be illegal.
"The proof, in the end, lies in the strange fruit it inevitably produces."
Nice reference.
That was disturbing. I'm even thinking that maybe it isn't such a bad idea to keep a gun somewhere in your house for self-defense. It saved this woman's life.
Metzger? why does that name ring a bell?
Same thought here.
Anyone?
It was a famous name back in the late 60's with the KKK and Elect Wallace movements in Northern California, later spreading out countrywide. Seems they started something called the "Freedom Party" or something like that.
I have no idea if there is any relation here, but that's where I know the name from - my early protesting teenage years.
But it doesn't look like either Merrill or Shawna are related. Not his kids, anyway.
Tom Metzger. Member of the KKK and John Birch Society. Hosted a public access show called Race And Reason in the 1980's. Had to declare bankruptcy after the Southern Poverty Law Center sued his ass and won.
Phoenix declares it's Independence!
[ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0IHmoLapuY ]
The peoples portal to the truth!
[ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgnJU4jNuw4 ]
9 year old has something to say...
[ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clDNG6vdUKo ]
In case, you're not aware? Off-shoot/little-sprout? :-/
Amended:( http://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Feature-Articl... )
Study the symptoms not the virus...
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A 911 operator who says "That's all right ma'am - don't worry about the cussing"
What a friggin' relief after all the assholes we hear telling stressed out, even injured people to "watch your language," even hanging up because someone says something "obscene." This person deserves a raise!
Two or three years ago my college hosted a film called "Walking the Line" about the minuteman movement. I considered it at the time to be very in-depth, and it definitely touched on the racist, reactionary undertone of the movement. It didn't however mention their explicit ties to right-wing extremists.
The documentary, as well as a This American Life commentary on the movement, led me to believe that the minutemen were a bunch of bored, harmless, confused buffoons. I'm saddened to learn that I've been misled by these more than charitable depictions of these activists. I'm really shocked and left speechless by this senseless and petty act of murder.
Four or five, so whats the odds that the person who did the first aid on the wounded bandit was one of the gang. He is a minuteman from NM.
In the drug addled mind of Frau Forde;
Step 1: Rob from drug cartels
Step 2: Use the money to help free kidnap victims in other countries.
Cue Twilight Zone music.
In the real world;
Step 1: FAIL
Step 2: See step 1.
Lesson: Stay away from Mexican crank. It eats your brain.
and throw their ASSES in jail. Who the hell do they think they are takin' the law in their hands.
Check out this bit of info I turned up form a google search on her name. It seems that earlier this year, she was busted for making false reports to police officers. She claimed "mexicans" had come in to her house and beaten her. Check the pics out. Clearly a bad make up job.
http://immigrationclearinghouse.org/2009/01/0...
Some more digging reveals that in 2007 she claimed her daughter had been kidnapped by "hispanic males" and set up a website at http://jazzycomehome.com
The website is still active, and even has the flyer they were urging people to download that claims "hispanic males" had tried to "grab her before".. This is one crazy person.. Apparently after some time her daughter came home, not really having been kidnapped at all. Gee I wonder why the daughter wanted out...
This is a news report that describes the shooting and has some of the accused being asked if they did it, etc.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBq3-PGCE2Q
Notice how the anchor mentions that there are several Minutemen orgs and they claim to defend the border against illegal immigration, etc.
Why would you even have to say that?! Stupid!
look at the comments on the video-horrible people. I have checked out these groups' videos on Youtube and I can't begin to tell you how nauseating some of these people and their followers are!
Just so I have this straight, this crazywoman was going to set up a band of vigilantes to take on the Mexican drug cartels? Seriously!? Did she even know about just how bad it's gotten in Mexico with groups like La Famila? These guys are taking on the Mexican Army for godsakes!! She honestly thought she could steal their drug money, and they would do nothing about it?
Dang, 24 is only fiction!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4ZyuULy9zs (sorry, I give up on embedding that link after several efforts but it's worth the cut n paste)
I didnt see it hi lite on preview
As a current police officer and former 9-1-1 dispatcher, i can say that there is no worse call than the one posted here. It's utterly sickening and horrific all at once. The mental anguish and physical pain they have inflicted upon this woman is unconscionable. I hope the three TERRORISTS responsible for this are crushed under justice's hammer for the horrors they brought upon this poor woman and her family.
She wanted to "go to Syria"? Where did she get that idea from? Syria is a very efficient police state, and kidnapping (of Americans) is a non-issue there. Did she confuse Syria with Lebanon, maybe? Most likely she watched too many Chuck Norris movies.
The 911 audio was difficult to listen to. I am amazed at how helpful the woman was knowing that her family had been killed and had herself been shot in the leg.
Disgusting pricks who committed this crime.
But, but, but they never watched Fox News so that proves they were liberals!!
Are they dwarfs?
the 911 woman. She did a wonderful job at keeping asking questions and preventing the victim from falling into panic. Who said publicly owned organization were inefficient?
Reslugs embrace the murderous, criminal and terrorist types.
How horrible... That 911 dispatcher,whoever she is, did an AWESOME job under the circumstances!
Deb,Vegas
So I'm listening to a woman who just lost her husband and child to the people she is in a actual gun fight with; and they beep out the word fuck?
that the racist "revolutionaries" have to offer...then wow...dumbasses!
Not in support of anything he said or did, but every time that something like this happens it reminds me of the interview he did a little before he was put to death.
He said, amoung other things, that if people knew who all was involved, they would be surprised.
At the time I thought...Yeah, I'll bet, too bad he didn't have time to spill some beans. I thought that the whole inteview was pretty horrible, but that line caught my attention.
Some horrible people sit on death row for years before they are executed. He was dispatched very quickly. Seems a happy coincidence that he started talking about who was involved, just before his departure.
He may have never named names, or said anything more, had he been given a chance. He was never given a chance. The media played up his not feeling any regret, and gave very little attention to this comment, as usual.
Always wondered why Terry Nichols and his group got off so lightly.
I don't think Shawna's Minutemen buddies would appreciate her hanging with a guy with the last name Gaxiola!
God, that 911 tape is just heartbreaking to listen to.
Having lived in Everett for 9 years, this nut was already something of a local thug even when we moved to Vegas in 2001.
I think that this is only the surface scratch on the ass for this entire group.
"Let's talk dirty to the animals"
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Never a black helicopter around when you really need one!
How bad does Obama need fundie votes that he'd let these a-holes run free? He's losing mine if he doesn't start rounding up all the Brownshirts.
Thanks for highlighting this. Amazing how the "liberal" media ignore what's going on in the dark red parts of this country. Maybe they're scared.
In recognition of your courage & meritorious service above and beyond the call of duty, this blog has won a Cosie Award this month. Thanks for your hospitality, also.
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Why hasn't there been more coverage on teevee about this dummass?
Man, these Republican piles of shit are the new Master Race? LOL.
While graphic, I think this 911 call should be played on an endless loop on tv so all Americans are aware of the kind of domestic terrorists we are dealing with.
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