Arizona Violence – the Untold Story
Should Nebraska import Arizona style hatred?
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EmailBy now everyone has heard of the tragic shootings of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in Tuscon, and the murder of rancher Robert Krentz. Many including Rush Limbaugh and some Arizona Republicans initially leaped to the conclusion that an undocumented immigrant was behind the shootings of the Congresswoman, until news of the arrest of the suspect, who is not an immigrant and not Latino.
Likewise, many assume the murderer of Robert Krenz on his ranch near the border must be an undocumented immigrant, though to this day this murder remains unsolved. Governor Jan Brewer often claimed headless corpses are often found in the desert, until Arizona coroners all said they had never seen a headless corpse in the desert. The murder of Robert Krenz and Brewer’s claims of headless corpses were major drivers behind Arizona’s infamous immigration law, SB1070, though overall levels of violent crime in Arizona are down, and numerous studies show undocumented immigrants have low incarceration rates. Arizona crime rates were actually dropping when illegal immigration was surging.
Much of the violence in Arizona is NOT reported by the national news media. This week, jury selection begins in the capital murder trial of three minutemen for the murders of a Mexican-American family, one of them Shawna Forde, a national director for one Minutemen group, and formerly a representative for the Federation of Americans for Immigration Reform, which writes most of the anti-immigrant bills.
In the Minutemen case, nine year old girl Brisenia Flores pleaded for her life, but was shot to death anyway. Her father Raúl was also shot to death, but Brisenia’s mother found a gun and was able to fend off her attackers. The minutemen all claim to be patriots, but in this case another term comes to mind…domestic terrorists. The original American Minutemen were true patriots, and many must be rolling in their graves hearing what modern-day “Minutemen” are up to.
There has been NO national media coverage of this atrocity. If the victims had been white and the murderers were Muslims or Undocumented Immigrants wouldn’t we be hearing of this endlessly?
Likewise, there has been no coverage of Rio Rico and Vekol valley shootings of migrants who were not involved in drugs and weren’t robbed either. Sheriff Estrada thinks extremists are behind these shootings. Neo-Nazis also patrol the Vekol Valley, including Neo-Nazi leader J.T. Ready, a well documented friend of Arizona State Senator Russell Pearce who introduced Arizona’s immigration law.
State and local immigration laws have a way of fueling hatred and division, a pattern that has been repeated across the U.S. in countless communities. As Nebraska considers whether to import Arizona’s controversial “papers please” immigration law, do we really want to import Arizona style hatred as well?
Bob Quasius
Mid-west Regional Outreach Director
Somos Republicans
www.somosrepublicans.com
Comments
Bob-Somos says:
January 22, 2011 : 13 years 13 weeks ago
Finally, more national media attention to the Minutemen atrocity in Arizona, with this column from the Daily Beast.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-01-20/in-giffords-shadow-trial-of-arizona-minuteman-accused-of-killing-girl-begins/
Bob-Somos says:
January 24, 2011 : 13 years 13 weeks ago
Tomorrow is the first day in the trial of Shawna Forde, national Minutemen leader and the alleged ringleader of the OTHER massacre in Arizona, which the national news media has largely ignored. I’ll be a guest on an internet radio show at 10 AM CST to talk about the slaughter of a Mexican-American family, including nine year old Brisenia Flores.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/conservative-latino/2011/01/25/0006-2011-conservative-latino-talk-radio
Bob-Somos says:
January 25, 2011 : 13 years 13 weeks ago
Finally a major American newspaper has written about the Minutemen atrocity in Arizona:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-minutemen-murder-20110126,0,4235852.story
Ray Peña (not verified) says:
March 4, 2011 : 13 years 7 weeks ago
Dear Bob
You fail to mention in your article that Shawna Forbes was part of “Minuteman” splinter group that she herself had formed. She was ask to leave the main group almost 2 years earlier because she was a whack job. This is simply a case of a madwoman with an agenda that caused the deaths of two people. Almost all involved were criminals and reap the rewards of that life. The daughter was the innocent one and paid the price. forget race the motivational factor here was GREED.
Bob-Somos says:
March 4, 2011 : 13 years 7 weeks ago
Most domestic terrorists engage in crime to fund their terrorist activities. You also missed the main thrust of my op-ed: one type of Arizona violence is grossly exaggerated to favor a certain agenda, while stories like these are almost completely overlooked. The Robert Krenz murder received over 300 news stories, and without any suspect whatsoever this crime was blamed on undocumented immigrants.
Within weeks of the Flores family massacre by Minutemen there were suspects by hardly any news. If the murders had been undocumented immigrants or Muslim extremists and the victims white we’d have been hearing about this incessantly on the mainstream media as with the murder of Robert Krentz.
As for the issue you raised about Shawna Forde, she was admitted to membership of BOTH large national organizations despite having a criminal record, and eventually booted from the Minutemen Civil Defense Corp. We heard from the beginning that Minutemen would conduct background checks on members to keep criminals and white supremacists out, yet somehow she became a member of both and held leadership positions in the Minutemen Project, and maintained friendly relations with Jim Gilchrist until shortly after her arrest.
Indeed Shawna Forde’s group charged a fee to do background checks on new members, but this apparently wasn’t done judging by the criminal background of Shawna Forde, Jason Bush, and Gaxiola. Simcox also has a criminal record involving firearms, yet somehow he was leader of another national group.
SonsOfLiberty86 (not verified) says:
March 11, 2011 : 13 years 6 weeks ago
You should be ashamed of yourself for sensationalizing this and trying to relate 3 year old murders to current events. These murders took place 3 years ago, long before the anti-illegal-immigration debate even started, and these people were murdered by a crazed white supremacist woman, not by any real legitimate organization against illegal immigrants. This is the only thing like that that has ever happened in my state of Arizona. It was widely covered, and I can find you numerous documentation of its media coverage. To purport or assert that this was overlooked and uncovered is a complete lie, as it is a completely famous cause in Arizona that everyone knows about.
SonsOfLiberty86 (not verified) says:
March 11, 2011 : 13 years 6 weeks ago
To prove how wrong you are, here are numerous articles covering the case from 2009, that were also published in 2009 around the actual time of the case three years ago - since you tried to say nobody covered it.
The New York Times - June 26, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/27/us/27arizona.html?_r=1&em
Fox News - June 17th, 2009
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,526988,00.html
The Phoenix New Times - June 22, 2009
http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/bastard/2009/06/right_wing_extremist_shawna_fo.php
The Huffington Post - June 13th, 2009
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/13/shawna-forde-minutemen-le_n_215246.html
The Anti-Defamation League - September 8th, 2009
http://www.adl.org/main_Extremism/Shawna-Forde-Arrested.htm
The Southern Poverty Law Center - June 23rd, 2009
http://www.splcenter.org/blog/2009/06/23/accused-nativist-murderer-finds-few-allies-in-movement/#more-3207
Change.org - June 17th, 2009
http://news.change.org/stories/fair-denies-connection-to-shawna-forde
PAC Crooks & Liars - June 16th, 2009
http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/some-neighborhood-watch-fordes-minut
therealjarett (not verified) says:
March 11, 2011 : 13 years 6 weeks ago
Dates and publishers of media covering the news, like you said they didn’t:
The New York Times - June 26, 2009
Fox News - June 17th, 2009
The Phoenix New Times - June 22, 2009
The Huffington Post - June 13th, 2009
The Anti-Defamation League - September 8th, 2009
The Southern Poverty Law Center - June 23rd, 2009
Change.org - June 17th, 2009
PAC Crooks & Liars - June 16th, 2009
Aikanae (not verified) says:
April 23, 2011 : 13 years 6 days ago
I live in Phoenix and the only daily paper did not run a story on this. I came across it from a Wiki link. Listing 7 or 9 articles is not close to the coverage the rancher in Texas recieved. There was an article in the daily paper (Az Republic) nearly every day for months, then articles at least once a month. That story is still being used - as if it were solved - by anti-immigrant “it’s all the illegal’s fault” commenters. The local news is just as biased.
None of these people believe in logic or facts. The state has not paid for medical care of undocumented persons for decades. There was an 8 year old who died from appendicitus because she was turned away for medical care at a major (private) hospital over 5 years ago. She was hispanic, but she was legal. How many kids carry ID papers? Arizona was 40% hispanic when it became a state, so some have been here for over 5 generations.
The doctor and hospital were acquited (Banner) with the court saying it was ok for private hospitals to deny coverage, even in possible medical emergencies. There is only one federally funded hospital required to treat anyone in a city of 2 million + and they were almost a hour away (including traffic).
So even the arguement that illegal’s can get care in an emergency is false. Emergencies also don’t include broken bones either.
It’s time someone called it what it is - hate. The immigration issue was used to distract voters to what the state legislature was doing - selling off public assests for a song to their buddies. SB1070 didn’t go to a vote, like anything else the state legislature fears wouldn’t be approved by the public.
Brewer and Co. have eliminated over 300,000 from Medicaid, which also cut the state off from far more than that in federal funding less than one month after passing the same amount in tax cuts to the wealthy. The greedy will never have enough. Pearce’s agenda is to cut off all federal funding into Arizona except what they can personally use. The state private prision system has become the largest industry in Arizoma.
And that’s what y’all want to import?
therealjarett (not verified) says:
April 25, 2011 : 13 years 3 days ago
My fiance is Mexican and she has never been stopped or questioned the whole time we have lived in Arizona.
How is the SB1070 law racist? It specifically states that race cannot be used in determining someones immigration status.
Anonymous (not verified) says:
November 16, 2011 : 12 years 23 weeks ago
“There has been NO national media coverage of this atrocity. If the victims had been white and the murderers were Muslims or Undocumented Immigrants wouldn’t we be hearing of this endlessly?”
Firstly, there has been PLENTY of coverage on this atrocity. Certainly a heck of a lot more than there was of Robert Krentz, who was not a drug trafficker like Raul was, and who was known for helping illegal immigrants get across his ranch.
Shawna Forde, the framed political prisoner in this racist case, said Krentz was a friend of hers, but still did not serve as any motive to commit a crime she didn’t commit.
As for “white supremacist”: her boyfriend Albert Gaxiola was not just Hispanic, but also had 10 times the motive to want Raul dead, whereas Shawna did not even know this family.
Raul and his daughter were murdered by a rival drug cartel, plain and simple. Albert was a part of the rival cartel. Their shooter was Oin Oakstar, who stated proudly that he wanted Raul dead and was getting all ready to shoot Raul himself! I guess he must have just prayed hard enough that someone else would take the fall and -lo and behold- Dupnik and his thugs took meth money under the table to throw Shawna under the bus. It was Oakstar who was released IN EXCHANGE for his testimony against Shawna, despite the fact that Shawna had no beef with this family and Oakstar did.
There certainly has been a lot more national media coverage of THIS case than there ever was of Robert Krentz (I didn’t even know who that guy was!) and Channon Christian and Chris Newsom.
So instead of being all racist as you are and assuming black or muslim or hispanic or ANYTHING on white crime always gets reported, you might want to look at the FBI crime statistics which report just how often white people murder nonwhites vs. how often they get murdered BY nonwhites. Because the discrepancy is huge and now we only wish to protect ourselves from this very real danger. Thank you.
Anonymous (not verified) says:
November 16, 2011 : 12 years 23 weeks ago
Before you teach your kids that evil Whitey stole your land, please look these up too:
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the Gadsden Purchase
Anonymous (not verified) says:
November 16, 2011 : 12 years 23 weeks ago
Oh one more:
Photos of heads from Mexican drug cartels:
http://www.examiner.com/law-enforcement-in-national/mexico-decapitations-photo
Maybe this is what Brewer was loosely referring to.
It’s not nearly as commonplace in the US as in Mexico but I digress.
Immigration’s Human Cost:
For anyone who thinks EVERY white American killed by an “undocumented immigrant” is covered in the media:
http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/ADyf1v/www.immigrationshumancost.org/archives.html
No, it’s not hate. It’s TRUTH.