Jim Gilchrist, founder of the Minuteman Project, was caught on video last week slamming “Ron Paul fanatics” in the anti-immigration movement along with tea-bagger wannabe William Gheen who organized poorly attended “copycat” anti-immigration tea party protests:
I used to support Ron Paul, until I had this falling out with these Ron Paul fanatics. They’re not all that way, just too many. The ones that I’ve met, who are very hateful people, have no business supporting Ron Paul. Jeff Schwilk and William Gheen have no business being in political activism because, in my blatant personal opinion, they are outright racists.
Gilchrist has long attempted to distinguish his “multi-ethnic” border vigilante group from more overtly racist organizations such as Gheen’s Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC). However, their public feud is more the product of personal infighting than ideological differences.
It is somewhat ironic to see the noted bigot, Jim Gilchrist, calling other people crazy racists. Tells you just how far out there in wingnuttia some of these angry people are.
And the motto of the few remaining members of the GOP that will have to sit through their brand of crazy in the GOP primaries?
Load up on guns Bring your friends It's fun to lose and to pretend
After the killing of a nine year old girl gets linked to one of the Minutmen groups' leaders the others are scrambling to distance themselves from Shawna Forde's M.A.D.. But their past words betray them. They are all linked and they are all lunatics and deserve to be scorned for their radical movement that has endangered the security of this nation. And, surely, they all need to be investigated thoroughly to discover the extent of their movements radical and violent actions. Via ctblogger at MLN:
a group known for patrolling the border, and is dedicated to "Defending America's Borders" was arrested for home invasion and the double homicide of a 29 year old male and 9 year old girl.
An act of unspeakable violence from a leader of a xenophobic group? Why am I not surprised?
Three people have been arrested in connection with last months deadly double homicide in Arivaca that left a nine-year-old and her father dead. One of the people arrested for the homicide is the National Executive Director of the Minuteman American Defense group (M.A.D.), a group known for patrolling the border, and is dedicated to "Defending America's Borders" according to their website - http://minutemenamericandefens...
Jason Eugene Bush, 38, Shawna Forde, 42 and Albert Robert Gaxiola, 43, were all taken into custody and charged in connection with the murders of 29-year-old Raul Flores and 8-year-old Brisenia Flores. Both were killed during an alleged home invasion. According to authorities, Bush, Forde, and Gaxiola broke into the home of the Flores family just after midnight on May 30th. At the time, the mother, father and daughter were home. The invaders reportedly shot the three members of the Flores family, killing the father, Raul, and the daughter, Brisenia. The invaders then left the scene.
The mother survived the shooting, called police, and found a gun. Sheriff Dupnik says the three returned moments later to make sure everyone was dead. At that point, the mother shot and injured Bush, and the three fled the scene.
The trio has been charged with two counts of First Degree Murder, one count of First Degree Burglary, and one count of Aggravated Assault.
Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik says, "Jason Bush was in fact the shooter of all three of these people under orders from Ms. Forde."
[...]
Sheriff Dupnik adds, "To just kill a 9-year old girl because she could be a potential witness, to me, is one of the most despicable acts I have ever heard of."
[...]
"If you look at her history closely, and you know what we know, she is at best a pyschopath," says Sheriff Dupnik referring to Forde during a press conference Friday.
The group's Web site, which does not appear to bear any mention of Jason Bush, places the group as actively involved in the "tea parties" which swept right-wing media around tax day.
Hmm, an anti-immigrant xenophobic, described by police as a pyschopath, was involved in a despicable act of violence AND is a leader of a anti-immigrant group that's actively involved in tea-parties?
Hmm, let me think...didn't an anti-immigrant/hate gorup just hold a "teabagging" party in Danbury this weekend. Well, yeah BUT "those folks" would NEVER EVER advocate any form of violence around here...I mean Elise Marciano, her deranged ilk/supporters are such peace-loving people and all...
Even up north in Connecticut they are a radical group and, as ctblogger notes, they are the same radicals that support the Teabaggers movement.The backbone of what is left of GOP support. But the bigger problem with these crazies is the fact that as they practice their right wing ideology of hate and preach to direct it at undocumented workers, it spills over easily into a general hatred of all minorities in the USA:
A new Southern Poverty Law Center report finds that low-income Latino immigrants in the South are routinely the targets of wage theft, racial profiling and other abuses driven by an anti-immigrant climate that harms all Latinos regardless of their immigration status.
When Newt Gingrich's knee jerk reaction is to call a Supreme Court nominee, Judge Sotomayor, a racist or the right wing in general attacks her nomination to the Supreme Court, understand that this a spillover effect from an an ingrained hatred of all things latin that started with a more focused hate of what they like to call "illegal immigrants". And as other insane Minutemen groups scramble to distance themselves from M.A.D. because of Forde's cold blooded killing of a 9 year old girl remember these words, via stef in comments, not long before the murders:
I talked to Shawna Forde yesterday about the story written by journalist Scott North of the Everett Herald and she opined that the newspaper story was reasonably fair and balanced and covered most aspects of her life since she was born.
Forde and I both think the newspaper did exactly what it is supposed to do: report facts based on investigation and interrogatories. The story is neither a “hit piece” against Forde, nor a supportive propaganda piece. Simply, it is newspaper reporting at its best and within the professional canons of journalism.
Despite Shawna Forde’s checkered past, here is a woman who really has been a “victim” throughout her life, perhaps willingly, perhaps unwillingly. To have come through the trials and uncertainties of adolescence and young adulthood with odds stacked against you, and to have overcome those odds, is a statement of her willingness to ultimately do the right thing.
Few of us do not have a skeleton in our closet, especially some of Forde’s harshist critics. The harsh critics have managed to hide those skeletons, unlike Forde, who is willing to face up to her mistakes as an imperfect mortal and then to face down demons from her past.
In my experience with Ms. Forde I conclude that she is no whiner. She is a stoic struggler who has chosen to put country, community, and a yearning for a civilized society ahead of avarice and self-glorifying ego.
The Minuteman Project is proud to be a supporter of Shawna Forde’s Minutemen(women) American Defense (M.A.D.)
Jim Gilchrist, Founder and President, The Minuteman Project, Inc.
You pwned yourself, Gilchrist. You cannot hide from your support of M.A.D.'s lunacy and violence, feigning that "they are not us." Clearly, there can be no delineating between one Minutemen group and another, regardless of infighting over control of each group.
My old friend Scott North, who has been around the block with reporting on the activities of the far right in Snohomish County -- where Forde is from -- reports this morning that Forde may have been involved in another violent home invasion in California already:
On Saturday, Arizona detectives were pursuing tips that members of Forde's group may have staged a home invasion robbery in Shasta Lake, Calif., on Monday.
The victims, friends of Forde's mother, reported being robbed at gunpoint of nearly $12,000 by two men who showed up at the door and presented badges claiming they were U.S. Marshals.
Truck driver Peter Myers, 48, said he recognized one of men who robbed him after he saw news reports about Forde's arrest and photographs of her co-defendants.
He said the man who directed the robbery in his home was Jason Eugene Bush, 34. The ex-convict from Eastern Washington is a Forde associate now accused of being the gunman in the Arivaca killings.
"That is the guy. He pointed a gun right at us," Myers said.
***
Arizona officials have said Bush is recovering from a gunshot wound received during the home invasion there. Myers said that description fits the tall man who bound him with zip ties and then took cash from the family's lock box.
"He was moving real slow," Meyers said.
Forde's mother, Rena Caudle, said her daughter recently visited the area. After Friday's arrest, Caudle said she made certain that Arizona officials knew about the suspected link to the California robbery.
This may just be the tip of the iceberg with this gang. Already Jim Gilchrist, the Minuteman leader with whom Forde has had a long association, is making the signs of the cross in her general direction and declaring he had nothing to do with her:
Jim Gilchrist, president of the California-based Minuteman Project and a longtime Forde ally, made it clear Saturday that his earlier support of Forde should in no way be construed as approving the actions now attributed to her.
"Am I going to come to her support at this time? Of course not. How can I?" Gilchrist said.
Forde ran her own organization, Gilchrist said.
"Unfortunately, some people in this Minutemen movement have used this movement to carry out sinister agendas," he said.
We'll see. Investigators may not be done making arrests yet.
Indeed, it's starting to look as though Forde may have been organizing basically a low-rent version of The Order: an ideological army turned into criminal moneymaking operation. Only this time, anti-immigrant nativism instead of white supremacy is the ideological driver. And when The Order crumbled in flames, it exposed all kinds of criminal dealings on the far right.
Battles for control. Defamation of character. Trashing peoples' personal belongings. Stolen money. Beating on women.
The Minutemen Project, founded by ctblogger's favorite Danbury no-show and noted bigot Jim Gilchrist, has it it all and is getting exsposed for what it really is as the battle over control of this freakshow of "armed vigelantes" run amok starts to heat up in the public domain and, more importantly, in the courtrooms.
"I can't help but smile. There's a lot going on with the vigilantes this week. Their multi-faceted leadership spat is being battled out in the courts, along with some concrete action by law enforcement to ferret out the ways these nativist movements are fertile ground for hate crimes and human rights violations.
San Diego Police served the leader of the San Diego Minutemen, Jeff Schwilk, and another prominent member of the group with search warrants on Wednesday. The warrants were granted in connection with vandalism at a Rancho Penasquitos migrant camp. KPBS reporter Amy Isackson has details.
Last January, six people sliced up migrant workers’ belongings in the camps. Police say the vandals cut up blankets, clothes and even workers' shoes.
It's important to understand the context of this investigation. The Minutemen are actually two separate groups that underwent a schism between founder Jim Gilchrist and prominent leader Chris Simcox. This formed the Minutemen Project and Minutemen Civil Defense Corps."
