Maricopa County burnished its reputation as the Trumpiest in America last weekend as hundreds of locals, including heavily armed militiamen, white nationalists and even a few elected officials, gathered to support the 45th president. The ensuing “March for Trump” was as horrifying as it sounds.
“I heard ‘lock her up, lock her up,’ and we still need to pursue that,” announced Arizona Congressman Anthony Kern; a nod to a prominent Trump campaign promise to imprison then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
“If you don’t like it here, go to Syria, go to someplace else,” one attendee shouted.
“I don’t want ’em, as a veteran I don’t want ’em, let ’em go back home,” another seconded. “If they’ve got a problem, let Saudi Arabia take care of ’em.”
Some even dared to tell Dan Cohen of the The Real News Network how they’d make America great again now that Trump was in office. And Muslims weren’t the only religious minority unwelcomed.
“If she is Jewish, she should go back to her country,” a 13-year-old Trump supporter said of a protester.
“This is America, we don’t want Sharia Law,” one attendee explained. “Christian country,” he added.
One man insisted that Senator John McCain was a “secret communist.”
“I think there’s a lot there,” he said of Pizzagate, a deranged right-wing conspiracy theory that Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta was running a child prostitution ring out of a Washington, D.C. pizzeria. “Definitely enough to warrant an investigation.”
The day’s proceedings would grow uglier still.
“I just want to let them know that I can’t wait for the liberal genocide to begin,” an Oath Keeper shouted at a small group of protesters.
“That’s the way to make America great again,” he later told Cohen. “Liberals are destroying the country.”
Flagstaff police said they are aware of the incident and launching a probe into the incident.
“Our agency is very concerned by what is depicted in the video,” a spokesperson said. “We are immediately initiating an internal investigation into this incident.”
Officials say 32-year-old Tony Pettway was released at the scene and will have to appear in court.
In addition to Pettway, 67-year-old Linda Rothman was charged with misdemeanor assault for an incident at the rally in the Tucson Convention Center on Saturday, although details of that incident are unclear.
Pettway’s attack was captured on multiple videos, showing him ripping the sign out of the hand of a protester being escorted away from him and then punching the man. After the victim is on the ground, Pettway then repeatedly kicks him.
CBS affiliate KOLD in Tucson reports the victim’s name is Bryan Sanders.
“I was being escorted out of the building, I had that in my right hand a peace sign up,” Sanders said. “A guy grabbed the sign out of my right hand and sucker punched me. Then he go to top of me and hit me several more times.”
Amateur video from earlier in the rally appears to show Sanders accompanying a woman who was wearing a hood in the style of the Ku Klux Klan, as she makes what appears to be a Nazi-style salute. It appears the sign Sanders was carrying was a picture of Trump with the Confederate flag superimposed on top.
This POS needs to be taken out to the woodshed with a switch, and learn what his Momma ain’t taught him. Now he is encouraging his minions to use guns.
Donald Trump, who has recently predicted riots at the GOP convention in Ohio this summer if he is denied the nomination, issued what could be interpreted as a threat at an Arizona rally on Saturday.
As the GOP front-runner spoke in Phoenix, his rally was beset by protesters, many of whom brought traffic to a halt while police officers used pepper spray to try and control the anti-Trump crowd. Trump has in the past vowed to “ruin” the lives of people protesting against him by having them arrested.
On Saturday, Trump launched into promises that “we are going to win,” but took it a step further.
“We’re going to win with our Second Amendment,” he said as the crowd cheered. “We’re gonna win big league with our Second Amendment!”
Watch the speech in full here. Trump’s comment’s about the Second Ammendment are made at about the 24:40-minute mark.
White racist gun freaks like to quote numbers about “black on black” crime. It is a disingenuous argument for several reasons. In so called, black on black crime in terms of shooting, in vast majority occur within a limited geographic region of less than 10 miles form a major urban center. The suicide rate in almost every part of the country is 3-8 times higher than the homicide rate. (see data from CDC, and Freakonomics here.) In 2013 (the most recent year for which full data are available), 41,149 suicides were reported, of which over 70% were white males. That is a rate nearly four times higher than the country’s homicide rate, 7 times the black on black homicide rate, and 98 times the possibility of a white person being murdered by a black person. In 2010, the gun suicide rate was 6.3 per 100,000 people, compared with 3.6 per 100,000 for gun homicides. Any of my readers who are familiar with the science and engineering behind security, knows that the first thing you do in creating a security system is what is called a “Threat Analysis”. Ergo it is rather stupid to plan for a Tsunami if your house is in Kansas, but it would be real smart to plan for a tornado.
Making the “black on black” crime argument a shell game.
The second part of that is an analysis of what is more likely to cause a danger or threat. Blank gangbangers quite simply rarely if ever shoot up groups of students on a suburban college campus. Recent studies reveal that most school shooters are White males, with 97 percent being male and 79 percent White. Over the last three decades, 90 percent of high school or elementary school shootings were the result of White, often upper-middle class, perpetrators.
So…If I were setting up security for a major University or suburban/rural college – or primary and secondary school, then my Threat Index is going to be off the charts for disaffected white boys with guns, and real low for black inner city drug dealers.
Indeed, I am going to raise red flags for guys who look just like the following…
One Northern Arizona University student was killed and three more were wounded when a student fight ended with gunfire — rocking the nation again before an Oregon college had time to bury the victims of its own gun massacre.
Police took suspected gunman Steven Jones, an 18-year-old NAU freshman, into custody after he killed fellow student Colin Brough and wounded Nicholas Prato, Kyle Zientek and Nicholas Piring, police said.
Two separate groups of students were arguing in a parking lot next to Mountain View Hall when Jones pulled out a gun and started shooting, NAU Police Chief Greg Fowler said at a Friday morning press conference.
A glitch in the university’s emergency alert system meant only a limited number of students got the first message reporting the shooting, the school said in a statement. The entire campus got a later alert after Jones was in custody that said the campus was all clear.
Fowler said Arizona school protocol prohibits anyone from carrying a gun on campus, however, students are allowed keep weapons in locked compartments of their cars parked on campus.
The injured students’ conditions and their relationship to the gunman are unclear.
Funerals for the Oregon victims started Thursday. More are planned for the weekend and next week.
Arizona students heard sirens echoing across campus about 1:30 a.m. Friday and learned about the shooting from Mountain View residents who reported shots fired on social media, NAU freshman Mackenzie Cutrone told the Daily News. Thanks to the alert glitch, she didn’t get the university’s messages about the attack until after the gunman was already in custody.
White Privilege in America is being able to post pictures of yourself armed to the teeth on Facebook, and nobody getting “worried”.
An Arizona Republican fundraiser is offering as a prize the same type of gun used in the attempted assassination of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.
On August 26 the Pima County Republican Party sent out its regular online newsletter, e-Tracks [PDF]. It contained your standard newsletterisms – an intro from the chairman, a description of local candidates, a calendar of upcoming events, and so on. But this particular issue also featured an eye-catching giveaway to raise money for GOTV (Get Out the Vote) efforts.
For just $10, readers can purchase a raffle ticket (out of 125 offered) for a chance to win a brand new handgun. Not just any handgun, but a Glock 23
Arizona Republicans surely know just how effective this particular brand of gun can be. After all, it was only eight months ago that Jared Lee Loughner used a Glock 19 in Tucson – the seat of Pima County – to shoot Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in the head. Giffords survived, but six other people, including a nine year old girl and a federal judge, were killed in the same shooting.
The raffle gun comes preloaded with adjustable grips, a case, and three 12-round magazines. Glock USA describes the model as “a slightly reduced size of a full-size handgun for easier concealment but still retains the performance on the level of a serious big bore.”
No – this isn’t an out take from a Hollywood Special effects shot, or an Alien Invasion for summer theater fare…
Those of you who have lived in a desert for any length of time are probably familiar with a weather event common in many parts of the arid world – a dust storm.
Those who haven’t lived in one of those areas – this can be pretty scary!
Hate to say it, but somehow I haven’t felt one hell of a lot of sympathy for Arizona lately…
Not cheering the disaster which has befallen the state…
But I just find it real hard to work up much sympathy for a bunch of Republicans who have made racism and intolerance the key to their actions. I mean – if Jan Brewer and her merry bunch of bigots and racist burns in the Arizona hellfire…
I really can’t say the country is worse off.
Probably should have listened to the preacher this AM a bit more on that forgiveness and tolerance part.
U.S. Sen. John McCain is blaming illegal immigrants for starting some of the wildfires that have scorched hundreds of thousands of acres in Arizona.
“There is substantial evidence that some of these fires have been caused by people who have crossed our border illegally,” McCain, R-Arizona, said Saturday at a press conference. “The answer to that part of the problem is to get a secure border.”
The Arizona senator, however, did not say what the evidence is, prompting a swift rebuke from Latino civil rights advocates.
“It’s easier to fan the flames of intolerance, especially in Arizona,” said Randy Parraz, a civil rights advocate who ran unsuccessfully against McCain as a Democratic candidate in 2010.
Parraz called McCain’s remarks “careless and reckless” but not entirely surprising given the political climate in Arizona. The Latino advocate is co-founder of Citizens for a Better Arizona, a group trying the recall the legislator who authored the state’s controversial anti-illegal immigration law.
Parraz said McCain “should know better” than to make such an accusation without presenting any facts.
McCain said that illegal immigrants set such fires either to send signals, keep warm or distract law enforcement agents. But he did not specify which fires allegedly had been started by illegal immigrants, nor did he identify his sources or provide details of the “substantial” evidence he cited.
Firefighters are currently battling five wildfires that have burned a combined 732,427 acres in Arizona, according to InciWeb, an online interagency database that tracks fires, floods and other disasters. The fires are under investigation and suspects have not been named. However, local media outlets have reported anecdotal cases of fires breaking out in areas where illegal immigrants have been known to cross the border.
Parraz said it is particularly distressing that immigrants are being blamed for destructive fires at a time when many are also being targeted given the state’s unemployment, foreclosure and other economic issues.
“People are looking for someone to blame,” he said, claiming it is too easy and convenient to target what he called one of Arizona’s “most vulnerable populations.”
Angelo Falcon, the president of the National Institute for Latino Policy, criticized McCain for what he called “increasingly blatant” political opportunism.
That’s not “political opportunism” Mr Falcon… That’s just plain old conservative lynch mob racism.
While the SPLC doesn’t regard the Tea Party Movement as a hate group – I think that is an exercise in semantics. Some pretty fine hair splitting, indeed.
The number of radical right groups in America — including hate groups, “Patriot” groups and nativist groups — increased in 2010 for the second year in a row, according to a report by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The organization’s quarterly publication, Intelligence Report, said the growth was “driven by resentment over the changing racial demographics of the country, frustration over the government’s handling of the economy, and the mainstreaming of conspiracy theories and other demonizing propaganda aimed at various minorities.”
The SPLC documented 1,002 hate groups operating in the United States in 2010, a 7.5% increase from the year before. It was the first time that more than 1,000 hate groups were recorded since the organization started tracking them in the 1980s.
But the biggest growth was in so-called “Patriot” groups, which the organization described as conspiracy-minded groups that see the federal government as their primary enemy. There were 300 new groups like this, an increase of more than 60% from the year before, the report said. A lot of the growth in the Patriot groups came from an increase in the number of militias recorded.
There was also a smaller increase in the number of anti-immigrant vigilante groups, SPLC reported.
“We were expecting to see the winds out of their sails because of the mainstreaming (of some of the radical right’s ideas), but that hasn’t been the case,” said Mark Potok, director of SPLC’s Intelligence Project.
He cited developments in the past year such as the passing in Arizona of a restrictive immigration law as an example of extremist ideas being folded into the mainstream.
Politicians affiliated with the Tea Party movement have also co-opted some of the extremist groups’ agenda, ranging from attacking birthright citizenship to requiring special permission for federal agents to carry out operations without the local sheriff’s consent.
But, Potok pointed out, there is a difference between the Tea Party movement and the Patriot movement described in the report.
The Tea Party is not considered an extremist or hate group, “but there are some strains of extremism” in it, he said.
We Know What to Do With Labor Unions and Illegals! (some current Arizona Border Vigilantes)
On the organization’s website, there is a new map that includes a list of all the hate groups and extremist organizations operating in each state. The rise of the Patriot groups is especially notable because this is the subset of radical right groups most associated with violence.
“The real large criminal plots have come more from Patriot groups than the hate groups,” Potok said.
As an example, he noted a man with a long history of anti-government activities who was arrested in January in a car filled with explosives outisde a mosque in Dearborn, Michigan.
There was also a case of a neo-Nazi who was arrested in January as he headed for the Arizona border with a dozen homemade grenades, and another case where police discovered a plot to bomb a Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade in Spokane, Washington, he said.
An Arizona jury on Monday convicted anti-illegal immigration activist Shawna Forde of murder in the killing of a Latino man and his 9-year-old daughter during a 2009 vigilante raid she led on their home.
The Pima County jury convicted Forde on eight counts, including two counts of murder for the shooting deaths of Raul Flores and his daughter, Brisenia, and the attempted murder of the child’s mother, Gina Gonzales, at the family’s rural Arivaca home on May 30, 2009.
The child and her father were American-born U.S. citizens.
The jury also convicted Forde on two counts of aggravated assault, and one count each of burglary, armed robbery and aggravated robbery.
Arizona’s hot-button immigration law is on hold, pending court appeals, but its effects are rippling across the country as state legislatures reconfigured by the November elections begin their new sessions.
The disputed Arizona law would allow law enforcement officers to stop people and demand proof of legal immigration status. In July, a U.S. district judge granted the Obama administration’s request for an injunction blocking parts of the trailblazing law, which raised many legal questions, including whether local officials can legally enforce federal immigration law and whether such local enforcement could lead to unconstitutional racial profiling.
That hasn’t deterred elected officials elsewhere — legislation closely modeled on Arizona’s law has been introduced in at least 15 other states since the beginning of the year. (See box below.) And legislators in other states say they’re awaiting clarification from the courts before introducing their own measures.
The issue is simple, they say: Illegal immigrants are breaking the law, taking jobs and services from U.S. citizens and legal residents.
“It’s a huge problem,” said Republican Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant of Mississippi, where the state Senate last month became the first state legislative chamber to pass a bill modeled on the Arizona measure.
Opponents contend that such measures would unconstitutionally institutionalize racial profiling, leaving anyone who looks or sounds “different” vulnerable to being targeted by police — “just like the way African-Americans were discriminated years before,” said Sole Arrellano, an organizer for the Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance.
Democratic state Sen. David Jordan, who is black, also said opposition to the bill crossed racial and ethnic lines.
“Those of us who have been in the struggle to see how things were done have to be skeptical of anything targeting African-Americans and Latinos,” Jordan said…
Gabrielle Giffords’ Husband Walks Up and Hugs President Obama After His Memorial Speech Last Night.
Did anyone else notice that besides Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, there were no prominent Republicans at the event last night? I expected Sandra Day O’Connor and Justice Kennedy because of ties to the region, and felt that made an important point that the Court stands with Americans for justice and the rule of law.
I don’t know if they were dis-invited, felt uncomfortable, or what – but I expected the Speaker of the House, John Boehner to be there as the head of Congress.
That would have been an even stronger message to the haters. I think an opportunity was missed on someone’s part to show some solidarity.
To anyone still believing President Obama is a Muslim…Your belief isn’t based in any reality – it’s based on your bigotry. You ARE the problem.
The sole black Republican district chairman in Arizona resigned just hours after the assassination attempt on Gabrielle Giffords citing threats from Tea Party members and fear for his family’s safety.
Citing “constant verbal attacks” and other forms of intimidation District Chairman Anthony Miller resigned, along with several others active in the local party.
We have all been hearing about how the language of the Republicans and Tea Baggers isn’t really threatening…
That doesn’t hold much water when lifelong Republicans, afraid for their lives, are being blackmailed and threatened out of office.
Miller, a 43-year-old Ahwatukee Foothills resident and former campaign worker for U.S. Sen. John McCain, was re-elected to a second one-year term last month. He said constant verbal attacks after that election and Internet blog posts by some local members with Tea Party ties made him worry about his family’s safety.
In an e-mail sent a few hours after Saturday’s massacre in Tucson that killed six and injured 13, including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, Miller told state Republican Party Chairman Randy Pullen he was quitting: “Today my wife of 20 yrs ask (sic) me do I think that my PCs (Precinct Committee members) will shoot at our home? So with this being said I am stepping down from LD20GOP Chairman…I will make a full statement on Monday.”
Pullen was in Washington, D.C. and not available for comment, an employee in his office said. State party spokesman Matt Roberts said he could not discuss details of the district’s disputes but, “Anthony has been a good Republican and was really involved in LD20.”
The newly-elected Dist. 20 Republican secretary, Sophia Johnson of Ahwatukee, first vice chairman Roger Dickinson of Tempe and Jeff Kolb, the former district spokesman from Ahwatukee, also quit. “This singular focus on ‘getting’ Anthony (Miller) was one of the main reasons I chose to resign,” Kolb said in an e-mail to another party activist. Kolb confirmed the contents of the e-mail to the Republic…
Miller said when he was a member of McCain’s campaign staff last year has been criticized by the more conservative party members who supported Republican opponent J.D. Hayworth. The first and only African-American to hold the party’s precinct chairmanship, Miller said he has been called “McCain’s boy,” and during the campaign saw a critic form his hand in the shape of a gun and point it at him.
“I wasn’t going to resign but decided to quit after what happened Saturday,” Miller said. “I love the Republican Party but I don’t want to take a bullet for anyone.”
Probably should have listened to the preacher this AM a bit more on that forgiveness and tolerance part.
The number of radical right groups in America — including hate groups, “Patriot” groups and nativist groups — increased in 2010 for the second year in a row, according to a report by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
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