Immigrants shot at///Militia starting?
by chaparral Friday, Feb. 02, 2007 at 3:18 PM

Two blog posts: http://deletetheborder.org/node/1939 http://deletetheborder.org/node/1938

Promoter of State Militia Linked to Anti-Immigrant Bills

I just read today about some efforts to set up a state militia in arizona. Apparently a number of other states already have similar militias. The idea is that a militia would be able to help with emergencies. It's pretty obvious from the article, Security force for state debated, that the focus is on the border. Currently we have the national guard down at the border because governor napolitano declared a "state of emergency", which the national guard is somehow supposed to fix. Because of a recent incident where armed people approached the national guard from the mexico side of the border, forcing the national guard to retreat, some anti-immigrant folks are riled up about some supposed security threat.

So I looked into the guy, AZ senator jack harper, who's pushing these bills that would create a state militia. Sure enough, he's sponsored a number of bills that would make it harder for undocumented immigrants to live here, many of which Russell Pearce has been involved with. To name a few (which i found here), he sponsored a bill that would make it so foreign ids would not be considered valid id, a bill that would make undocumented immigrants ineligible for workers' compensation, a bill to put more money towards border technology, a bill that would make it so undocumented immigrants could be charged with tresspassing, and he was also behind the REAL ID act.

Here's some text from the article about the militia:

Arizona may become one of the growing number of states to create its own home-grown security force, manned by citizen volunteers and deployed by the governor to deal with emergencies.

It's a version of a state militia, separate from the Arizona National Guard but available to assist Arizonans in dealing with natural disasters, terrorist attacks or other emergencies...

But coming at a time of heightened tensions over Arizona's border with Mexico, some critics feel it is the state's attempt to create its own border patrol. Others say the force is not necessary, noting that the National Guard already exists to deal with state emergencies. Other critics say it would add another layer of law enforcement, requiring an undetermined amount of money from the state budget.

State Sen. Jack Harper, a Republican from Surprise, said Monday that Arizona needs its own force to cope with emergencies when the National Guard is co-opted by the federal government. Twenty-two states already have organized such a force, Harper said.

This may also be an attempt to legitimize and sanction vigilantes such as the minutemen. Indeed, is it not likely that a number of these folks would love to become members of an official state-sponsored militia with all the funding, authority, and technology that comes with it? Just like "tarantulas" of Sheriff Joe Arpaio's posse was recruiting for anti-immigrant people to join the posse.

I've mentioned this before, but a good source of information on the history anti-immigrant vigilantes/militias/posses is the first part of the book "No One is Illegal" by Mike Davis. I'm convinced that giving such people/groups the authority of being state-sanctioned is possibly even more dangerous than not, despite the fact that they have to be more accountable to the state. Of course, we can already look at the abuses of power by law enforcement and military against indigenous, black, immigrant, and other people in history and the present.

Check out the San Francisco Vigilance Movement, Lattimer Massacre, the Ludlow Massacre, for more examples of posse/militia attacks on workers/immigrants.

Of course, non-state-sanctioned folks are also dangerous, as we can see by the recent attack on immigrants and the man driving the truck they were in (see this post).

And of course we must also see the overlap of people playing different roles within and outside of their jobs, such as the history of cops by day participating in kkk actions by night. Or the sailors/marines who attacked chicanos during the zoot suit riots.

We need to pay close attention to this militia thing.

Immigrants Shot at in AZ

I'm really upset by this. Although i can't know what happened, based on the direction i'm seeing things go, i am assuming these were anti-immigrant folks who fired upon immigrants and the man who was driving the truck. What's curious is that the driver, who i don't believe was an immigrant, was killed while the others (that they know of) were injured or unharmed.

Authorities are searching for four men who attacked 12 undocumented immigrants, killed an Eloy man and shot a teenager, Pinal County Sheriff's Office officials said.

Authorities said David Norris Jr. was driving a pickup truck containing 12 illegal immigrants late Saturday in an Eloy farm field when four heavily armed men in a white full-size van began firing on them.

All four men were wearing military-style berets, camouflage pants and shirts, authorities said.

Norris, 46, of Eloy, was fatally shot and 19-year-old Andres de Jesus, from Oaxaca, Mexico, was shot in the leg during the attack, authorities said.

"They told them to get down to the floor and then they shot and everyone started running," said Alejandro Ramos, a spokesman with the Mexican Consulate in Tucson, from the immigrants' reports. "They didn't take anything. It's pretty strange. We aren't sure who (the attackers) are."

The teen, who authorities originally said was 12 years old, was released Thursday from a Tucson hospital and taken to a hospital in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, Ramos said. He had been separated from his wife during the attack, who Ramos said was just found at about 5 p.m. Thursday and will be reunited with her husband.

Johnson said due to the large amount of blood found in the back of the pickup, a third victim may have also been shot but has not been found.

The four suspects were wearing military-style berets, one red and three black, and green camouflage pants and shirts, authorities said.

Three of the suspects are described as White and one Hispanic, who spoke limited Spanish, authorities said.

Most of the undocumented victims fled from the attack, but authorities were able to talk to five witnesses, ages 14 to 24, who helped produce a sketch of one of the attackers, Johnson said. (Source.)

What's more worrisome is that Arizona may start up a citizen militia.

deletetheborder.org/chaparral

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