Alienating the Minutemen : AZ IMC

On Saturday morning, some activists brought some chaos on the people who have been protesting at the Macehualli day labor center nearly daily for the past 70 days. These people have been harassing the day laborers (undocumented or not) and anyone else who appears to possibly have had undocumented parents (meaning anyone with brown skin) and those sympathetic to undocumented workers' plight.

Dressed in silly outfits, with capes made out of bio-hazard garbage bags, masks, and/or antennae, we held signs that mocked these protesters or confused their message. "Save our White Trash Heritage," "9-11 Was a Plot by the Lochness Monster," "Inglish Onlee", and a couple clowning on Buffalo Rick, the man who recently got a citation for indecent exposure (urinating into a bottle visible to a woman in a house near the day labor center). "Bottle your urine to stop invasion" and "Buffalo Rick's Pissed Off" were held, while the song "Ballad of Buffalo Rick" was sung.

The idea was to confront these anti-immigrant folks without escalating the situation, to diffuse and distract. We understood that their actions and attitudes, much of which has been violent and hateful, are to be taken seriously. One of the protesters of the past was exposed as a neo-nazi and other participants in the protests have called him a brave patriot. We felt, however, that one way to confront them without contributing to the problems they're causing, was to clown on them. Indeed, they did not get as aggressive as in other contexts, even though they did try to make our signs illegible.

We stood out at the main road for a while, confusing passers-by with mixed messages- "Why are the minutemen talking about bottling your urine?" "Have those protesters gone mad?" We imagine many understood what we were doing. We decided to walk by the day labor center to confront those who were stationed there with their lawn chairs, american flags, cameras and all, and got an applause from the people inside the center, who knew nothing of our plan, but obviously understood what we were doing. We soon went back to the road for more visibility.

Some of us were interviewed shortly by the Bird/Feathered Bastard who writes for the New Times and has done a lot as far as exposing the hate and hypocrisy of these protesters. He called them out for associating with Buffalo Rick, who broke a law but is not treated as an illegal.

The group is likely going again in the future.

Ballad of Buffalo Rick
(to the tune of "the beverly hillbillies" )

Let me tell you all a story 'bout a man named Rick
Got hisself arrested for showin' his dick
Into a bottle he started to pee
How was he to know that a woman could see
His prick
All shriveled
Like his heart.

Well the po-po gave Rick a paper citation
Now he's facin' a county vacation
'Cause flashin' yer pekker is considered a crime
Looks like Buffalo Rick'll be doin' some time
Tent City
Green Baloney
The Garfield Gang