ACLU Dogs Minuteman Project
The ACLU is training Legal Observers to stalk Minutemen and make sure they don’t violate any laws during the Minuteman Project. ACLU’s official façade will be that “we are here to protect the First Amendment rights of everyone,” including those nasty “vigilantes.” Ray Ybarra said he decided to start calling the Minutemen vigilantes after President Bush used the term. Of course, the media has been calling any kind of anti-illegal alien activists vigilantes for many years.
Ray Ybarra, marshal to this motley posse of activists, says he got the ACLU involved when he noticed a lot of chatter on white power websites about the MMP. Hmmm…now what is Mr. Ybarra, who is Hispanic, doing reading those websites? He claims he sent his press release about the ACLU getting involved to only a few local newspapers, and afterwards he asserts he began receiving hate email and phone calls, allegedly from white power people. The day of this meeting, “hate handbills” had been distributed in Douglas with the name National Alliance on them. Naturally, of course, no one knows who placed them, or even who printed them up.
[Editor’s note: being curious about Ybarra’s claim of white power extremists being interested in and supportive of MMP, I did a Google search under the terms “white power minuteman project,” and got more than 10 pages. Being a bit pressed for time, I only looked at the websites on the first three pages. It seems that all the frenzy over white power people taking over the MMP has been generated solely by the Open Borders Lobby, leftist groups, and the media! The majority of sites were mainstream newspaper articles interviewing Gilchrist and Simcox regarding leftist/media concerns that white power supremacists might come and be a disruptive influence, and both of them spent many words dispelling assertions that they are racists themselves, or that they welcomed them. I only found ONE site, stormfront.org, where there was any discussion of MMP. It appears that this is a typical example of the duplicitous Left whipping up a “racist” frenzy where there is none. Do a search yourself, and see how many “racists” you can find.]
Ybarra gave a one-sentence history of vigilantism, saying it started with the Hannigans, who in the 1970’s beat up immigrants, took their clothes and made them walk back to Mexico naked. He then said that people like Chris Simcox and others started moving here because of this so-called “vigilantism.” He said he’d gone out with Simcox of Civil Homeland Defense on a couple of patrols, on the pretense that he had just wanted to observe what he was doing. They found no aliens. He said that’s the norm—that Simcox hardly ever finds any aliens!
Ybarra made a point of saying at least 8 times that being a legal observer was very dangerous, and that he didn’t even have a sign-up sheet at the meeting because he wanted us to go home and talk to our families and loved ones about what we were contemplating doing. I had a notion to ask, “Ya mean we should make out a Power of Attorney for Healthcare and a Living Will, too, before we go out into the field?” but I held my tongue.
Never let it be said that the ACLU isn’t full of drama and histrionics! When asked if he had any concerns about the MS-13 gang not being able to tell the difference between the observers and the Minutemen, he replied that the threat of them converging on the border to assassinate the Minutemen was a rumor started on the internet to scare people away. The ACLU legal observers, on the other hand, must go unarmed, and be non-violent, despite alleged threats of violence from the nasty “vigilantes and white supremacists.” There seemed to be some concern about the Minutemen being armed, although many of them have stated that they would do their observation without sidearms. Apparently, liberals don’t like guns in the hands of ordinary citizens. I guess they prefer to trust the police and the military.
Ybarra said the goals of observing are three-fold:
1) to deter abuses by our presence;
2) to document illegal activity through video, which will get on the web within 45 minutes;
3) to get the message out that the suffering and death of those looking for work is outrageous (I think he means the illegal aliens.)
In spite of the First Amendment being the star of the ACLU show, Ybarra insists that legal observers NOT SPEAK to the media! The official ACLU mouthpieces will issue the appropriate propaganda. Oh, and did I mention that the observers may not talk to the Minutemen, either?
This is NOT a job for a social person, I can tell you! You will spend a lot of time alone out there in the field. Ybarra added that if a MMP participant said “good morning” to an observer, that the observer could just be polite and return the greeting, as we “must always respect their humanity.” If I were a cat with a hairball, I think I’d feel like hurling it right about now.
In one of his most quotable moments, Ybarra said, “As citizens and residents of this area, we have a choice whether or not to put ourselves in danger; those who are coming across the border, who are forced by economic necessity, do not have a choice.” Good, Ray, why don’t you go down south and help them set up some industries where they can work and actually MAKE A LIVING?
Ninety percent of the meeting was composed of women, mostly of the middle-aged hippie variety. One of them, who calls herself “Walking Mary” seemed to really have it in for Chris Simcox, as she made quite a point of telling everyone he is on probation and not allowed to carry a gun, so if anyone sees him with a gun, “he’s going to prison, get it on video, and call the sheriff!”
In another giant leap of leftist fantasy, Ybarra said that although MMP had “disavowed any association with white power websites, the only people supporting the MMP now are white supremacists.”
The ACLU doesn’t know where the MMP command center is, and apparently they don’t know where theirs is, either. It will be called a “peace” or “communication” center (I guess they don’t like the authoritarian sound of “command”), and it will be somewhere in Bisbee or Douglas—no one seems certain exactly where. People will leave their cars there, so no one can meddle with them (can you say paranoid?), and be shuttled out to their field assignments.
When asked what the legal observers would do if they had to go on private property to follow the Minutemen, Ybarra responded, “it’s the law that the ranch owners have to ask you to leave” (if you don’t have permission to be there). Now I’m wondering, does this mean that the ACLU will carelessly trespass on private property? Are civil rights fine for some, but not for others? Is trespassing is OK with the ACLU, as long it’s far away from their homes and it’s some aliens tramping through a rancher’s land?
Observers will be needed to attend all demonstrations, and even to report on police abuse of Minutemen, “so that we are not always saying crazy racist.” Ybarra says, “there’s no need to demonize individuals. The media wants liberals and conservatives yelling at each other, and being in their faces.” Why am I reminded of Elmer Fudd yelling, “Cwazy Wabbit!”?
Encompassed on 27 pages of memo for the training, several laws are cited which Ybarra purports prove that the activities of the MMP are illegal, including the idiotic assertion that if an illegal border crosser stops when confronted by a Minuteman, that “proves” restraint by intimidation. I wonder, does that include talking, if it’s two-way? What about just LOOKING in the direction of the Minuteman—does that count?
Much was made of rancher Roger Barnett defending his own property, as if that were a crime. Apparently, the ACLU thinks his dogs are also “vigilantes” and everyone seemed to agree that they hoped no one would bring their dogs to “intimidate” the poor little illegal aliens.
Two topics were left out: where the bathrooms were (there are none), and what to do if an observer doesn’t return to the “peace” center. Even though the memo said not to wear skirts, “Talking Mary” volunteered that it was much easier to pee when wearing a skirt. I’ll have to tell the boys about that!
As a fitting denouement to my evening, I was stopped by the Police just as I turned off the highway onto the dirt road to my house.
A very young man took one look at me and said, “We’re just checking because there are a lot of UDA’s (Undocumented Aliens) around here. I don’t often see someone turn off the highway onto a dirt road.” Does this law officer not know that people actually LIVE OUT HERE? Obviously, he doesn’t know the area—he must think that any car using a dirt road is filled with illegal aliens! Anyway, I asked him if he were Border Patrol, because he had no real department identification large enough for me to read, and he responded that he was a special officer with Bisbee police, and would be in the area all during the Minute Man Project. Even though it was dark, I could see that his entire uniform was olive drab.
Vendors, get ready—there will be thousands of out-of-towners in the next month! I smell money in the air! This is Cochise County’s big chance to make a killing!
posted by Defender USA | 8:43 AM
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