Pictured above: convicted murderer, Shawna Forde. In the press she’s referred to as “Arizona Vigillante Shawna Forde.” And that’s certainly accurate. But the story goes deeper, and so does how it’s been covered in the press. Here are the facts . . .

Ms. Forde is a past member of the “Minutemen” – the non-vigilante group of volunteers that patrol the Arizona/Mexico border, and calls U.S. Border Patrol agents when they spot illegals sneaking across the border. They are non-violent. They carry cell phones. Not Uzis.

Ms. Forde was drummed out of the organization for being – how can I put this delicately – a whack job. So she formed her own, similarly-named group. Only this group was a bunch of thugs. She decided to step over the line, take the law into her own hands, and go find herself some ill-eagle Messkins to roust, rob, and rape (as in abduct).

Impersonating U.S. Border Patrol officers, Forde and two accomplices staged a home invasion at the home of Raul Flores. Flores and his daughter, nine-year-old Brisenia Flores were shot to death. They were both U.S. citizens, by the way. Not that it makes one damn bit of difference in this crime. The wife/mother, Gina Gonzales, was wounded. We’ll let CNN pick up the story here:

Posing as border patrol and law enforcement officers, Forde, Gaxiola and Bush, whom prosecutors identified as the gunman, showed up at the Flores home after midnight, several hours after the family had returned from a shopping trip in Tucson to buy shoes for their daughter for summer camp.

Brisenia Flores was sleeping on the couch with her puppy when the killers demanded to be let into the home. They accused Flores of harboring illegal aliens and said the house was surrounded by agents.

Once inside, the gunman shot Flores in the chest and Gonzales in the leg. Later Brisenia was shot as she pleaded for her life.

Forde & Co. proceeded to rob the home. Apparently, their goal was to steal money, jewelry and drugs (?!) to finance an anti-immigration hit squad.

This all took place in 2009. Yesterday, Forde was found guilty of a double-homicide, with a side of six other charges, including attempted murder. The sentencing phase starts today.

Lots of questions on this one. First of all, why is a racist, bigoted thug like Forde and her minions being characterized as a part of the Minutemen movement in the press? They threw her out for being full-goose bozo.

You can bet that somebody in the left wing-nut blogosphere will characterize her as a Tea Partier, sooner or later. And they will attempt to tar the Tea Party, Conservatives, 2nd Amendment advocates, Border security advocates and anyone who’s not for open borders as all guilty of these murders.

Bank on it. CNN showed impressive restraint in their story. I don’t expect others will follow suit.

Simply put, Forde and her accomplices were murdering thugs, using the issue of illegal immigration as a cover, to justify their own illegal acts. They belong behind bars, or on Death Row (my personal preference for this kind of criminal).

I read almost every post and comment here on TTAG. Robert reads all of them. I know of not one of you that would advocate the kind of senseless, criminal actions that this scumbags perpetrated. Even those that are passionate about border security and keeping illegals out do not, to my knowledge, believe that vigilanteism is a good idea or acceptable in any way.

The sad fact, though, is that, to the average person, it’s all too easy to take an example like Forde and assume that those on the Right are like-minded. That’s ridiculous. But it’s all but inevitable. And given the virtual media blackout on the Project Gunwalker story, I wouldn’t be surprised to see this story used as a stalking horse to try and deflect attention away from the ATF and over to those who are concerned more with their own safety and security, than some mythical “river of guns” the ATF keeps talking about.

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9 COMMENTS

    • Actually, I don’t think the NYT article was that bad – except for the author’s failure to mention that Forde was thrown out of the Minutemen group. Honestly, I’m a bit confused. The article was written as if she was still a “minuteman”, just part of a different faction. That may or may not be accurate, depending on how organized the minutemen are. If any “bunch of drunken idiots with M4s” can run around calling themselves minutemen, the “real minutemen” have a serious public relations issue and they should expect bad press.

      Nevertheless, the article didn’t seem to be terribly biased. After all, the author did mention that Ms. Gonzalez, after being shot, managed to get to her husband’s handgun and open fire, driving the intruders away. She even managed to shoot one of them in the leg in the process.

  3. “…why is a racist, bigoted thug like Forde and her minions being characterized as a part of the Minutemen movement in the press?”

    Because it’s fits the narrative they’d like to promote. Because it dovetails quite nicely with their world view. Because it helps them advance their political agenda.

    Shall I go on?

  4. Kozak asks: “First of all, why is a racist, bigoted thug like Forde and her minions being characterized as a part of the Minutemen movement in the press?”

    That’s an easy one: Because many of them are also racist, bigoted thugs. What do I win?

    Take educated, trained, and highly professional peace officers and put them out in the field without adequate oversight or supervision. What do you get? We know the answer to that one.

    Now take totally unqualified amateurs with no training or discipline at all, motivated primarily by their wingnut political views, put them out in the field without adequate supervision, and what do you get?

    As Farago likes to say, what could possibly go wrong.

    Movements like these are always going to fail due simply to the type of people they naturally attract: Knuckleheads. Dickweeds. Crackpots. Soreheads. Nudist trailer park denizens. People who save and label their pee in mason jars, etc. That’s who they are.

    Here’s Minutemen Project founder Robert Gilchrist on what happened to the minuteman movement, in his own words: “Am I happy at the outcome of this whole movement? I am very, very sad, very disappointed…. There’s all kinds of organizations that have spawned from the Minuteman Project and I have to say, some of the people who have gotten into this movement have sinister intentions. …I have found, after four years in this movement…I very well may have been fighting for people with less character and less integrity than the ‘open border fanatics’ I have been fighting against. And that is a phenomenal indictment of something I have created.”

    http://articles.ocregister.com/2008-06-25/news/24732952_1_illegal-immigration-minuteman-project-debate-over-immigration-reform

  5. Brad, You make a good point. It would be a mistake for anyone to insinuate that most or all folks on the right are like her, or that most or all gun owners are. But let’s face it, some are. Her racism is so ugly that no one would admit it, but it’s there.

    From another perspective, let’s take the racists and ask how many of them are gun owners. Now we’re talking about almost all.

    So let’s try to put some numbers on it. Gunowners who are racists, 40% – 50%. Racists who are gunowners, 95% – 99%.

    How do you like them apples.

    • Mikeb – you must be spending too much time on that minor planet named after you… care to impart some background for these numbers, or is this standard tr0ll provocation???

  6. WASH. & every single POLITICIAN who WONT defend our Borders need to take direct responsibility for this. Count on it!! People r DESPERATE down there. And Politicians -yes, the ones YOU elected- are worthless cowards ’cause they wont BUCK O’ -or his thugs Admin.!!

    ONLY GONNA GET WORSE.. and u can take THAT, my friends … to the Bank.

  7. Illegal immigration is bad enough. When it is so bad at home that you feel that the dangers of bringing your family through the gauntlet of the US Mexico border, it is pretty bad. They know that they are subject to the border gangs “rules”. They are almost always required to carry some drugs to help pay thier way. Many get caught, just to do it again.
    When Americans prey upon them, or others of Mexican desent for profit, it makes it that much worse. The reason that they can work here is that the employer does not want to pay going rate or abide by the laws that bind employee/employer. Years ago, many employers would call immigration to come get thier own workers on payday, so that he could use that money for something else. Usually, when and if the employee came back, he would get his check, but not always. Other contractors will get a contract making clothing and then dissappear after 5 weeks or so of work, in which the workers might have only got 1 or 2 weeks pay.
    There should be a special place in jail for these people, preying on the poor(there is one in Hell). Sadly, these people rarely get caught and if they are, rarely see jail time.

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