NEXT ON THE WHITE POWER CHOPPING BLOCK: SHAWNA FORDE, JASON BUSH, ALBERT GAXIOLA

You can add this to the list of domestic terrorists going wild, but this one on May 30 in Arizona resulted in the murder of a nine-year-old girl. A Mexican girl. By members of the Minuteklan. Now we will be fair and say that this particular one, Shawna Forde is not exactly in the running for Minuteklan member of the year, and she is so bad we have zeroed in on her already. She was kicked out of the Washington State Minuteklan, and the San Diego chapter won’t have anything to do with her. Forde is more or less an outcast because of a series of events in which her ex-husband was shot, she was raped in another incident, and then shot – in the arm – in another incident. She blamed Mexican drug cartels for the series of attacks, but the story started to unravel, and bloggers began calling BS on it, charging her with perpetuating a hoax. She ended up changing her story, telling police they ought to look among her own currently imprisoned son’s friends for suspects. This apparently put her in a tailspin over the past few months, but she is still hanging on to this thing about going after Mexican drug cartels, under the banner of her own Minuteklan chapter, which looks to be a rogue organization. And yes, she was a part of the Phoenix, Arizona Tea Party on April 15, and posted pictures of herself there on her Minuteklan website. Well, she just did herself in. Police say she and two others (pictured L-R, Albert Gaxiola and Jason “Gunny” Bush) did a home invasion on someone reputed to be a local drug dealer and shot him, his wife and one of their daughters. The wife was the only survivor, and was able to shoot ol’ “Gunny”. The other daughter wasn’t home at the time and they were still looking for her when they were arrested. And before you right-wingers who read this site start looking for a way to rationalize this, you might want to reconsider. Forde and Co. were going in not to enact vigilante justice. They were there to rob the family. Period. Needless to say, the rest of the anti-immigrant activists out there are saying they don’t want to be equated with the likes of Forde, Bush and Gaxiola. You know, just like honest hardworking people who come here from other countries to make a better life for themselves don’t want the anti-immigrant activists to keep holding them responsible for a drunk driver who killed a white girl 600 miles away from them simply because they have the same ethnicity. We shall see how far this goes in the news, but no matter how far it goes know that this is now the third shooting in two weeks by some right-wing scumbag whose cause was championed by the mainstream conservatives in this country. If they are worried about the bad light being shone on them, we hope they are sweating under it, because we definitely want a piece of them now.

Talking Points Memo

Shawna Forde, leader of Minutemen American Defense, is one of three individuals arrested June 12 by sheriff’s detectives in Pima County, Arizona, for the murder of a Mexican American man and his nine-year-old daughter.

Based in Washington State, Forde’s group is one of several border militia groups nationwide that refer to themselves as “Minutemen,” including also the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, of which Forde is also a former leader. Profiles on Forde and her anti-immigrant activities are available from the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League.

According to authorities, Forde and her two accomplices, Jason Eugene Bush and Albert Robert Gaxiola, broke into the home of Raul Flores and his family in Arivaca AZ on May 30th, apparently in the commission of a robbery. The invaders reportedly shot all three members of the Flores family who were present at the time, killing the father and daughter and leaving the mother wounded. While Bush is the suspected gunman in the shootings, investigators say Forde was the mastermind of the operation.

Forde is listed as the National Executive Director of Minuteman American Defense on the group’s website, and the Arizona Daily Star reports that Bush, nicknamed “Gunny,” is the group’s Operations Director. The three are charged with two counts of first-degree murder in addition to burglary and aggravated assault charges.The Minuteman American Defense website and blog contains numerous photos of Forde and friends at Minuteman and “Tea Party” events, including an Apr. 15 event in Phoenix at which Forde’s favorite protest sign was one reading “Stop the Obama-Nation of America.” The site also includes descriptions of immigrants as violent criminals, drug addicts, and “Subhuman Mexicans.” Here is a photo of Forde in full border vigilante gear from the Anti-Defamation League:

Forde’s mother tells the Everett WA Herald that she was not surprised to hear of her daughter’s arrest since she had previously talked of staging home invasions: “She sat here and said that she was going to start a group where they went down and start taking things away from the Mexican mafia…,” Forde’s mother recalled, “…She was going to kick in their doors and take away the money and the drugs.” Forde’s mother also says that her daughter called her a few hours after the shootings May 30 and reported that she was taking refuge in a “safe house” in Arivaca: “I’m in hiding,” Forde told her mother, “You won’t believe what is going down here…. The mafia, they are kicking down doors and they are shooting people and they are looking for me.”

Pima County sheriff’s lieutenant Michael O’Connor told the local Sahuarita Sun that the killings were an “assassination,” and said the killers were also looking for Flores’ other daughter, who was not at home. Sheriff Clarence W. Dupnik, meanwhile, said that Forde as “at best a psychopath”