{"id":1020,"date":"2010-03-29T02:06:17","date_gmt":"2010-03-29T09:06:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=1020"},"modified":"2010-03-29T02:06:17","modified_gmt":"2010-03-29T09:06:17","slug":"hate-group-disbands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2010\/03\/29\/hate-group-disbands\/","title":{"rendered":"Hate Group Disbands"},"content":{"rendered":"

To my way of thinking, the demise of a racist GOP hate group is a good thing by definition, but I can\u2019t say I\u2019m pleased with the potential fallout.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\"minutemen\"<\/a> The Minutemen Civil Defense Corps [wing-nuts delinked<\/font><\/em>] announced Thursday that it will disband after a five-year run. Carmen Mercer, the group’s president, made the announcement only days after circulating a new call to action to its members to come to the border "locked, loaded and ready<\/strong>."<\/p>\n

The group has struggled through leadership conflicts, financial mismanagement battles, and failed political campaigns over the years. This recent action reflects a split in the organization over accelerating liability threats due to its membership base which is difficult to control, increasingly hostile and aggressive.<\/p>\n

Border Action Network<\/a>, an Arizona human rights organization that works on the border is not surprised by the recent news. "There has been a growing disconnect from the national and the local Minutemen chapters," explains Jennifer Allen, the group’s Executive Director.<\/p>\n

"The national was getting absorbed into the political fights with candidates and lobbying while the local groups continue to attract fringe extremists that are attracted to the paramilitary culture and hate groups<\/strong>."<\/p>\n

The Border Action Network notes the local groups’ increasingly aggressive and hostile membership base. In one incident of alleged aggressive membership behavior, Washington State Minutemen chapter members, Shawna Forde and Jason Bush, are charged with murdering a Latino father and daughter<\/strong> in rural Arivaca, AZ in June 2009. They are expected to go on trial later this year.<\/p>\n

The Border Action Network has documented repeated incidents of Minutemen and other vigilante groups abusing immigrants over the years<\/strong>. In a case they filed in 2005 with the Organization of American States’ Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, they relate that many of the one thousand individuals who were detained by vigilante groups and individuals reported were shot at, kicked, dragged, and, in other ways, physically and verbally abused<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Their case charges the U.S. government with human rights violations for failing to prosecute Minutemen and other vigilante groups. "We expect the case to be heard by the Commission later this year," explains Allen.<\/p>\n

Allen continued, "The fundamental problem is that the U.S., at all levels, has turned a blind-eye to the growth of fringe, hate groups. The consequences have been deadly.<\/strong>"<\/p>\n

Ironically, Allen does not expect to see the human rights situation improve with the Minutemen’s disbanding. Rather, she predicts an increase in violence by vigilante groups as a result of the restructuring<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

"Without the U.S. officials stepping up or their own [Minuteman] national group attempting to keep the local radical organizations in check, we can expect to see more assaults on immigrants and those that live in the border region."… [emphasis added<\/em>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <Alternet<\/a>><\/p>\n

What we see here is a microcosm of the GOP\u2019s hate tactics.  In all probability the GOP leadership (with exceptions) does not want violence to actually occur.  For the leadership hate is a weapon of intimidation through the threat of violence.  When violence actually occurs, that defeats their purpose, because it angers the left and increases our resolve.<\/font><\/p>\n

The problem is that, once the genie is out of the bottle, controlling it or putting it back in is an extremely difficult, if not impossible, task.  It was too much for the Minutemen.  Now the wing-nuts patrolling the border have no restraint at all.<\/font><\/p>\n

On a larger, we may be looking at a parallel of the GOP inspired and funded hate group, the Teabaggers.  That genie is out of the bottle, and it may turn on it\u2019s master.  Wouldn\u2019t it be ironic, if the final demise of the GOP is brought on by their own creation?  It may happen, because the GOP leadership has been as spineless in restraining teabagger violence as the Democratic party has in bringing blue dogs to heel.<\/font><\/p>\n

Finally, we owe a debt of thanks to the true patriots in the Border action network and similar groups, courageously exploring the border area to protect people by exposing the criminal activities of the Minutemen and others of their ilk.  They represent what American values must be.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To my way of thinking, the demise of a racist GOP hate group is a good thing by definition, but I can\u2019t say I\u2019m pleased with the potential fallout. The Minutemen Civil Defense Corps [wing-nuts delinked] announced Thursday that it will disband after a five-year run. Carmen Mercer, the group’s president, made the announcement only […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1020\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}