Immigration reform is all of the rage right now in national politics. As usual politicians are trying to walk a fine line between accruing more latino voters without alienating their racist white base. This obviously more of an issue for Republican politicians. For every Republican trying to act rationale or that understands that the country will not remain a anglo dominated society forever there are bigots who will undercut them by saying something racist as hell. See Jeb Bush vs. Michelle Bachman. A few years ago during the Bush administration there was a similar debate that went nowhere legislatively. During that time the rhetoric was just as vitriolic if not more so. The left over hate groups from the Bush era immigration reform debates combined with the fear of a new black present formulated into the perfect shape to fit into the Tea Party puzzle.
David Neiwert is a writer for crooksandliars.com and the author of other books concentrating on racial divides in our country. And Hell Followed With Her is a true crime book about the raid of a Mexican family's home on the border of Arizona in a town called Aricava during the height of Tea Party xenophobia and paranoia. The raid resulted in the death of a young girl named Brisenia Flores and her father Junior Flores. Brisenia's mother and Junior's wife Gina survived the attack by faking death despite being shot multiple times herself and witnessing her daughter being shot in the face.
Brisenia Flores, killed at age 9
Gina is the heroine of this story because of her relentless desire to seek justice for her family is the reason the psychopathic perpetrators were even caught and brought to justice. The other part of this book is about the Minutemen movement. The Minutemen are a group of vigilante border "watchers" comprised mostly of white supremacists or other everyday racists, many of which have military training. The Minutemen group was created from the Tea Party fervor and promoted by FOX News, right wing blogs and AM radio. One of the creators Chris Simcox was brought back into the news recently for child molestation charges. The same Chris Simcox who despite his white supremacists ties was promoted as a patriot and hero by Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, and Lou Dobbs on their TV shows nightly during the heyday of the Minutemen. The murder of this family and the rise of the Minutemen are tied together in this book by the murderers themselves. The leader of the group of murders is a woman named Shawna Forde who had top level affiliations with the Minutemen and other similar spilinter vigilante groups on the border. Shawna decided that she wanted to start her own border watch group because she felt the Minutemen to be too timid and politically motivated. She put together a group of sociopaths and degenerates to rob "illegals" and those smuggling drugs across the border. Shawna is profiled in the book and despite her history of psycopathic behavior in the past she was welcomed into the Minutemen with open arms. The Minutemen claimed on the mainstream TV shows that they closely monitored their members to root out people with histories of violence and ties to extremist groups. The irony of this is that if that was the case the leaders themselves shouldn't even have been members. Of course the narrative of close scrutiny was promoted on networks like Fox.
Shawna Forde, right wing darling and psychopath
In the end you can decide if justice was truly served . Neweirt chronicles the story masterfully making the story a captivating read despite how gruesome it is. After you finish And Hell Followed With Her you will hopefully understand why us having such a militarized border is not only dangerous to those living on the border but to all of us. Bills like SB1070 continue to pass in other states and could lead to similar tragedies, if they already haven't.
Dave Neiwert has written other books such as :
"The Eliminationists: How Hate Talk Radicalized the American Right"
"Strawberry Days: How Internment Destroyed a Japanese American Community"
"Death on the Fourth of July: The Story of a Killing, a Trial, and Hate Crime in America"
"In God's Country: The Patriot Movement and the Pacific Northwest"
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