Hate Fever: Arizona Anti-Immigration Activists Arrested for Killings Aimed at Getting Their Way

By Nima Nayebi

Impunity Watch Reporter, North America and Europe
ARRIVACA, United States – Shawna Forde, an outspoken anti-immigration activist, has be arrested in connection with the 30th May home invasion killings of Raul Flores and his daughter. Forde, 41, and two fellow members of her Minuteman American Defense group (MAD), stand charged with “two counts of first-degree murder, one count of first-degree burglary and one count of aggravated assault,” according to the Pima County Sheriff’s Department in Arizona. The killings are said to have been premeditated and designed to steal money and drugs to fund MAD. According to her family, Forde had discussed using robbery as a fund-raising strategy for her anti-immigration group, but Forde denies this allegation. The Green Valley News and Sun reports that she stated: “No, I did not do it.” Forde’s mother, Rena Caudle, who lives in California, said she was not surprised to hear of her daughter’s arrest. Forde visited Caudle before going to Arizona, telling her she planned to stage home invasions.

The victims, Raul Flores, 29, and his daughter, nine-year-old Brisenia, were killed when armed intruders invaded their home. Brisenia’s mother, who traded gun-fire with the suspects, survived the attack, but required hospitalization due to gun shot wounds. Authorities said the threesome dressed as Border Patrol Officers and broke into the Flores’ home, looking for money or drugs to sell. The Pima Count Sheriff’s office revealed that Flores had been connected to Mexican drug cartels, and that the US Drug Enforcement Agency knew this. According to police, the intruders intended to kill the Flores’ other daughter, but failed to locate her in the residence.  According to Dawn Barkman, the Sheriff’s Spokesperson, Forde “was the ringleader of this group and of this attack. She made the order for Bush to go in and shoot these individuals. She’s just truly an evil person to do something like this.”

Forde’s group, MAD, claims that they conduct surveillance and investigations aimed at curtailing illegal immigration and drug-smuggling into the United States. According to the group’s website, “MAD is not responsible for the independent actions or the private agenda by Shawna Forde and her cohorts…. Shawna acted totally on her own person [sic] agenda and has caused a lot of pain embarrassment and humiliation to the total Minuteman movement and fellow members of MAD. MAD will cooperate totally and fully with any and all Law Enforcement agencies and the appropriate judicial system to bring this most terrifying event to a close.” Chris Simcox, the founder of the original Minuteman group, said, “We knew that Shawna Forde was not just an unsavory character but pretty unbalanced as well.”

In the past few weeks, a white supremacist allegedly killed a black guard at the US Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., and anti-abortion activist allegedly killed a Kansas doctor who performed abortions.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization that monitors hate groups through its “Intelligence Project,” estimates that the number of hate groups in the US has risen 54% since 2000. The increase has been fueled partly by the opposition to Hispanic immigration and the election of Mr. Barack Obama, America’s first black president.

Forde had been active in MAD for several years, but prior to heading to Arizona for another season of border patrolling, she e-mailed supporters, telling them: “I will stay the course and lead in this fight with every once [sic] of strength and conviction I have…. It is time for Americans to lock and load.”

Author: Impunity Watch Archive