'Minutemen' Leaders Exchanging Insults Over Forde Murder Case

AlterNet. Posted June 30, 2009.

Heraldnet:

EVERETT -- Controversy over an Everett woman charged with two killings in Arizona now has the national leaders of anti-illegal immigration groups calling one another idiots.

Shawna Forde, 41, is charged with two counts of first-degree murder and other crimes in connection with a May 30 raid on an Arivaca, Ariz., family. Killed were Raul Flores, 29, and his daughter, Brisenia, 9. The child's mother also received gunshot wounds, but survived and drove the attackers away in a gun battle that was recorded during a her frantic 911 call to police.

The sheriff's department in Pima County, Ariz., has alleged Forde led the raid believing Flores was a drug trafficker, and she could net money to support her Minutemen American Defense group.

Even before the shootings Forde was a polarizing figure for people who endorse the idea that self-styled Minutemen engaged in surveillance and patrols are part of the solution to illegal immigration, human smuggling and drug trafficking along on the U.S.-Mexico border. Forde conducted border watches and patrols in Arizona, and was an ally of Jim Gilchrist, founder of the Orange County, Calif.-based Minutemen Project.

Read the entire article here.

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