Examples of breakdown in law enforcement leading to vigilantism:
The New Vigilantism on Our American Borders
Ladies & gentlemen:
Whenever and wherever a failure of local law enforcement and United States federal government intervention into crime against the citizens exists, a vigilantism, or Militia of common citizens, will arise. That is the "Worden Rule". That is the American way of doing things, so count on that response every time it happens. That is how we were born in fire and blood as a nation, it is our independent American nature, and it is ultimately effective whenever necessary.
We American citizens have a constitutional right to bear personal firearms, and we have personal property to protect, independent of our government; therefore we are not dependent upon our government to protect us when they won't. Such is the case with regards to our border with Mexico.
The Republicans don't want to stem the tide of illegal immigrants galloping across our border with Mexico because their corporate handlers demand the cheap labor these illegal immigrants provide. The Democrats don't want to interfere with the illegal immigrants because they provide votes for anyone deemed a Democrat because it is always the Democrats who call for amnesty for illegal immigrants already established here. In the afterglow of those treasonous government failures to act, the citizens' Militia has predictably filled that void.
The refusal of the American media to nationally report incidents where citizen Militias have proven effective in arresting and detaining illegal immigrants on our border with Mexico has been circumvented by Internet news organizations like WorldNetDaily, Sierra Times and Newsmax, among others, not afraid or inhibited to report these incidents.
For example, a Texas-based Militia group calling itself "Ranch Rescue" recently stopped 279 pounds of high grade Marijuana from being smuggled across a ranch owned by the Nature Conservancy in Arizona. They were staked out on a trail on that ranch that looked like a herd of buffalo had recently crossed at 3 AM when they detected another group coming over. When the heavily armed Militia group, largely manned by former special forces personnel yelled, "Alto!", the group tossed their cargo and scampered back from whence they came, leaving their shipment for the Militia to gather it and alert the media.
When the local sheriff was notified of the seizure, he told the media this was a very serious problem and it could have gone very badly.
Oh really? How badly? Where was this sheriff and his deputies when this shipment was coming through? Home asleep, perhaps? Yes, and what was this sheriff really complaining about? Perhaps that he didn't get his "cut" off that shipment? One can only speculate.
The bottom line is that America is being invaded daily on both southern and northern borders, not only by illegal immigrants looking for a better life, but by drug smugglers bringing in contraband that is a whole lot more dangerous to our American youth than 300 pounds of high-grade pot. They are also bringing in Heroin and a number of other drugs.
A Tombstone weekly newspaper publisher recently called for the formation of a citizen militia to combat illegal immigration on the border. They asked for vote on the issue, and 95% of the respondents were in favor of it.
But what was the response of the government officials? According to reporter Ignacio Ibarra of the Arizona Daily Star, " Arizona leaders at the state and federal level are calling for investigations into armed civilian patrols along the state's border with Mexico."
"U.S. Rep.-elect Raúl Grijalva, a Tucson Democrat who takes office in January, said he will push for federal hearings into the activities of the civilian patrols. Grijalva's pledge echoes proposals this weekend during border forums in Mexico, made by leaders including Gov.-elect Janet Napolitano, Gov. Jane Hull and Sonora Gov. Armando Lopez Nogales."
Since when did these elected miscreants think the American citizen was some lower class not "authorized" to interdict drug trafficking? We Americans are all members of the Militia under the United States Code, and the Constitution of the United States authorizes the Militia to "Enforce the laws of the Union, to suppress insurrections and to repel invasions." As such, the American Militia is a law enforcement entity authorized by every state and federal law in the nation to make citizen arrests.
The American people are waking up and taking action, and these elected officials had better do the same.
Carl F. Worden
Liaison Officer
Southern Oregon Militia
ulster.net
In sparsely populated border areas of Texas, Arizona and New Mexico, which have seen a surge in immigrant crossings due to blockades such as Gatekeeper, the mentality materializes as vigilantism. Ranchers and other property owners, alone or in groups, have apprehended and turned over thousands of immigrants to the Border Patrol under the pretext of "citizen's arrest."
Some of the attacks have been fatal. On May 13, Mexican immigrant Eusebio de Haro, 22, was shot in the leg and left bleeding to death after he and a companion approached a rancher near Brackettville, Texas, pleading for water.
One of the busiest border areas in recent years has been an 80-mile stretch in Arizona's Cochise County. The most notorious vigilantes there are Roger and Don Barnett, who boast of rounding up more than 3,000 undocumented immigrants on their 22,000-acre ranch near the town of Douglas. The Barnetts often venture onto highways, where they pull over "suspected illegal aliens," as Roger calls them, and hold them until Border Patrol agents arrive. Once last year, the Barnetts held 27 undocumented immigrants at gunpoint until the Border Patrol arrived to arrest them.
The vigilantes are part of a national movement. The Barnetts' organization, Neighborhood Ranch Watch, works closely with the country's most virulent anti-immigrant groups, such as the Washington, D.C.-based Federation for American Immigration Reform, the California Coalition for Immigration Reform (CCIR), based in Huntington Beach, and Voices of Citizens Together (VCT), based in Sherman Oaks, California.
VCT's Web site warns of a "Mexican invasion" and a "re-conquering of the Southwest." The group has run vigilante patrols on the California-Mexico border, using global-positioning systems to track immigrants and posting photographs of them on a Web site so viewers could join in the "hunt." VCT President Glenn Spencer and CCIR chair Barbara Coe helped promote California's Proposition 187, a 1994 ballot initiative that outlawed services to undocumented immigrants and barred their children from attending public schools.
On May 13, VCT led a rally of 250 anti-immigrant activists and vigilantes in Sierra Vista, Arizona, southeast of Tucson. At the rally, Coe blamed government apathy for forcing ranchers to "defend our borders and defend themselves from the illegal alien savages." A CCIR leaflet lauded the Barnetts: "Every illegal alien they halt and turn over to the Border Patrol for deportation is: One less illegal alien getting tax-funded benefits [and] smuggling deadly drugs into our country to poison our citizens [and joining] murderous illegal alien gangs who rob, rape and murder innocent American citizens!"
The vigilantes operate with the sympathy of some state and federal officials. INS Commissioner Doris Meissner says ranchers "have legitimate concerns about the trespassers on their property."
Tolerance of vigilantism has damaged official U.S.-Mexico relations. The Mexican government cites two dozen recent cases of "abuse" of migrants by private U.S. residents, mostly ranchers. In May, at bilateral talks in Washington, Mexican Foreign Minister Rosario Green described recent migrant shootings along the border as "brutal displays of xenophobia." On May 22, hundreds of people gathered at the U.S. consulate in Hermosillo, Mexico, to protest what they called a "migrant hunt."
Instead of cracking down on the vigilantes, the Clinton administration responded in June by announcing that it would send another 400 Border Patrol agents to Arizona and beef up patrols along ranch perimeters. The move seems to have emboldened vigilantes. A Texas group is urging armed volunteers to head to Arizona this fall to help ranchers repair damage caused by trespassing immigrants and, if necessary, to detain the intruders.
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