Arizona's criminalization of kindness.

AZ State Capitol / Wes Bolin Plaza
Phoenix: February, 2011.

Yesterday the legislature found $5 million for "border security" in a non-border county while still maintaining that we don't have the $1.4 million necessary to restore AHCCCS transplant funding this year. Even the Arizona Republic is appalled - and that's saying a lot. People like Pearce and Kavanagh have been leading the citizens of this state to a collective spiritual death like pied pipers for too long; it's not the "criminal aliens" we have to fear - it's the home-grown terrorists we put into the legislature who endanger what is dear to us the most: our children. We are teaching them to justify cruelty to their fellow beings.


I can't comprehend the sheer brutality of the Arizona state legislature - when are the voters in this state going to wake up? Those people are hardly working in our people's best interests - if they're willing to kill Francisco Felix and coach Tiffany Tate because the chances we can save their lives don't make the expense worth it (according to Rep. John Kavanagh), they'll do the same to the rest of us when the time comes.

The dying are taxpayers too: AZ Families deserve AHCCCS.
AZ State Capitol / Wes Bolin Plaza
Phoenix: February, 2011.

The average citizen here may not be so ill-intended, but they're following their leaders like sheep these days - some with great enthusiasm, in fact - and it's having devastating consequences. The rest of the world is fighting for their freedom, while we're being ground down by more a oppressive government in Arizona at an alarming rate. The Tea Party is hardly about to protect us from tyrrany - they're not just innocent bystanders - they're among the chief perpetrators.


The claim "we can't afford it" when it comes to the People's needs holds no water in Arizona - the elite have effectively redirected resources from the poor to their own pockets through tax code changes and re-appropriations. There's plenty of money to expand the prison system, which we'll be needing to do soon since the state has one of the highest home foreclosure rates in the nation, and it's not getting better. Push even the best families to desperation and cancel their kids' or mother's health insurance, and you'll find economic crime go up for sure. Fortunately, the relationship between crime and poverty works the other way, too.


Apparently the AZ legislature doesn't know or care about how to reduce crime, though - the concept of evidence-based practice in the criminal justice profession has about 20 more years of catching up to do in Arizona, as we do in the areas of public health and mental health services out here (we're incarcerating ten mentally ill people for every one we hospitalize for their psychiatric symptoms - and when we do that they tend to be even further neglected and abused). This regressive, repressive state is more about social control and punishing the poor and deviant (that's me) than ever, in fact - they seem to seek vengeance and power throguh of their exercises of "justice", not community-building, healing for victims, or societal transformation.

AZ State Capitol / Wes Bolin Plaza
Phoenix: February, 2011.

Don't underestimate the power of racism, xenophobia, and fear to drive policy and funding priorities in this soul-sick place. All aid to people who can't provide documentation of their state-legitimized presence in Arizona is being criminalized at a rapid pace by Russ Pearce's Me Party Senate: from educators to health care providers to ordinary citizens, we're all expected to turn our Latino neighbors in as suspects for the police to clear before we extend a hand.


AZ State Capitol / Wes Bolin Plaza
Phoenix: March, 2011.


I can only imagine what a delightful bunch of kids Arizona's voting public is raising to lead us into the future. If you're a person of color here and in dire straits (or even just doing your job) look for Sheriff Joe's goons to come your way - and hope they don't mistakenly arrest you - or beat or kill you once you're taken prisoner. Give me an "anchor baby" from Mexico over a self-interested sociopath descended from Anglo immigrants any day - at least those children and their parents would have the courage to stop at the side of the road and help my family if we were in trouble...and they don't tend to grow up to be Nazis.

AZ State Senator Russell Pearce's son, Joshua, in a mugshot.
That's a neo-Nazi tattoo he sports...is it any wonder?

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Arizona Senate Committee Wastes Time and Resources on Misguided Legislation
Wednesday, February 23 2011 14:03 Legislators target all Arizonans with six sweeping measures instead of addressing state’s real problems

Phoenix, Arizona--Yesterday, the Arizona Senate Appropriations Committee passed sweeping legislation to put federal immigration enforcement in the hands of K-12 schools, community colleges, universities, hospitals, motor vehicles, police, landlords, and business owners. The 12-hour hearing where the six related bills were discussed was packed with community organizations, health professionals, business leaders, faith leaders and others who voiced their strong opposition to the bills.

The bills were passed despite more than 20,000 emails sent to Appropriations Committee members from Arizonans outraged at these widespread attacks on our state in the four days leading up to the hearing.

The bills passed yesterday by the Committee include:

SB1611-- “Immigration Omnibus” or the “Throwing Arizona Under-the-Bus” bill –Sponsored by Senator Russell Pearce, this bill is a 30-page, measure requiring business owners, police officers, apartment renters, school employees, and others to verify citizenship, notify immigration and in some cases, failure to do so could result in loss of licenses, certification or imprisonment.

SB1308 and 1309 – “Eroding Children’s Futures and the Constitution” bills. Two bills introduced by Senator Ron Gould to create a new Arizona Citizenship that excludes children born to parents in the U.S. without immigration authorization. The bills are an attempt to ignite a national legal battle challenging the 14th amendment of the Constitution’s recognition of birthright citizenship.

SB1407 and 1141 – “Schools as Immigration Checkpoints” bills. Two bills introduced by Senator Steve Smith that would require K-12 schools to report on the immigration status of their students. Failure to comply would result in loss of funding.

SB1405 –“Turning Health Providers into Health Deniers” bill. This bill introduced by Senator Steve Smith would require hospital employees to verify the citizenship of people seeking emergency and non-emergency medical attention and to notify immigration agents if someone cannot prove they are authorized to be in the U.S.

The following is a statement from Border Action Network’s Executive Director, Jennifer Allen regarding yesterday’s passage of these sweeping measures:

“Despite the many legislators who campaigned against big government on their election soap boxes, the Arizona Senate Appropriations Committee approved six bills yesterday that would result in big government prying eyes in hospitals, schools, community colleges, universities, motor vehicles, housing, and businesses.

These bills would negatively impact all Arizonans who drive or buy cars, rent apartments, hire employees, attend elementary school or community college, give birth, or get sick and seek medical attention. It’s ludicrous to think that if you want to share an apartment with a roommate or go to the hospital to give birth, you would have to prove your citizenship, but under these bills, such would be our state’s reality.

As Arizona’s $2 billion deficit continues to grow, the Committee responsible for appropriating our funds has approved increasing the cost burden on hospitals, schools, motor vehicles, cities and counties, and on business owners. These bills are a waste of our time, our money and our resources, and it’s time for our legislators to focus on making Arizona strong, and to implement the real solutions for our state and our children’s futures: health care, jobs, education and public safety.

Business owners, faith leaders, law enforcement, health care workers, school and university employees and everyday community members are speaking out and pushing back, and we will continue to put pressure on the legislature every step of the way until these bills are defeated. Only then can Arizonans be proud to have leaders that actually lead our state.”

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Border Action Network formed in 1999 and works with immigrant and border communities in Arizona to ensure that our rights are respected, our human dignity upheld and that our communities are safe and healthy places to live. We are a membership-based organization that combines grassroots community organizing, leadership development, policy advocacy and litigation.

Pinal County: Houses of Healing.

Pinal county program helps inmates deal with issues.

by Lindsey Collom - Jun. 19, 2010 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

Donald Hill says this will be the first time his name has been published in a newspaper for something positive.

Hill is a maximum-custody inmate in the Pinal County Adult Detention Center. His name was last inked on newsprint March 18 in the crime-log section of a local paper.

The report said officers were dispatched to a Florence neighborhood early Feb. 28 after a call about people trying to break into empty apartments. When police arrived, "Donald Hill allegedly assaulted an officer and was stunned with a Taser," the article said.

He is now charged with aggravated assault and weapons misconduct - the latest in a line of criminal cases against Hill going back to at least 1997.

"I'm 32 years old, and I've spent most of my life in prison," Hill said recently. "I'm tired, and I want a better life, and I'm allowed to get rid of my demons."

For six weeks, Hill and 11 fellow inmates addressed their demons in a voluntary rehabilitation program to help them identify and make positive choices. Facilitators used a book - Houses of Healing: A Prisoner's Guide to Inner Power and Freedom - to guide inmates as they confronted the root causes of their behavior.

While there are a number of inmate-rehabilitation programs at Arizona jails, this is the first time one has been offered to maximum-custody inmates in Pinal County since a new administration took over the jails in January 2009.

"We felt like we needed to offer something," said Elke Jackson, correctional health director. "In most jails, they go in and they sit there until they get sentenced and they move on. We have a different philosophy."

James Kimble, chief deputy of adult detention, said the Sheriff's Office has a responsibility to help inmates "change so they do not continue to be a burden to society" and can go on to lead "productive, pro-social lives."

"People ask me, 'Do you believe in rehabilitation?' " Kimble said. "My response is, 'How do you rehabilitate someone who's never been habilitated?' . . . Sobriety, education, employability - if we can do any of those things, we can take a chink out of their armor."

Program participants studied the book and met for two hours each week to discuss topics including anger management and domestic violence. Inmates could also meet one-on-one with correctional health staff to discuss individual issues.

David Cruse, 29, said he studied the book in the mornings "when I had a fresh mind. Sometimes I could open it up and incorporate something positive in my day."

Cruse, who is being held in jail on an aggravated-assault charge, said the studies have helped him "discover the roots of the problem."

"It's really hard to look inside of your self," he said. "Everybody has an inner child, and it helps to go back and be a friend to that kid."

The dozen inmates who completed the program had a graduation ceremony last week in a jail recreation room, followed by coffee and doughnuts.

"It's not as hard out there as it is in here," Jackson told them. "Take what you learn. If you survived it in the (jail) pod, take that into the real world."

Time will tell whether the program is effective, Kimble said. Studies have shown slight reductions in recidivism rates for inmates who participate in rehabilitation. Previously, three groups of Pinal County inmates went through House of Healing, but staff has not followed up with participants.

Donald Hill said that when he gets out, he plans to take the lessons he learned with him.

"I'm missing my life," Hill said. "It's done for me. After this, I won't come back."

Deputy shot; AZ Militia plans"Cinco De Ammo."

From Stephen Lemons' blog, "The Feathered Bastard," at the Phoenix New Times. The rally last night in Phoenix to legalize medical marijuana (a ballot initiative petition drive is underway) was timely; if pot was legalized for all and we could buy it at a pharmacy or grow our own, we could do a lot to boost Arizona's economy and tax base, and cut down on all the crime that accompanies drug-smuggling.

As for this story, we'll see how it plays out, but it looks like it's going to just be uglier than it already was. How it was determined that these guys are "possibly undocumented" - except that they are "Hispanic" - is unclear, and asserting that assumption alone at this particular time disturbs me.

I've read and heard other accounts of what happened with this deputy. It's too bad this guy was following these suspects so long in the desert alone, or they might have caught them and avoided gunfire. Since they were on foot, you'd think he could have gotten back-up with helicopters and everything before they even had a chance to spot and fire on him - especially if they were lugging a bunch of marijuana with no vehicle (how did he know what they had?).

Not that I don't believe the deputy's account; it's just a considerable amount of conjecture has been embedded in the "news" reporting of it. It doesn't appear as if he was actually able to check his suspects' documents or cargo while they were shooting at him. Reportedly, they fired about 20-30 semi-automatic weapon rounds before taking off.

I'm boycotting drug cartels, by the way, because of the violence - and would like to add to that list Pfizer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and all the other pharmaceutical pushers that exploit patients, torture animals, and kill third world "subjects" for profit, while depriving others of life-saving treatment if they can't make a buck from them. If medical progress via pharmaceuticals is a gift from God, those guys have absconded with something that belongs to all of us, and they hold our sick and dying loved ones for ransom every day. I know; I pay.

More Americans died for lack of ability to pay for health care last year, by the way, than were killed by undocumented immigrants, but you don't hear Russ Pearce or the Arizona Republican Party naming our dead as they push bills to "protect" us through the legislature - or championing our right to life.

Instead, they hoard resources stolen from the public in private tax shelters, cut more children, elderly and disabled people off of health care and social services, brutalize the teachers for protesting them, and criminalize anyone who disagrees with them. In my book, that makes the Arizona GOP both fascist and anti-American - and far more of a threat to the ordinary Arizona resident's survival than the drug cartels.

Anyway, as Lemons points out, SB1070 would have done nothing to prevent the incident with this deputy, nor would it have prevented the murder of the rancher a few weeks ago. Repealing it can prevent a considerable amount of violence being done to Arizona's Latino community, where even long-standing citizens are learning that it's never safe to call the cops.

Never mind that violence rates along the border have in fact remained flat for the past ten years. Every Latino-looking male in this state, today, is a suspect in this deputy's shooting, of course, and is presumed, as usual, to be in the US illegally. The Minutemen and militia extremists, (what a bunch of nuts. Just for the record, I saw no "feral foreign invaders rioting" at the capitol this week) and nativists like Shawna Forde (who murdered a Latino family several months ago) are going to pick up on this incident with delight and use it as an excuse to perpetrate more violence against the rest of us, be it with their laws or their guns, or both.

Arizona Militia units are on "Ribbon Status" now, by the way, and they've called for citizens to go out and buy five boxes of ammunition to celebrate "Cinco de Ammo" on the 5th of May. Those guys are scarier than the cops. Some might even BE cops. What could they possibly be planning to do with their guns and ammo? Are they going to shoot us all in the streets for resisting their right-wing rule?

The hell with them. They are deeply disturbed. Those people do not stand for America; they only stand for themselves. In any event, I'm with the guy who says "I'm Mexican. Pull me over", and am still going undocumented. We have to stop these people here.


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Pinal County Sheriff's Deputy Shot By Suspected Drug Runners/Illegal Immigrants

By Stephen Lemons, Friday, Apr. 30 2010 @ 6:57PM

A Pinal County Sheriff's Deputy was shot and wounded today by suspected drug runners smuggling an unknown quantity of marijuana through the desert.
The Pinal County Sheriff's Office identified the injured Deputy as Louie Puroll, 53, a fifteen year veteran of the department. PCSO spokeswoman Lt. Tamatha Villar said that Puroll was doing well, and had been transported to Casa Grande Regional Medical Center for treatment.

She described his injury as a "grazing wound" on the left side of his body above the kidney. Puroll identified the weapon as a high-powered assault rifle, possibly an AK-47.
Puroll was on patrol in the desert when he came across "five Hispanic males, possibly undocumented" transporting a load of marijuana.
He also saw two long gun rifles on them, according to Villar. They fired on Puroll. Puroll returned fire, but is not sure if he hit the suspects.
A manhunt is underway, with Pinal County being joined by the Border Patrol, MCSO, Arizona DPS, the Casa Grande Police Department, and other agencies. Villar said there was no vehicle involved. The men were on foot.

Fortunately, Puroll was not killed or injured more seriously than he was, but you can bet that this incident will become a battle cry in the ongoing debate over SB 1070, Arizona's new immigration law.

That law would have done nothing to prevent an incident like the one today. Nor would it have saved the life of southern Arizona rancher Rob Krentz, who was murdered, many believe, by drug or human smugglers.

But that won't matter for the debate, as we soon shall see.