PCWC: JT READY IS DEAD: FASCISM AND THE ANARCHIST RESPONSE IN ARIZONA, 2005-2012

JT READY IS DEAD: FASCISM AND THE ANARCHIST RESPONSE IN ARIZONA, 2005-2012 ~ Fires never extinguished: A blog of the Phoenix Class War Council

JT Ready is dead.  And by his own hand.  It took a while, but in the end JT took the free advice of his many anarchist adversaries and followed his leader into oblivion.  Though in the end he opted for the Goebbels style over that of his boy Hitler.  That's the thing with JT: despite being a consistent white supremacist, he could sometimes surprise you.  Not with something entirely new.  No.  But with variations on a theme.  Most of us figured he would blow up somewhere, at some point, and given the history of white supremacists with regard to child and spousal abuse, we are not surprised that his end mimicked his political practice perfectly: violence mostly aimed down the social hierarchy. Consider the death of National Socialist Movement leader Jeff Hall as another case in point.

According to the cops, on Wednesday, May 2, JT, a former president of the Mesa Community College Republican Club and Maricopa County Republican precinct committeeman, stormed the house of his much-abused and terrified girlfriend in Gilbert wearing full combat gear and then proceeded to open fire on everyone in the place.  The dead included Lisa Mederos, her daughter Amber (JT's former treasurer for his run for Pinal County Sheriff), as well as her fiance, Jim Hiott, who was a fellow militia member.  In a truly cowardly act, JT also killed Amber's 15 month-old baby.  Only Lisa's younger daughter survived, hiding under the bed in her upstairs room.

We in PCWC first began running into JT during the early parts of the immigration movement, around 2005, before there was a formal PCWC, really.  As many probably know, JT had a rather chaotic political career, but in those days he was allied with State Senator Russell Pearce and local car dealer Rusty Childress.  Even then political violence had already begun to rear its ugly head in the anti-immigrant scene.  It might be valuable to review some of what had happened in Arizona in the several years preceding JT's final bloody rampage, and it certainly would be worthwhile to consider the ways that anarchists in Phoenix and Arizona organized against him, his politics and his political allies (and enemies) over the last half decade or more.  While liberals advocated for his free speech, anarchists opposed him every step of the way.

Read more: http://firesneverextinguished.blogspot.com/2012/06/jt-ready-is-dead-fascism-and-anarchist.html

The Fascists Already Have the Keys and the Handcuffs

I've heard that even with the success of protesters holding up the nazis for over an hour from starting their rally last weekend, some folks still insist that they should just be ignored.  True, they wouldn't have had an audience and perhaps no media coverage had no one showed up to oppose them.  While I'm interested in what the opposition may have accomplished as far as the NSM's enthusiasm or ability to organize in this city goes, I am also interested in some differences in media coverage and what that might mean.

Last year, observations were made that at least one TV channel's coverage simply characterized the NSM rally as an anti-immigrant rally (well, that probably wasn't their wording).  They showed the seig heils and uniforms and such, but they made no reference to their extremist politics.  I thought this was good in a way- blurring the lines between swastika-wearing NSM extremists and the extremists who wear suits or police uniforms and deny their racism is probably a good thing.  Especially since most of those who oppose the NSM tend to ignore the other anti-immigrant rallies and tea-party rallies (much of which overlap).  On the other hand, it is important for people to know that there are actual nazis in town (okay, a lot of the ones who actually organize are from out of town, fortunately) and that nazis LOVE SB 1070.  The resistance against the NSM march and rally brought this out into the limelight.

Not so long ago, NSM members JT Ready (not in NSM anymore but affiliated is what we hear) and Harry Hughes (both attended this last NSM rally), called on others to patrol areas of Pinal County to for migrants.  Phoenix Insurgent writes in reference to Stephen Lemons' column, "one of the things I picked up on was Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu's failure to denounce the Nazi composition of the patrols. Sure, he says that he doesn't think the patrols would be helpful, but it seems as if Babeu, like the local media (with the exception of Lemons), has opted to treat Ready's little Nazi crew as legitimate, giving him a pass on his white supremacist beliefs and his many violent threats. Consider the fact the two media headlines about the event identify the NSM in the title only as a 'militia', not as Nazis or even a 'Nazi militia'. A more honest characterization would surely change the way people view the action" (Source).  The Feathered Bastard has also pointed out how newscasters are hesitant to call Nazis what they are.

This weekend, however, the media is being much more clear about who was being opposed.  "Neo-Nazi march met by protesters in Phoenix" was Channel 3's headline. "Police Arrest 2 In Clash With Neo-Nazis" was Channel 5's. Channel 10: "Neo-Nazis Protest in Downtown Phoenix".

In some ways it is useful that they are being identified as neo-nazis.  In other ways, we mustn't fall into the tendency of seeing the nazis as separate from the other anti-immigrant folks.  Within the anti-immigrant movement, they are the fanatics making the others look more legitimate, more reasonable.  If we only focus on them, we lose sight of the bigger picture, just as focusing on Arpaio draws opposition away from the other police who make even more arrests but without making a show of it.   This comparison also brings up the other point about separating white supremacists from institutional white supremacy/racism, which I brought up in my last post.  As pointed out by a sign in a photo on the Prison Abolitionist blog, "The Fascists already have the Keys".

We should consider the ways in which focusing on the fascists legitimizes the other forms of white supremacy- those with more power.  This is not to imply that the folks resisting the nazis otherwise ignore these other forms--in fact the protest was in many ways just as much against the police as the nazis.  The relationship between the two is explained at the Fires Never Extinguished blog as well, but of course the issue with the police is not only their protection of and participation with nazis, but their role being mostly to enforce the color line such as through police brutality and murder as we saw in the case of Oscar Grant earlier this year.

I hope to see the kind of enthusiasm that surrounds protesting nazis also shown in cases of police brutality and prison issues in the future.  There is something to say about how resistance affects the general population's view of things, not to mention the ability of those systems and people to function in the first place.

Minutemen Not Concerned with Rule of Law

If anyone hadn't been convinced yet that the anti-immigrant folks are in fact not concerned with the rule of law except for when it benefits them, you ought to check out the letters to the editor in the latest Phoenix New Times.

Well, of course the story that the letters respond to is the main example, but since that could have been seen as an extreme isolated case (and i hope it is), the attitude is reflected in a couple of the letters. The story is that of Shawna Forde and two others and their home invasion and murder that resulted in the death of a man, a seven year old girl, and the injury of the mother. This story was covered in one of the last few New Times.

I would like to personally thank Shawna Forde for doing the job the U.S. government won't do itself. We can all sleep a little better at night knowing that at least one Mex drug trafficker scumbag is gone for good.

Too bad we do not have 100,000 more Shawna Fordes in America. And it is a shame that Shawna has to make the ultimate sacrifice in exchange for this civic deed to transpire.

Instead of getting locks and cold steel bars, Shawna should be presented with the key to the city where she took out the trash. She is a true American tragedy. Victim of ZOG [Zionist Occupation Government] since she was a little girl; a blonde preyed upon for her young body on the streets just to survive.

[For] being imprisoned for eradicating a foreign terrorist who deals in chemical warfare against our populace, she deserves all of our sympathy and adulation as both a brave lady and a strong American patriot.
J.T. Ready, neo-Nazi, Mesa (do a search for this guy, he's all over the place: friends with senator russell pearce, for one)

I see nothing wrong with Shawna Forde's actions, if you want to know the truth. Robbing and killing drug-dealing scum should get her a medal from the president.

The money these drug dealers make might as well go for a good cause — securing our borders.
Randal Randolph, Gila Bend

Of course there were several that were somewhat neutralized the disturbing effect of the others.

[Shawna Forde's] just another name to add to the long list of hypocritical "patriots" who also have sordid pasts (Minuteman leader Chris Simcox, state Senator Russell Pearce, neo-Nazis J.T. Ready, and Thomas Coletto).

I'll take all 14 of those Lindstrom's Car Wash employees over these people anytime.
Chad Snow, Peoria

See also:
How a Teen Prostitute and Beautician Morphed Into a Minuteman American Defense Leader and Alleged Killer

More Shawna Fordes in the Making? Violent Rhetoric and Unbalanced Actions from Phoenix Nativists

Racist Sheriff Joe Supporters

Please view this video which shows who these Sheriff Joe supporters really are. This video is from yesterday, May 2nd at the march against Sheriff Joe. It started at the Well's Fargo building, where the sheriff has his expensive office, to the area where the jails, including tent city, are. The video shows some footage of the marchers, but mostly the counter-protesters. You can see J.T. Ready, who has claimed he's not racist, doing the sieg heil thing.