Another day living near the border

Yesterday, on my way to work checking in on a trial that will soon happen in Downtown Tucson I came across a lively protest outside courthouse. Police had a perimeter set up around the area including a transport van ready at the park in front of Main Library, apparently in case things got out of hang. I got my work done as quickly as possible in the courthouse and went outside to cover the protest. After some investigating, I found out the protest had to do with the trial I'm helping an out of state reporter cover. It was fairly tame, but I did fear for my safety at a few points, especially when a group of Hispanic men became offended, and rightfully so about a man burning a Mexican flag. Fortunately, threats did not escalate into violence. I'm not a working reporter these days so it was a pleasant surprise to come across this story. Lucky, I had a reporters note book and a camera on me allowing me to play backpack journalist for a day. Even though it likely won't get published, it was a good experience for me. It was a reminder of why I should always be ready for news to break. Here's the story:

Tempers flared outside Pima County Superior Court Friday when members of a Chicano activist group, the Brown Berets de Aztlan, displayed their disapproval of the Minutemen, a private border watch group.

The protest was a response to the murders of Raul Flores and his nine-year-old daughter Brisenia Flores, who were gunned down during an alleged home invasion robbery in Arivaca, Ariz. in May 2009.

Shawna Forde, Jason Eugene Bush and Albert Robert Gaxiola are in Pima County Jail awaiting trial for their alleged roll in the murders. Both Forde and Bush were leaders in the Washington state-based Minutemen American Defense group and both have been accused by Minutemen critics of having affiliations with the larger and more well known Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, though that group has denied Forde and Bush were official members.

“We're protesting the Minutemen and the politicians who support them by allowing them to be out there on the border,” said David Rico, a member of the Brown Berets from San Diego, Cali., who came to Tucson as an organizer of the protest.

“They call themselves patriots but harassing Mexican people is not patriotism,” Rico said.

“They're internal terrorists.”

But the small group of demonstrators were overshadowed by a counter protest across the street which included the burning of two Mexican flags by Roy Warden, the most vocal member of the counter protest.

“The reason they're out there is because of the millions of Mexicans illegally coming into our country every year,” he said though a megaphone, defending the Minutemen.

“Mexicans have no respect for American rule of law,” he yelled. “The Minutemen stepped-up to show how deep this problem is.”

Although Warden, who is not a member of the Minutemen, got most of the attention from local media and the small but steady downtown crowd, the Berets called the protest a success.

“Their defensiveness shows us that we're doing the right thing.” said Joseph Cremeans, a Beret member, also from San Diego.

“We conveyed our message. We got people

conscious of what's going on with the Minutemen and we're letting them know that people are doing something about it.”

With Forde and Bush's trial set to begin in October, the Berets said they will be back.

“Their group attracts people who do things like this against Mexicans,” said Rico, referring to the murders.

“Protest are going to continue until the community rises up against the Minutemen.”

After the protests, Warden defended burning the flags as purely political and not race related, calling it a “peaceful demonstration,” against the Mexican government for what Warden called “their support and encouragement of illegal immigration into the United States.”

“I'm wasn't here to overshadow them. I wanted a debate,” he said.

“And I'm not out to support Forde,” he added, “I'm simply here to teach.”

However, the flag burning evoked outrage from most of the crowd and the Berets.

“It's disrespectful. What do you get from burning material?” said Francisco Navallez, a graduate student of Latin American Studies at the University of Arizona who came to support the Berets.

Angel Sua, who is from San Diego and has lived in Tucson for 10 years said he saw the counter protesters as insecure.

“If the group they support is not at fault for the mistreatment of Mexicans, they wouldn't need to be out here protesting us,” he said.

“All we're here to do is bring awareness to the murder of an innocent girl. It's a slap in the face to Mexican-Americans.”