Lawless regards many of her pro-immigrant enemies as liars, "communists," and "traitors." Of the Tucson Mexican consulate, she states, "There is much evil in this building." And for those Mexicans and Mexican-Americans who've responded to her with the slogan, "European go home," she points out that they are of partial Spanish descent, then makes them a rather lurid offer.
"Which half of yourself would you like to send back to Europe?" she asks, rhetorically, while still in talking-head mode in the vid. "Maybe I can help you figure out how to cut yourself up and send the white half of yourself back [to Spain]."
Tony Blei
Feuding firebrands Chris Simcox (front) and Lawless (rear, with sign) have accused each other of being federal plants and undercover agents of the "Open Borders Lobby."
Tony Blei
Cave Creek musician/activist "Buffalo Rick" Galeener answers Lawless' call for a Prop 300 counterprotest during the BCS Championship Game at Glendale's University of Phoenix Stadium.
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Where the Lawless DVD turns car-wreck captivating is during its footage of the carnival-like protest that she, Russ Dove, and Roy Warden engage in as 15,000 pro-immigrant marchers mass in Armory Park. Lawless, who's wearing body armor beneath a white tee shirt that reads "Proud Nativist American," sometimes sports a Fidel Castro-style military hat and at other times a brown-and-beige-camouflage military helmet that lends her an air of Michael Dukakis circa 1988. Dressed all in white, Dove keeps his mouth duct-taped shut in some personal vendetta against modern political correctness, while occasionally dancing a jig over a Mexican tricolor that's about to be Kentucky-fried. Warden, a pudgy, fanny-packed loudmouth with rose-colored glasses and white hair, makes sure that the three ringleaders have a large-enough space within which to perform, warning journalists and others to "get out of our space, you are provoking us!"
Once a circle is established, pro-immigrant-rights "peacekeepers" ring the protesters, arms locked, facing out so as to keep the mostly Chicano crowd from being incited to violence against Lawless and her crew. Several others are in Lawless' bunch, and some of them are holding a large Border Guardians banner. Warden then launches into a bizarre, bellicose tirade that includes denunciations of Catholic-priest pedophiles, cries of "Viva Zapata!" and ceaseless jibes at Mexican-Americans in attendance, encouraging them to return home and make a revolution in their native land. His crackpot harangue eventually turns horror-movie grotesque.
"Land must be paid for with blood," Warden shouts to the pro-immigrants crowd beyond his circle. "And if any invader tries to take this land from us, we will wash this land with blood. We will nurture our soil with oceans and oceans of blood."
In contrast to Warden's surreal jeremiad, Lawless' strident, uncompromising remarks during her speech that day seem almost civilized, even when you grant that they immediately precede the torching of two Mexican flags.
She opens by assuring the crowd that the protest "is not an act against any legal American-Mexicans" in the United States, nor is it an aggression against Mexicans in Mexico. Rather, "Our protest today is directed solely toward the Mexican government and any of its citizens illegally present in the United States." Still, considering the makeup of the crowd that day, this is hardly a warm and fuzzy sentiment.
Lawless' speech berates Mexico as a hostile foreign entity with nefarious designs on U.S. sovereignty. She doesn't exactly take it easy on Mexican nationals in America, either. To those proud of their Mexican heritage, she says, "If you love Mexico so much, go home!" To those without the proper paperwork, her comments are practically a declaration of war.
"To those of you who think you can get over on us because of a corrupt, sold-out government, traitorous politicians, and greedy corporations and globalists, we say, 'No, se puede!' 'No, you cannot,'" she shrieks, eyes narrow in anger. "We Americans have had enough. We are not going to sit idly by watching you invade our land and reduce our country to lawlessness and ruin."
Warden reclaims the bullhorn to announce that they're about to burn "two flags of Mexico, two flags that are symbols of your oppression."
He and Dove make quick work of the first flag, then Lawless, wearing her olive-green Castro chapeau, steps in to fire up the second with her lighter. A woman's voice can be heard from outside the circle, urging the pro-immigrant-rights people not to look at Lawless and to stay away from her group. At some point, a 16-year-old girl tosses a plastic water bottle into the circle, and what follows threatens to turn into a riot. Tucson police move in and begin to escort the teen out of the park, sometimes shoving those who seek to help her. As they move to the street, the crowd follows in a tense parade, and a few of the young men present end up scuffling with officers, and the cops bust out some pepper spray. Six immigrant-rights marchers are arrested. A day later, Warden is cited for assault, reckless burning, and disorderly conduct, but he's acquitted by a judge in November.
Of all the demonstrations throughout America on that day, Tucson's was a rare exception in which violence flared. Tucson's April 10 Immigrant Rights Coalition complained that the city shouldn't have allowed Lawless and the other counterprotesters into the park that day, but the Arizona ACLU's executive director, Alessandra Soler Meetze, told the Tucson Citizen, "In this case, safety is a likely pretext for censorship."
