Marcos' concern was for his own safety and what would happen if he were to get shot by accident.
"What if a bullet comes out?" he wondered. "We don't have money to go to the hospital. It worries me that we can get hurt."
courtesy of Dennis Gilman
Fringe elements: "Angry Jim" Markins looking to smack someone with his sign.
courtesy of Sal Reza
Lynne Stevens with her gun ready to go.
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ANGRY JIM'S WEAPON
When asked if the situation with Stevens was isolated or a harbinger of worse things to come, civil rights activist Salvador Reza said the Phoenix PD is playing with fire.
"In their effort to look nonpartisan, they're really bending over backward to accommodate the nativists," he said. "Even when the evidence is on our side. In their effort to look neutral, they're really allowing this to fester."
Reza pointed to an incident two weeks ago with James Markins, a.k.a. Angry Jim, in which Markins allegedly assaulted pro-immigrant activist and videographer Dennis Gilman. I say "allegedly," though Gilman has posted video of Markins charging him with a large pole affixed with placards.
In the video, Gilman accidentally steps on one of Markins' signs, and Markins freaks out, pushing Gilman and jousting at him with his placard. You can hear the thumps of each blow Markins lands.
"That's private property, dude," Markins says, as he exacts schoolyard revenge.
As in the Stevens incident, the police were called. They swarmed over the area, talked to both sides, and let Markins leave without citing him.
According to a couple of witnesses, one officer even stopped a lane of traffic so that Markins could load his truck with the anti-Mexican signs.
"They'd probably arrest us," Reza said at the time. "But they won't arrest him."
Indeed, Markins has been videotaped bragging about past scuffles, and in a video posted on Stevens' YouTube page, he can be seen whacking a passerby with a sign outside the Macehualli Day Labor Center at Bell Road and 25th Street.
In that video, Markins trades words with someone walking past and dares the younger man to pick up one of the signs on the ground. When the guy does, Markins smacks him on the shoulder with the butt end of the sign he's carrying. The incident was never reported to the police.
Regarding the more recent Markins-Gilman confrontation, Gilman received a notice from the Phoenix prosecutor's office dated January 5 informing him that a criminal charge for assault would not be pursued against Markins.
Gilman told me he's contacted the prosecutor's office and informed officials of his video of the incident. He said they seemed interested in seeing it and asked him to turn it over to a police detective. He's hoping for a prosecution.
"I have every right to be there filming [the nativists] as long as they are there harassing the day laborers," he said. "What would happen if I responded with violence when they take pictures of me or call me names?"
I called the city prosecutor's office for a comment, but no one there got back to me.
Markins, who's in his 70s, can be a mean ol' cuss. He, Stevens, and the others have every right to exercise their freedom of speech under the U.S. Constitution. But what worries me is that in every incident involving them, it's people on the other side who must prove they did nothing to provoke the nativists.
As their numbers have dwindled, the nativists have grown more incensed and willing to lash out. Whether it's true or not, they seem to believe they are protected and untouchable by the authorities — no matter how wild or outlandish they act on the street.
And this is a serious problem, particularly with Stevens' Billy the Kid moment.
The Phoenix cops don't want to waste their resources babysitting a gaggle of haters, and I don't blame them. On the other hand, what if someone gets shot or blood is otherwise shed? Either the Phoenix PD needs to monitor the nativists or start holding them accountable for their actions.
The cops won't be able to shrug their shoulders, saying they didn't see it coming, if something horrific transpires.
BAD REP-UTATION
Leave it to the Arizona Republic to pooh-pooh the most significant development in the saga of Sheriff Joe Arpaio in some time: The impaneling of a federal grand jury to investigate the MCSO's abuses of power.
Channel 5 was the first to report the story that County Manager David Smith and County Finance Director Sandi Wilson were subpoenaed to answer questions about the harassment they've endured from Sheriff's Office thugs. Smith and Wilson have been under "investigation" by the MCSO since butting heads with the sheriff's top brass over budget-cutting moves.
When I spoke to Wilson and Smith, they told me they still feared retaliation by the MCSO, though they had met with the U.S. Attorney's Office and though such retaliation would essentially make the case for the U.S. Attorney that the MCSO was targeting them for all the wrong reasons.
Both said the assistant U.S. Attorney they met with hinted they could go public with the news, which they immediately did. They refused to identify the federal prosecutor they spoke with, but the name of Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Lodge is on the subpoena that compels Wilson to appear.
