Watch this, and tell me truthfully, who do you feel for, these two guys, or the nudnik operating the camera?
Look, I'm no fan of the U.S. Border Patrol. Or of checkpoints. Or of police power in general. I think anyone familiar with this blog knows that.
But it's a tribute to both Obama-hating pastor Steven Anderson and to his Ron Paul-y supporters at the RP4409 YouTube site that they actually make me feel a sort of reluctant sympathy for the U.S. Border Patrol and Yuma cops and AZ DPS and anyone else who has to deal with these wackos.
Anderson, of course, is the Tempe Bible-thumper who wants President Obama to die like a salted snail. He's also the guy who ministers spiritually to liber-tard-ian Christopher "AR-15" Broughton, who wore an assault rifle to where the Prez was speaking outside the Phoenix Convention Center August 17.
RP4409? That's the title preferred by Jason Shelton, RP4409's creator. RP likely stands for the man that he and Freedom's Phoenix's Ernie Hancock worship like a demigod: Congressman Ron Paul. The number 4409? Well, Shelton's told some folks that this stands for the 44th President -- Barack Obama, and the year, 2009.Pastor Anderson, Shelton, militia pimp Hancock, RP4409, the liber-tard party, et al., are so intertwined with each other that you'd practically need a Venn diagram to understand how they overlap.
Take this incident that allegedly took place August 5 at a Round Table Pizza parlor in Yuma. As you can see in the video above, the 4409 crew approached two lunching Border Patrol agents, and asked them if they are American citizens and have the i.d. to prove it.
The fact that these questions might've had racial overtones in this particular instance seems lost on the 4409 ofays. (Yeah, I know, such are the questions agents often ask at BP checkpoints, but still...) The BP agents, for their parts, acted like class acts, and just got up and left. Shelton calls this video "Nazi Checkpoint Guards, Confronted."
Writing in the first person on the Freedom's Phoenix Website, "4409" notes, ironically, that:"4409 [was] arrested after this violent confrontation with two Checkpoint SS guards at a Round Table Pizza! I was charged with 13-2904 A1 Disorderly conduct..."
Freedom's Phoenix's editor Powell Gammill says he was a witness to the event, and says the men involved did nothing wrong. He reported September 1 that Pastor Anderson, who was there also it seems, has a warrant outstanding on the incident. Gammill ascribed it to the supposedly evil intentions of the Yuma County Prosecutor.
Actually, the case is before the Yuma City Prosecutor's Office, not the Yuma County Prosecutor's Office, which wants to try Anderson on charges related to his run-in with the Border Patrol and DPS earlier this year. That's the one where he ended up being Tasered by a DPS officer.
The Yuma City Prosecutor declined to comment on the Round Table Pizza case. I've put in a public records request for the police report and other relevant documents. However, 4409, oblivious to how this all might look to disinterested parties, has posted the statement of proprietor Kristina Ochoa. Seems Ochoa approached Anderson, who was apparently with the 4409 boys, and complained about their behavior.
"I went into the party room and told the group that what they did was very rude and uncalled for," wrote Ochoa in her complaint. "That this is my livelihood, the way I make a living and feed my family. I treat you and them (BP) with the same respect and you were wrong in what you did. And then the group started in saying how can I serve anyone who beats up innocent people. Then Steve Anderson stood up and said look at this I have scars to prove it."
Eventually, the Yuma cops were called, but Anderson had vamoosed, as "Steve Anderson had said earlier he had to be in court at 1:00 p.m., which was across town," according to Ochoa's statement.
Gammill and Mr. 4409 hiss like viper militiamen over this incident, but watching it on video does not endear me to the 4409 crowd or Anderson. Quite the opposite. Look at the way the BP agents act in response to 4409, et al. Who do you sympathize with? Two off-duty BP agents trying to eat their pizza, or the 4409 insaniacs who obviously have nothing better to do than mess with people in a pizza parlor?
Particularly grotesque are all the hyperbolic SS and Nazi references. As I mentioned, I'm not exactly crazy about what the BP does, but there's a big difference between taking immigrants back to the border or even stopping drivers briefly (however much I dislike both), versus what the Nazis did at Babi Yar or Auschwitz.
Take this typical, loony rant from 4409 as an example:
"They claimed that SS officers in Nazi Germany were just doing there [sic] job as well when they gased [sic] and murdered innocent people," howls 4409. "If their job is to violate your God given and Constitutional rights then that is a job they should NOT be doing....Furthermore they cannot plead ignorance. These gestapo are grown adults not children."
Can we please beam these babbling Ron Paul-ians back to Germany circa 1934 and see how far they get with the real Gestapo before they're lined up against a wall? Sheesh, have these nudniks ever read a book, other than something by that hick Paul, in their entire lives?
Indeed, every time Freedom's Phoenix, or Shelton, or Anderson, or Ron Paul-types such as Christopher Broughton use swastikas, the word "Nazi," or compare current American events to the horrors of Hitler's Germany, they further demonstrate how incredibly ignorant they are of history, and how bankrupt their shrill ideology really is.
(They also seem extraordinarily myopic when it comes to the reality of actual neo-Nazis rubbing shoulders with elected officials, as happens all too often here in Sand Land. And they're willing to ignore Paul taking money from a white supremacist such as Don Black. I reckon that's OK by them, as Paul walks on water in their world.)
Is this the most laid back Smokey in the history of highway patrolmen, or what?
Ditto for the tactics he and Pastor Anderson seem to revel in of apparently provoking law enforcement. Take a look at the video "Nazi Checkpoint Confronted -- 2," and observe how patient the DPS officer is in dealing with Anderson's hysterical tirade.
Note: There's no surer sign that you're a colossal dork who still lives with mommy than wearing a Guy Fawkes mask.
Finally, observing "Nazi Checkpoint Confronted -- 1," you can almost feel for the DPS guy who famously Tasered Anderson. Anderson is aggressive, obnoxious and seemingly eager for some sort of physical confrontation.
Personally, I wish they'd do away with Tasers tomorrow. But, watching these videos, you've got to wonder how Anderson escapes being Tasered more often.
Finally, kudos to Phoenix activist Leonard Clark (aka, "the Damn Liberal") for organizing a group called "People Against Clergy Who Preach Hate." Clark is organizing a demonstration Sunday in Tempe against Pastor Anderson to protest Anderson's calling for the death of President Barack Obama.
It's heartening to see some folks stand up against Anderson, his spiritual patsy Broughton, and all the vile filth emanating from Ernie Hancock's Freedom's Phoenix, and from YouTube site RP4409. Broughton, Hancock and Shelton like to pretend to be patriots. Clark is the real patriot.
(For an example of a similar misuse of Nazi imagery, check out the Anti-Defamation League's recent article on Lyndon LaRouche. Yes, LaRouche is still alive. And the similarities between his propaganda and that of the anti-healthcare reform Ronulans is disturbing.)
UPDATE 9/3/2009 2:28 P.M.: Sgt. Clint Norred of the Yuma Police Department has informed me that Anderson's warrant, which was outstanding as of yesterday, has now been "cleared through the courts." City of Yuma spokesman Greg Highland confirmed to me that the case remains active, despite the warrant's resolution. More as I get it.
