Guest Column
Will the Real Chris Simcox Please Stand Up
By Doug Bower
I have been trying to figure out what I would ask Chris Simcox, co-founder of the Minuteman Project—a fact of which I am sure he is very proud—if I could sit down and interview him. I have come up with the following:
Is this what you really believe?
"I've lived in Manhattan and I have lived in Chicago and I have lived in Los Angeles. These people don't come here to work. They come here to rob and deal drugs," Simcox said of Mexican immigrants.[i]
And, did you also say,
"Oh, Jesus, it is unbelievable. I mean, we need the National Guard to clean out all our cities and round them up. They are hard-core criminals. They have no problem slitting your throat and taking your money or selling drugs to your kids or raping your daughters and they are evil people," Simcox replied.[ii]
Now, if you did say this, then why did one of your mouthpieces, Bill O’Reilly say,
"And if I were a poor, Mexican worker, I'd do the same thing that these people do. I have nothing, you know, they're hardworking, most of them. They're good people."[iii]
Now, Chris, correct me if I am wrong but there seems to be some confusion here. You, as quoted, regard Mexicans, and you really didn’t make a distinction between legal or illegals, are in America to rob, deal drugs, they are hard-criminals, they want to slit our throats, take our money, or are selling drugs to your kids or raping your daughters and they are evil people. However, your buddy, Bill O’Reilly calls them hard working, good people. I am confused. Which is it, Mr. Minuteman?
Let’s move on.
Did you really insist that you were NOT a vigilante?
“He insists he's not a vigilante. "A vigilante is someone who is judge, jury, and executioner basically. Someone who certainly takes the law into his own hands. We don't. We report illegal activity, that's it. That's all we do. And we create a deterrent to anyone who would break the laws of coming across that border." Despite his protestations, when I first called his office to arrange a meeting with Simcox, his assistant said he couldn't come to the phone because he was keeping Mexicans he suspected of being in the US illegally in place under a Tombstone tree while a colleague tried to summon the Border Patrol."[iv]
So, if I get this straight, when Peter Laufer
<http://www.alternet.org/authors/1691/> called your office to arrange an interview, you were out “not vigilanting” a group of Mexican that YOU suspected were illegals? What did you do, Chris, demand to see their documents? Do you have the legal authority to do that? Apparently you feel you do.
Moving on.
Now, here is where it gets a little murky. You claim not to be a vigilante, yet you go out and detain Mexicans by your “not vigilantism.” Then, did you say:
“To repel this supposed invasion, Simcox called for drastic measures: a "committee of vigilantes" that would prowl the borderlands. The beauty of vigilantism, Simcox wrote, is simple: "We actually have more freedom to tackle the problem than the Government and law enforcement agencies that are bogged down in the quagmire of laws and restrictions…”[v]?
So, here is where I am greatly confused and where your mouthpiece, Fox News, somehow has thought your contradictions NOT worth reporting. Are you or are you not a vigilante and are self-deluded into thinking that you have the power to detain someone you deem has to be an illegal Mexican immigrant?
You yourself defined a vigilante as,
"A vigilante is someone who is judge, jury and executioner basically. Someone who certainly takes the law into his own hands. We don't. We report illegal activity, that's it. That's all we do. And we create a deterrent to anyone who would break the laws of coming across that border."[vi]
So, I guess this begs the question, what exactly were you doing to detain those Mexicans when Peter Laufer <http://www.alternet.org/authors/1691/> called to arrange an interview?
Lastly, is it true you are not allowed to carry a gun?
"Chris Simcox, the co-founder of the group he adulates, was arrested in January 2003, by Federal Park rangers for possession of loaded and concealed weapons, disorderly conduct, and interfering with law enforcement on federal land,” [vii]
And yet,
"We're only going to report suspicious activity," Simcox said. "We don't carry guns and will just assist local law enforcement that is overwhelmed.”[viii]
"Chris Simcox won't stop fooling with his gun. He paces his tiny office, bouncing on the balls of his feet, and every 15 seconds his hands go to the gun on his belt--hiking it up, adjusting its angle, checking its safety. It's a big gun, a two-toned .45 in a hard plastic holster, and whenever he is photographed by the media--which is often these days--Simcox makes sure the pistol is in every frame."[ix]
This is very confusing. You won’t deny these charges and Fox News glory boys, Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly, won’t report them.
Can we talk?
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- [i] The Minutemen and the media By Bill Berkowitz; Online Journal Guest Writer; www.onlinejournal.com/Media/051005Berkowitz/051005berkowitz.html
- [ii] Ibid
- [iii] Fox News
- [iv] The Growing Vigilante Movement by Peter Laufer, AlterNet. http://www.alternet.org/rights/21957/?comments=view&cID=4841&pID=4833
- [v] Open Season ; As extremists peddle their anti-immigrant rhetoric along the troubled Arizona border, a storm gathers; http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=19
- [vi] www.alternet.org/rights/21957/?comments=view&cID=4841&pID=4833
- [vii] Associated Press
- [viii] Hispanic leaders meet with minutemen; June 21, 2005 ROBERT WILCOX Victoria Advocate;
- http://www.thevictoriaadvocate.com/county_by_county/goliad/story/2865926p-3318937c.html
- [ix] Los Angeles Times Magazine March 16, 2003; http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/immigration/borderline.htm
- _________________________________________________________________
- Doug Bower is a Syndicated Columnist, and book author. His most recent writing credits include The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Houston Chronicle, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Associated Content, Transitions Abroad, International Living, Escape Artist, and The Front Porch Syndicate. He is a columnist with The American Chronicle and more than 21 additional online magazines. He is also a writer with Ezine Articles where his articles have been syndicated in more than 900 online publications. He is co-author of The Plain Truth about Living in México (Amazon.com). His newest book, GUANAJUATO, MÉXICO will be released this summer. He lives with his wife in Guanajuato, Mexico. Contact at: theolog@hotmail.com
- (THE PLAIN TRUTH ABOUT LIVING IN MEXICO
- Expatriates Doug and Cindi Bower have successfully expatriated to Mexico, learning through trial and error how to do it from the conception of the initial idea to driving up to their new home in another country. Now the potential expatriate can benefit from their more than three years of pre-expat research to their more than three years of actually living in Mexico. http://www.zyworld.com/theolog/PlainTruth/Home.htm)
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed by HispanicVista.com (www.hispanicvista.com) without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)