All of America continues to mourn the unbelievably tragic loss of Christina Green, the 9-year-old granddaughter of former Phillies' manager Dallas Green who was killed, along with five adults, by a murderous madman trying to assassinate Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson. The sight of Christina's parents and brother in the gallery at the State of the Union address last night is more proof that the killing of such an innocent continues to resonate with the American people.
You're probably aware that the beautiful young girl pictured at the top of this post is not Christina Green. Her name was Brisenia Flores. Like Christina, Brisenia was 9 years old, and she also lived in Pima County, Arizona, not far from Tucson. Like Christina, she was gunned down in cold blood by killers with strange ideas about society and politics.
But there are also important differences. While the seriously warped mind of Christina'ss Tucson murderer, Jared Lee Loughner, is a muddled mess, the motives of one of Brisenia's alleged killers-- a woman named Shawna Forde -- are pretty clear: She saw herself as the leader of an armed movement against undocumented immigrants, an idea that was energized by her exposure to the then-brand-new Tea Party Movement. But unlike the horrific spree that took Christina's life, the political murder of Brisenia and her dad (while Brisenia's mom survived only by pretending to be dead) has only received very sporadic coverage in the national media. That's a shame, because it's an important story that illustrates the potential for senseless violence when hateful rhetoric on the right -- in this case about undocumented immigrants -- falls on the ears of the unhinged.
This week, Forde is on trial on Tucson, and the details are horrific:
As her mother tells it, 9-year-old Brisenia Flores had begged the border vigilantes who had just broken into her house, "Please don't shoot me."
But they did — in the face at point-blank range, prosecutors allege, as Brisenia's father sat dead on the couch and her mother lay on the floor, pretending that she too had been killed in the gunfire.
Why did Forde, said to be the "mastermind," and the other alleged killer, Jason Bush, carry out this heinous crime? Prosecutors allege that Forde cooked up a scheme to rob and murder drug dealers, all to raise money for the fledgling, anti-immigrant border patrolling group called Minutemen American Defense, or MAD.
I wrote about Forde and her warped "politics" in my recent book, The Backlash. I noted that in April 2009 -- as first reported by Stephen Lemons of the Phoenix New Times, an authority on nativist, right-wing groups in Arizona -- Forde was amped up after attending her first Tea Party on the steps of the state capitol in Phoenix.
"This is the time for all Americans to join organizations and REVOLT!!!," she wrote in a blog post that was retrieved from the Google cache by Lemons. "Refuse to be part of a system only designed to enslave you and your children. Times will be worse before they get worse. *Say no to illegal immigration* Lock and Load, Shawna Forde."
It was this same month that Forde and her ragtag Minutemen band allegedly approached drug dealers in southern Arizona with a scheme to kill and rob their rivals for cash. One of Forde's goals, allegedly, was to buy a 40-acre property near the border that she intended for her group to use as a base for raids -- which she called "Delta One Operations" -- on undocumented Mexicans crossing the border.
Forde and her co-conspirator Bush -- who reportedly has ties to the white supremacist Aryan Nation -- broke into the home of 29-year-old Raul Flores, Brisenia's dad, on May 30, 2009, or just six weeks after Forde's online call for a political revolt. As related this week at Forde's ongoing murder trial:
According to testimony, Bush shot Flores, then Gonzalez. Gonzalez was hit in the shoulder and leg and slumped to the floor. She testified that she played dead as she heard Bush pump more bullets into her husband as Brisenia woke up.
"Why did you shoot my dad?" the girl asked, sobbing, according to Gonzalez's testimony. "Why did you shoot my mom?"
Gonzalez said she heard Bush slowly reload his gun and that he then ignored Brisenia's pleas and fired.
In the wake of the Tucson shootings earlier this month, there was a lot of talk about hateful rhetoric and violent imagery in American politics, and there was a lot of pushback when it emerged that the gunman in that case, Loughner, didn't follow mainstream politics, just some extreme crackpot theories on the Internet. But what happened to Brisenia Flores is different. She lost her life because a couple of unhinged crackpots absorbed all that "lock and load" blather in our atmosphere and actually did something about it. We should not be shocked. But we do need to figure out how to make sure that never again will the life of innocent girl end because of this political madness.
And just as we will never forget Christina Green, America needs to always remember Brisenia Flores.
Gee Will, why don't you opine on the motives of the murderers of children in Philly? Or are their deaths just more difficult to exploit for political purposes?— RG- If the government would do its job and secure our border those "crackpots" would have no need to be out there,would they?Then you would have no tragedy to wring your hands and weep over.
"Never let a good crisis go to waste." quote Rahmbo— oakster - Too bad that will never happen (securing borders adequately) because catching illegal immigrantss and putting them in jail is too lucrative of a business for prisons.
If the government really wanted it to be done, it would be done already. It's not for a reason. I suggest you check out http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130833741, as that highlights what I mean. And though it's a specific case, I think it wouldn't be illogical to say that it would make sense in most cases of border security.
These minutemen want illegal immigrants out. Politicians say they do, but they really don't.— hispanophile 
"She lost her life because a couple of unhinged crackpots absorbed all that "lock and load" blather in our atmosphere and actually did something about it. We should not be shocked. But we do need to figure out how to make sure that never again will the life of innocent girl end because of this political madness.".....GOOD LUCK!!! But don't unhinged crackpots generally do things which shock us?? You don't really think unhinged crackpots need a reason to act upon being unhinged crackpots do you?? I'll go back to the Charles Manson example - he killed because he thought it was what Beatles telling him to murder in their songs.
— bird11- We can also ban dogs (Son of Sam), Catcher in the Rye (Chapman) and Taxi Driver (Hinkley).— RG
- The interesting thing about Taxi Driver: the movie was influenced by the attempted assassination of George Wallace and Abraham Lincoln.
How?
Wallace's shooter, Arthur Bremmer, was a 21-year old loner who wrote in his diaries that he wanted to go down in history like John Wilkes Booth after his 15 year old girlfriend dumped him. He shoots Wallace. Four years later, Scorsese and screenwriter Paul Schrader turn Bremmer's story into Travis Bickle.
Fast forward a few more years: John Hinckley views the movie more than a dozen times and becomes obsessed with Jodie Foster (playing the role of Iris, similar to Bremmer's young girlfriend). He shoots Reagan to impress Jodie Foster.
So here we have an assassination influencing an assassination influencing a movie influencing an assassination. Life imitating art imitating life.
Maybe if we just banned assassinations, it would all be OK. 
Comment removed.- Comment removed.
- If you had a clue you wouldn't be calling Bill "drug addled". But if you had a clue you wouldn't be batboy.
- I hear you like second grade too batty, which is why you aren't allowed with 100 yards of schools.
- Comment removed.
- Right wing rhetoric is responsible for these shootings, but a song called "Cop K-ller" can't be responsible for the murder of police officers? So rhetoric is responsible for violence except when its not. — RG
- Show me an incident where the song influenced someone to kill a cop. Leave it to right wingers to bring up some obscure song to try to make a point of some false equivalency.
Will Bunch, a senior writer at the Philadelphia Daily News, blogs about his obsessions, including national and local politics and world affairs, the media, pop music, the Philadelphia Phillies, soccer and other sports, not necessarily in that order.
E-mail Will by clicking here.
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