Department of Justice

Eric Holder

U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001

We are seeking an outside investigation with regard to the Texas Militia who are organizing to work with Texas law enforcement agencies.   The 100-Mile Border Zone 'Constitution-Lite' area was recently upheld by a US Judge reaffirming the 100 mile border zone and we need clarification regarding this policy as the Texas Militia is organizing and training essentially to "take the law into their own hands."   To our knowledge, the 100-Mile Border Zone does not extend to vigilantes and/or the militia and we reject the idea that Texas law enforcement is working with them , especially since these anti-government people are responsible for recently killing a police officer in Las Vegas, Nevada. 

The Texas Militia is a concern to all Americans since we believe in honoring the Guadalupe Treaty, and other treaties we have with our trade allies.  Just recently, Texas Governor Rick Perry invoked the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo when Texas was in dire need of water supply.    Mexico is a trade ally, and we do not want to disrupt our healthy foreign relations considering  these tea party homeland domestic terrorists, vigilantes, militia men or women are already responsible for hate crimes and murders in our own Nation.

• Most notably, Timothy McVeigh's anti-government ideology  was responsible for killing children and numerous Americans in the tragic Oklahoma City Bombing and established militia roots in Michigan. Until September 11, 2001, the Oklahoma City bombing was the worst terrorist attack to take place on U.S. soil.

• Arizona's JT Ready supported a Tea Party rally with ousted Arizona State Senator Russell Pearce.  Ready was the leader of a border militia group called US Border Guard when he killed others before taking his own life. 

Carlos Galindo, a radio commentator who once had Mr. Ready on his show said: 

“They deal with explosives, they deal with grenades, they identify themselves (falsely) as officers and… they are running around unchecked ...  “You have this collective effort of people (trying) to make this a state that not only behaves in a wild-west fashion (referring to decreased gun regulations), but fosters a concept of nurturing racism and xenophobia.”

According to the Final Call:  Mr. Galindo said groups like the Minutemen opened their doors back in 2004 to extreme vigilante groups. Mr. Ready and Mr. Forde were among those who took up with the Minutemen at that time.  Mr. Galindo contends that Sheriff Paul Babeu and the U.S. Border Patrol allowed Mr. Ready’s group to operate in Pinal as a “legalized vigilante group.” .. And, said Mr. Galindo, some of Mr. Ready’s associates continue to do so.

 

• Other minutemen militia home grown terrorists near our border are responsible for shooting a small Latina girl in front of her mother.  Recently a Pima County jury convicted Shawna Forde of two counts of first-degree murder in the May 30, 2009 deaths of Arivaca residents Raul Junior Flores and his 9-year-old daughter, Brisenia. Most Americans have never heard of these senseless murders of a family in their home near the Arizona border with Mexico; because they were not undocumented immigrants, drug smugglers, or Muslim terrorists, but a group of Minutemen (also known as domestic terrorists), led by their leader, Shawna Forde. Forde was also a member of the Minutemen Civil Defense Corp (MCDC), until leaving to form her own group, The Minutemen American Defense, and has appeared on TV as a representative for FAIR. Shawna Forde also had a long criminal record before joining any of the Minutemen groups.

• Hate crimes against Mexican-Americans and Latinos continue to escalate as the Tea Party Republicans, minutemen, militia groups continue to fan the flame against immigrants, and  Mexican Americans and Latinos who support legal immigration reform.  In Arizona, Gary Thomas Kelley, 50, is charged with second-degree murder in the killing of Juan Varela, 44. He also is accused of menacing Varela's brother Antonio with a gun.  The AZ Central states: According to initial police reports, Kelley shouted, "Hurry up and go back to Mexico or you're gonna die." Varela, in fact, was a third-generation, native-born U.S. citizen.

• According to Forbes:  "On June 8, 2014, Jerad Dwain Miller, 31, and his wife Amanda Woodruff Miller, 22, entered a Las Vegas pizzeria and without any provocation or warning, shot and killed two police officers who were sitting in a booth eating lunch.  The pair dragged the officers to the floor, took their weapons and ammunition, and draped a yellow flag over one of the bodies.  They placed a swastika-stamped manifesto on top of the flag, and pinned a note on the other officer’s body that read, “This is the start of the revolution.”   The yellow flag draped over the dead bodies is the yellow Gadsden flag dating back to the American Revolution and depicts a snake on a yellow background with the words “Don’t Tread on Me” below.   Many right-wing groups such as Sovereigns, the Tea Party, the Oath Keepers, and various militia organizations use this flag as a common symbol, to warn the government that if pressured, they will bite.  

Anti-government calls have been made by Tea Party homeland domestic terrorists (masquerading as patriots)  for a revolution against our United States government.  It appears these homeland domestic terrorists are contributing to a conspiracy to commit obstruction of federal officers and to violate Civil Rights and we do not believe people who want to take the law into their own hands should be allowed to work with tax payer funded Texas law enforcement officials.    We believe this opens the door to Color of Law violations.  

It is our understanding: 

Section 242 of Title 18 makes it a crime for a person acting under color of any law to willfully deprive a person of a right or privilege protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States.

According to the Justice Department: "For the purpose of Section 242, acts under "color of law" include acts not only done by federal, state, or local officials within the their lawful authority, but also acts done beyond the bounds of that official's lawful authority, if the acts are done while the official is purporting to or pretending to act in the performance of his/her official duties. Persons acting under color of law within the meaning of this statute include police officers, prisons guards and other law enforcement officials, as well as judges, care providers in public health facilities, and others who are acting as public officials."  

As a Texas-born American citizen who honorably served my country -- now living in Arizona, I would like for you to see Arizona's failure in handling Tea Party vigilante and militia groups that cost numerous lives.  We would like to know which tax payer funded Texas law enforcement agencies are working with these militia groups to ensure overall public safety. 

Sincerely, 

DeeDee Garcia Blase

www.somosindependents.com

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