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Vigilante Minutemen patrol border near Campo

re: #2 and #3: Can we please raise the bar on this discussion at least in regards to accuracy, Visduh? First of all, this part of the piece is not describing "the author's" experience--it is from the p.o.v. of Brandon Stockwell, a student filmmaker. And why argue pointlessly that it was not necessarily a minuteman? Who was it, then? Santa? Should we perhaps conclude, then, that you do not approve of this kind of behavior? "A motorbike appears in a plume of dust on the American side, and the helmeted driver yells, “What’s your citizenship?” Before Stockwell can answer, a Border Patrol truck that’s following behind skids to a stop, and the half-amused agent says, “Oh, never mind. You’re definitely a gringo.” The men vanish in a haze of dirt, and it occurs to Stockwell that he has just had his first encounter with a Minuteman." Yep, sounds pretty vigilante-ish to me, too. And why so defensively quick to jump on the term 'vigilante,' when this was actually such a mildly phrased, and even evasive, article? With some exceptions, such as refriedgringo points out, minutemen seem to be in this piece, at least in the figure of Craig, characterized more as people who wait and watch, i.e., who are "vigilant." Clearly, Chad's focus was not on the goings on of the summer of 2005, when tempers flared and some ugly standoffs took place between anti-border demonstrators and self-style minutemen. A lot of loosely belted holsters were stroked, and a lot of ugly, racist braggadocio was also loosely belted, as illegal lines were drawn in the sand by --yes--armed vigilantes with no legal business taking up the business of "protection." I regret that an intelligent but misguided young cousin of mine joined this group, otherwise known to be comprised of bored retired vets and their wives, who would otherwise be watching reruns of Gunsmoke and sipping iced tea, and young, hormonally challenged bucks, who would otherwise be sitting in a circle jerk playing fantasy wargames from their laptops. I do believe that these people come together not only out of boredom, and complex wishes to play out aggressive fantasies, but out of foundational racist, ethnocentric values. It isn't coincidence that tea-partiers and proto-terrorist religious groups (seen recently in the news) all use imagery of the 18th century new American patriot.
— March 30, 2010 12:53 p.m.

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