The Silence Speaks Volumes!

Right about now the Lincoln Club, along with a host of other right wing organizations such as the David Horowitz Freedom Center and the Newport Harbor Republican Women will be hosting their forum on how to deal with immigration. Considering the people hosting this, I think we all know their solutions. Looking at the flyer, the once again go on and on about the tragic murder of Robert Krentz and make his death the centerpiece of their worldview on immigration. This despite the fact that investigators are still not sure if the murderer is even an illegal immigrant. This is a sad case of “if you say it enough, it becomes the truth”, the mantra of their idol, Dick Cheney.

But once again, there is silence from them on the hateful murders of Raul and Brisenia Flores. A quick reminder, Brisenia Flores was a nine year old girl murdered by three members of the Minutemen, one of them with connections to Jim Gilchrist and Congressman Brian Bilbray. Of course I took Red County to task on this with the comment you can read HERE.

Usually a comment on the immigration issue that is contrary to the conservative worldview brings out the bigots like flies on crap, but this time calling out the murder of Brisenia Flores seems to leave them speechless. Of course to continue to justify their worldview would also mean justifying the murder of a nine year old child so the only option is silence and hope us progressive’s stop pestering.

To understand, the more this story gets out, the more people will realize just what the xenophobic talk caused and will turn public opinion against the Minutemen, against the right wing worldview on immigration and for a true comprehensive immigration reform bill. Therefore they need to keep the Brisenia Flores story as under wraps as possible. The Tucson Weekly had a terrific story which seems to indicate from statements by Gilchrist and Glenn Spencer that there was an attempt to cover up for the people who committed the crime, Shawna Forde, Jason Bush & Albert Gaxiola.

One part that grabbed me as particularly interesting was the fact that some people in law enforcement were spreading the rumor that Raul Flores was a “big time” drug trafficer, despite the absence of a arrests and convictions or any evidence. You have to wonder, who leaked it among law enforcement. There seems to be a clear and organized effort to take the attention away from the Minutemen and their culpability in the murder by trying to make one of the victims into the bad guy. This could only have been done by someone with power, but who. I have my suspicions but will save them for another day.

No matter how you cut it, the conservative silence on the murder of Brisenia Flores tell me all I need to know and makes it all the more important that people continue to push this story and do our best to get the mainstream media to start digging into this. The back story may be the key that undoes SB 1070 and finally turns comprehensive immigration reform into a reality.