Minutemen: Heroes or Vigilantes?

Minutemen: Heroes or Vigilantes?

Minutemen: Heroes or Vigilantes?

"Today, we need a nation of Minutemen, citizens who are not only prepared to take arms, but citizens who regard the preservation of freedom as the basic purpose of their daily life."
-John F Kennedy

I started with the Minutemen almost 2 years ago. I started hearing about the lesser known groups that began before the big media hoopla by a friend that had started with them 4 years ago.
As a single mother, I was working 70+ hours a week at the time so I didn't have time to go to the border with them. After the marches began in early 2006, I made the time by giving up sleep since my work schedule had not changed much.
After our President had called the Minutemen 'Vigilantes' I was more energized than ever to do something.
Chris Simcox of MCDC gave our Presidnet an ultimatum and said if he did not build the fence, that the Minutemen would.
I spent every penny I had and rearranged my work schedule in the restaurant so I could go help out on the fence in AZ. I bought tools, food, and baked for about a hundred people. I filled 12 coolers with ice and drinks, even had some great friends pitch in for snacks and extra tools and supplies. I printed out the SOP and read it 5 times, checked things off the list of things to bring, like a good little vigilante. I was so proud to be part of soemthing so Patriotic and somewhat rebellious. After all, I had always wanted to serve my country, so I had to be there for this.

http://www.svherald.com/articles/2006/05/29/local_news/news2.txt

I met so many wonderful people from all over the country. The honor, dedication, patriotism and sincerity was abundant amongst the volunteers. I was hooked after that event and couldn't get enough of the border and all related events.
I have to admit, although the volunteers were all amazing, I did feel a bit mysogynistic vibes such as when they looked at me and said, "You can't handle what we do...you can build? You can climb? We all have to take a fitness test before we go out there.?
I would always say, whatever it takes, I was just there to serve.

After I returned, I started working on the border with a man that lived nearby, but we had never run into each other till I got his number from someone I met in AZ. He was an Independent MM and had some stories to tell about why he would remain independent. Although he was prone to agitation, he worked with a handful of other gentlemen who were always very respectful. He was very proud and I admired him. I learned a lot from him.

My last trip with MCDC was in June 06. I was disgusted already at the lack of interest the leadership had showed in the many volunteers that had travelled so many miles. After listening to everyone complain about not being wanted or being put to work at Camp Vigilance, I decided to talk to the head honcho and ask him if I could help train the new people since I knew they weren't feeling too good about being there. He basically called them worthless.
The mainstays were perfectly happy sitting in lawn chairs drinking wine talking about the problems, but most of the people actually went there to work.
After he made it clear that he did not really care about the volunteers and just wanted everyone there to pose for a photo op, I decided I wasn't going back to their camps.

I was also spending a lot of time out in Campo and Boulevard with other Minuteman groups until the leader of the local group saw my worth and discouraged me from going anywhere near these "psycho squatters at the border."

I did not believe him at the time, but I figured it was cheaper on gas to get more involved in the city.
Everything seemed to be too perfect! I made the same mistakes I always make and naively trusted everyone. I always see the good in people and naturally thought that everyone volunterring their time and resources for this effort must be on our side...

So I followed as we had protests at every day labor site in the county and in LA. In the beginning, it seemed like an effective thing to do, but no one warned that there would be 'opposition' coming to provoke us. All we wanted to do was hold signs and Flags and pass out some flyers to the passerbys...

It got increasingly intense as the rumors about the racist Minuteman vigilantes grew like wildfire. I knew that they were lies because after all, I was a Minuteman and I spent so much time with so many. I was deterrmined to prove them wrong.

After I got back from a 2 week border watch in Laredo with several other groups, the protests were swinging. We would have hundreds show up to pledge their support for our Sovereign Nation and it's laws. Shortly after that was the McGonigle Canyon incident where we had found out that not only were they living there, but there were some serious crimes going on in there such as sex trafficking.
These allegations were reported first here..



I was so amazed that the City would allow ths to continue after all these years! We held a very large protest at the entrance of the canyon, along with several coordinated cleanups.
Playlist of the canyon is here...



That was things started to go haywire with the so called opposition and law enforcement. I became public enemy number one almost immediately with my videos of the canyon and other law enforcement not doing their job. I was witness to numerous false arrests, fake 911 calls, police abuses and multgiple civil rights violations. Because of my activism, by this time my house had been broken in to, all my valuables stolen, bank account depleted, lost my job, one car completely totalled in front of my house and my van vandalized repeatedly along with death threats almost daily with the typical protest harassment.

The canyon became a hot topic and anytime we were donw there looking for evidence or cleaning up trash, someone was accusing us of stealing private property. Now I'm not saying that everyone was always innocent, but no one ever stole trash from an illegal encampment.

On 1/27/07 there was a planned 'special op' in the canyon which resulted in a possible vandalism. Since I was not there that day, I do not know what did or did not happen, I only know what happened when I got there after an event in Orange County to give Jeff a check that someone had asked me to give him for a donation.
On the 29th, it came out on the news and they said they wanted to talk to anyone that knew anything about the canyon. That is when my local Minuteman leader asked me to lie for him. Since we were also dating at the time, it was a bit uncomfortable to say the least. I was already uncomfortable with some things I had been witness to and had been trying to break it off with him. He did not take my stance very good. In fact, he ended up beating me up over that and my videos that this leader stole from me in order to profit off of.
After this leader attacked me, I thought for sure the other leaders in the movement would step up and at least hear the other side of the story...instead Schwilk started a slander campaign the very next morning which I am still suffering the backlash of.

February 8th, my house was raided over this "suspected muisdemeanor vandalism" in this illegal encampment which had been cleaned out by Cal-Trans 3 days before the day in question!

What a bad week I was having, just before the raid, police came to my house over false reports that I was dangerously suicidal and had an arsenal in my home. They said they had to search it to make sure I wasn't being help hostage or anything...I let them.

The next day, my website disappeared and no responses to any of my inquiries.

So here I am, a single mother that was extremely active with the Minutemen who did everything for anyone with my house just raided, plastered all over the news as some big time criminal, all my videos gone, computers gone, new job lost and where were the Minutemen?

Well, MCDC has a Minuteman lawyer and a fund they collect from unsuspecting American patriots to pay the lawyer for representation in case of things like this among the movement.
This lawyer did not even talk to me. He chose to represent the non Minuteman in this case, even though this persons house was not raided nor was shecharged with anything. Oh yeah, she was a millionaire...
My house was raided and as soon as Jeff Schwilk said, "turn your back", they did.

Not just the sheeple in San Diego Minutemen, but even the people I thought I had a great relationship in other close groups, like SOS and NMI. Another surprise conspirator was immigration watchdog.
I'm not going too indepth about thes incidents in this blog, I'm only going over them so you can answer the million dollar question...are Minutemen Heroes or Vigilantes?

Well, even though my so called leader had turned his back on me after he beat me up for refusing to lie for him, I still was a part of other Minuteman and related groups, although the only one I was really ever a 'member' of was MCDC.
I would continue to receive harassing phone calls and emails, along with my friends and family. This leader decided I had to be destroyed.

Up till this time, I thought all the attacks I'd endured were brought about by the 'opposition.' I had a couple friends that started talking about agent provocateurs and cointelpro. I had never heard of those things in the past. I did some research and what I found was truly shocking!!!
Not only was I a victim of this terrible type of harassment, it was perpetrated by my own trusted and respected leaders!!! What a knock in the boots!
So I started collecting information and evidence and putting it all together...woops, I'm rambling...

To make a long story even longer, the more this person tried to hurt me, the more attention I got, which meant he had to hurt me even more. Within minutes, he would write a new slanderous press release and send it to tens of thousands of people across the country.
Now did any of these so called patriots I loved and admired so much the past year even give me a call or send me an email about these allegations?
NOPE!

Gee, was I dumbfounded. The lies continued as they succeeded in isolating me temporarily. They would stalk me everywhere I went, including online. If I made a mention of going somehwere, they would call ahead and "warn" them about me and how dangerous I am. They accused me of being a federal infiltrator or a mole, a commie, a lesbian prostitute, druggie, child abuser and pornographer, being delusional and psychotic and said I have a vendetta to destroy all minutemen groups in America...funny thing is, peole actually believed it! LOL
They spread these lies around the country and all these so called patriotic wonderful Minutemen turned their back without a word, because their leader said so.
Sit Ubu, sit.

During this time, I was still going to the border with other people and going to rallies and meetings that none of the Minutemen would attend, still producing my vidoes that were intended to be used as an information source. I would get attacked and still keep plugging away. I started making more video for other Minutemen that I had been working with until he seized the moment to make a big show of Jeff's lies. Not only did he lie about a video that he made, he actually shot at me and a friend, with witnesses!!!

Did any Minutemen stand up and do the right thing there? Actually, what happened was that the local leaders said I lied about it, even though there were witness statements and used it to slander me more and scare the people in to staying away from me.
Where were my trusted loyal Minutemen?

I was running my own website and free speech forum, the Don Silva from SOS siad I could not be a prt of his group if I allowed the so called 'opposition' on my free speech forum. Okay, Hitler, whatever you say...a leader from another group was trying to tell me what I could do with my own site. I'm sure you can guess which I chose.
I eventuially ended up taking it down in order to divert their consistent attacks. It's a full time job for many of them.

After all the time I spent with these people I loved and cared for so much, not one came out and stood up for me in public. They were all too afraid of what they dictators would do to them. Gee, I wonder if there was a reason these leaders wanted their sheeple to stay away from me...?
Yes, there was a reason, but not the ones they made up.

Mopral of the story...be nice to your vidoegrapher!

I know we need a nation of vigilant Minutemen, but what I have come to see in many of these groups is that they have simply found a way to profit off the problem, not solve the problem. Many groups continue to encourage violence while screaming at people on the streets that can't change the laws, or even shooting at people and dogs on more than one occasion, even chasing people in Mexico and shooting them!

I never wanted to know that all the rumors the 'opposition' says about Minutemen are in fact true!
As a videographer, my sole purpose was to disprove the lies from the other side. When I started getting these things on video myself, things got a little tricky.

I am for the premise of the Minutemen and what most proclaim to be doing or at least think about doing. I am not for corruption in any place. After all, isn't that what we're fighting against?

So, April 2005, we had 15,000 illegal aliens crossing the border every day. Jim Gilchrist and Chris Simcox made a big media show and promised the people they are going to shut down the border. They brought in millions of dollars for this effort, even more for the fence they never built.
Here we are in October of 2007, 15,000 illegal aliens still crossing the border every day. Are they down at the border doing anything? Are they writing new bills, petitions or introducing any new legislature? Are they doing anything other than saying "Look at me, look how great I am, give me money, I will save the country and anyone who opposes me is the enemy" (which they put inordinate effort into actively destroying).
Sounds like Bush...

"Hey, what a great idea [DHS, NSA, CIA, FBI]...We tell them we're going to close the border, then we can get all the media to look at us, tell the country we are here to save them, get them to sign up on our list and bring all their guns down to the border. We're going to make them think theure doing something good, but they'll be the first to follow us in to the concentration camps after they gave us all their money and fell into our trap of destruction. Then we will know who has guns, how many, what kind and what they are prepared to do with them. They'll never find out we actually work for the other side..."

What a brilliant idea!
WAKE UP SHEEPLE!!!
Many of these self proclaimed leaders are fakes!!! Some are professional money launderers, some have even already done time...I believe many more will when the truth comes out about the gilchrist scandal.

Please do yourself a favor and do some internet research about the patriot movement and see how all these groups are led by the enemy. They are just another means to control the people and any civil unrest!!!
How many of you are still out there on the streets yelling at Julio, calling names and picking fights? Don't you see you are being used as a tool of the coming police state? Do you really think you are doing your country a favor by standing out on the street yelling and screaming? If you want to scream at someone, scream at the people responsible! Call your politicians, campaign for someone that will restore our Individual Liberties in the Constitutional Repiblic in which we live, like Ron Paul! Flyer your neighborhood, tell a friend. You're not going to get anywhere if you are not reaching out to people other than your tight knit group of perfect little pay-t-riots! You are not going to stop the flow of illegals by taking it out on them, take it out on the big businesses that hire them or the politicians that choose to ignore our laws and allow this invasion!
Why aren't the Minutemen leaders doing that?
Oh, maybe they could be one of them! Just maybe...?
Open your eyes!
You've got to wake up and really take a look at what's going on here!

I have seen a lot of good, but unfortunately it was erased by the complacency of the masses that chose to follow the leader for money or for social acceptance.
I have many friends that are Minutemen and even some leaders, but I will not hide the truth anymore.
The sheeple used to tell me, "Yeah, but you need to protect the movement, you can't talk about that..."
Save our boys mentality...

Now there are some great Minutemen out there who really are making a difference and who blow away every other organization out there. Actually, they prefer to not be referred to as Minutemen, but it is in their hearts. These Minutemen are not the violent vigilante thieves and spineless traitors you just read about. They are actually out on the border with purpose and suffering the elements making a difference, not just talking about it.
In fact, they have their watches down to such a science that they know exactly when the drug smugglers are coming and on which trail. They alone account for at least 500 apprehensions each month!
To preserve their privacy and efficiency I will not tell you who they are, but DO KNOW that not all Minuteman or related citizen volunteer is completely whacko!

There are many good people doing good things, but many are being led down the wrong path. They make examples out of people like me so the other won't fear to stray.
They do not like individuals who like to think for themselves. I was not the first victim of these people and I will not be the last...but I may be the loudest.