BoarSpear

1 February 2007: Arizona House of Representative Kyrsten Sinema (District 15, Phoenix) is proposing legislation that would revise an Arizona criminal statute that would make felons out of patriots, and classify groups such as the Minutemen, Guardian Angels or anyone daring to voluntarily identify and report illegal activity in her state as "domestic terrorists" and worthy of a 6-month minimum stint in prison.

Sinema, who has failed to return my calls for comments about her proposed legislation, is sponsoring HB 2286, that would amend Arizona Title13, Chapter 23, section 13-2301 and adding section 13-2320 that states, in part:

"An individual or group of individuals commits domestic terrorism if the individual or group of individuals are not affiliated with a local, state or federal law enforcement entity and associate with another individual or group of individuals as an organization, group, corporation or company for the purpose of patrolling to detect alleged illegal activity or to individually patrol for the purpose of detecting alleged illegal activity and if the individual or group of individuals is armed with a firearm or other weapon." (Click on "read more" above to continue article).

And to make certain that no good deeds remain unpunished, Sinema and her co-sponsors are mandating that anyone who is convicted under this revised statute spends a minimum of six-(6) months in jail, even if the court sentences the defendant to probation. The intent of this revision is an obviously transparent attempt to make criminals out U.S. citizens. If Sinema has her way, U.S. citizens concerned about the threat posed by illegal aliens, drug smugglers, and illegal border incursions and dares to voluntarily assist law enforcement by identifying and reporting such illegal activity at the U.S.-Mexican border, will be guilty of a class 5 felony, be required to spend 6 months in jail, and be further classified as a "domestic terrorists."

Sinema has a consistent track record of voting against legislation introduced in the Arizona State Legislature that fights illegal immigration, even to the extent of introducing legislation that would exclude illegal aliens – including drug smugglers -crossing into the U.S. from Mexico from being prosecuted under a 2005 anti-smuggling law.

Additional information is outlined in the most recent Homeland Security Weekly PODCAST.

Kyrsten Sinema
House of Representatives
1700 W. Washington
Room 333
Phoenix, AZ 85007
Phone Number: (602) 926-5058
Fax Number: (602) 417-3015
Email Address:

Applicable text of bill:

13-2320. Domestic terrorism; classification

A. An individual or group of individuals commits domestic terrorism if the individual or group of individuals are not affiliated with a local, state or federal law enforcement entity and associate with another individual or group of individuals as an organization, group, corporation or company for the purpose of patrolling to detect alleged illegal activity or to individually patrol for the purpose of detecting alleged illegal activity and if the individual or group of individuals is armed with a firearm or other weapon.

B. Any city, town or county that suffers injury arising out of a violation of this section may maintain an action in superior court for the recovery of damages or for an injunction, or both. the court may award the successful party reasonable attorney fees.

C. If the court sentences the defendant to a term of probation, the court shall order that as an initial condition of probation the defendant be imprisoned in the county jail for a period of not less than six months. This jail term of incarceration shall not be deferred, deleted or otherwise suspended and shall commence on the date of sentencing. THis subsection does not apply to persons who are sentenced to serve a period of incarceration in the state department of corrections.

D. A violation of this section is a class 5 felony.

Tom Yum

Go gettum Boar

As far as I know, the Guardian Angels and Minutemen have made a material impact on deterring crime, fighting off criminals and reporting illegal immigration, in different regions of course.

Gotta play the Devil's advocate on this:

The origins of different organized crime rings has sprung up from groups of citizens, pooling their resources and muscle to protect the innocent, no?

I'm assuming she has proposed this legislation based on those grounds.

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Love it, leave it or fix it.

Mr. Arieson

That's true. The sicilian Mafia started that way.

I don't particularly like the minutemen, because I doubt that any of the members are not racist in some way, but if you are going to make them into criminals, how about those groups like MECHA and Hernandad too? After all, they fit the description of terrorists just with thier agenda alone!

MECHA's mission statement is to reconquest the american southwest and give it back to Mexico--that's sounds pretty illegal and criminal to me. It also sounds like something HAMAS or Hezbollah would say as well.

Sagacious Lu

The idea of a bunch of armed private citizens taking the law into their own hands is scary. It's all fine and dandy that these people want to protect people from the criminals, but who's going to protect people from them?

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Tom Yum

I believe the Guardian Angels do not carry firearms and earn mostly from private donations, no?

http://www.guardianangels.org/

They've done an excellent job in cleaning up the streets and deterring youth-related violence. I'd say that's a stand up organization!

The Minutemen have also been very instrumental in providing intelligence on illegal border activity, especially at a time when border security means national security. They may be able to make a move independently, that the government may be too slow to.

Groups like these provide an undeniable positive benefit on our society. Instead of making legislation to ban these groups, why not have regular face to face meetings to discuss Charters, activities - open door communication?

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Love it, leave it or fix it.

Sagacious Lu

Really? I'll admit that I don't know that much about these groups, but they had better not expect other private citizens to answer their questions or put up with intrusions into their lives. I know I wouldn't. I worry about paranoid, self-important (or self-righteous if you prefer) vigilantes getting out of control and causing as many or more problems than the crimes they're trying to stop.

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kingoftheforest

Wonder what kind of cool Facist uniforms we'll all get to wear. That is when they finish taking all our rights.













Let them eat cake.

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The actions one takes are answered by consequences waiting at their conclusion. There are no exceptions.

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gregimotis

I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure the Guardian angels explicitly do not carry weapons and are required to carry cell phones.



Anyway, intent aside, this law makes it illegal to do anything except be a victim.

Is she gonna send my whole street to jail when she finds out we have a neighborhood watch program and I normally carry a knife in my pocket?



Between this sort of law, our drug laws, and our patriot act, everybody is a felon. It's just a matter of when they feel like arresting us.

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I am Tired. Tired. Tired.

Tom Yum

The proposed legislation from the House Rep. sounds kind of knee jerk; I don't know any more about the groups either, but from what I can tell the Guardian Angels are more into afterschool programs, bully prevention and keeping the streets clean.

They've done proven good deeds for society, which is why they've become popular over the last 20 or so years, have expanded even overseas and have won awards.

I can see the need for dialog between these groups and the government, defining exactly what they intend to do, how they will do it and proof that they aren't stepping beyond what they stated.

As far as I know, they've done nothing but good, Lu. They clean up the streets.

Since they are independently organized and grass roots, they know their territory well since they live in it, are able to be where the police can't be all of the time and have a vested interest in making the streets a better place.

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Love it, leave it or fix it.

Sagacious Lu

No, it says this:



The way I read this if all you have is a legal pocket knife or a cell phone than this doesn't apply to you.

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gregimotis

It was two different comments, sorry for the confusion:

1. The guardian angels do not carry weapons - they patrol, provide a presence, and call the police.


2. If my neighborhood has a neighborhood watch program and someone in the neighborhood carries a weapon as a matter of course, then everyone in the neighborhood watch program is a conspirator.

Okay, I was being a little facetious, but my point is: The reason we have things like neighborhood watch programs and guardian angels (and minutemen I guess, although I agree with Mr. Areison's comment) is that the police can't be everywhere, and furthermore they often can't do anything until AFTER you've been victimized
The legislation is question doesn't specifically make it illegal to patrol your neighborhood, but it strongly implies that you better not do anything about what you find. in other words:


The police can't help you, and you aren't allowed to help yourself either.

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I am Tired. Tired. Tired.