You gotta love the lack of unity among the minute-man types. According to this article, chris simcox made it clear that his minuteman group is not part of the protests against the macehualli center. His amusingly snide remark was, "It seems the Minuteman name has been hijacked by many people. Only the true ones have ID."
I discussed the hypocrisy of the protests in Sure Enough, Minuteman-types protesting day labor center and the older Minutemen/Bikers Supporting Business that Wants Day Labor Center?.
Chris simcox was one of the co-founders of the minuteman project and then when he had disagreements with the other co-founder, started the minuteman civil defense corps (more like corpse), which local stacey o'connell was part of. O'connell was part of a sort of attempted coup described here and here, which i am assuming got him booted from the group. Stacey o'connell has been involved in the pruitt's counter-protests, and the protests against the cave creek day labor center. He's no stranger to protesting at the macehualli center (i'm not sure if he's been there) since he harassed and videotaped people there back in late 2005 (see this article.
These bikers/minuteman-types are now being more negatively portrayed in the media and rightly so. I was really surprised to read this in the article mentioned above.
On Monday, about 260 students in the Paradise Valley Unified School District who live near the center did not show up at school. Strand said parents were afraid for their children because of the controversy over the work center.
District spokeswoman Judi Willis said parents who called in to report the absence stated they were keeping their children home because of a fear of being rounded up, accused of being undocumented immigrants.
