"Important" people are *praying* that we have bandits marauding in southern AZ

because if the attacks are the work of a vigilante group, there's going to be a lot more than 1 anti-domestic terrorism bill for the Republicans to kill next during the next session of the legislature...I'd say there would be some serious soul-searching on their parts, but that would presume a fact not in evidence.

From the EV Trib today:

3 migrants killed by gunmen in southern Arizona

Gunmen stopped a pickup truck full of illegal immigrants, shot several and took the rest captive Thursday in an attack that left at least three men dead and two people wounded, authorities said.

{snip}

The men shot three people, one fatally, along a known smuggling corridor near Tucson, then forced the six or seven other immigrants in the group to leave with them, Pima County sheriff's officials said.

The bodies of two of the immigrants were found about 10 miles north in the cab of the pickup truck that had been carrying the group. The other immigrants had not been found by midafternoon Thursday.

The article goes on to talk about how local authorities are attributing this attack and other recent attacks on immigrants, including another fatal attack, on "bandits."

The fact is that they're hoping like hell that the attacks *are* the work of "bandits."

Acknowledging the possibility that they might be the handiwork of the Minutemen or another self-appointed vigilante group is definitely *not* part of the party line; the Hayworths, Pearces, Grafs, and Pullens of AZ will never admit that this is where their hate-filled rhetoric is leading.

Oh, and the seven members of the House Committee on Homeland Security and Property Rights who voted to kill Kyrsten Sinema's HB2286 would look just as bad as the people pulling the triggers in the southern part of the state.

Note: For the record, the seven state representatives who voted to kill the bill are the 6 Republicans on the committee, Ray Barnes, Nancy Barto, Tom Boone, Doug Clark, Warde Nichols, and Jerry Weiers, as well as Democrat Cloves Campbell.

Anyway, I have no doubt that if the "bandits" theory had any credibility, the Republican outcry over an armed gang of (presumably) Mexican criminals roaming the southern deserts of Arizona and immediate demands for a mobilization of the National Guard to a war footing would be deafening.

At the very least, there would be a law enforcement task force created that would rival the one created during the hunt for the Preserves arsonist a few years ago, here in the Phoenix area.

Not that any of them would care about the murder victims - they're only Mexicans, after all [dripping sarcasm]; they would just be aghast at the "bandits" with guns.


However - no outcry, no task force, not even denouncements of the attacks from public officials or the AZ cons' blogosphere.

Just SILENCE.


Bottom line: they're not sure it's the work of "bandits".


Note: Man Eegee had a good post about this earlier today. Give it a read.