Reply #4: What happened Sunday night

[Tansy_Gold]

This past Sunday evening, a friend of mine was sitting in her living room in Gold Canyon, Arizona, watching the news on her television. She lives alone in a modest home in a gated community. Movement outside her sliding glass patio door caught her attention, and she glanced that direction to see a man trying to climb over her backyard fence. She went to the door, opened it, and confronted the not-quite-intruder, and he fled. She then went to her neighbor's house to warn them, and while there, she and the neighbor noticed the same man had made it into the yard of a third house and was getting a drink of water from a garden hose. They immediately called the Pinal County sheriff's department -- our xenophobic sheriff, Paul Babeu, is the one who made the commercial with McCain -- but by the time the deputy had arrived, the "illegal alien" had disappeared.

Conversation the next morning with a former county official revealed that allegedly the "coyotes" or smugglers have adopted a policy of dumping their human cargo along US 60 between Florence Junction and Apache Junction, an area that is unincorporated and less developed and therefore less patrolled by law enforcement. In particular, the Gold Canyon community -- unincorporated developments of mostly modestly upscale homes along US 60 -- provides both cover for fugitives and access to water. Obviously, also, at this time of the year when many winter-only residents have left the area for cooler climes, there are opportunities for burglary and theft.

The tale of this incident has spread like wildfire, and because the "victim" was someone who already fears "those criminals" who are coming across the border, the hysteria is escalating. Facts mean absolutely nothing to the people who are in the grip of a totally irrational fear. They have seen the face of the "enemy" and they are terrified. And when they are sufficiently terrified, they will do anything they are told if they think it will remove the threat.



Tansy Gold