Thread: Say what you want but....

PHOENIX, AZ - Nearly two dozen suspected undocumented immigrants who ran from a car chase that ended in a violent rollover were arrested after hiding in a south Phoenix neighborhood Monday morning.

A spokesperson for the Arizona Department of Public Safety said their officers became suspicious after noticing a white van that appeared to be weighed down on Interstate 10.

Just after 7 a.m., the van turned south onto 35th Avenue.

DPS units put up a roadblock near 49th Avenue and Van Buren, but the suspect vehicle nearly hit two DPS units and made an escape onto Van Buren, authorities said.

The pursuit continued west on Van Buren and then south onto 67th Avenue.

The vehicle entered a construction zone, which was closed off to traffic, and reportedly nearly hit two construction workers and took out a set of barricades.

The van then moved onto the wrong side of the road along Southern Avenue, passing several school buses and at least one school zone at a high rate of speed.

Several minutes later, the van collided with a blue passenger car and flipped over at 27th and Southern avenues.

DPS officials said several individuals jumped out of the vehicle and began running into the nearby neighborhood.

Air15 video showed those suspects running from police in all directions.

The driver of the blue car involved in the collision was transported to a local hospital for complaints of chest pain, according to officials.

By 8:45 a.m., DPS officials said all 21 suspects had been arrested.

DPS spokesman Harold A. Sanders said, "The driver of the van along with one other occupant are being held as suspects related to the human smuggling and other criminal violations. The other 19 occupants are being interviewed and if there is no connection with human smuggling they will be turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for disposition."

Nearby Ed Pastor Elementary School was returned to normal scheduling from lockdown.

It's unclear if any of the suspects were injured in the wreck

http://www.abc15.com/content/news/ph...0-851e1fbe3421

There is a slideshow at the link

Stupid stupid bast*rds!

Van crashes after chase; about 20 people flee on foot
by Adam Sneed and Kristena Hansen - Oct. 13, 2008 09:33 AM
The Arizona Republic

A van with more than twenty people aboard was trying to speed away from authorities when it slammed into two cars, flipping on to its side near 27th and Southern avenues in Phoenix Monday morning, police said.

The white van had sped through several intersections before hitting a blue Subaru hatchback and a white BMW and took out a stop sign. The passengers, suspected undocumented workers, took off on foot into a nearby residential neighborhood, jumping fences into the backyards of homes.

Seray Mutlu, 16, of Phoenix was driving his father to work before heading to school when his Subaru WRX was hit by the van. His father was taken to the hospital.

“They just jumped out the windows and started running,” Mutlu said. “I hope my dad doesn't die. I was shocked.”

Authorities said Ramadan Mutlu's condition had improved.

Witnesses said they saw 15 to 25 people emerge from the van and police said they were suspected to be undocumented immigrants.

At least 21 people were in custody, including the driver, and all were being taken to hospitals for a range of injuries including minor bruises and back pain.

Department of Public Safety officers noticed the van on Interstate 10 near Elliot Road. Apparently, it was traveling erratically at about 6:45 a.m. Detectives were called because they believed the van would lead them to a drop house.

During the chase, the van driver tried to ram into one of the DPS vehicles, police said. But the chase was suspended between 35th and 43rd avenues on Southern Avenue because it was near the Ed Pastor Elementary School zone.


http://www.azcentral.com/news/articl...brk-chase.html

NEW YORK — A man accused of shooting two police officers in the New York City subway said he would have kept firing had he not been shot by another officer, according to court documents released Thursday.

Raul Nunez was arraigned at his bed at Manhattan's Bellevue Hospital by a Queens judge on charges of attempted murder in the shooting during the Tuesday evening rush hour. He was being held without bail.

Officers Jason Maass and Shane Farina were wounded as they tried to arrest Nunez, who had illegally used a student MetroCard to enter a subway station in Queens, prosecutors said.

Nunez apparently used one of the officer's guns in the shooting.

"I saw the gun and I grabbed it and went wild," Nunez told investigators, according to a criminal complaint filed by Queens prosecutors. "I would have kept shooting but the other cop shot me and broke my leg. They started to put me in cuffs and I just grabbed the gun."

Defense attorney Kenneth Deane had no immediate comment.

Nunez said he found the subway pass on the train last week, and he struggled with the officers when they tried to arrest him, according to court papers.

"We fell down and I saw a silver gun on the ground," he said, according to the complaint. "I picked up the gun and shot the officer from about 2 feet away."

After fleeing to the upper level on an escalator, Nunez was confronted by Lt. Gary Abrahall, police said. He fired three more times before Abrahall fired six shots, hitting Nunez four times, they said.

Nunez, 32, is from the Dominican Republic and was deported in 1998 by an immigration judge after a drug arrest in New York. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents say they're investigating how he got back into the country.

He reportedly told authorities he resisted because he was afraid he would be deported again if he was arrested.

Farina, who was shot near his sternum and suffered a fractured rib, remained in critical condition but was stable. Maass, who was shot in the lower back, was released early Wednesday from a hospital. Both officers were wearing bulletproof vests, police said.

Nunez was shot twice in the left leg and once in the torso and right leg. His condition wasn't immediately available Thursday.

Nunez could face 25 years to life in prison and deportation if convicted. He also faces a charge of re-entering the country after deportation, federal immigration officials said.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,443866,00.html

WTG, Sheriff Joe. We need thousands more just like you.

PHOENIX -- A 25-year-old on-duty Phoenix police officer who died in a weekend car crash leaves behind a big church family where he was well-known and respected.

Members of Shane Figueroa's Church of Latter-Day Saints in Mesa said the officer always had a smile on his face and served as a good role model to everyone who knew him.

A suspected drunken driver in the country illegally who plowed into Fugueroa's squad car and killed him early Saturday morning had four outstanding warrants, investigators said.

Figueroa was heading northbound on S. 19th Avenue and responding to a call about a series of shots fired when a vehicle driven by Salvador Vivas Diaz, 50, collided with the patrol car. Diaz was arrested and booked on one count of manslaughter and one count of aggravated assault. Sgt. Andy Hill said there are four warrants for the man's arrest under a different name, two of which are for DUI.

"As he approached S. Roeser Road, a small white pickup truck with two occupants was driving southbound on S. Roeser Road and, according to witnesses and investigators, turned left in front of Officer Figueroa's vehicle," Hill said.

Hill said Diaz slammed his pickup truck into the officer's car west of downtown Phoenix.

"Officer Figueroa suffered fatal injuries during this crash and was pronounced dead at St. Joseph's Hospital," Hill said.

Diaz suffered minor injuries. His passenger was seriously hurt.

Figueroa's church family said Sunday they were devastated.

"Shane is a wonderful young man, a wonderful husband and father, neighbor and friend," said church President Mark Bradshaw. "Good friend to many. Any mother would be proud to have Shane as their son. "You can imagine what his mother and all the family are feeling --his good wife and sweet little baby."

"This is another tremendous loss, not only to Officer Figueroa's family, but to the Phoenix Police Department and the community," said Sgt. Andy Hill.

Figueroa leaves behind a wife and a 3-month-old baby girl.

"This has been a terrible tragedy for our department," said Jack Harris, Phoenix police chief. "As you know, we have lost four officers in the past month due to either personal illness or to, in this case, a very tragic accident."

Officers said the collision is still under investigation. "There are a number of factors critical to this investigation that will be determined by lab tests and mathematical calculations," he said.

"Officer Figueroa's dad is a retired officer from the Phoenix Police Department and is currently employed as an officer in the town of Maricopa," Harris said. "His father-in-law is currently a lieutenant with the Mesa Police Department."

Protesters Gather Outside Mayor's House

Outside Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon's house, a small group of protesters gathered Sunday holding signs.

They marched along the sidewalk accusing the mayor of protecting illegal immigrants.

The mayor's spokesperson told CBS 5 News the federal government and the illegal immigrant are to blame for the officer's death, not the mayor.

"While the mayor and the chief of police and the head of the police union are at the hospital with the family, these guys are out there trying to figure out they can make political hay with a dead police officer," said Scott Phelps, the mayor's spokesman. "How can they turn to that to their political advantage?"

The protesters said they were not with any particular group.

http://www.kpho.com/news/17802232/detail.html

Judge bans “illegal” and “aliens” from courtroom
Thu, 11/06/2008 - 17:10 — Judicial Watch Blog

Arizona’s Supreme Court chief justice has agreed to enforce the Hispanic Bar Association’s demands of banning the terms “illegal” and “aliens” in all of the state’s courtrooms.

Claiming that the terms are inflammatory, the president of Arizona’s Hispanic Bar Association, (known as Los Abogados) has asked state Supreme Court Chief Justice Ruth McGregor to stop using them at trials or hearings because they create perceptions of judicial bias.

In a strongly worded letter to the chief justice, Los Abogados’ president says attaching an illegal status to a person establishes a brand of contemptibility, creates the appearance of anti-immigrant prejudice and tarnishes the image of courts as a place where disputes may be fairly resolved.

It further points out that no human being is illegal and that a national Hispanic journalism association has roundly criticized the reference for dehumanizing a segment of the population. The letter goes on to criticize the state’s High Court for using the term “illegals” in at least two opinions and the term “illegal aliens” in dozens of others.

It concludes with a list of acceptable and unacceptable terms relating to illegal immigration. Among those the group wants banned are; immigration crisis, immigration epidemic, open borders advocates, anchor babies and invaders. Among the acceptable terms are foreign nationals, unauthorized workers and human rights advocates.

http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/20...gal-and-aliens


Click here to see the entire list as well as Chief Justice McGregor’s promise to enforce the requests. http://www.judicialwatch.org/documen...egorLetter.pdf



Hypersensitivity of this sort is not humane or enlightened, it is spineless and dehumanizing. It assumes that we are so easily offended that we must must be protected by Big Brother because we cannot deal with real people and make our own decisions when conflicts arise. It is reflective of an unhealthy paternalism which is destroying the fabric of what used to make America great, namely self-determination, hard work, and the moral bearings which arise from that.

And yes, the concept of citizen implies that it can be legal or illegal, based upon the laws that confer citizenship in any particular jurisdiction. If members of a Supreme Court do not understand this, we are in a lot of trouble as a nation. God help us all.

If the Hispanic Bar likes that, then let's call drug dealers undocumented pharmacists, and home robbery suspects physical property adjusters.

ROSWELL, Ga. — Like all illegal immigrants, Lorenzo Jimenez knew the knock on the door from immigration agents could come at any time.

Still, he had enough faith in the American dream to buy a house in this Atlanta suburb, even though signing the papers meant raising the risk: He put his 2-year-old, American-born daughter's name and Social Security number on the title.

And it worked, for a while. Jimenez and his family lived happily enough for several years alongside "regular" citizens.

Nicole Griffin's mom lived a few doors away, and when Griffin visited, she said, her kids played with the Jimenez children. When Jimenez put his four-bedroom, two-bathroom home up for sale last spring, wanting more space, Griffin was immediately interested.

A contract was negotiated but when the sale appeared to go sour, Griffin raised a new issue: that she was a citizen and Jimenez wasn't. She told local media, immigration officials, his boss and others that he was here illegally. She even put signs in the yard of the house exposing his residency status.

As a result, agents came knocking last month, and now Jimenez is fighting to keep from being deported. He also lost his job.

"I'm very sad and very worried," said Jimenez, 32. "I can't sleep because I'm thinking about my family. What's going to happen? I don't know."

Griffin insists her intent was to buy the house, nothing else. The 28-year-old single mother of two maintains she was wronged first, so she acted to protect her interests. She has no regrets.

"At the end, do I feel bad the family got in trouble? No, not at all," she said.

Those who enter the U.S. illegally often say they're just striving for the same things that most American citizens want out of life — a good job, home ownership, maybe a chance to get a little bit ahead. But the ambitions of citizens and non-citizens can collide and, as the painful entanglement between Jimenez and Griffin shows, both sides can wind up feeling like victims.

Jimenez, who is Mexican, has been in the U.S. for about a decade. When he bought the house four years ago, the real estate agent handling the sale told him he could get a better interest rate using his daughter's information on the closing documents than he could using the federal tax identification number he uses to pay income tax here.

Jimenez later filed papers to have his own name added to the title, and that's how it stayed until Griffin spotted the "for sale" sign and $164,500 list price this spring.

With both sides enthusiastic about the sale, a deal was reached and the closing was set for May 15.

Griffin, a payroll clerk and first-time homebuyer, asked to postpone the closing until June 1 because she had problems locking in her interest rate. Jimenez agreed but asked that she move into the house as planned and pay rent until the closing.

Shortly after Griffin moved in, her attorney said there was a problem with the title on the house, namely that Jimenez's young daughter's name was on the title but her signature wasn't on the sale documents. Attorneys said some extra paperwork — establishing a conservatorship to watch out for the child's interest, the first step in getting the title transferred solely to her father — would clear the title, and everyone agreed to postpone again.

Griffin didn't pay the rent, however, claiming she was promised three months free since the delay was Jimenez's fault. She has an e-mail from his real estate agent, Alina Carbonell, saying he'd made the offer.

Jimenez's lawyer, Erik Meder, told her that offer was never firm and insisted she pay rent or vacate the house.

Locked in a letter war with Meder, Griffin escalated her actions. She contacted the FBI, the Roswell Police Department, local media, the state attorney general's office and the governor's office, among others. She asked her congressman, U.S. Rep. Tom Price, for help, saying she felt Jimenez and Meder had deceived her. Price's office, in turn, contacted U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said Brendan Buck, a Price spokesman.

"I am a law-abiding American merely trying to purchase a home," Griffin wrote in mid-July in a letter to American Homebuyers, a nonprofit that helps low- to moderate-income families buy homes. "An illegal family fraudulently obtained a mortgage using a 1 yr old SSN, and appear to have all the rights in this situation — How can this be when they shouldn't even be in America?"

She said she contacted anyone she could think of who might be able to help the sale go through.

Jimenez said she started making his life a nightmare. He claims she caused cosmetic damage to the house and intentionally clogged the plumbing, both of which she denies.

Griffin also went after Carbonell, the real estate agent. She contacted the Georgia State Real Estate Commission to try to get her license revoked. Carbonell said the threat to her reputation and to her career caused her so much stress she had to take a leave of absence.

Griffin said she reported Carbonell because the agent knew Jimenez's daughter's name was on the title from the beginning but didn't tell her right away. (Carbonell was not the real estate agent who originally advised Jimenez to use his daughter's name.)

In September, Meder got a judge to order Griffin to pay retroactive rent and get out of the house within a week.

Griffin then went to the upscale Atlanta restaurant where Jimenez worked as a cook and told his boss he was undocumented, which Jimenez said resulted in his firing.

"It was my last resort," Griffin said, "but once I realized my family had seven days to get out of a house that a family's not even legally supposed to own, I did go to his employer and I did let his employer know."

She also put bright red signs in the yard reading, "This house is owned by an illegal alien." When Jimenez tore them down, she put up new ones.

Griffin said she wanted the neighbors to share her outrage over what was happening.

"I don't feel bad for anything that happens to the Jimenez family at this point," Griffin said recently, "because no one feels bad that all I tried to do was buy a house, and I ended up living back with my mother."

In early October, plainclothes ICE agents showed up at Jimenez's apartment. They asked him about his residency status and his purchase of the house, then handcuffed him and took him away. He was released a few hours later and is due before a judge in January and could face eventual deportation.

His lawyers plan to apply to keep Jimenez in the country permanently, a process that could last several years. While it's pending, he will be eligible for a work permit. But even if he gets one, Jimenez will be living in limbo. His application to stay could be rejected, which means he still could be ordered to leave the country.

Jimenez has taken the house off the market but doesn't want to move his family back in amid the uncertainty, so they're still in the apartment that was supposed to be a transitional stop until they bought a bigger place.

Griffin hasn't tried to buy another home, in part because she can't afford to, so she and her kids are still staying with her mother.

Down the street, the Jimenez house sits empty.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,453011,00.html