  It was promoted as "Freedom Of Speech Rally Round II," an anti-Muslim protest outside the Islamic Community Center in Phoenix Arizona. It was suppose to be another Muhammad drawing contest like the one in Garland Texas. It drew a crowd of about 600 but the anti-islam crowd found itself out numbered 2 to 1. On the north and across the street from the mosque were armed militias, extremist christian fundamentalists, the usual anti-immigrant pro-Arpaio crowd and white supremacists. Basically, the same folks one can see at any tea party rally in Arizona, with the exception of a few new faces. But no drawing contest actually took place. Organizer Jon Ritzheimer, an Iraq war vet with previous employment difficulties, is now in hiding due to his paranoia that ISIS is coming for him. But it seems more about the reality that his 15 minutes of fame are up. Ritzheimer seemed to start losing it late thursday evening when he realized that selling “Fuck Islam” T shirts while claiming you don't hate all muslims doesn't really pass the smell test with media-both locally and nationally. CNN's Anderson Cooper left RItzheimer confused when he pointed out that those who serve in the middle east are, in fact, defending Islamic governments. That makes it a bit tricky to claim that over one billion people are all involved in some evil cult. Negative reactions also surfaced from residents in the area of the mosque. Ritzheimer promoted the event by inviting as many armed bikers and militia types as he could while encouraging everyone to arm themselves to defend their 1st amendment rights. Now he is scamming "patriots" for cash on a go-fund-me site blaming the media for his own ignorance. While in hiding, he is hoping to raise 10 million dollars so he can run against John McCain. I'm not sure how one would run for public office while hiding underground but if you were to give me 10 million dollars, I'm sure I could figure it out. Ritzheimer also claimed there would be two militias at the event. I only spotted one calling itself the Arizona Defense Initative. The Facebook page shows them involved with border type actions. They also showed up at "Black Lives Matter" protests with AR 15s to intimidate protesters.
While thousands were expected to support the protest, well over half of those that attended were counter protesters. They included a few christian church groups, jews, muslims, atheists, anarchists and peace activists. While there were no injuries or arrests, this could’ve easily spiraled into a blood bath. As you can see in the video, a few of the younger muslim’s (some who are also veterans of the Iraq war) were more than willing to go toe to toe or fist to fist with the white supremacists. If the other side were to have put down their AR 15’s and had there not been an intense and well planned police presence, I would’ve bet my next three paychecks that there would’ve been some ambulances hauling a bunch of racist old bikers and white supremacists to the ER. Fortunately, (or unfortunately-depending on your perspective) that did not happen. PUHC (Phoenix Urban Heath Collective) were also on-site to assist with the usual issues like making sure people are hydrated (it was well over 100 degrees) and helping protesters who are pepper-sprayed by police. But no situations warranted any attention except for one elderly lady there to protest against Islam needing minor assistance. PUHC, being a class act and considered a frontier organization for assisting in protest related injuries, immediately gave her much needed assistance. The event lasted into the evening with no arrests or injuries on either side. This video of the event offers both perspectives. While I was hard pressed to get any intelligent responses from the ant-muslim side, I did score an interview with neo-Nazi Harry Hughes, regional director of the National Socialist Movement. (The NSM sometimes refer to themselves as a “white civil rights group" with Hitler referred to as a "white civil rights leader.” ) Hughes was surprisingly indifferent to the whole situation. When I asked if he felt it was right that an entire religion be held accountable for the actions of a few, his response was “ It’s probably not fair.” I followed up with asking him why he was on the north side of the street with the anti-muslim crowd. He responded with a huge grin, “ because they already know who I am over there and I’ve got a few more friends on this side.” That statement holds lots of truth. Harry Hughes is certainly no stranger to local anarchists as the NSM has held two large street rallies in Phoenix with the last one in 2010 when they were greeting by over 250 anarchists. You can use your imagination as to how that went or click here to watch it. While Ritzheimers claims of having his life threatened are lacking in evidence, threats against muslims are increasing in the Phoenix area. It was just a few days before this event when Sumayyah Dawud arrived home only to be greeted by a threatening male stranger. “This guy comes up to my car window and started aggressively questioning me what I was doing there, saying I didn't belong there, etc. even though I said I live here. He asked me why I was wearing what I was wearing and asked me if I was Muslim. I kept telling him to go away and he said he wasn't going to leave. I couldn't even get out of the car he was so close. Then he reached into his shirt like he was going for a weapon and said "Oh, too bad I don't have my swiss army belt." Then he left. “ Sumayyah is a young muslim and human rights activist involved and seen often at anti-police brutality actions. In some ways, that makes Sumayyah twice the target of the fascist right-wing element that thrives in Arizona. (She is in the video holding the "Muslims Lives Matter" sign). Threats against muslims are not uncommon in Arizona. The same mosque targeted at this event had bullets fired into it in the past. The incident occurred after the hoopla in 2012 on the building of the muslim community center in New York near the twin towers. Recently Phoenix mosques have received threatening letters promising to kill two muslims in America for every American killed by ISIS overseas. Threats against anyone who looks muslim are becoming even more common in the Phoenix area. Article and video by Dennis Gilman
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Mesa Families Fight Gentrification, Win Temporary Victory.
Many of the families living at Mesa Royale Mobile Home Park have lived there for at least 15 years, some even longer. Most had purchased their trailers from the park's owner.
While the city of Mesa has planned to gentrify the area for some time, the residents were never notified until May of this year. At that time, the city inspector told them of code violations (mostly electrical) that have been existent for generations.
At that time, instead of citing violations, about 125 families with about 300 children were told they would have to move as the city would be closing the park.
Neither the city of Mesa nor the park owners offered any compensation to the residents to relocate their mobile homes. (a cost that typically runs into thousands of dollars).
In June, the city decided to issue code violations to the families as well as an official eviction notice of November 24.
Worse yet, the owner who sold the mobile homes to the residents neglected certain details over the years-like proper titles to their homes.
Legal issues are now surfacing as to whether the park owner had the legal ownership over some of the trailers which he sold to the residents. Titles were not properly transferred and chasing these legal documents has become an additional (and costly) burden for the families already served with eviction.
It was then that the families started fighting back. Through The Comités de Defensa del Barrio, (CDB) they began organizing. CDB describes itself as
"Indigenous Peoples who struggle to Defend Civil Rights-Human Rights-Indigenous Rights and the Rights of Mother Earth.”
They protested twice every week near the downtown area of the light rail
and city hall, which is about a half a mile from Mesa Royale. Mesa PD tried to stop the protests by threatening to cite them for using mega-phones.
But the protesters were not intimidated and (with mega-phones) kept the bi-weekly actions going despite the threats from law enforcement.
But the fight was only beginning. To take on a city with a long history
of doing as it pleases to the working poor and minorities, legal representation was going to be needed. Since the people who live there are mostly Mexican, working class families, lawyers weren’t about to take this case-that is, with the exception of one law firm: The Law Office of Ray A. Ybarra Maldonado, PLC.
Call it what you wish -- a stroke of luck or an answer to the prayers of hard working people, getting Ray Ybarra to take this mess of a case was an incredible blessing.
Ray drafted 72 notices of appeal for 72 families and was prepared to fight for each one of them. The families, themselves did the filing.
This week, the city of Mesa postponed the hearings and changed their plans to evict the families. They are now being given 30 months to vacate instead of the November deadline.
Ray recently informed me that "30 months was the minimum I was told, but if everything gets brought up to code, in theory it could become permanent."
The city says there a new owner interested in the buying the trailer park.
While this is certainly good news, the fight is far from over. Mesa Royale Mobile Home Park is a prime area for a new light rail station and corporate owned developments.
Sal Reza, founder and organizer of CDB states "It’s a temporary fix but we made the city of Mesa blink for the first time. They are just use to running over people.”
While the city of Mesa has planned to gentrify the area for some time, the residents were never notified until May of this year. At that time, the city inspector told them of code violations (mostly electrical) that have been existent for generations.
At that time, instead of citing violations, about 125 families with about 300 children were told they would have to move as the city would be closing the park.
Neither the city of Mesa nor the park owners offered any compensation to the residents to relocate their mobile homes. (a cost that typically runs into thousands of dollars).
In June, the city decided to issue code violations to the families as well as an official eviction notice of November 24.
Worse yet, the owner who sold the mobile homes to the residents neglected certain details over the years-like proper titles to their homes.
Legal issues are now surfacing as to whether the park owner had the legal ownership over some of the trailers which he sold to the residents. Titles were not properly transferred and chasing these legal documents has become an additional (and costly) burden for the families already served with eviction.
It was then that the families started fighting back. Through The Comités de Defensa del Barrio, (CDB) they began organizing. CDB describes itself as
"Indigenous Peoples who struggle to Defend Civil Rights-Human Rights-Indigenous Rights and the Rights of Mother Earth.”
They protested twice every week near the downtown area of the light rail
and city hall, which is about a half a mile from Mesa Royale. Mesa PD tried to stop the protests by threatening to cite them for using mega-phones.
But the protesters were not intimidated and (with mega-phones) kept the bi-weekly actions going despite the threats from law enforcement.
But the fight was only beginning. To take on a city with a long history
of doing as it pleases to the working poor and minorities, legal representation was going to be needed. Since the people who live there are mostly Mexican, working class families, lawyers weren’t about to take this case-that is, with the exception of one law firm: The Law Office of Ray A. Ybarra Maldonado, PLC.
Call it what you wish -- a stroke of luck or an answer to the prayers of hard working people, getting Ray Ybarra to take this mess of a case was an incredible blessing.
Ray drafted 72 notices of appeal for 72 families and was prepared to fight for each one of them. The families, themselves did the filing.
This week, the city of Mesa postponed the hearings and changed their plans to evict the families. They are now being given 30 months to vacate instead of the November deadline.
Ray recently informed me that "30 months was the minimum I was told, but if everything gets brought up to code, in theory it could become permanent."
The city says there a new owner interested in the buying the trailer park.
While this is certainly good news, the fight is far from over. Mesa Royale Mobile Home Park is a prime area for a new light rail station and corporate owned developments.
Sal Reza, founder and organizer of CDB states "It’s a temporary fix but we made the city of Mesa blink for the first time. They are just use to running over people.”