Last week, anti-immigration activist Shawna Forde was convicted of murdering nine-year old Brisenia Flores and her father Raul Flores. On Tuesday she was sentenced to death by an Arizona jury.
Forde and her accomplices led a group of anti immigrant vigilantes on a raid of the Flores home where they pretended to be immigration agents and barged through the door. The father was shot and then the child. The mother faked death and survived.
According to the Huffington Post:
The case was not designated as a hate crime, despite Forde’s long history with anti-immigrant organizations. She once maintained a Tea Party blog, was a member of Minuteman Civil Defense Corps and has presented herself as a representative of Federation for American Immigration Reform. (All three have since distanced themselves from her.) After being cast out from the Minuteman group due to erratic behavior, she formed her own vigilante group, called Minutemen American Defense, which also patrolled the United States-Mexico border trying to detect illegal immigration.
This is an example of what happens when a person just goes too deep into their ideological. How sad that hatred can turn anyone into a murderer. Hopefully, Forde will not become a martyr.
How do we know when anyone has gone into ideology too deep? When does interest become cult-like? What has become of her accomplices?
