If any of you have wingnut racist relatives, particularly those with serious gun fetishes, you’ve probably heard variations of the “Can Shooting” joke.
That’s the one where the protagonist goes walking around with a high-powered rifle, and is met by his good buddy, who asks him what he’s up to. “Can shooting,” he replies.
“Can shooting? With that thing?”
“Yeah. Africans, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans…”
It’s not a joke any more, as David Neiwert explains:
The recent video of a Minuteman taking potshots at illegal crossers somewhere on the Mexico borderlands was disturbing not so much for the gunfire — the man operating the camera hadn’t seemed to hit anyone — as for the running narration he provided: he positively wanted one of the men to come within his range so he could shoot them. He wanted to kill them.
Now, more video from the same gunman has surfaced, and as Casey Sanchez at HateWatch reports, it appears on this video that he did, in fact, shoot someone crossing the border and kill them:
- The footage starts by showing a single figure wearing a backpack sneaking along a rugged desert trail. A male voice, off-camera, says: “I got him. He’s low crawling. Guy with a backpack. I betcha it’s probably full of dope.”
As the figure crests a hill, the man shouts out loud: “Hey, puto [“faggot”]!” The backpack-wearer ducks behind the far side of a rocky outcropping, then pops up and peers over it a few times. “I got him,” the off-camera voice says. “He’s prairie doggin’ now. He heard me.”
A walkie-talkie crackles and a second male voice that sounds like it’s coming from an off-camera walkie-talkie says: “All right, where you at? What’s your 20?”
“He’s up there on the, uh, smuggler’s trail,” the first voice responds.
The second male voice says, “I don’t have a visual.”
At this point in the video, the backpack-wearing figure begins to slowly emerge from behind the rock outcropping. “You know what? I’m going to take a fucking shot,” the first voice says. There are two flashes of light and the sound of two semi-automatic rifle shots in quick succession. The figure wearing the backpack appears to fly backward and drop from view.
“Oh fuck, I got him dude!’ the first voice says. “I fuckin’ got him!” There is a pause, then the first voice says, “Dude, what are we gonna do?” The voice on the walkie-talkie replies, “Get the shovel, get some lime, and hey, grab me a 12-pack, too, while you’re up there.”
“Roger that,” the first voice answers between chortles. “We fuckin’ nailed him, dude! We fuckin’ nailed him!” That’s where the video ends.
Actually, it now continues on with a shot of a stone-covered grave, and our narrator saying, “Adios, asshole!”As Sanchez notes, there is no indication whether the video is authentic or not, though it appears to be (while the coda is completely over the top and probably not credible). It does appear that his target was hit.
The SPLC has contacted authorities about the video. Clearly, there needs to be a serious investigation into this — first to determine who is responsible for the video, and second whether or not the killing in it is authentic.
The Southern Poverty Law Center has itself been the target of violence — including arson — in the past, and continues to receive credible threats to this day. But of course the GOP/Media Complex isn’t as scared of (and doesn’t pay anywhere as much attention to) right-wing terrorists as it does to, say, Muslim alleged would-be Sears Tower bombers in Miami.
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zunoed?
Eww!
This is what happens when we stop thinking of each other as human beings.
Here’s what a commenter over at newsbusters, a wingnut fun house, has to say to you DFH’s …
“Dear Libs: Please remember that conservatives have guns, they are watching you, and know how to aim. Sincerely – rob6677″
PW, I’m glad someone is going to take a closer look at these vigilantes. It’s way past time for that to happen.
TexBetsy @ 3
And that comes the acculturation of hate. Call them “illegal”, call them “aliens” and all of the sudden they are not human, they are the “other.”
They are animals to be hunted, stalked, killed at any opportunity, because they are poor, brown, deperate, and well, just not one of “us.”
Worked for Hitler, worked for George Wallace, why shouldn’t it work for our newest brand of racists, the “minutemen.”
HumboldtBlue @ 4
Mmmm, now that’s wingnut American values for ya! If these people dont want to live in a pluralistic liberal democracy than they should leave it.
HumboldtBlue
Someone needs to remind them that DFHs also can be gunowners and know how to shoot. They also know when to shoot, which seems not as common amoong the wingnuts.
comes *from*
Don;t encourage the TARGET’s
Wouldn’t that be enemy combatants?
Yeah, it’s alright to hate. Even the Boston Globe is getting into the act. Although the article in the Globe gets into hating on young brown-skinned men, not white guys with beer guts and semi-automatic weapons.
And Bunnypant’s favorite philosopher is who again? Hitler?
Marcy’s most recent TNH post: Mueller’s Chronology
OT but deaths from the Qahtaniya bombings in Iraq are now more than 400. More evidence that the surge is working.
I have read a fair amount of philosophy, was raised in the Catholic church, had plenty of religious teaching along with my regular schooling, and yet, as is evidenced by every move the current administration has made in the past six years, I still can’t figure out where, or when Jesus stated that “the ends justify the means.”
Because that’s the modus operandi of the current Republican party, don’t question, obey; don’t think, obey; if we just happen to violate every principle this nation was founded on with a disastrous invasion of a sovreign nation that was no threat to us, well, we already did it and it’s good, so shut up and obey.
Man, I think I’m going to go listen to Imagine.
We’ve gotta turn this ship around.
LS @ 17
I’m worried, very worried. I see dark clouds ahead for this nation ( and no, that’s not the afternoon haze settling in over Humboldt Bay).
LS @ 16
Imagine on youtube
Here’s something to think about..
Imagine the USA is your HOUSE… since you inhabit this country as a CITIZEN, your are basically one of 300 million roommates living in a large mansion.
Now imagine youre living in this house, and you look out the back window and see people who DON’T live in your house sneaking in through your fence, and jumping in an open window in the back of your house..
Here in Colorado we have the “make my day” law, which says anyone who breaks into your house, or comes in without permission CAN BE SHOT…
So if a person who comes into your house without permission can be shot, why not (logically) then can a person shoot an intruder coming into our nation without permission?!
Just food for thought!
One other example would be, can a person just walk across the border of lets say, Russia, or India, China without worring about getting blown away by their ACTUAL MILITARY?! In case you don’t know.. the answer is NO! Most other countries protect their borders w/ guns.. so why shouldn’t we do the same? If the government doesn’t step up and take action.. the constitution says that we the people must do so!
Stephen Parrish, CPA @ 13
Hoo boy! Oh, yeah. That chronology has lots of bread crumbs. EVEN with 90% redacted.
Go Marcy!
Are you sure they’re minute (as in 60 seconds) men and not minute (as in teensy tiny) men? Minute brains, consciences, and possibly anatomical parts that I’m much too polite to mention.
Cat Stevens, Trouble:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYSjIiWuUzA
A liitle background on the Minutemen, FWIW.
Founder is Chris Simcox, owner of the “Tombstone Epitaph,” in Tombstone, Arizona.
Tombstone (OK Corral) is in Cochise County, Arizona. Cochise County is the size of CT and RI combined. Has about 130,000 known residents.
Is basically ground zero in the immigration debate. About 40,000 (yes, 40,000) illegal crossers into Cochise County each month.
I hate to say illegal. Businesses in the U.S. invite ‘em. But illegal it is.
Locals don’t see ‘em, except for the dead bodies. The desert there can be deadly to someone looking to avoid capture.
As I understand, part (maybe almost all) of what moved Chris Simcox was (is) the nearly complete unwillingness of the federal government to stem the flow of illegal border crossing.
And these criminals call themselves Americans. Suddenly, the death penalty looks good. (trying to get my anger under control)
LS @ 23
LS — I LOVE that song! Thanks for the link.
persiflage @ 22
Good’un, Persi!!! G’day!!!
OT – I’m pretty sure that Chris Matthews is reading FDL. He opened with Lucy and the football as an analogy for the report from General Betrayus. The White House is Lucy.
Then, the 1994 Cheney video.
Maybe he’s getting radicalized.
Let’s all play pool! We got trouble in River City:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qam1fbQmA_s
Oh, who knows if those videos are authentic, or not. Hard for me to tell either way.
But, as soon as we get increased Border Patrol officers down there, and beef up the overall security, then the “independents” can go on home.
Border Patrol officers will know how to properly arrest the illegals, safely handcuff them, and escort them to a local jail to sit it out until the bus comes around to take the illegals back home.
All the more reason to expedite all measures to beef up border security….which is being done.
Ghostman
CTuttle @ 27
G’day Chikka. Thanks. I’ll catch up with you in Late Nite. I always find it so hard to tear myself away from FDL but I have an appointment in 30 minute so I’d better get a wriggle on.
See, there’s *our* terrorists (e.g., white supremacists, abortion-clinic-bombers, strikebreakers) who *promote* and *protect* the American status quo, and then there’s *their* terrorists, which is anyone whose violence *doesn’t* serve the interests of the American overclass.
Welcome to the GWOST, or Global War on *SOME* Terror.
Boston1775 @ 28
Dream on, darlin’. Tweety has some sort of split screen personality that indicates a heavy dose of meds would be advisable.
And this Cramer idjit he has on right now is definitely in need of a strait jacket.
FWIW:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30W3iRL48gQ
My question is: WHY do these uneducated freaks have time to act like this? I say: GET A JOB! Oh, you can’t because you are an alcoholic? You are illiterate?
Get help! Don’t take it out on Mexicans. THEY are not your problem. YOU are.
Why can’t bigots EVER take personal responsibility? Oh yea — they’d have to look at themselves. (I realize that would be HORRID for them, but they must do it.)
LS @ 34
There’s somethin’ happenin’ here…
MikeJ can’t be more than 12 years old. Truly. His arguments are so silly, and so easily debunked.
Go back to school, sonny.
Mike J,
Suppose you have a cornfield and you put a strawman in it to fool the crows. Sounds OK, right? Now suppose you’re the President of the United States and you raise a strawman to fool the American people into a costly and unnecessary war. By your logic that should be OK too.
Bad premises lead to bad conclusions.
Just food for thought!
Boston1775 @ 28
Heh.
Bill Moyers has a must read blog post about Karl Rove. Bring tissues.
Shell @ 38
I know several 5 & 7 yr olds who applied for that job, but they were two honest and too logical.
Waccamaw @ 33
I’m sure you’re right.
TexBetsy — hahaha Me too. I was being kind ……..
I don’t agree with Cramer that a rate drop would solve all problems, but I agree with him wholeheartedly that Greenspan created this mess and Ben Bernanke is ignoring a potential meltdown that will destroy many American homeowners.
Don’t know if already noted.
Sorry OT, but the slide is getting worse…
Britain’s pension funds were last night plunged into a £15bn deficit after the biggest fall in London share prices since the eve of the Iraq war in 2003 cut the value of the stock market by £60bn in a single day’s frenetic trading.
http://business.guardian.co.uk…..77,00.html
Seems like the overlooked one weee, little detail.
All the folks you listed are Ameri-cans.
Oops on them. Forgetting that the “can-do” spirit is American, by definition–and that’s exactly what Latino immigrants are displaying.
Boston -
I finally got to see a replay of the vid clip of Cramer’s recent melt-down when the stock market started heading south. It is just beyond my comprehension that ANYONE would consider taking his advice on investing; the guy acts like he is certifiably insane.
Protest – tell Congress to turn down Sicky of State and Sicky of Defence Petraeus replacement report next month. Petraeus or nothing! Open to the People and under oath.
Mike J @ 20
Errrm Mike, fences don’t make for good neighbors and neither do guns
this is soo tedious – but these are the folks the repugs want to have in their corner…. once again its open season on any amurricans wingers hate….
if anyone out there in the sphere thinks for one second that there will be an investigation and even if by some chance there is one, the results are a given. Nobody Pays! Brownskin and blackskin aint worth nuttin. Specially if they is trying ta get in here!
AND– this is just the beginning.
Waccamaw @ 48
I’m probably speaking for hundreds of people when I say: Please don’t hesitate to speak up when you think you might help us figure out what to do with all of our hard-earned tens of thousands.
Shell @ 35
Well, I suppose it makes them feel better to have someone to look down on. While the immigrants may be ignorant for lack of education, they are clever, hard-working and for the most part Christian people.
juslin @ 50
Pit the masses against each other ’cause the BushCo has bigger and better game in mind.
Lew’s upstairs talking about Padilla!
http://www.firedoglake.com/200…..n-padilla/
In my halting Texas spanish, a “puto” is a prostitute.
A “joto” (pronounced “hoto”) is a homosexual.
Not that it matters either way. Let’s see if Alberto the hangman will speed up the death penalty for these scum. I wouldn’t bet on it..
This made me sick to my stomach.
Your hilarious “can shooting” joke leaves out “Ameri-cans” — funny little oversight, isn’t it?
But then, immigrants never shoot Ameri-cans, so I’m way out of line, aren’t I?
BTW, the comment above mine from “hayduke” is rather ironic. Ed Abbey (creator of the character “Hayduke” in “The Monkey Wrench Gang”) was actually against population growth, and that included immigration-fueled population growth.
True story,
While working at the Police Academy one of my colleagues asked what I had done over the weekend, after I responded I asked him what he had done and he said “shooting cans “, I said really? He said you know, afra, portaree, mexa ect.
I then asked if he had shot any of my favorite and he responded which ones are those. I said republa. He said a couple of times republa, republa, and then looked at me and said “hey, that’s not funny” I said I thought it was hilarious.
Being the only “liberal Democrat” in the organization I am sure you can see that things like this went on all the time between myself and the “cans “.
The sick morons forgot one…ameriCANS With individuals like this around, I’m insulted to be an American.