Conservatives Freak Out When Black 鈥楥aptain America鈥� Takes On Extremist Border Vigilantes
The revamped comic-book hero takes on masked, armed border vigilantes 鈥撀燼nd given the history of such militias, it's not a stretch.
There鈥檚 a new Captain America, and he鈥檚 black. Not only that: His first villains are border militiamen.
Repeating what happened a few years ago when Marvel Comics鈥� film franchise cast a black man (Idris Elba) in the role of the Viking demigod Heimdahl, white nationalists have erupted in grumbling and outrage over the iconic comic hero鈥檚 change in race 鈥� perhaps somewhat predictably.
But it is the use of border militiamen as the first villains confronted by the new 鈥淐ap鈥� that has mainstream conservative pundits in an uproar. They appear to continue to believe that armed border-militia 鈥渕inutemen鈥� who sometimes patrol the U.S.-Mexico border are just ordinary conservatives.
However, that just isn鈥檛 true. In reality, the border-vigilante movement has been a cesspool of criminality that frequently attracts sociopaths and charlatans.
Marvel Comics editors re-launched their comic book in the summer of 2014 as the 鈥淎ll New Captain America,鈥� reflective of the comic-book giant鈥檚 desire to remain current with younger readers. One of the changes in the book involved retiring Steve Rogers, the Caucasian character who has been 鈥檚 鈥渟ecret identity鈥� since the 1940s. Editors chose the character of longtime Avenger Sam Wilson, a.k.a.聽the Falcon and an African American, to replace Rogers.
In his first issue as 鈥淐ap,鈥� published just this month, Wilson goes up against a group of vigilante border watchers who call themselves the 鈥淪ons of the Serpent鈥� and kidnap and harass immigrant border crossers.
鈥淎ttention all trespassers! I am the Supreme Serpent!鈥� the masked leader tells the hapless immigrants he has caught. 鈥淏y invading this sovereign land, you defy the laws of God, nature and the United States Constitution! Therefore, I hereby apprehend you by the power vested in me by the aforementioned God, nature, et cetera, et cetera.鈥�
An immigrant pleads that he doesn鈥檛 want any trouble, and the masked villain replies: 鈥淥h, I believe you, sir. I can see you have enough trouble with you already, trouble and disease and crime weigh heavy on your backs.鈥�
鈥淯ntil the mighty wall is built,鈥� the villain adds, 鈥測ou come here for employment that is rightfully ours! And if denied it, you seek welfare paid for by our tax dollars! Also, you know how you make me press one for English at the beginning of every call to my satellite provider? That is something I cannot abide!鈥�
In the end, 鈥淐ap鈥� thrashes the vigilantes and sends them packing, musing as the narrator: 鈥淚 mean, come on. Who wouldn鈥檛 want to punch these guys at least a little, right?鈥�
These scenes provoked an outcry from a number of mainstream conservative outlets, who for some reason saw themselves in the people the superhero was beating up. The Koch-funded was one of the first to , followed by the , the , and . A number of conservative pundits, including , followed suit, all complaining that Captain America was making conservatives out to be villains.
On Fox News鈥� morning show Fox & Friends, Tucker Carlson, Clayton Morris, and Heather Childers , appalled that 鈥渃onservatives鈥� were being so badly maligned.
鈥淭he [Supreme Serpent] is an American who has misgivings about unlimited illegal immigration and the costs associated with it,鈥� Carlson explained. 鈥淎nd that, according to the comic book, is evil.鈥�
鈥淭he whole theme is the same,鈥� Carlson added later, 鈥渨hich is that out there in the middle of the country between Malibu and Georgetown everyone is an ignorant, snake-handling bigot and they need to be held in place or else they鈥檒l turn this country into Nazi Germany. It鈥檚 like, the people who run this country, a lot of them actually believe that. I live near them. They really think that.鈥�
Jim Gilchrist, one of the co-founders of the Minuteman Project, about the villainization of the border watchers. And at , much of the disgust revolved around Captain America鈥檚 new race as well as his new villains. (At the neo-Nazi site Stormfront, the change in race had long been a .)
Whether or not the border vigilantes make appropriate comic聽book villains for Captain America to combat is a question best left to editors, creators, and readers. But there should be no confusion about whether the militiamen who have populated the border-vigilante movement since its inception a decade ago聽are ordinary conservatives聽who 鈥渉ave misgivings about illegal immigration,鈥� as Carlson put it.聽They are not.
It is聽one thing to have such misgivings, but it is another thing entirely to take the law into your own hands by going out on potentially dangerous foot patrols in the desert while heavily armed and to brandish weapons at immigrants, sometimes arresting them 鈥� which is what border militiamen such as the Minutemen often do.
And while such activities have indeed attracted a fair number of well-meaning, ordinary conservatives, they have also attracted a large number of criminals and sociopaths, a number of whom have assumed leadership roles within the border聽movement. Much of that attraction is attributable to the nativism that drives the movement and the frequently violent and vicious rhetoric the border watchers use in their everyday discussions of immigration.
No one embodies that tendency more than Chris Simcox, who聽cofounded聽 the Minuteman Project with Jim Gilchrist. The former California schoolteacher turned Arizona desert rat had a long history of unstable behavior that contributed to the split between his organization and Gilchrist鈥檚 shortly after their project鈥檚 April 2005 launch.聽
Simcox with three counts of child molestation 鈥� later reduced to two 鈥� after his then-6-year-old daughter and one of her friends, age 5, accused him of sexually assaulting them. The trial is after a lengthy dispute over whether he would be permitted to cross-examine the alleged victims (which ).聽If convicted of the felony charges, Simcox could face life in prison.
Even before Simcox came along with his Minuteman concept, one of the early border-militia organizers who preceded him also had a number of brushes with the law. Casey Nethercott, another Arizona resident, was involved in a border-watch operation called at the turn of the century, and he too had a number of criminal legal problems.
Nethercott 鈥� who had done prison time in California for assault in the 1990s 鈥� and some of his fellow Ranch Rescue members in 2003 assaulted two Salvadoran migrants who had crossed the border on foot and wound up on a ranch where the nativist border watchers operated. The migrants were held at gunpoint, and one of them was pistol-whipped and attacked by a Rottweiler. With the assistance of the 澳彩开奖, the migrants sued their attackers and against Ranch Rescue, against Nethercott, who also faced in the case but eventually had them dismissed.
Nethercott eventually left Ranch Rescue and then began organizing his own border watches at a property he purchased in Arizona. Eventually he had a tense standoff with Border Patrol agents at that property; for his role in that incident two weeks later, they wound up shooting the white supremacist who was accompanying him at the time.
Indeed, while the phrase 鈥渞ule of law鈥� even today is often bandied about by the remaining bands of vigilante nativists, the record demonstrates that this was a peculiarly flexible concept for many of the Minutemen and their associates.
Shawna Forde, for example, incorporated the phrase into the logo for her offshoot border-watch operation, Minuteman American Defense. Forde鈥檚 operation was widely promoted at the website of Simcox鈥檚 Minuteman Project co-founder, Jim Gilchrist; previously, she had been deeply involved in Simcox鈥檚 MCDC operations in Washington state.
Then, in June 2009, and charged with masterminding the horrific murders of a 9-year-old girl and her father in the small Arizona border town of Arivaca, along with a white-supremacist cohort named Jason Eugene Bush and a local man, Albert Gaxiola, as part of her plan to create a border-militia compound. , and Forde and Bush wound up on Arizona鈥檚 Death Row.
After the arrests of Forde, Bush and Gaxiola, Forde鈥檚 former associates in the Minuteman movement fled from their onetime prot茅g茅. National leaders of the Minuteman movement 鈥� particularly Simcox and Gilchrist 鈥� hastily tried to put distance between themselves and Forde and her group. To this day, that he had little to do with her.
But while Forde鈥檚 conviction severely damaged the border-watch movement 鈥� as one , 聽鈥淎 lot of people felt, well, you鈥檙e a Minuteman, you鈥檙e a killer鈥� 鈥� that was not the end of it.
In April 2012, one of Forde鈥檚 associates in the desert, a Tucson man named Todd Hezlitt, with two counts of sexual conduct with a minor for an affair he had initiated with a 15-year-old girl from a local high school where he was an assistant wrestling coach. Two months later, he fled with the girl to Mexico, and he briefly became an international fugitive.
A few weeks after that, the girl turned herself in to the American consulate in Mazatlan. Hezlitt was caught a short time later and extradited. to the sexual conduct charges in exchange for not being charged with kidnapping, and was sentenced to six years in prison.
Another violent incident from a former border watcher erupted in Arizona in May 2012 when 鈥� a longtime leader of the neo-Nazi , and an organizer of independent NSM border watches in Arizona 鈥� at the home of his girlfriend.
Before committing suicide, Ready shot and killed his girlfriend, Lisa Lynn Mederos, 47; her daughter, Amber Nieve Mederos, 23; the daughter鈥檚 boyfriend, Jim Franklin Hiott, and Amber鈥檚 15-month-old baby girl, Lilly Lynn Mederos. Investigators later found chemicals and military-grade munitions at Ready's residence.
As observed: 鈥淯ndoubtedly, there have been bordermilitia members in Arizona who have carried out citizen patrols without harboring racist motives or having criminal tendencies. The problem for the movement 鈥� is that people with these motives or tendencies have cropped up repeatedly among citizen border-watchers.鈥�
Given that history, Captain America probably has good reason for seeing a border militia gang as villainous. It鈥檚 not at all clear why mainstream conservatives, however, would see such a gang as one of their own.
