The Subway Canaries

This is a follow-up to a recent Subway Canaries piece about the Minutemen.  Scroll down a bit for information about Lawless.  Did you know…The Tradenames “Minuteman Project” and “Minuteman HQ” are registered in Arizona to Laine Lawless.

Leave it to David Neiwert of Orcinus to start the ball rolling.

The most vivid example, however, of the way the closed-borders nativists interact with neo-Nazis was provided in the recent SPLC report examining the activities of Laine Lawless. She was a onetime Minuteman who started up her own border-watch group, and was found to have secretly sent an e-mail to an Ohio leader of the National Socialist Movement named Mark Martin (who was deeply involved in the Toledo riots, and whose image you can see here and here) that outlined a plan of attack for white supremacists to deal with illegal immigrants:

– “Steal the money from any illegal walking into a bank or check cashing place.”

– “Make every illegal alien feel the heat of being a person without status. … I hear the rednecks in the South are beating up illegals as the textile mills have closed. Use your imagination.”

– “Discourage Spanish-speaking children from going to school. Be creative.”

– “Create an anonymous propaganda campaign warning that any further illegal immigrants will be shot, maimed or seriously messed-up upon crossing the border. This should be fairly easy to do, considering the hysteria of the Spanish language press, and how they view the Minutemen as ‘racists & vigilantes.’ “

This is one of her more ‘reasonable’ pieces…” On the Front Lines…On Thursday, January 15, 2004, I went to a Town Hall meeting held by Rep. Jim Kolbe -R, to meet with his constituents and discuss our concerns. It was held in the Sierra Vista Town Council Chambers, and there were plenty of police on hand to protect Mr. Kolbe from his constituents…..There was so much anger in the room, I could feel the tension-the people there were ready to explode. One issue was on their minds-border control and the hordes of illegal “immigrants” that invade SE Arizona on a daily basis. Those who don’t live here don’t understand this battle that we are fighting, and how important private property rights are to those landowners whose sovereignty is daily disregarded by illegals entering from Mexico….Once inside the Council Chambers, I looked at the sea of angry faces. A majority of them were over 50 years of age, and they were angry-not about Medicare, but about border control, or as I put it, border uncontrol. The meeting wasn’t as raucous as I was used to when the protestors were left-wingers, but Kolbe’s remarks were punctuated by uncomfortable questions regarding WHEN the U.S. is planning to control the border, and by cries of “Hear, hear!” as one of the attendees said something the others liked. This was primarily an older group, and pretty well mannered, considering the hostility they felt toward Kolbe….”  After reading this you would think she ewas the most reasonable person around.

But….the most fun – the most absolute fun is what Laine Lawless did in her other life!  She was a Xena groopie, hitting the scifi scene. (Once upon a time I would try and deal with artists on the scene, and push the space program, but gave up on these people.  They are just plain wierd!) This comes from one of her ‘Fan’ sites!

“ Laine R. Lawless
Laine Lawless is a 47 year old single lesbian living in San Francisco who loves to write alt.fan fiction (http://lynka.simplenet.com), and is currently writing a screenplay set in ancient times featuring strong female protagonists. An avowed Hardcore Nutball Xenite, Ms. Lawless cannot make up her mind whether she wants to be Xena or marry her. Ms. Lawless is a subscriber and a frequent poster to the Xenaverse and Chakram lists.

Favorite episode: IS THERE A DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE (#24); A DAY IN THE LIFE (#39)
Favorite line: Xena: “I have many skills.” THE BLACK WOLF (#11); TIES THAT BIND (#20); HERE SHE COMES…MISS AMPHIPOLIS (#35); COMEDY OF EROS (#46)
First episode seen: WARRIOR PRINCESS (#H09); SINS OF THE PAST (#01)
Least favorite episode: FOR HIM THE BELL TOLLS (#40)

“^[01] This year’s Northern California Hercules/Xena Fest was held in beautiful San Pablo, California, on July 26, 1997, and was hosted by Fan Tao. The site selected was the Montara Bay Community Center. The choice of location was ideal as it afforded a great amount of seclusion and freedom to move about without disturbing other patrons, a danger that sometimes happens in restaurant settings. We had access to a full kitchen, restrooms, and tables and chairs. Proving to be a well-prepared host, Fan brought along his extensive T.V. and stereo equipment, and ‘fest participants were treated to some favorite Xena episodes on a big screen T.V. with stereo sound.

^[02] The festivities kicked off with a viewing of a bloopers tape from my personal Xena Fan club kit, and then there were introductions all around. There were a total of 17 participants and after a brief poll, it was sadly discovered that there were no representatives from the Hercules camp.

^[03] Next, we decided to have lunch, and our host supplied everyone with Carl’s Jr meals and a toy from the Hercules/Xena animated movie, and of course, we all had to lose ourselves in our new toys. So little flying disks filled the air and we all chatted and got to know each other.

^[04] After lunch, the games began! The competition was fierce due to the fact that there were prizes to be won. Everyone got the opportunity to win a Xena II doll by playing a throw the Chakram game. Each person got 2 chances to throw the Chakram (not the real one, of course, but a nice Frisbee rendition) and knock over Disney’s version of Hercules. I personally took great pleasure in hitting that little rip-off. Laine Lawless was kind enough to give everyone whip cracking lessons, and then came the group photos.

^[05] The charity auction was next, and $384 was raised for the Children’s Book Press, a non-profit organization that publishes children’s books about different cultures and customs. Fan, our host, read to us a book about a Chinese girl who grew up to become a general in the Army in order to pay her Father’s debts since he did not have a son. The highest bids were for 2 plaques donated by Powerstar. The plaques were still photos, mounted for display and numbered, of Xena and Gabrielle from A DAY IN THE LIFE (#39) and one of Xena. Fan also donated an autographed still of Hudson Leick as our favorite villainess, Callisto. Other items up for auction were T-shirts and toys donated by Artemis Comics, Chakram jewelry donated by Nadavy, and Lucy Lawless pictures donated by Ellen. Also, Wit’s End provided some cool buttons which were given with the purchase of a raffle ticket. The rest of the items were raffled off, and I do not believe anyone left empty handed….”

“

Laine Lawless’ Biography

Laine Lawless (no relation to LL!) is a 47 year old lesbian currently
residing in San Francisco. Although not a professional writer, Ms.
Lawless enjoys writing fanfic when the spirit moves her. Laine is
currently completing an action adventure screenplay with strong female
protagonists, metaphysical mysteries, and a “twist” ending. If you know
any interested directors or producers, she would be grateful for any
leads. Laine is currently single, but is hoping that will be changing
in the near future.”

How did this mild mannered sci fi fan evolve into Laine Lawless, defender of the border?  I’m not quite sure, but her erotic writings about Xena were on a now non-existant web site!

From St. Louis Today“Laine Lawless, 54, also came to Cochise County from California. She arrived six months ago from the San Francisco Bay area in search of a gun-friendlier state and a respite from liberal politics.  “If you’re not a socialist, your name is poop there,” said Lawless, who plastered her truck with bumper stickers (“I Support Our Border Patrol” and “Cowgirls: How the West was Won”) and joined the Civil Homeland Defense Corps after finding it on the Internet.
Wearing a bulletproof vest, a Browning 9 mm semi-automatic and a belt buckle that reads “Nobody Raped a .38,” Lawless has found her niche in the desert. Her companions on patrol one night in early April included Carmen Mercer, 49, a German immigrant who owns the OK Cafe in Tombstone, and John Stathas, 73, who makes the 94-mile trip to the border from his Tucson home by motorcycle.”

Photo from USA Today:

  “Border Guardians is a relatively new organization and was not included on the center’s 2005 list of hate groups. Its director, Laine Lawless, disputes the center’s report last month that she has encouraged neo-Nazi groups to threaten and to steal money from illegal immigrants. In an interview, Lawless said her group supports only “lawful actions.” Lawless said she gets “contacted by all sorts of groups” and that “some of them are Nazis,” but she said she does not recruit neo-Nazis. Lawless went on to describe the most vocal organizers of last month’s immigrants’ rights marches as militant “brown Nazis” whose activities threaten to ignite a “civil war” in America.The building tension over illegal immigration’s impact on America comes at a time when the FBI says that the number of hate-crime victims in 2004 — the last year for which figures are available — was 9,528, up nearly 5% from 2003.”

Another profile of Lawless and her Border Guardians.

And from the ADL comes the following:  “…Perhaps most strikingly, Arizona anti-immigration activist Laine Lawless, who has been associated with several border vigilante groups and eventually started the group Border Guardians in 2005, sent an e-mail in April to a prominent Ohio member of the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement, Mark Martin, asking him to pass its contents on to his white supremacist contacts.  Martin did so, forwarding the message to several white supremacist forums on Yahoo and Usenet in early April, but unfortunately for Lawless, Martin ignored the part of her message which read, “Please don’t use my name,” and instead forwarded the message in full.Lawless’s e-mail, titled, “How to GET RID OF THEM,” urged a variety of intimidating, harassing, and even illegal and violent tactics to intimidate immigrants into leaving the U.S., including cutting down the broadcast tower for a Spanish language radio station near Phoenix and stealing money from illegal aliens.  “I hear the rednecks in the South are beating up illegals as the textile mills have closed,” she wrote.  “Use your imagination.”  Lawless’s suggestions were consistent with previous statements she had made, including a late March posting to an anti-immigration Internet forum in which she wrote that “my Southern friend tells me the rednecks in the South just beat [illegal aliens] up.  Unfortunately, there are too many of them to use that tactic there any more.”   Earlier, in February, Lawless posted to a Texas Minuteman message forum that “We need borders to…preserve our culture, instead of accepting any kind of flotsam and jetsam that seeks to float into our territory.”  Mark Martin himself seemed willing to personally engage in intimidating tactics.  In early May, he admitted in a Google Internet forum that he and another member of the National Socialist Movement had passed out racist fliers in Covington, Ohio, at houses “surrounding a suspected illegal Mexican jobsite.”  The two neo-Nazis also approached workers at the jobsite and demanded to see identification from them.  When workers refused, Martin allegedly told one of them that he “was an illegal, wetback who was stealing American jobs and…spreading disease.”  Workers called the police, who told the neo-Nazis to leave or be charged with harassment…”