Flores Family Murders, The January Murders, The Extreme Right, and How They Relate

Christina Taylor Green

While I am glad that justice seems to be the result of the all the trials of all those charged and now found guilty of the murder of Raul "Junior" Flores and his little 9 year old daughter, Brisenia Flores, in May of 2009, I'm still tremendously saddened by the deaths and the overall situation in Arizona that led to the deaths of two little girls in Arizona.   One little girl died in May of 2009 in a vile multiple murder and another died in January of 2009 when a mentally ill man committed mass murder and attempted murder in his attempt to assassinate Representative Gabrielle Giffords. 


The article in today's Tucson paper, Arivaca man convicted in two slayings: Gaxiola behind home invasion, '09 murder of father, daughter, provides a good overview of the basics of the horrific multiple murders and attempted murder.  I am not sure that people who have not lived near the U.S. - Mexico border can really appreciate the convoluted, bizarre, and totally senseless "issues" that combine to create  life and death realities every day in the county in which I have lived for 22 years.  

I cannot but help draw comparisons between the battle that is being waged on the America people today largely by the Republican Conservative Corporatist consortium and the ideological battle that took place before WWII.  The isolationist political demands of the conservatives, except for support of Israel, while calling for ever lessening restrictions on mega-corporations and that are  global multi-national entities disguised as American Companies that enjoy constitutional person-hood status smacks of the nearly successful Republican call for America to support the spread of Fascism and Nazism by major "respected" Americans such as Prescott Bush, Charles Lindburgh, and Henry Ford.

If you will review your history you will find that the repeal of the Neutrality Act that allowed the U.S. to support the Allies was passed bit by bit, slowly, slowly, slowly over several years, and even when our ships were sunk there was still a significant call for isolationism (see the Senate Vote on Neutrality Act article on this page) that would allow persons such as Prescott Bush to continue trading with Germany, an enemy that was attacking our properties.) The divisions in our government today hearken back to the divisions then, the massive nature of wars that are raging, and the depressed economic climate all chill me to the bone due to the similarity with which the Right (Reich?) is parroting the mass marketing of Fascism, isolation, and hatred of "the other" to the American public that was done in the 20s, 30s, and very early 40s by good ol' boy Republicans. 

I'm digressing majorly here, but I'm so angry I just I cannot concentrate.

Two murders of little children in Pima County involve to varying degrees, to the best of my knowledge both do not each directly involve all of other the following issues, but the drug war, immigration, education, and mental health all factor into the murders.

I'm so heart sick right now with wondering how many other little children are being harmed at this moment due to hate and fear that feed:

•  immigration and border issues, how many little children are having their lives exposed to the danger and destabilization of living in a drug corridor that would be far less dangerous if marijuana was rescheduled away from Schedule I, or prohibition was lifted, 
• economic consideration such as if work was available above minimum wage (if you are lucky) in so-called Right to Work States such as Arizona, 
• erosion of social and medical rights such as if mental health services being unavailable at no or low cost to all those that needed it, 
• and increasing ignorance that would diminish if education was funded, valued, and encouraged rather than being undermined by corporations that don't support education through taxes in the areas where they employ parents as well as by the fundamentalist right that hopes to eradicate public schools.  

Now before anyone gets his or her panties or briefs in a knot my last point about the eradication of public schools is based upon this quote: "One day, I hope in the next ten years, I trust that we will have more Christian day schools than there are public schools. I hope I will live to see the day when, as in the early days of our country, we won't have any public schools.The churches will have taken them over again and Christians will be running them. What a happy day that will be!" and is from
America Can Be Saved!  1979.  Murfreesboro, Tennessee: Sword of the Lord Publishers. Pages: 52-53).

Oh, and he sentencing for the murders has not yet been decided.  That is all I can say so far about Albert Robert Gaxiola who has been found guilty of two murders and one attempted murder,  who was related to the mother who was shot, who recruited Forde her Nazi comrade.  The whole thing is so disgusting, senseless, and evil that I probably won't write much more about it here or on BlogHer.com where in my occasional postings I have tried to increase awareness about what goes on in Tucson when it comes to the right wing and violence in our wonderful Old Pueblo.

Two Down and One (Child Murderer) Trial to Go

I am a bit of a cynic when it comes to Arizona justice or any justice in any state that prides itself on stupidity, but living in such states seems to be my lot in life.  Indiana and Arizona have both had more than is any one state's right to stupid judicial actions.  Indiana rounded off pi in in a House Committee, but fortunately did not allow it to become law.  Both states kill people for killing people though they both are "Christian" run states that I'm sure subscribe to the Ten Commandments including the one that goes, "Thou shall not kill." 

I grew up in Indiana and remember getting in my first politically charged "discussion" on a school bus in November 1964 the morning after Johnson won the election over Goldwater.  I had to be all of 7 years old, but I remember it clearly.   The oldest sister, who had to be all of 9 or 10 years old,  of a family on my bus route looked as though a family member had died when I brought up the election.  I later came to understand that the parents in the family were ultra conservative and attended The Church of the Nazarene in the town that was the county seat just south of the township grade school we attended. 


I was never a 9 year old in Arizona. I've only lived here for a few decades.  I am however the mother of a native Arizonan, and she was a nine year old here, once upon a time.  I was a Girl Scout Leader to a group of 9 year old girls.  I was a Sunday School Teacher to a class with 9 year old girls in it. 

The faces of these girls I have known and in several cases come to love are the ones who flash before me when I also pull up the class photo mental image of Brisenia Flores.  I still cry every time I think of her asking Shawna Forde, Jason Eugene Bush, and Albert Robert Gaxiola why they shot her parents and of her then begging for her own life.  Things like this are not supposed to happen to 9 year old girls.  Tucson knows all too well that 9 year-olds can die from the heinous actions of deranged people.  But the facts of this case push even this understanding beyond what a saddened Tucson can believe.  This falls into the same league as sexual predators who torture and kill children.   This falls into the category of pure evil. 


How could we as a community have allowed such vile predators to reside in and do such harm to our community?  I will never understand this.  I know people were talking about connections between Minutemen militias and the extremely violent right wing rhetoric that routinely, at least weekly from my understanding, came to our streets in the last 10 years.  Recruiters were connected to drug traffickers.  Police refused to come to respond to calls for assistance when there were assaults at demonstrations.  Individuals burned flags and tried to bait surrounding crowds into violence.  The weaving of fringe groups into the daily life of our community must have numbed our outrage when groups of people from outside of our community descended upon our area to create a police state mentality in our backyards.  Why did and do we tolerate people who have no business here who supposedly guard a border from people who are for the most part guilty only of not looking like them. 

Could we have done more?  Of course we could have.  The portent of violence was there.  Suspected serial killers and mentally unstable individuals were allowed to play soldier with real guns where I live and where so many of the nine year old girls I have loved, lived. 


This isn't right.


I'm not sure that killing individuals who are disturbed enough to carry out such atrocities is any better than what the accused and convicted did.  But I am in the minority, supposedly,  just as I was when I expressed concern years ago about the influx of militia types into our county.  So two of the three people on trial for the murders of Bresenia Flores and her young papa, Raul Flores, have been convicted of murder and sentenced to die by lethal injection.  One trial remains. 


Killing these people will not ease my conscience of the persistent doubt that perhaps there was more that we could have done, that I should have tried to do more to wake people up to what was and is happening at the edges of our community.  The deaths from our ignorance seem destined to climb and include Shawna Forde, Jason Eugene Bush and probably Albert Robert Gaxiola, also accused in the murders, who goes on trial June 1st.  

I'm sure I will write more then.  

Shawna Forde Found Guilty of the Murders of Brisenia Flores and Her Father

I don't like to use the names of crazies who commit murder, but in this case I am choosing to use the name of one of three  people charged with with a nine year old girl in southern Arizona.  The little girl, Brisenia, was nine when Shawna Forde masterminded the home invasion robberies of drop or stash houses near the Mexico - U.S. border south of Tucson, in Pima County, in 2009 in order to finance border militia operations.  The problem is that Brisenia's home wasn't a drop or stash house according to the evidence and the invasion turned into a double homicide.

The first of three trials for her and her father's murders ended just after noon today, February 14,2011.  Shawna Forde has been found guilty of first degree murder of both 9-year old Brisenia Flores and her father Raul.  Arizona does have the death penalty.  Sentencing of Ms. Forde will take place separately.

Two more trials of men accused in the murders have yet to take place.

Brisenia's mother identified Ms. Forde as one of the three people who broke into her house and killed her family in 2009.  There were also recordings of Forde's phone conversations and one of the father's rings was in her possession after the murders.  Apparently these things were enough for the predominantly female jury to find Forde guilty for planning and ordering the murders even though she did not fire the weapons.

The Minutemen, a border militia group, has splintered since Forde helped found the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps.  Forde, has been called unstable by this group, and she later founded another group , the Minutemen American Defense, of which one of the others charged in the slayings is National Operations Coordinator as well as being associated with Aryan Nation.   The Minutemen Project disavows affiliation with Ms. Forde.

The border militia groups deny being vigilante but at least some of the members of some of the groups  show the disregard of law as well as disregard of the rights of certain ethnic groups.  These actions of disrespect that are central to border vigilantism. 

Murder of 9 Year Old Arizona Girl Goes to Trial

While there is much debate about using the names of crazies who commit mass murder, in this case I am choosing not to use the names of three people associated with the border militia movement who stand accused of killing a nine year old girl in Southern Arizona.  The little girl who was gunned down was named  Brisenia Flores.   Brisenia Flores!  Brisenia Flores!!   Brisenia Flores!!!

Not the name you were expecting?  


I am aghast that Brisenia's name isn't on the tongue of every mother in this country.  A child, a little girl filled with promise, hope, and potential was gunned down in her home along with her father in a home invasion in Arivaca, AZ in 2009.  Her mother is alive only because she played dead after being shot, called 911, and shot one of the intruders after they returned.

The trial in her murder has started and we hear (as in national talking head coverage) nothing of it?  Why?  The violent nature of life on the border may or may not have had anything to do with the now infamous January 8th attempted political assassination of Gabrielle Giffords and 18 others, 6 of whom died. People want to believe that.  But this trial certainly portrays a violent and obviously mentally deranged group of individuals who are very much part of life in Pima County, Arizona.

Do we hear nothing because there is no debate possible about motive?  Is the obvious motive one that no one in the U.S. media wants to look at?   Is it because a white woman appears to be behind the murders?  Is it because the little girl and her daddy who were brutally executed in their home had darker skin than the people who murdered them? 

The least coarse and provocative account of the shooting and arrests I can find to inform you, accurately, about the whole gruesome occurrence is from February 4 on All Things Considered by NPR. 

The trial is in recess until mid-week and is still in the jury selection and instruction phase of the trial process.  Arizona Daily Star reported on January 25th about the opening arguments.  The Daily Star reported on January 17th about the intricacies of the case and likely arguments to be used by both sides.