Minuteman Project: ENCORE!
I should have posted this photo a while ago. This is a patriot's response to the billboard in LA (which was taken down!):
On May 15 I was able to attend the "Minutemen May Surprise" event. We went down to the border again for one weekend in May. I had just bought a 2001 Ninja 750 to replace the one that was in the accident 8 months ago, so I could do a little off-roading (driving on the dirt frontage road is considered off-roading for a Ninja):
One of the first things I noticed out there this weekend was that there were literally and absolutely zero Border Patrol trucks roaming around. In April they were everywhere. This weekend I didn't see a single truck patrolling. Not one. This is because Border Patrol Chief Nicely has ordered apprehensions be kept to a minimum so that it looks like the Minuteman were ineffective in April.
I was placed just to the east of Highway 92 by the Huachuca Mountains. I hid behind a bush so that the drug runners could not see me. They were watching from this building:
I was there to watch the entrance to a gated community. Often the drug runners do their deals at the front gate because it can't be seen from the highway. Illegals are often picked up there as well.
About an hour into my shift I saw some action. Two vehicles, a maroon SUV and a white SUV left the highway and barreled toward the community entrance. They must have been going at least 40MPH, so I watched them carefully. Just passed the entrance, I heard the sound of tires for a second or two then a loud thump. It appeared from where I was that the maroon SUV had slowed and the white one rear-ended it. I called the accident in on the radio and reached for my camera. As I did, the white SUV began to leave the scene (this was about 30 seconds after the wreck) and I didn't get a photo of it. Here is a shot of the maroon SUV after the white one left.
It took a few minutes for other Minutemen to arrive at the scene. Given what I know of the area I didn't want to approach the vehicle alone. When Minutemen did arrive I went down to take a look. Apparently I was wrong about the rear-ending:
Some on the Minutemen looked in the vehicle to make sure no one was hurt. There was no one inside. They found out that this was a rental, and three days overdue. We began to speculate on what happened and came to two possible conclusions:
(1)- This vehicle was being ditched. They just wanted to have some fun doing it. The driver of this vehicle would have left in the white SUV.
(2)- This was a pick-up vehicle, and since they were going way to fast and there was gravel on the road right there, they simply missed the turn and crashed. The road they were turning down led to a power transformer just off the road. It would have been an ideal pick-up location. The driver of this vehicle would have left in the white SUV because they knew that the accident would have drawn attention.
In a few minutes speculation #2 seemed far more likely. One of the community residents noticed a woman walking down the street toward us. It ended up that she was simply a concerned resident, but as she approached I noticed two people in a nearby field wearing dark clothing. They ducked behind a hill. I informed a few of the Minutemen and they sent out a truck to investigate. As soon as the truck arrived, six illegals came out from behind the hill asking for water.
We kept our distance the best we could and set some Gatorade on the ground for them:
A few minutes later someone noticed two more only a short distance down the road:
By that time the sheriffs had arrived at the scene of the wreck. One of them had come down to where we were to keep an eye on things. They drove down to bring these two up to where the six were. As far as I know no one asked them to, they did it on their own.
Here are the two arriving. The sheriff's vehicle is just outside the left of the photo:
Here is the photo of the two:
It took 30-45 minutes for the Border Patrol to arrive. This was because the Naco station had not been answering their phone all weekend. Every Minuteman there believed this was because they were under orders not to answer the phone. We knew that Border Patrol Chief Nicely had ordered them to keep apprehensions very low, so it was obvious to us. We had to call Wilcox to get a truck out there.
It is important to say that while we waited the illegals could have left at any time. We never told them to stay, we never told them to sit. We simply gave them Gatorade. They stayed completely on their own. Had they tried to leave, we would have let them. We would have reported to the Border Patrol where they went, but we would have let them leave. My guess is that they were happy to be picked up. They were extremely thirsty, and I believe that their pick-up vehicle had just been in an accident.
The first Border Patrol vehicle arrived, but it was too small to carry all 8. Here is the agent talking with the illegals while waiting for another vehicle to arrive.
This is a shot of the wreck from where we found the illegals. The maroon SUV is the dark vehicle that looks black in the photo:
This guy was persistent... He would keep doing this and we would do it back and both he and we would laugh about it:
We continued to wait for the second Border Patrol vehicle to arrive:
Eventually a Border Patrol van arrived. The illegals were searched for weapons and loaded into the van:
After looking for my keys for my bike in the desert for a while, I headed back to my post and ate some long overdue lunch. Just after I finished eating, a dark blue pickup pulled off the road just across the highway from me. The driver got out and went to the far side of the vehicle, and appeared to pick up something from the ground and put it into the bed of the truck. He got back in, moved forward about 20 feet, and did it again. He got back in, and did it yet again. I called it in on the radio (VERY quietly, I was within earshot now) and was told that this was not a Minuteman, and the section leader would be there in a minute- I was alone and didn't want to come out of hiding.
Here he is messing around with stuff in the bed of the pickup:
When the section leader got there he walked out to talk to the guy. I followed, and we quickly found out what was going on:
He wasn't a drug dealer after all, he was just looking for his jack, which he apparently had left at home. I don't carry a jack while I am riding my bike, so I couldn't help. As my shift was over, I left for the Trading Post where I found out that we had a total of 68 Minutemen show up that weekend, and assisted the Border Patrol in the apprehension of 25 illegals. Not bad for 48 hours...
On May 15 I was able to attend the "Minutemen May Surprise" event. We went down to the border again for one weekend in May. I had just bought a 2001 Ninja 750 to replace the one that was in the accident 8 months ago, so I could do a little off-roading (driving on the dirt frontage road is considered off-roading for a Ninja):
One of the first things I noticed out there this weekend was that there were literally and absolutely zero Border Patrol trucks roaming around. In April they were everywhere. This weekend I didn't see a single truck patrolling. Not one. This is because Border Patrol Chief Nicely has ordered apprehensions be kept to a minimum so that it looks like the Minuteman were ineffective in April.
I was placed just to the east of Highway 92 by the Huachuca Mountains. I hid behind a bush so that the drug runners could not see me. They were watching from this building:
I was there to watch the entrance to a gated community. Often the drug runners do their deals at the front gate because it can't be seen from the highway. Illegals are often picked up there as well.
About an hour into my shift I saw some action. Two vehicles, a maroon SUV and a white SUV left the highway and barreled toward the community entrance. They must have been going at least 40MPH, so I watched them carefully. Just passed the entrance, I heard the sound of tires for a second or two then a loud thump. It appeared from where I was that the maroon SUV had slowed and the white one rear-ended it. I called the accident in on the radio and reached for my camera. As I did, the white SUV began to leave the scene (this was about 30 seconds after the wreck) and I didn't get a photo of it. Here is a shot of the maroon SUV after the white one left.
It took a few minutes for other Minutemen to arrive at the scene. Given what I know of the area I didn't want to approach the vehicle alone. When Minutemen did arrive I went down to take a look. Apparently I was wrong about the rear-ending:
Some on the Minutemen looked in the vehicle to make sure no one was hurt. There was no one inside. They found out that this was a rental, and three days overdue. We began to speculate on what happened and came to two possible conclusions:
(1)- This vehicle was being ditched. They just wanted to have some fun doing it. The driver of this vehicle would have left in the white SUV.
(2)- This was a pick-up vehicle, and since they were going way to fast and there was gravel on the road right there, they simply missed the turn and crashed. The road they were turning down led to a power transformer just off the road. It would have been an ideal pick-up location. The driver of this vehicle would have left in the white SUV because they knew that the accident would have drawn attention.
In a few minutes speculation #2 seemed far more likely. One of the community residents noticed a woman walking down the street toward us. It ended up that she was simply a concerned resident, but as she approached I noticed two people in a nearby field wearing dark clothing. They ducked behind a hill. I informed a few of the Minutemen and they sent out a truck to investigate. As soon as the truck arrived, six illegals came out from behind the hill asking for water.
We kept our distance the best we could and set some Gatorade on the ground for them:
A few minutes later someone noticed two more only a short distance down the road:
By that time the sheriffs had arrived at the scene of the wreck. One of them had come down to where we were to keep an eye on things. They drove down to bring these two up to where the six were. As far as I know no one asked them to, they did it on their own.
Here are the two arriving. The sheriff's vehicle is just outside the left of the photo:
Here is the photo of the two:
It took 30-45 minutes for the Border Patrol to arrive. This was because the Naco station had not been answering their phone all weekend. Every Minuteman there believed this was because they were under orders not to answer the phone. We knew that Border Patrol Chief Nicely had ordered them to keep apprehensions very low, so it was obvious to us. We had to call Wilcox to get a truck out there.
It is important to say that while we waited the illegals could have left at any time. We never told them to stay, we never told them to sit. We simply gave them Gatorade. They stayed completely on their own. Had they tried to leave, we would have let them. We would have reported to the Border Patrol where they went, but we would have let them leave. My guess is that they were happy to be picked up. They were extremely thirsty, and I believe that their pick-up vehicle had just been in an accident.
The first Border Patrol vehicle arrived, but it was too small to carry all 8. Here is the agent talking with the illegals while waiting for another vehicle to arrive.
This is a shot of the wreck from where we found the illegals. The maroon SUV is the dark vehicle that looks black in the photo:
This guy was persistent... He would keep doing this and we would do it back and both he and we would laugh about it:
We continued to wait for the second Border Patrol vehicle to arrive:
Eventually a Border Patrol van arrived. The illegals were searched for weapons and loaded into the van:
After looking for my keys for my bike in the desert for a while, I headed back to my post and ate some long overdue lunch. Just after I finished eating, a dark blue pickup pulled off the road just across the highway from me. The driver got out and went to the far side of the vehicle, and appeared to pick up something from the ground and put it into the bed of the truck. He got back in, moved forward about 20 feet, and did it again. He got back in, and did it yet again. I called it in on the radio (VERY quietly, I was within earshot now) and was told that this was not a Minuteman, and the section leader would be there in a minute- I was alone and didn't want to come out of hiding.
Here he is messing around with stuff in the bed of the pickup:
When the section leader got there he walked out to talk to the guy. I followed, and we quickly found out what was going on:
He wasn't a drug dealer after all, he was just looking for his jack, which he apparently had left at home. I don't carry a jack while I am riding my bike, so I couldn't help. As my shift was over, I left for the Trading Post where I found out that we had a total of 68 Minutemen show up that weekend, and assisted the Border Patrol in the apprehension of 25 illegals. Not bad for 48 hours...
posted by Calan at 15:07
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