Border rancher Robert Krentz shot, dies, Tancredo blames illegal immigrant

 

Panic on the Arizona border   

"It was an illegal immigrant they say!" 

“Tin marin de dos pingué de cucara macara títere

fue”

What does that mean?

The translation is not literal, but the counting rhyme works the same.  How about:

Eeny, meeny, miny, moe,
Catch a tiger by the toe.
If he hollers let him go,
Eeny, meeny, miny, moe.

In my day they used a racial term in the place of tiger. 

Robert and Susan Krentz, friends to the Mexican people

Diggers Realm

Fortunately, we don’t use those kinds of words any more.  But they might as well use them in Arizona.  This time just stick in the words “illegal alien”.  The Rhyme would sound like this:

Eeny, meeny, miny, moe,
Catch an illegal alien by the toe.
If he hollers let him go,
Eeny, meeny, miny, moe.

Why do I say that?  Because a conservative media wants to hang an ‘illegal alien’ for murder of wealthy rancher Robert Krentz even before law enforcement has had a chance to investigate.  The man who had compasion for everyone one was shot while mending fences on his 35,000 acre ranch.  They still have lynch mobs in Arizona.
According to Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever, Krentz, whose property


Robert Krentz

borders Mexico came across what he believed to be an illegal alien while on his ATV.  Reports suggest, without provocation, the 'illegal alien' pulled out his trusty rifle and shot the rancher.  Then he put on his shoes and hoofed it 20 miles back to Mexico.  Meanwhile, rancher Krentz was able to flee at a high speed on his ATV.  In one version of the story, Krentz muttered into his radio the words 'illegal alien' as he was racing from the vicinity.  In other reports, the rancher mentioned the words earlier in the day, and the press ran with the 'it was probably an illegal alien' story before the sun could set.  

The story sounds suspicious from the start:

• The average illegal alien does not carry fire arms.  Guns are hard to get in Mexico.  If you get caught with one you better have a lot of dough to pay off the cat who caught you.  Having a red hot six shooter in your hand can cost you a long time in a Mexican pokey. If you have a lot of dough why come to the US via the hardest of routes?
• The guys who carry guns are the Mexican police, drug dealers, soldiers, ranchers and minutemen.  Well maybe not the minutemen anymore.  Supposedly, most of them cut and ran when they had to defend against drug gangs instead of un-armed poor people.  
• Few 'illegal aliens' travel alone.  Most hire a coyote to get them across the border.  There is a certain safety in numbers, as well.

What bothers me is the media hype with an ugly conclusion before an investigation can be made:  It was an illegal alien.

It is the vocabulary that made the ugly version of "eenie meenie minie moe" evil.  It is the vocabulary that makes the 'illegal alien' version evil.  That is because we fail to distinguish between a guy who crosses the border to find work and a guy who crosses the border to sell drugs or traffic in human beings. 

The drug dealer does not fit the traditional concept of an 'illegal alien', although he may be one.  Most drug dealers are not here to work, they are here to make a killing bringing junk across the border.  The allure of fast money will call to them.  They plan to go home and darn quick, partly to make more money and partly to keep from getting caught.  Yet we group him along side the poorest of poor and claim both are evil demons because the poor, too, have crossed the border illegally.  Trust me, there are big differences between drug dealers and the average joe, or jose, trying to feed his family.

“The Republican Party breathed a deep sigh of relief when the citizens of Colorado finally threw Tommy out of his Republican congressional seat”

In the old days in the deep South they used to blame everything on African Americans, but they didn’t use suave terms like African American.  The reality is, a lot of white guys got away with murder while an African American took the fall. 

After Mr. Krentz was found dead, law enforcement got the dogs out.  Tracks led them to Mexico.  What we don’t know is if they found tracks coming from Mexico to the ranch.  The sheriff’s department is not saying. 

There were apparently no witness to the shooting yet everybody, including Tom Tancredo, yeah, Tommy’s in on it now, thinks the saying should be:

Eeny, meeny, miny, moe,
Catch an illegal alien by the toe

You should be relieved to know, Tommy is singing his hate songs as usual.  In fact, he reportedly was on the Arizona-Mexico border stirring up trouble again, likely in support of the discriminatory legislation in front of the Arizona congress which makes it illegal to be an illegal alien. 

Tom Tancredo

The Republican Party breathed a deep sigh of relief when the citizens of Colorado finally threw Tommy out of his Republican congressional seat.  He was grabbing headlines for his radical anti-Mexican immigrant statements.  For example, he was gleefully laughing on the radio after Colorado implemented a law that put prison inmates to work in the fields.  He thought it was pretty cool when an undocumented worker ended up in prison only to be put to work at 60 cents an hour for the state of Colorado.

Lots of others are joining the lynch mob.  A neighbor, Wendy Glenn, said she was going to start carrying a gun.  Somehow I think most of the ranchers carry guns even when they are not on the border.  But it sounds good, anyway, Wendy.

The republican governor, Jan Brewer reportedly is in favor of the bill that makes it illegal to be illegal.  She will likely sign it into law, despite pleas from Latino groups.  The legislation makes it against state law to be in Arizona and undocumented.  It will prevent those who are not fully documented from seeking help from the police when they are victims of crime including rape and robbery.  You might want to contact the governor if you oppose such thinking.  The ink is about to be very wet.

“with a heck of a lot fewer poor people crossing the desert, law enforcement can concentrate on a serious drug smuggling problem”

If you think I am jumping around a bit here you are right.  That is because there is a lot of discrimination going on in Arizona, and a lot of other places, and it all fits together like a puzzle.  One of the pieces of the puzzle is how we discriminate.  This is not the race based discrimination we look for in the deep South.  This is discrimination based upon national origin.  All Mexican nationals, whoops, I mean 'illegal aliens' are rotten apples.  That is just not so.

The solution to the 'illegal immigrant' problem is make immigration legal.  Treat people fairly.  Don't give them reason to fear local law enforcement.  Give them a means to earn a decent living.  Don't penalize generations of immigrants who came here when the border was intentionally porous.  Help children realize their dream of a path to a better life through education.  Help businessmen seeking labor from an increasingly smaller pool of baby boomers find that labor.

The solution to drug dealers and coyotes is to clear the smuggling routes of poor people.  That way we can identify the real bad guys more easily.  We can concentrate our enforcement efforts on the corrosive leaches of society.  We can protect against the terrorist who one day will surely make an attempt at a desert crossing instead of hopping an airliner.

The conservative fruit cakes won't tell you, but immigration reform involves a three prong solution:

• Strengthen the border so we can defend against real criminals;
• Give those here a path to legalization, identify them through driver's licenses which also allows them to get automobile insurance;
• Provide for future labor needs of the country with a labor system that works.

The Tancredo crowd would rather give up national security to deny 'illegal aliens' the chance to migrate.  What is the logic in that?

Eeeny meenie miney moe,
catch Tom Tancredo by the toe...

Then just love him to death.  There is room for all of us in this great country!

Technorati Tags: robert krentz,rancher bob krentz, rancher robert krentz, border rancher,arizona rancher,killed by illegal,tom tancredo,governor jan brewer,illgal immigrant,immigration reform,national guard,border patrol,larry dever,cochise county

By the way, in traditional 'Tancredo all-illegal-immigrants-are-bad-people-thinking', Governor Brewer wants to militarize the border.  The military isn’t going to want other gun toters there, so the NRA might as well throw in the towel if that comes to pass.  The good governor might want to read the constitution before she calls for a militarization.  Our forefathers were against using our military in the capacity of policemen unless marshal law was declared.  More, we likely have adequate forces to corral the drug dealers if we can get the poor people to use the bridges.  Wonder how that could come to pass.

My condolences to the Robert Krentz family and Susan Krentz.  Robert Krentz was one heck of a nice guy.  Whoever did this should pay.  My vote is, they should pay with their life.  Preferably, the method of execution would not be by a lynch mob.  Since not many people will volunteer for the death penalty however it is invoked, why don't we play, eenie meenie miney moe...