When I happened to pick up one of the free weeklies that were littered along every conceivable corner of the Mesa area, I would always read stories of detainment, gun laws/shootings or see articles about medicinal marijuana regulations and excessive enforcement. All occurring within either shorter or broader spans of what else but time. The June 23rd edition of the ever popular Phoenix New Times contained all three themes and subsequently was the last copy I would ever read. On page nine, beneath the PhoenixNewTimes.com banner, was the small spread:
Pot Patient Harassed
According to Ray Stern, "Gilbert Police in masks and riot gear stormed a home recently after receiving a tip that the owner was in possession of an ounce of marijuana." Apparently, local homeowner Ross Taylor, who under full compliance with the state's laws on medicinal cannabis use;
"which allows people to qualify to possess up to 2.5 ounces of pot legally"
was handcuffed, harassed, and will no doubt be drudged through a strenuous legal process in the near future.
"Gilbert Police Department Spokesman Bill Balafas tells New Times that because Taylor bought the pot from another person-as opposed to growing it himself-the possession wasn't legal. Despite his status as a patient."
In response to the charges, Taylor made the accusation that:
"People are being harassed. [The police] want political control."
Meanwhile, in Phoenix and on the next page, a prayer vigil was held for yet another shooting victim in the alley "behind a convenience store at Adam's Street and 21st Avenue". However, Stephen Lemon's article:
Gun In Hand
could be described not as a horrified reaction, but more like a desperate attempt at towing the line for the left wing; unfurling a tale of property owner Bill Russell's attempted murder of fifty-two year old Percell Bagley. It is reported that Bagley sustained a wound during a physical altercation outside of a vacant lot owned by Russell. A gunshot wound that a Phoenix Police Department spokesman compared to the failed assassination of Democratic Congresswoman Gabby Giffords in early 2011. The author himself compares the Bagley-Russell ordeal to a second degree murder case that happened in 2006, involving yet another storeowner and unnamed, unarmed vagrant (covered in "Shoot to Kill" written by Ray Stern. March 11, 2010 Phoenix New Times).
During an interview for "Gun In Hand," an officer Martos gave this official statement:
"Mr. Russell's story is, the person was on his property and had been told several times not to return...Mr. Russell said he never pointed the gun at the victim but did reach for it."
Because of the vague details about Bagley's whereabouts or mug shot confirmation, Lemon's "Gun In Hand" is incomplete at its climax.
"Obviously, there's more to find out about this incident and the various issues in the neighborhood itself deserve further scrutiny."
However inconclusive it may be, the collage of similar stories melded together with the portrait of honest Christian Americans—their heads bowed, their arms folded at their waists, at high noon behind a Circle K—forces the reader to look at what is salvageable and what isn't in terms of public outreach and gun registration. The reality of it is that in Arizona, which currently rallies for the Colt .45 to be named the official State Gun, sees the issue of increasing shootings within its cities not as something attributed to the owners themselves, but those who "provoke" them into using lethal action. It's as if the legislature is run by hyper-vigilante, irresponsible adolescents, hell-bent on burning all bridges... constantly assessing their surroundings for the imminent threat... constantly avoiding the prospect of progression.
Further evidence of their general lack of morality is found in the cover story:
Huddled Masses
from Gregory Pratt. The main focus here is illegal immigrant detainment in the city of Florence, where living conditions, recreational activities and visitation rights are thoroughly condemned by Pratt, as well as the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) and other activist organizations.
Pratt describes what he calls:
"A trio of immigrants" lurched against the wall of "a concrete triangle"—either awaiting an arduous three-pronged attempt to secure legal status or the impending deportation back to the third world. Some government officials are defending the intent of such infrastructures, claiming that:
"America does not imprison immigrants...it detains them in jails."
Located in between Phoenix and Tucson, Florence is reputed for its celebration of capitol punishment-dating back to the origins of the American Southwest. Today, it is a tourist attraction for closet sadists and curious voyeurs who come for the nooses and electric chair paraphernalia. "Huddled Masses" insinuates that the new detainment contracts, which reportedly generate somewhere around $13,000,000.00 a year for Arizona, has:
"enriched its prison tradition in the 21st century by becoming a repository for immigrants"...
A repository that denies these same immigrants physical contact with their families, mandating all visitation take place over closed circuit monitors in separate rooms. The same immigrants who are subjected to "long term" imprisonment while denied the basic human right to go outdoors. The same immigrants who are denied the luxury of a set bond which is afforded the rapists, murderers and arsonists housed within the same walls of the Pinal County Jail (one of five correction facilities in Arizona that hold detainees for processing).
"Then there are immigrants with more complicated cases, immigrants who have lived in the U.S. for many years or are members of mixed status families (their spouses and/or children are U.S. citizens). Some fear they will be tortured or killed if they return to their home countries. These cases are heard by Federal immigration courts, whose rulings can be challenged to the Board of Immigration Appeals. After that, the government or detainee can go to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for a final ruling."
Pratt goes on to reveal the seemingly infinite pile of court backlogs, extensions, and other such complications that keep these men and women within the system for "five years or more."
Having reached such a point where foreign aid and diplomacy are completely negated by the state and federal bureaucracy, all that is left, the only feasible extremes yet unexamined and practiced, are prolonged, solitary confinement, more-than-questionable interrogation tactics, or even obligatory genocide on behalf of the squalor.
I do not foresee a reasonable resolution to the Arizona immigration conflict; nor do I foresee tighter restrictions on gunowners' licensing and certainly no change in the supposed war on drugs. I do however, foresee other border states implementing similar measures in hopes of a solution or example. I can only imagine the sizable increase in shootings on both sides of the border and the DEA, state police and United States' legislature making further improvisations in favor of maintaining it's control on the drug trade market through FDA approved prescription plans and cooperative misdiagnosis of mental disorders.
Yes, there are plenty of issues to be addressed in Arizona. But its citizens have only the time for gunsights in place of hindsight...drug laws in place of moral code...and deportation/segregation in place of openness/unity. Then again, who are we kidding? The illusion of freedom, under the guise mandated by the "state" is derived primarily from an absence of communal responsibility. I've heard it said that the wealthiest 1% of the population in this country own somewhere around 40% of the overall wealth. In Arizona, where any sort of employment opportunity outside a legal or medical career asks its employees to accept and practice unethical business methods ...where martial law comes in the form of population and assistance control...where can you possibly find any real sense of community?
In the valley of the Western sun, you must allow adequate time for your skin to dry, harden and adjust. Either that or become more complacent with your potential, which is all but nil considering there is only the potential to survive the summer. Regardless of your proximity to the border, in Arizona, you are the prime target for scrutiny, degradation, imprisonment and the tedious tasks of standing idly by as the land which once belonged to mystical natives...turns into a trail of sand dividing two political bodies—who see it as a territory full of strangers.
Frankie Metro is 28 and lives in the desert somewhere in the Southwestern region of the United States. He thinks it's up to you to save the planet. He just wants to smoke it and write about the ashes.