The following is a facsimile of one of my first blogs by the same name and it had only this entry so I canned that blog and preserve this entry because I still think I hear some barking.

Chairman Chris Barks

CHRIS SIMCOX FOUNDED TWO MILITIAS BEFORE HE BECAME A "MINUTEMAN". WHEN HE SPLIT WITH CO-LEADER OF THE MINUTEMEN, JIM GILCHRIST, HE CONTINUED TO COLLABORATE WITH THE ALAN KEYES FACTION OF THE REPUBLICAN FAR-RIGHT AND CALLED HIS GROUP MINUTEMAN CIVIL DEFENSE CORP (MCDC). HIS PUBLIC STATEMENTS ARE SCRUTINIZED HERE.

 

Thursday, January 24, 2008

IS THE LEADER OF THE MINUTEMEN A GUN NUT?

IS SIMCOX A GUN NUT?

DISTURBING STORIES ABOUT THE LEADER OF THE MINUTEMAN CIVIL DEFENSE CORP (MCDC) PERTAINING TO HIS OBSESSION WITH GUNS AND VIOLENCE

http://www.splcenter.org/news/item.jsp?aid=149&printable=1

The day hijacked jets toppled the World Trade Center, Simcox left phone messages for his second wife, Kim Dunbar, according to transcripts filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court in connection with custody proceedings.

In one voice mail, according to the transcripts, Simcox said: "I purchased another gun. I have more than a few weapons and I plan on teaching my son how to use them. I will no longer trust anyone in this country. My life has changed forever, and if you don't get that, you are brainwashed like everybody else."

Dunbar sought sole custody of their son, claiming in court that her ex-husband had suffered a breakdown. She also worried for their biracial son because, she alleged, Simcox had announced that African-Americans "don't deserve the benefits they receive under the Constitution because they've never suffered discrimination."

Shaking his head, Simcox says his wife exaggerated. Sure, he was upset about 9/11 like millions of Americans. Yes, he tried to enlist in the Army and got turned down because of his age. But that doesn't mean he lost grip with reality, he says.

Minuteman Leader has Troubled Past

by Susy Buchanan and David Holthouse

With his guns close at hand and visions of mushroom clouds blossoming darkly in his mind's eye, Chris Simcox punched the record button on the answering machine inside his Los Angeles apartment.

"Hi, this is Chris," he said. "You have reached a righteous American educational institution. Due to the horrific changes in our society in the last few days, I now must preface that I will accept offers of communication only from people who preface their message with the preamble to the Constitution of the United States of America. If you include that with your message, I look forward to communicating with you, and have a great day. Thanks. Bye."

It was Sept. 13, 2001. Simcox, by his own later account to reporters, was obsessed with the recent terrorist attacks. His phone messages and conversations with relatives were growing increasingly bizarre. He talked endlessly about stockpiling firearms and apocalyptic premonitions. Los Angeles was doomed, he said. Then, on Sept. 30, he fled the city for good.

"I'm going on a great adventure," he told his teenaged son. "If I end up going to prison, you can always e-mail me."

Here is a Simcox quote, one that is hard to misinterpret: "These are enemies who are wrecking our economy," he told a reporter for the Los Angeles Times magazine in 2003 in discussing illegal Latino immigrants. "This is about national security. If Simcox dies in a blaze of border gunfire, so be it. Damn them. That’s how much I care about my country."

"If we're attacked again," Simcox says, invoking the memory of Sept. 11, "you are going to see citizens defend their borders in a patriotic way and you are going to see people get shot on that border." Chris Simcox quoted by Max Blumenthal in an article written in 2003

http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature

by Susy Buchanan and David Holthouse

Chris Simcox is revered by plenty--including the Russian immigrant waitress who serves me a buffalo burger at the OK Café--he doesn't dispute that he has to look over his shoulder. He wears a bullet-proof vest most places and takes a coterie of heat-packing volunteers he sometimes calls "bodyguards" with him to speaking engagements. Many of them are retired military or law enforcement. Death threats have come from open-border types on both sides of the line, and he's been fired at by drug smugglers while on patrol. When I suggest we go out for dinner, he declines, saying he doesn't eat in restaurants since someone might poison him. He's joking. But when I ask to go to his house to take some notes on it, his good humor fades. "Nobody sees my house. I don't want you to know where I live."

North of the Border

From the August 29, 2005 issue: With the Minutemen on the Mexican border.

by Matt Labash

08/29/2005, Volume 010, Issue 46

CTRL CLICK WILL OPEN A STORY BY MARY SANCHEZ

Here is a Simcox quote, one that is hard to misinterpret: "These are enemies who are wrecking our economy," he told a reporter for the Los Angeles Times magazine in 2003 in discussing illegal Latino immigrants. "This is about national security. If Simcox dies in a blaze of border gunfire, so be it. Damn them. That’s how much I care about my country."

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