Monday, February 20, 2006

CHRIS SIMCOX FEATURED SPEAKER AT JOHN BIRCH

SOCIETY COUNCIL GATHERING

The Arizona Minuteman comes to Costa Mesa

seeking new recruits for April border patrol

By DUANE J. ROBERTS

duaneroberts92804@yahoo.com

COSTA MESA, CA -- Chris Simcox, founder of

"Civil Homeland Defense," a border vigilante

group that brought together several ranchers

and retired military personnel in Cochise

County, Arizona to carry out numerous armed

patrols along the U.S./Mexico border, was a

featured speaker at a recent John Birch Society

Council meeting, which took place last Saturday

afternoon at the Hilton Hotel in the City of

Costa Mesa.

Simcox, 44, is a former kindergarten

teacher from Los Angeles who moved to Arizona

in 2002 shortly after he claims to have

seen "lines and lines of people" crossing the

border while on a backpacking expedition in that

state. After a brief stint as a gun-fighter

actor, Simcox bought The Tombstone Tumbleweed,

a weekly newspaper he's used as a bully pulpit

to rally against "illegal immigration" and

advocate for tougher "border security"

measures.

During Simcox's speech before the all-white,

middle-aged crowd of roughly sixty John Birch

Society members, he claimed that "Civil

Homeland Defense" has helped U.S. border patrol

agents apprehend more than 6,000 people

attempting to enter the United States from

Mexico. Simcox says that on some his patrols,

he's encountered people from "Poland, Russia,

China, Korea," "twenty five Haitian immigrants,"

and "two couples from Switzerland" who

paid $15,000 to a "coyote" that promised to

smuggle them in.

"The slave trade is alive and well in the USA,"

Simcox commented, alleging to have witnessed

firsthand "lines of people" by the "hundreds"

crossing into Arizona under the cover of darkness

with the assistance of "coyotes." Simcox also said

he's videotaped the Mexican military making repeated

"incursions" onto U.S. territory. He alleged that

most of these soldiers were on the payroll of "drug

dealers."

Since starting "Civil Homeland Defense" back in

2003, Simcox told the crowd that "just about every

wacko in the world" has called him, including

people wanting to "hunt Mexicans," and "two

gay priests" from Northern California who offered

to perform an "exorcism" with members of his

group along the U.S./Mexico border to "cleanse"

the area of all the "evil" it contained.

Simcox talked about his association with Jim

Gilchrist, the retired CPA from Aliso Viejo,

California who founded what is now known as

the "Minuteman Project." Simcox said he got a

call one day from Gilchrist who spoke to him

at length about the idea of establishing a

"civilian border watch," with people equipped

with cellphones and binoculars. That motivated

him to invite Gilchrist out to Arizona to give him a

personal tour of the border area and hear out

all the details of his proposal.

His budding friendship with Gilchrist, Simcox

said, eventually led to both of them to conduct

a joint operation last year where "350

people," including senior citizens, sat in

everything from "lawnchairs" to "wheelchairs,"

staking out positions along the U.S./Mexico

border to watch for border crossers. "We shut

down a twenty three mile section of the

border," he boasted.

Blasting President George W. Bush for being

weak on "homeland security," Simcox demanded

that National Guard and U.S. military troops

be placed in "civic observation posts" all along

the U.S./Mexico border. "I don't care if it

offends the government of Mexico or the people

of Mexico," Simcox told the approving crowd.

"I don't care about the treaty of Guadalupe

Hidalgo! Your country got beat! Our army got

what it wanted! And that's history! You follow

by our rules now!"

Simcox urged people in the room to contact

all of their elected representatives and tell

them to oppose any "guest worker" or

amnesty bills going through the U.S.

Congress, saying they only benefit the

interests of big corporations.

In closing remarks, Simcox said beginning

in April, thousands of volunteers from Texas,

New Mexico, Arizona, California, and elsewhere

will once again be heading to the U.S./Mexico

border to man observation posts or actively patrol

an 800 mile stretch of land. The "Minuteman

Civil Defense Corps.," a new group that was

founded by Simcox last year, is "6,600 members

strong" and is rapidly growing, he claimed.

He urged everybody in attendance to sign up.

"In the spirit of civil defense, please join," were his

last words.

After the crowd gave Simcox a standing ovation,

Arthur Thompson, Chief Executive Officer of

the John Birch Society, and a member of its

"inner council" profusely thanked him for

all the work he has done in "protecting

our borders." Thompson then handed

him a special gift: a miniature metal replica

of an American Minuteman that fought against

the British army in 1776.

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ADDITIONAL CREDIT FOR THIS ARTICLE:

Naui Huitzilopochtli, who also attended Simcox's

speech, took all the photographs used for this

article.

Credit for all the photographs used in this article goes to Naui Huitzilopochtli.