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.