This story is great, not only because they use footage from legal observers, but also because they take the time to go beyond the quick soundbites and find the real motivations and actions of vigilantes.
5/8/06.
KPHO: Reporters who bother to spend time with the Minutemen and dig a little deeper are finding that the organization isn't as forthright as it seems.
In Washington State, for instance, Minuteman organizers insist they're only concerned about border security. But that doesn't explain why one of their supporters is running an initiative that would strip illegal immigrants of the ability to obtain government benefits, including welfare and health care.
Down in Phoenix, an investigative TV crew from KPHO went undercover and discovered that, when the cameras go off, the Minutemen are talking a much different ball game than their preferred public image of upstanding, concerned citizens. These are anti-immigration vigilantes, taking action, mobilizing in the Arizona desert, driven by a conviction.
Pineapple 6: "These f___ing Mexicans. They will kill you. They don't give a f__k." That Mexican immigrants are public enemy number one.
Fred Puckett: "And once you shoot a couple of these son of a b@#$%es, they'll think twice."'
KPHO: Even worse are the spinoff groups that piggyback off the Minuteman propaganda and then draw the more radical actors into their ranks: 'Another vigilante group - expelled from this operation - was operating nearby.
Pineapple 6: "They're carrying automatic weapons and they're chasing guys down and tracking them, then they tie them up."
KPHO: The next day, we set out to find the so-called "Rogue Minutemen."
Fred Puckett: "Hi guys. I'm Fred Puckett, Minuteman of One."
KPHO: Puckett calls his group "Minuteman of One."
Puckett: "We don't have no by-laws.. we don't have nothin'. We go out in two-man teams and we hit them like we did 40-years ago in Vietnam."
KPHO: Members of Minuteman of One have a controversial M-O. They carry assault rifles when they're out on patrol, they don't hesitate to follow migrants or smugglers and they've been known to "confiscate" food, water and the luggage they come across.
Puckett: "We believe our country is being destroyed from the inside. Anything south of I-10 is a third world nation."'
KPHO: The KPHO team last year did the same thing and found similar results."
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