Immigration has always been a controversial topic along the border, almost as much as it is a favorite subject for right-wing shock jocks. Recently, civil-rights activist and Pima County Legal Defender (akin to a public defender) Isabel Garcia has been the focus of a heated debate which now involves Arizona Shock Jock Jon Justice.
Last month, Tucson’s KQTH-FM (which calls itself “The Truth”) posted a series of YouTube videos showing two teenagers beating a pinata effigy of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Garcia picking up the discarded head afterwards. The Arizona Star reported:
Arpaio came to Tucson a few weeks ago to promote his new book “”Joe’s Law: America’s Toughest Sheriff Takes on Illegal Immigration, Drugs and Everything Else that Threatens America.”
Arpaio, who created a special immigration unit to arrest illegal immigrants under a state smuggling law, has been running immigration sweeps in heavily Hispanic sections of the Phoenix area.
The sweeps have fueled a backlash from officials in towns and cities within Maricopa County as an unwanted intrusion into their communities and prompted news stories about reduced Sheriff’s Department response times and investigations on other crimes.
Arpaio’s visit drew protesters from several immigrant- and human-rights groups, including the Coalición de Derechos Humanos, or The Human Rights Coalition.
“That he would come to Tucson to promote a book filled with lies, fear and ignorant perspectives about immigrants was especially appalling to us,” longtime coalition activist Garcia said in a statement.
Protesters handed out leaflets, chanted “and someone brought a large piñata with Arpaio’s face glued on the head.
And wouldn’t you know it, that very same talk radio station (whose daily lineup includes Laura Ingraham, Neal Boortz and Michael Savage) has been calling for Garcia’s head as a result. Says “The Bird,” a columnist for Phoenix’s New Times:
While Joe was signing books inside a Tucson Barnes & Noble, Derechos Humanos, the immigrant rights group Garcia co-chairs in her spare time, protested outside. Some demonstrators brought along a Sheriff Joe piñata, complete with pink handcuffs, and whacked the crap out of it. At the end of the ersatz Arpaio-bashing, Garcia was caught on videotape picking up the decapitated piñata head and carrying it around.
Like, um, big deal, right? Heck, The Bird possesses the head, outfitted with devil horns, of a Joe piñata left over from a Cinco de Mayo celebration held by the Phoenix activist organization PUEBLO. Jesus H. Christ on a crutch, if a citizen can’t give a papier-mâché Joe doll some licks after all the evil he’s done as Maricopa County’s top despot, then we might as well pack it all in and move to some really free country like Cuba or Myanmar.
Garcia, of course, didn’t even take a crack at the piñata. She just hoisted Joe’s mug.
For this, a guy calling himself Jon Justice, who flaps his lips as a morning talk jock for the hate-station 104.1 FM “The Truth” (yeah, right), and crackpot anti-illegal agitator Roy Warden have been urging folks to call Garcia’s boss, Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckleberry, and demand that she be fired.
These Garcia-slamming guttersnipes are also calling on the State Bar of Arizona to punish or disbar Garcia for exercising her right to freedom of expression.
Justice’s big radio move heretofore was a stunt in which he pretended to drown a dog on-air in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Ultimately, he lost his Michigan a.m. show because of the caper.
All that wouldn’t have rated Justice (whose real last name is reportedly “Giustizia”) a mention on this blog, but in going the extra creepy mile, the shock jock produced some webisodes last week showing a papier-mache Isabel Garcia “mascot” which Justice proceeds to make out with as his cameraman protests that the whole thing is “totally creeping me out right now”:
A subsequent Justice webisode attempts to address questions about the disturbing rape-fantasy video:
As Justice canoodles with his Garcia doll, he voices her responses in a shrill faux-Chicano accent (you can listen to the actual Isabel Garcia in this YouTube clip). Justice has his effigy saying things like,
No, you did not fondle me at all. As a matter of fact, when you held me, it
felt so warm. So nice. Having you hold me in your arms made me feel warm like the inside of a freshly cooked chimichanga. And I thank you for that. And I would really love to go home with you.
Arizonans (and plenty of others) have been turning the heat up on the shock jock as a result of his latest outrage; here’s a list of sponsors who have removed themselves from Justice’s show.
More links:
Jon Justice and His Rape Fantasy at the Unapologetic Mexican
On-air dork Jon Justice of Tucson’s 104.1 FM hides his Isabel Garcia pinata from Phoenix New Times” Feathered Bastard
Pinata Porn at Latino Politico
Shock jock play-acts raping Latina activist at Feministing
Kimble: They Want Her Head at the Tucson Citizen
