More-Than-15-Minute Woman

It was only a matter of time before ex-Seattle prostitute and accused double-murderer Shawna Forde became a symbol in the national controversy over Arizona's intimidating new SB 1070 Hispanic shakedown law—a symbol for both sides.

Opponents of the law cite ex-Minuteman leader Forde, awaiting trial for allegedly murdering a Mexican man and his 9-year-old daughter in the Arizona desert last year, as representative of the anti-Mexican mindset that leads to reactionary lawmaking. To their mind, while Congress and the White House are culpable for lacking the backbone to tackle immigration reform, a state statute that allows police to single out a race of people to be stopped and asked, Gestapo-style, for their papers is an aberrant reaction—a lopsided law that Forde would see as balancing the rights of white folk.

Supporters see passage of the stop-and-shake law as an invitation to ramp up their Forde-style military assault on border-jumpers—party time for Minutemen. One group, the Cochise County Militia (CCM), has just announced it is re-forming itself into a local Blackwater-style organization—something that Forde, according to what her brother told Seattle Weekly last year, envisioned for her Minutemen American Defense group, MAD. She at times also referred to herself as the "Delta Force" leader. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, CCM's founder, Bill Davis, recently told supporters via e-mail that his Tombstone, Ariz.-based militia will be forming a private military company, which is "completely legal!!!"

Davis said he prefers combat veterans for his venture, but will consider others. There is no pay. Says Davis in a newsletter: "Be polite...be professional...be ready to kill all you Meet!" Or, as Forde might add, at least the "filthy" brown ones.