Arizona behaving badly and otherwise

[raison de arizona]

Yeah, one would think that masked dudes with firearms and license plates covered would qualify, but I guess not.

[Ben-Prime]

Yeah, one would think that masked dudes with firearms and license plates covered would qualify, but I guess not.

While IANAL, I would think that if they are doing these things while also writing down or photographing other people's license plate numbers (which I thought some of these folks were doing), then they are not only in technical violation of the law (which forbids such as per the above infographic) but clearly demonstrating some kind of mens rea since they do not wish to be identified in turn in their activity.

[RVInit]

Sooner or later, somebody is going to get hurt.

More armed watchers at the Mesa drop box this evening. Photo taken by someone that went to watch the watchers. @mcsoaz came over to ask everyone to get out of each other's personal space.

This evening's Mesa drop box watchers covered up their license plate.

► Show Spoiler

So, I guess it's OK for the nut jobs with guns and covered license plates to intimidate voters, but when a voter without a gun decides to sit peacefully in a chair now it's time for the police to act. Got it.

[raison de arizona]

Local reporter intimidated...for reporting on voter intimidation. This is just a taste, she has a full thread of this.

ELECTIONS IN ARIZONA: In Arizona, election officials have faced death threats.

Poll workers have been harassed.

For days I have covered voter intimidation complaints.

A thread of just a portion of the comments I have received:
"Just ask the idiot little girl reporter why she sold her soul collecting a paycheck from vile and corrupt ABC fake news."

/2

"So if I just happened to be standing there and put a bullet in the head of that scum reporter and then claimed it was self-defense because that scum reporter was attacking a fellow patriot I would be justified?"

/3

► Show Spoiler

[RTH10260]

Arizona refuses to move shipping containers at border

ANITA SNOW/AP
Posted: OCT 19, 2022 / 09:00 PM CDT | Updated: OCT 20, 2022 / 05:30 PM CDT

PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona has refused the federal government’s demand to take down double-stacked shipping containers it placed to fill gaps in the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, saying it won’t do so until the U.S. moves to construct a permanent barrier instead.

The Arizona Department of Emergency and Military Affairs dug in its heels in an Oct. 18 letter to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, saying, “The containers will remain in place until specific details regarding construction are provided.” It was signed by Allen Clark, the department’s director.

A regional spokeswoman for the Bureau of Reclamation did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Arizona’s refusal in the most recent flap between the Biden administration and Republican-led border states over immigration policies.

The federal agency told Arizona officials in a letter last week that the containers were unauthorized and violated U.S. law. The bureau also demanded that no new containers be placed, saying it wanted to prevent conflicts with two federal contracts already awarded and two more still pending to fill border wall gaps near the Morelos Dam in the Yuma, Arizona, area.

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey ordered installation of more than 100 double-stacked containers that were placed over the summer, saying he couldn’t wait for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection to award the contracts it had announced for the work.

Migrants have continued to avoid the recently erected barriers by going around them, including through the Cocopah Indian Reservation. The Cocopah Indian Tribe has complained that Arizona acted against its wishes by placing 42 of the double stacks on its land.




https://www.newsnationnow.com/us-news/i ... at-border/

[raison de arizona]

Me, walking to work: “Oh awesome! An hour long episode of The Daily! What’s it about?”

The Daily: *focuses on Arizona and specifically Maricopa County where there is a bunch of election deniers and we live in a very dystopian part of the nation*

[RTH10260]

Putting this here cause parts reference AZ

[raison de arizona]

re: Clean Elections Commission versus Clean Elections USA- AZCEC is the org that has repeatedly sided with Kari Lake and gave her a Q&A while refusing Hobbs one. When PBS/ASU stepped in to give Hobbs a Q&A, AZCEC pitched a fit and threatened to take their marbles and go home, meanwhile Lake leveraged that to urge the defunding of both ASU and PBS, while making the ASU campus so unsafe that people were urged to work remotely and not approach the campus. So what I'm saying is, I have a tiny little violin playing just for the AZCEC and their confusion with the Bannon affiliated group. <-this but smaller

[raison de arizona]

You're not the boss of me. They also outlawed any school requiring it.

[raison de arizona]

In a bold strategic move, Maricopa County Community College Governing Board candidate Randy Kaufman gets arrested for indecent exposure at the Rio Salado campus in Surprise.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BvxZWz ... _yEJe/view
Story: https://www.12news.com/article/news/cri ... 51c5c283cd

No withdrawal, I suspect he is hoping to win and choose his successor or some such nonsense.

[raison de arizona]

Cochise County goes rogue! County Attorney cuts them loose!

BREAKING: @CochiseCountyAZ votes to conduct a full audit hand count for the 2022 election. The County Attorney (R) told the board his office will not represent them in any lawsuits filed as he has determined it is an illegal action.

In 2018 Cochise voters cast 45k ballots. Under the law they are trying to justify this action with the count must be completed before canvass. Typically late November.

[raison de arizona]

Arizona voters file complaints against armed vigilantes patrolling ballot boxes
BY MARK STRASSMANN
OCTOBER 24, 2022 / 8:31 PM / CBS NEWS

Multiple Arizona voters have filed formal complaints against armed vigilantes patrolling ballot drop boxes near Phoenix. And with just two weeks to go until the midterm elections, some candidates are even pushing theories of voter fraud in the state.

Republican Kari Lake, who is running for governor, has been pushing threats of voter integrity throughout her campaign. Arizona's Republican Secretary of State candidate Mark Finchem tweeted, "Watch all drop boxes. Period. Save the Republic."

Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, who is in charge of voter registration and counting early voting, said he's witnessed "Threats, you name it. Threats to harass you online, but also threats to physicaly harm you."

Richer, a Republican, told CBS News he's appalled by his own party's election deniers.

"It's especially frustrating when people knowingly do it to satisfy a self desire for political office or gain," he added.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/arizona-vo ... ion-fraud/

[raison de arizona]

Rouge and rouger. The thick plottens.

.@CochiseCountyAZ board is being told that a full hand count will not have insurance coverage if a lawsuit is filed.

Board can be held personally liable.

► Show Spoiler

Who's testifying? Their attorneys, their insurers?

Both.

[raison de arizona]

It's a wonder anyone even considers taking these jobs anymore.

[RTH10260]

crosspost

Arizona Charitable Giving
Woman challenges Arizona city's ban on feeding people for "charitable purposes"

In Bullhead City, Arizona, your kindness might cost you your freedom. It nearly did for Norma Thornton, a 78-year-old grandmother who was arrested and criminally charged for feeding those in need in Bullhead City. Under a new ordinance, the city has deemed it a criminal misdemeanor—punishable by fines and even imprisonment—to share prepared food in a public park “for charitable purposes.” As the city attorney clarified, people may freely share food in public parks at “social events, which would include a party.” But be sure your “party” doesn’t include any homeless people, or you might go to jail.

That’s the city’s lesson for Norma Thornton. Norma operated a restaurant before retiring to Bullhead City in 2017. Bullhead City is a city of 40,000, neighboring the Colorado River on Arizona’s western border. In Bullhead City Community Park, Norma encountered people in need—that is, people who could barely afford housing nearby, as well as people experiencing homelessness. Though no one spends nights at the park (retreating to federal land nearby), some come together in the day in the public park, where they can take advantage of shade, benches, and restrooms. She learned that the nearest shelters and food pantries are miles away, and their resources and availability are limited, leaving dozens hungry each night. So Norma decided to use her career skills to share nutritious, hot, homecooked meals with people in the park. For more than four years, Norma would regularly bring her food to the picnic tables there, sharing with anyone who asked.

That all changed on March 8, 2022. Just as she was performing her usual cleanup of the area, Norma was arrested and criminally charged with violating the city’s ordinance. Norma refused to plead guilty as she felt she’d done nothing wrong; months later (after hearings in criminal court), the city dropped the charge—but only while clarifying that if Norma does it again, the city would throw her in jail. Now, Norma shares her food in a private alley—without shade in the scorching heat, without tables or a seating area, without a place for people to wash their hands, and out of sight of people who could use her help.

Homelessness is, of course, a complicated and serious problem. But criminalizing acts of charity isn’t the solution. What’s more, it’s unconstitutional. That’s why on October 25, 2022, Norma joined with the Institute for Justice (IJ) in filing a new federal lawsuit against Bullhead City. The lawsuit asks the court to strike down the city’s ordinance and allow Norma, and people like her, to share food in the park.



https://ij.org/case/arizona-charitable-giving/

[raison de arizona]

Kingman, where they threatened to jail her, is about 45 minutes from Bullhead City. AZ cops like this have a habit of hauling people somewhere else for a brief overnight jailing, then setting them free forty freaking miles from their home with only what they had on them when arrested, and no way to get back home. Ask me how I know. It's a convenient way to make someone's life a bit tougher when they've got nothing else to throw at them. Also, too, criminalizing feeding the homeless is A Thing in Arizona, dunno if it has caught on in other states, but Bullhead City isn't the only place that has done it around here. I'm not sure about feeding in the city I currently live, but I do know they made asking for spare change a criminal offense here recently.

[Ben-Prime]

Fort Lauderdale went through this some years back. The fellow was in his 80s when they arrested him in the mid-2010s. He died in 2019 at 94, unrepentant. We do, in fact, get the heroes we need.

[RTH10260]

I'm not sure about feeding in the city I currently live, but I do know they made asking for spare change a criminal offense here recently.

That is probably unconstitutional.

One of the many Youtube channels I follow is a 1st Amndment activist (not the auditor type). He spreads a message that is not always welcome in afluent areas. His message is about the homeless (veterans especially) and people think he is panhandling. The police get called but have to leave cause (a) he is not accepting any money and (b) in Florida the state supreme court ruled that panhandling falls under the Free Speech Clause and is a protected activity. The base for this is a SCOTUS ruling (which I still do not know which one) that declared in general that, asking for money with small favours returned is an expression of free speech. I understand that this covers girl scout biscuit selling in public, selling bottled drinking water or flowers at red lights, car washes for financing group activites and sales supporting the local firestation etc, and all may not be asked to get any permits.

Ref Jeff Gray https://www.youtube.com/user/HONORYOUROATH

[raison de arizona]

Interesting RTH, I'll have to keep an eye out for any litigation regarding it. Although homeless panhandlers typically have trouble affording lawyers to sue on their behalf, sooo...

Also, one org down.

[AndyinPA]

They folded pretty quickly.

[raison de arizona]

They folded pretty quickly.

That's the Yavapai ones, the big problem is in Maricopa county, and those ones are still active.

[AndyinPA]

They folded pretty quickly.

That's the Yavapai ones, the big problem is in Maricopa county, and those ones are still active.

Thanks.

[Frater I*I]

They folded pretty quickly.

Buckled like a belt...

[raison de arizona]

No temporary restraining order against the voter intimidation will be issued. Hate to say it, but this is the world we live in...tfg judge. fwiw

[Volkonski]