Tuesday, May 8, 2012

J. T. Ready had support of top Arizona politician

J.T. Ready with assault rifle
It is reasonably agreed at this point that well-known Arizona racist and neo-Nazi J.T. Ready killed four people including a 15-month-old toddler in Gilbert, Arizona on May 2, and then took his own life.  He was outfitted with body armor, which in itself raises questions since he shouldn’t have expected much opposition from his gun attack from family members, certainly not the child.  In my post yesterday I described the specifics of the massacre, including Ready’s NRA membership.

J.T. Ready was an avowed white supremacist who had been followed by the Anti-Defamation League, according to its director of investigative research, Marc Pitcavage.  Ready is described on their website as an “anti-immigrant extremist dating back to 2004.  His biography even stated that he believed in “lawful deadly force” to protect the Mexican border, as well as restoring America to a “White, European homeland.” 

Ready’s national attention may very well have contributed to the force behind a recent study by Pew Research that confirmed that only 29 percent of Hispanics think it is more important to protect gun control, compared with 57 percent of whites.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil-rights organization in Alabama that keeps track of hate and extremist groups, documents Ready’s background on its website.  He actually started his political career in the 2000s at Mesa, AZ Community College.  It says that he received a bad-conduct discharge from the Marines having been court-martialed twice, once for larceny and going AWOL, once for conspiracy and assault.  There was also a criminal conviction is 1992.

The hacker group LulzSec posted secret FBI documents online with suspicions neo-Nazi groups were planting “fairly complex” explosives along smuggling routes, according to the Christian Science Monitor.  J.T. Ready was once quoted as saying, “I firmly believe in having a minefield across the border.”  He was also known for wanting to militarize the border and had patrolled there repeatedly with his own militia group, U.S. Border Guard.

But the following must be one of Ready’s most bizarre statements: “Arizona Statues allow the fielding of most weapons short of nuclear weapons and certain chemical weapons.  Therefore we are already in contact with brokers concerning a .50 cal semi-automatic rifle and a MBT– Main Battle Tank.”


Russell Pearce paling with J.T. Ready

Some friends said the man was “cruel and controlling” and one of his victims, his girlfriend Lisa Lynn Mederos, may not have known of his troubled past with women.  In 2009, a Scottsdale woman filed an order of protection against him; in 2003 a woman in Ready's apartment complex accused him of stalking, spying, frequently calling and trying to kiss her.  Some family members hated him and Ready called the toddler, Lilly, he killed “50 % ugly” because she was half-Latino.
    

J.T. Ready was sponsored as an elder in the Mormon Church by former Arizona state Senator Russell Pearce, who was dumped from his job recently by voters, but not until he had authored the state’s anti-immigration bill, SB-1070.  And when it comes to the relationship between Russell Pearce and Ready I must defer to Phoenix New Times writer Stephen Lemons, who publishes the blog, the Feathered Bastard, and his dogged coverage of the two.

In a May 2 article, Lemons said, “Perhaps the most controversial aspect of Ready was his relationship with ex-Senator Pearce, who helped him join the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and groomed him, according to Ready, for a possible run for the legislature.”  Their affiliation later soured when Pearce distanced himself from Ready and actually renounced him in 2008.

Best Buds J.T. Ready with Russell Pearce
In Lemons article on May 3, he accuses Russell Pearce of lying “again,” with documentation that is a must read.  The two were so close, he said, that Pearce ordained Ready as an elder in the Mormon Church’s Melchizedek priesthood for adult men in the church.  But Pearce continues to deny the closeness of their relationship. 

Krysten Sinema, former Arizona state senator, sponsored a 2007 event in the legislature on extremism in the immigration movement.

Lemons asked Sinema if it was possible that Pearce could not be aware of that seminar.  She answered, "I find that very hard to believe,” she told me in 2008. "The entire Legislature was invited to the event. The whole thing was videotaped, and you can watch it on our archive. And I reported it on the floor [of the state House]."  Pearce has been charged regularly by Democrats, the media, even fellow Republicans of misstating facts to make his points.

Video of Russell Pearce endorsing J.T. Ready

There’s more.  The Arizona regional director for the Anti-Defamation League, Bill Straus, says that he informed Pearce of Ready’s extremist activities as far back as 2006.  Once again, Pearce blatantly disputes the fact that the two had close ties.  He even told Lemons in 2007 at a roast of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio that he really didn’t think J.T. was a “Bad guy.”  When lemons questioned their on-going friendship, Pearce replied he didn’t hang out with Ready.

The “Bird” as the author refers to himself, quickly reminded the ex-senator that he observed him working side-by-side, arm-in-arm at a rally and had the photos to prove it.  Pearce replied, “I don’t push people away.”  This was in December of 2007 after being warned by Straus, also following Ready’s public outing as a white supremacist.  I urge you to read Stephen Lemons full account of the issue of Pearce’s lies in the above May 3 link.

So it is clear that defrocked Senator Russell Pearce was buddies with J.T. Ready until the extremist no longer served his needs, at which time he dumped him and tried to cover up the past with lies that have been confirmed as just that over and over.  It is ludicrous that Russell Pearce still has the unquestioned support of many of his fellow Republicans and has the arrogance to run for the Arizona Senate in the same general area that has already thrown him out of office.

Only in Arizona.

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