This past Saturday, well over 50,000 people attended a rally in Phoenix, Arizona to protest the racist S.B. 1070 bill signed by Arizona governor Jan Brewer in April. People from all across the country traveled to Phoenix and braved the extreme heat in order to express their outrage over the law. The march was non-violent and passed without incident. A pro-S.B. 1070 rally was scheduled for later on Saturday but some of the anti-immigrant folks decided to show up to the earlier rally to show off their support for the racist law.
One of those people was neo-Nazi J.T. Ready. Ready and a half dozen others protested the anti-S.B. 1070 march. Ready and his cronies showed up not only with signs and confederate flags but also loaded guns. One of Ready’s fellow protesters was wearing a t-shirt promoting a “white peoples party.” That same man had a loaded shotgun strung across his shoulder. Ready was the spokesman for the protesters and when asked if they were ready to use their weapons he responded, “We are prepared to defend ourselves. That’s one of our rights here in Arizona too.”
Ready is a self-confessed member of the National Socialist Movement, a neo-Nazi group. In another video interview with a local Arizona news channel he heaped praise on Adolf Hitler. Ready is also good buddies with Arizona State Senator Russell Pearce, who was the chief sponsor of S.B. 1070. Pearce is a member of State Legislators for Legal Immigration, a coalition of anti-immigrant state-elected officials. State Legislators is an affiliate of the John Tanton Network, a web of controversial anti-immigrant organizations.
It is not surprising that neo-Nazis like Ready are attracted to the anti-immigrant movement – especially because many anti-immigrant leaders and organizations have strong ties to white nationalists. Ready and many more far right extremists will be gathering this coming weekend for a bigger anti-immigrant rally in Phoenix. The June 5 event is being spearheaded by a group called Voice of the People which owns the phoenixrally.com website. The group’s leader, Daniel Smeriglio, has strong ties to white nationalist individuals and organizations. After this past weekend’s peaceful rally, Voice of the People issued a press release criticizing the attendees saying that they were “bused in from out of state by unions.” Voice of the People failed to point out that they and other major organizers for the June 5th rally have been arranging carpools and other forms of transportation for attendees. It will be very interesting to compare and contrast last weekend’s peaceful march with next weekend’s hate rally.