Prop 405 denied ballot status

The man featured to the left is JT Ready, local Minuteman flunky and sidekick/working-class-beard for local silver spoon anti-immigration activist Rusty Childress (who I have written about before on this blog). Despite that huggy-bear big grin on his face, Ready is likely not very happy today because Friday the racist Proposition 405 was denied ballot status by Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Janet Barton. The Arizona Republic reports,

The proposal would require police officers to act as Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and enforce federal immigration laws. It would also require Phoenix to enter an agreement with the Department of Homeland Security and "designate officers" to act as federal immigration agents.

The measure ended up in court after a coalition of mostly Latino groups joined forces to stop the measure. Three Phoenix residents then filed a lawsuit on Aug. 25 alleging, in part, that a city charter provision violates state law by allowing an extra 10 days for proponents of a measure to turn in additional signatures if they come up short on their first try.

Barton agreed, and it was that decision that rendered invalid the second batch of 892 valid signatures filed in support of the measure. Randy Pullen, leading a group called Protect Our City, had fallen short 684 valid signatures when he first filed.

This ruling reaffirms the city's policy of preventing police from enforcing Federal immigration law when they encounter undocumented residents. In an extremely rare progressive move, motivated more out of concern for increased workload and fear of investigations compromised by lack of witness participation, the Phoenix police union actually came out against the proposition. Bravo.

Returning to our old rival, failed Mesa City Council candidate and apparent bad shot, JT Ready, you may notice his tasteless Confederate Flag doo-rag. This photo was taken at Monday's pro-immigrant rights rally downtown, where anarchists and Minutemen clashed briefly. Despite the obvious white power history of the Confederate flag, he went to great pains to assure the photographer that his suspicious headgear was not a racist symbol or a sign of his own racist attitudes. Whatever, JT.

JT Ready is perhaps most famous for his attempted murder of an undocumented immigrant, Efrain Martinez, who Ready claimed was attempting to car jack him. In reality, Ready had racially profiled a group of Latinos and after tailing their truck into a cul de sac, freaked out and took a shot at Martinez, a passerby.

Ready told Police that he had shot in self defense. Police arrested and held Martinez, whose story differs significantly from Ready's, for 42 days, but when they became skeptical of Ready's version he was deported with only a minor charge. Much to Ready's chagrin, Martinez was back in the country less than a week later, prompting local anarchists to sport signs reading, "We are all Efrain Martinez" at local anti-Minutemen protests forever after.