Minuteman Vigilante on Trial for Murder of 9 Year Old Latina

Here’s a story that has been recently getting attention because of its lack of attention. The story of Brisenia Flores, a nine year old girl killed during a home invasion in Arizona, has been spreading through the Internet. News Taco first told you about this last week, it came to my attention again when a friend and colleague posted it on FaceBook; I saw it once more this morning and decided that I’d write about it again.

The case involves anti-immigrant extremists, drugs, and murder. As the Village Voice reports it:

…Shawna Forde, a troubled anti-immigration crusader, who stands charged with first degree murder for the 2009 killing of 9-year-old Brisenia Flores and her father in Arizona. Gina Gonzalez, Flores’ mother, was also shot in the botched home invasion; she testified Tuesday about witnessing her daughter’s death. And yet, despite the tragic narrative — including its cursory similarities to the death of 9-year-old Christina Taylor Green at the hands of Jared Loughner, also in Arizona — plus the inclusion of other hot-button issues like immigration and extreme political discourse from groups like the Tea Party and Minutemen, which Forde identified with, much of the mainstream media continues to avoid the story of Flores’ death.

The narrative is that Forde, the Arizona anti-immigrant crusader, planned to steal cash from the sale of marijuana from the Flores home supposedly to fund her anti-immigrant “vigilante work aligned with the Minutemen group, who have since worked to distance themselves from Forde’s extreme measures.”

And yet no mainstream media outlet-local, regional or national-has covered the trial. Only on the Internet is the story getting attention. This from the Daily Beast:

“Latinos are still wondering why the murder of 9-year-old Brisenia Flores raised none of the outcry of rancher Robert Krentz’s killing, which fueled Arizona’s tough immigration law.”

No public condemnation, no interest from the mainstream media. Why’s that you suppose?