With her silver power-mullet, support hose, and ankle-length leopard-print skirt, Laine Roberta Lawless is a cross between Ma Barker, Dog the Bounty Hunter, and South Park school-bus driver Mrs. Crabtree (minus the bird in her hair). Actually, Lawless, 57, is more like the Carrie Nation of the anti-illegal-immigration movement, but instead of smashing up bars with a hatchet like the temperance battle-ax of yore, Lawless' shtick is barbecuing Mexican flags.
Which is what she did last December 16 in front of the Mexican consulate in Phoenix, but not until she had finished her megaphone-enhanced diatribe about the hordes of illegals invading this country.
"This foreign infestation has grown to the point where the illegals among us victimize an American citizen every 17 seconds," she spewed to an assemblage of curiosity-seekers, counterprotesters, and more than a few of Phoenix's finest in plainclothes. (Lawless later admits that the foreign-infestation factoid is the concoction of a confederate, a "distillation" of disparate sources.)
There was tittering in the crowd as she continued her gas-bagging about Americans being the unwitting prey of the brown tide.
"Mexico actively promotes illegal immigration and routinely interferes with the internal affairs of the United States," she read from a black notebook in her left hand, as her bearded buddy, Don Pauly of the Emigration Party of Nevada, held signs touting anti-immigrant stats and advertising Lawless' self-produced DVD, How to Burn a Mexican Flag. "This is an outrage! Why are more American citizens not joining with me here today to protect American sovereignty?"
A girl's voice cried out from the crowd, "Because you're a racist nut!"
Lawless paused to let the laughter die down. Photogs snapped away. Lawless persevered, at one point yelling to a group of men across the street that included Rusty Childress, owner of the Childress auto mall in Phoenix and a well-known anti-illegal-immigration booster who hosts a regular Thursday-night meeting for like-minded folks at his Kia dealership. Childress was videotaping the event from a distance, refusing to join Lawless and Pauly, which pissed off Lawless big-time.
"I want to know what's the matter with the men of Phoenix," she barked. "Aren't your balls big enough to stand here with me and burn the Mexican flag?"
The answer was, apparently, not. Childress, et al., did not cross the street and help out. So Lawless resumed her rant.
"We are asked who will pick our vegetables, who will do your landscaping, and who will clean your toilets," Lawless screeched. "My response to that is, 'We will!' I don't have a problem cleaning my own toilet. I do it every week."
Reaching across geo-political lines to engage average Americans on the issues.
Source: http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2007-02-15/news/burn-baby-burn/