You Can't Negotiate with the Clueless

I was listening to Alfredo on Radio Campesina last week as he encouraged protesters to meet at Pruitt's furniture store for the weekly protest.  I must confess that I'm at loss to understand why Salvadore Reza and his band of Day Labor advocates have chosen to pick on Pruitts.

I used to live in that neighborhood, so I've often shopped at Pruitts and at the Home Depot next to it.  A few years ago, you couldn't get through the Home Depot parking lot without being swarmed by day laborers.  Eventually, Home Depot posted signs and kicked them off the property.  So the swarm moved to the Pruitt's parking lot.  Pruitt's owner Roger Sensing asked them not to hang around in his parking lot, but they ignored him, so he hired off duty deputies to enforce the anti-loitering laws.

But instead of protesting Home Depot's decision to kick them off its property, they are protesting at Pruitts. 

Mayor Gordon is trying to defuse the situation.

Mayor Phil Gordon has formally invited a furniture-store owner and the man protesting his business to meet with him in an effort to resolve their dispute.

"I am asking you both to come to City Hall, where the three of us can attempt to work through your issues of disagreement," Gordon wrote Monday in a letter to Roger Sensing and Salvador Reza.

Gordon's efforts have fallen short.  I recently read a Tribune article that made me realize why Gordon and Sensing haven't been able to deal with Reza.

Reza said the only demand of the Mexican community is for the sherriff’s deputies to leave the parking lot. “I think when you have one individual, like Mr. Pruitt, hurting a community, then a community has the right not to buy from them,” Reza said.

Mr. Pruitt? Mr. Pruitt?  Salvadore Reza has been disrupting Roger Sensing's life for over a year.  The mayor has been negotiating for them to meet and work out a solution.  Reza refuses and makes it clear that the protest is about Sensing "hurting the community."  But Reza hasn't even figured out that the guy's name isn't Pruitt. 

I've been looking for a rational reason behind the protests and mayor Gordon has been looking for a rational way to quell the protests, our mistake has been assuming that the organizer of the protests is rational.  After a year of leading the protests, Mr. Reza doesn't even know the name of the man whose business he's ruining. 

In the face of such ignorance, looking for a rational explanation or a rational solution is futile. 

Comments

[Aiyana]

Anyone who obviously doesn't understand the rule of law can't be expected to know Mr. Pruitt is actually Mr. Sensing. Reza will probably go after Mr. H. Depot if he could just figure out in which store he hangs out.

[Liberal Dem]

I, too, have long wondered why Reza and folks are picking on this one business who merely seems to be trying to keep their parking lot free of loiterers, illegal or not, so their potential customers can get to the store. Why not picket city hall or someting? they are picking on this one business because the guy asked them to stay off his private property?? I don't get it, they are giving anyone else who has legit issues regarding racial profiling, etc, a bad name. Get off the guy's property! If I was remotely in the market for furniture, I'd shop at Pruitt's. Will they be happy when the guy goes out of business?? Why?

[Hispanic Democrat]

Salvador Reza has a track record of going off on his own and picking fights without either consulting nor cooperating with the larger Hispanic or progressive communities, only to garner some mixed publicity and harden the views of his cult-like following. His small but loyal group of supporters have a relationship with him I can only describe as being both bizarre and having nothing to do with immigrant rights activism.

Like a wayward relative, the leadership of both communities have reacted to his activities in ways ranging from indulgence to muted scolding. The pattern lately has been the same: 1) Reza self-appoints himself leader of the migrant community as he picks a fight; 2) the media caricatures the faceoff of a dozen if that extremists on either side as a defining moment in the immigration debate; 3) the Hispanic and progressive communities attempt to save face in order to avoid the discrediting of Reza being interpreted by the media as the discrediting of the movement as a whole.

This is a tactical error on the part of Hispanic and progressive activists, and in order to avoid the obvious trouble this can lead to, they should disassociate themselves from Reza, if the Pruitt's issue can be resolved. If for no other reason, it does a disservice to legitimate leaders who, while you may disagree with them, have significant grassroots support in the communities they purport to represent rather than resting on the laurels of a third-rate personality cult. Instead, with this Pruitt's issue, it may be too late.

[VWgal]

Poor Pruitts, furniture stores in the valley are already struggling because of the housing sales situation - this is just another issue for Pruitts to get past.

Its just the wrong battle for Reza to choose.

Very frustrating.

[Benson]

Where do I begin? Should it be with the gutless Mayor and Chief Harris who have been absolutely negligent on this issue? Or with the "Hispanic and Progressive Community" who have not had the decency to step in and go down to Pruitts and cry for justice for these victims - "Mr. Pruitt" and all his employees.
And a word to all the folks protesting the protesters: "Knock it off"! You are not helping matters. If you want to show support continue to pressure the spineless Phoenix Council, Mayor and Police Chief to stop this nonsense and enforce the laws that protect every propperty owner.
Whew. I've been wanting to get that off my chest. Thanks Greg and MERRY CHRISTMAS to all!

[Nick]

Phil has stated this is a private dispute
between two parties.

When Phil runs for higher office it will
be interesting to see what bending with
the wind does for his future!

[Nick]

Police regulation 1.4.3

I forgot Phil was for the regulation
before he was against it!
See Phil sway in the breeze.

[Tom]

When talking about Reza the words terrorist and extortion come to mind. Has anyone in the print media ever bothered to investigate Reza with their crack investigative journalists?
Probably they fear intimidation if they do.

[ron]

Salvador Reza doesn't speak for all Hispanics anymore than Rush Limbaugh speaks for all white men.

[Paul Srch]

That may be true Ron, but at least he seems to think he does.

I do wish that those Hispanics for whom he does not speak would repudiate him, his speeches, and his tactics - not just mildly, but loudly and forcefully. This is nothing less that what I ask of so-called moderate Muslims when it comes to their fanatical brethren.

By doing so, those Hispanics would go a long way toward defusing the tension Reza is fostering.

[Logical1]

The hispanic community at large should vilify and crucify Reza. His over the top actions and antics are a driving force for the push to get rid of the illegal population.

Reza has become a poster child for th illegals that have entered into this country in the last few years. He has taught them to demand benefits and rights that are not given to them because they are here illegaly. He has no respect for the law of the land or for the people that do.

[arizona dem]

This whole situation is a joke. Salvador Reza is nothing more than a con man leading the people he claims to care about down a dead end path. He's done more than anyone I can think of to end any possibility of a rational discourse about immigration. It's very sad, actually. Unfortunately, it seems his irrational logic and fear mongering tactics are now rubbing off on people who otherwise used to be rational.

[The Klute]

"I do wish that those Hispanics for whom he does not speak would repudiate him, his speeches, and his tactics - not just mildly, but loudly and forcefully. This is nothing less that what I ask of so-called moderate Muslims when it comes to their fanatical brethren."

I love how white people demand that Muslims and Mexicans must denounce the radical element on their side, but trip over themselves rushing to defend the radical element on their side. I can't remember the last time I heard anyone on the Nativist decry people like white supremacist JT Ready. Russell Pearce can barely be forced to offer up the blandest criticism of him.

[BobH]

Who is JT Ready?

[The Klute]

JT Ready was a former candidate for Mesa City Council, possible source of Randall Pearce's infamous e-mail forward, proud member of NewSaxon.org, and featured speaker at the counter-immigration rally back in June...

Stephen Lemons at the New Times has a lot of info about him in the "The Bird" column.

If you wonder why people get the impression that the anti-immigration side has an ugly racist river underneath it, JT Ready is exhibit A.

Just so we're clear: I don't think anyone's a racist for wanting restricted immigration or some such - but I know the movement provides a home for racists - and if Paul Srch demands that moderate Muslims loudly and forcefully denounce Islamic radicals, I also demand that moderate anti-immigration loudly and forcefully denounce the racists in their movement.

[Benson]

Here you go Klute:
"I HEARBY DENOUNCE THEE"
Your turn.

[The Klute]

Well, since I'm neither Mexican or Muslim, I'm not required to denounce anyone. And obviously, sarcastic one-liners posted on a blog wouln't cut it.

[Benson]

Just a little post-Yule time humor Klute. In all seriousness though: why must one be "Mexican or Muslim" to denounce this injustice? Why can't honest to goodness citizens of this great nation just stand up and call for this nonsense at Pruitt's to end? I know the answer. Too many people have been cowed into being afraid to stand up to non-Anglo/white individuals, no matter how outrageous their behavior (Al Sharpton for instance), for fear of being called a "racist".
Where are all the "progressives" marching in the street chanting "No Justice - No Peace" for "Mr. Pruitt"?
It's really sad