We’ve heard stories like this way too many times:
A woman armed with scissors was shot five times and killed by police over the weekend in this small eastern Arizona community, authorities said.
A Winslow police officer responded to a convenience store Sunday on a report of shoplifting and found Loreal Tsingine, a 27-year-old woman who fit the description of the suspect, said Winslow police Lt. Jim Sepi. Tsingine struggled with the officer and threatened with scissors as the officer tried to take her into custody, authorities said.
Summary execution for suspected shoplifting. Yeah, that’s the ticket. Plenty enough reason for a 7-year old girl to lose her mother. Loreal was suspected of stealing a case of beer, which she did not apparently have in hand at the time of her shooting, two blocks distant from the store. (At least it’s not been reported that she did.)
Mostly known for the Eagles song “Take It Easy”, Winslow serves as a pit stop to I-40 travelers, and along Route 66 before that. And the transcontinental railroad before that. Not far to the north is the Navajo Nation, the nation’s largest Indian reservation, both in terms of area and population, extending into three states. For the Diné, Winslow’s a “border town”, and not a particularly friendly one.
Yesterday, there was a rally and vigil in Winslow. About 350 people showed up (pix here), demonstrating at the City of Winslow Police Complex, which occupies an entire block. Winslow is not a large town, with 2013 population of <10,000, augmented by 100s of Native American kids bussed in from the nearby Rez to the local high school. Racially, about a quarter of the town is Native American, with about 1/3 of whites and of Hispanics. (The rest are mixed, black, Pacific islander or Asian.) This could well have been the largest protest the town’s ever seen.
In addition to Loreal’s family, Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye addressed the rally.
“To the city of Winslow, we will sue you,” said an obviously irritated President Begaye, who speech was very supportive of the slain Tsingine’s family. He said he will put the full weight of the Navajo Nation in support of her family.
This won’t be going away any time soon.
Winslow may be a small town in an isolated location, far from the rest of the country. Not in the nation’s consciousness much, except on oldies radio. But it’s worth noting that there’s other national implications for what goes on in this high desert outpost, named after the head of the railroad which literally put them on the map.
In December 2014, [retired Graham County, AZ] Sheriff Richard Mack, founder of the right-wing Constitutional Sheriffs & Peace Officers Association (similar to the Oath Keepers), announced his intention to move to Winslow to run for Navajo County Sheriff in 2016. He urged supporters to move there, too, to help a full county-wide slate of candidates sharing his philosophies take over 100% of the county government. Somalia on the Little Colorado. That same month, his wife was stricken with an unspecified illness requiring expensive ongoing treatment. Only a few weeks later, Richard had a heart attack requiring surgery. Since he was opposed to ObamaCare and self-employed, the family was uninsured and has diverted attention to fundraising for the medical bills. He could still sign up, since you can’t be refused for pre-existing conditions, but I suppose he’s holding out for Medicare, for which he’ll be eligible next year. Anything but socialist ObamaCare! Mack is also a proud member of the NRA’s Hall of Fame.
Best I can tell, Mack is still out on the speaker’s circuit, but has not moved to Winslow and is not running for Sheriff there after all. Navajo County has issued its list of primary candidates for office (PDF) for next month’s primary, and it does not appear that the “constitutional county” movement has fielded a slate of candidates. In fact, many of the positions only have Democratic candidates, with no Republicans filed to run at all.
There’s 2 weeks left to sign up to vote for Arizona’s May 17th primary (registration deadline Apr 18.) Perhaps one outcome of this tragic travesty will be voter registration efforts and some changes to come in the November general election, even next month. As of the March 22 Presidential primary, Navajo County had 23,333 registered Democratic voters vs. 18,890 Republicans already. (Plus unknown number of independents who can’t vote in the closed primary.)
In a county where only 1/3 of the population is white, there is both the need and the ability to make some changes. With the Navajo Nation stepping into the arena, perhaps there are improved chances for meaningful #Justice4Loreal.
None of which does a damn thing for a 7-year old girl who’s lost her mother.