by Corinne Murdock | Apr 27, 2023 | News
By Corinne Murdock |
State Rep. Stephanie Stahl Hamilton (D-AZ-10) stole Bibles from the Arizona State Capitol, per security footage of the lawmaker.
Stahl Hamilton would hide the Bibles underneath furniture cushions and fridges. This came to light after members noticed the Bibles missing from the members-only lounge, beginning at the start of this year. House personnel placed hidden cameras in the members lounge to discover what happened.
Security footage showed Stahl Hamilton swiping a Bible off a table from the members-only lounge. Stahl Hamilton claims to be an “ordained minister” with the Presbyterian denomination.
AZ Family first caught wind of Stahl Hamilton’s Bible swiping. They confronted her, on camera, after Stahl-Hamilton hung up on the phone with them. Stahl Hamilton initially insisted that she wasn’t aware of the accusations against her.
“I don’t want to talk to you,” said Stahl Hamilton. “Who said anything about hiding Bibles?”
When AZ Family reporter David Caltabiano informed Stahl Hamilton that there was security footage of her swiping the Bible, Stahl Hamilton turned away from where she was headed and retreated to the private entrance from which she’d come.
Republican lawmakers made light of Stahl Hamilton’s disdain for Bibles at the capitol.
This wouldn’t be Stahl Hamilton’s first contradiction between her political activity and her alleged faith.
Stahl Hamilton was endorsed by Planned Parenthood and supports abortion.
Stahl Hamilton has also backed laws advocating for LGBTQ+ lifestyles and ideologies for children and adults.
Most of Stahl Hamilton’s career prior to the legislature purportedly concerned Christian ministry. Stahl Hamilton received an undergraduate degree in Christian education prior to receiving a seminary degree. Stahl Hamilton then worked as the director of Christian Education and Youth Ministry for the Flagstaff Federated Community Church, before working as another youth ministry director at St. Mark’s Presbyterian Church.
The 2005 case Van Orden v. Perry dispelled misconceptions about the presence of Christian text on government property as a violation of the separation between church and state. In the case, a citizen claimed that the Texas State Capitol grounds couldn’t contain a monument bearing the Bible’s Ten Commandments. The Supreme Court disagreed in a 5-4 decision.
Chief Justice William Rehnquist cited from Zorach v. Clauson in his opinion for the court:
“‘[W]e find no constitutional requirement which makes it necessary for government to be hostile to religion and to throw its weight against efforts to widen the effective scope of religious influence,’” quoted Rehnquist.
Justice Stephen Breyer wrote similarly in a concurring opinion:
“The Establishment Clause does not compel the government to purge from the public sphere all that in any way partakes of the religious,” wrote Breyer. “Such absolutism is not only inconsistent with our national traditions… but would also tend to promote the kind of social conflict the Establishment Clause seeks to avoid.”
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
by Terri Jo Neff | Jun 26, 2022 | News
By Terri Jo Neff |
The reactions to Friday night’s initially peaceful protest at the State Capitol which was turned into a melee by agitators eerily echo the response to the January 6, 2021 events in Washington DC, only this time the political shoes are on different feet.
Many Republicans back in 2021 urged Americans to not paint all attendees at protests and rallies across Washington DC on Jan. 6 as criminals. In fact, less than 2,000 of the estimated 40,000 who gathered in the city that day have ever been investigated or charged for engaging in criminal conduct.
Yet some leaders of the Democratic Party have sought since then to paint anyone who attended a “J6” protest or rally as domestic terrorists.
Their tune has changed, however, at least as it relates to Friday night’s gathering of what an Arizona Department of Public Safety spokesman said was 7,000 to 8,000 people present to protest the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Roe v. Wade.
Among those who promoted the protest was Raquel Teran, the chair of the Arizona Democratic Party and a LD30 state representative. Teran tweeted a flyer which called on those who opposed the SCOTUS ruling to show up at the Capitol on Friday at 7 p.m.
The same event was publicized by a group going by the name RadicalWomenPHX which advised those attending to use a Sharpie to write the group’s arrest hotline on their arms “as an extra safety precaution” if the protest went “sideways.”
Teran is another Arizona Democrat who does not shy away from calling on supporters to “fight” in the streets, despite national Democrats who continue to blame former President Donald Trump’s call for supporters to fight election fraud as the cause of the incursion into the U.S. Capitol in 2021.
Twenty-four hours later, Teran had not tweeted any condemnation of those seen in multiple videos attempting to kick in doors at the Senate Building. Or those belonging to what an Arizona Department of Public Safety spokesperson called “splinter groups” who turned the initially peaceful protest into “anarchical and criminal actions.”
According to Graves, when some of the attendees realized the Arizona Legislature was in session, “they attempted to breach the doors of the Arizona Senate and force their way into the building. The violence of their efforts literally shook the building and terrified citizens and law makers who occupied the building.”
At one point some of the glass doors of the Senate building bowed from the attempts of forced entry, which Graves said triggered security and law enforcement officials to instruct everyone inside the building to move to secure locations.
“Due to the direct threat to the occupants of the Senate building and damage to the building itself, Arizona State Troopers took immediate action and utilized tactics including the deployment of field force teams and tear gas,” Graves noted.
On Saturday, Senate President Karen Fann tweeted a short video recorded by Sen. Michelle Ugenti-Rita from inside the Senate building. The video shows protestors outside the building, which has several glass doors and windows on the ground floor.
In her tweet, Fann described the crowd as an “insurrection” but the DPS statement makes clear no one unlawfully entered any of the Capitol buildings. In fact, the video taken by Ugenti-Rita shows most of the large crowd of protestors yelling and carrying signs. Only a handful of agitators are seen pounding on the windows and kicking at the glass doors.
There were also false social media reports about educators “invading” the Arizona Senate as part of the protests, which Fann quickly refuted. She noted the educators seen in photos wearing Red for Ed shirts on the Senate floor were guests seated in the gallery and then brought to the floor in an effort to get them to safety along with Senators and staff.
Ugenti-Rita tweeted a second video taken later on Friday night when a DPS tactical team was deployed inside the Senate building. By then many of the protestors and rioters had left the area after tear gas was fired at the unruly crowd. .
Sen. T.J. Shope supported the decision by DPS command to utilize tear gas when the crowd failed to stop the attack on the building.
However, the situation at the Senate building was not the only one which triggered a law enforcement response in the area.
“As the riotous behavior at the Legislature was taking place, concurrent and spillover criminal misconduct in the form of felony criminal damage and the defacing of state memorials was occurring in Wesley Bolin Plaza,” Graves said.
The response of troopers and other law enforcement officers was complicated by the fact some people had brought children to the protest which turned into unlawful assembly, according to Graves.
“After multiple warnings, and notifications of trespass and unlawful assembly, state troopers deployed gas and strategically moved to clear the plaza,” Graves said, adding that as rioters were cleared from one area they damaged state property in the next area. Those properties and publicly funded memorials which suffered what Graves called “significant criminal damage” include:
- Arizona Law Enforcement Canine Memorial
- Arizona Peace Officers Memorial
- Lt. Frank Luke Jr. Memorial
- Korean War Memorial
- Operation Enduring Freedom Memorial
- Wesley Bolin Memorial Amphitheatre
- 158th Regimental Memorial
Estimates for the cost of cleaning and repairing the damage is not yet available. DPS released no information about any arrests which may have been made in connection with the damage, but among those calling for prosecution of those who marred the various memorials is Republican gubernatorial candidate Karrin Taylor Robson, who shared several photos taken by Sen. Kelly Townsend the morning after.
by Corinne Murdock | May 5, 2022 | News
By Corinne Murdock |
On Wednesday, less than a day after Politico leaked the Supreme Court draft opinion overturning abortion rights, abortion activists protested at the Arizona State Capitol.
Multiple attendees and reporters present estimated that thousands descended on the capitol.
Pro-life protestors also appeared at the Arizona State Capitol to challenge the pro-abortion activists.
Protestors also rallied in downtown Tucson and Flagstaff.
Arizona Department of Public Safety reported that two men were arrested. One allegedly engaged in disorderly conduct, the other allegedly committed an assault.
If the Supreme Court maintains a ruling matching the leaked draft opinion, then Arizona would likely ban abortion completely.
From the time Arizona became a state to the Roe v. Wade ruling, Arizona outlawed abortion completely, excepting life-threatening pregnancies, and punished anyone who performed abortions with prison time. If the Supreme Court overturns the precedents established by Roe v. Wade and Casey v. Planned Parenthood, then the state may return to a total ban. The ban exists still within the Arizona Revised Statutes under Title 13, Chapter 36.
In March, Governor Doug Ducey signed a ban on abortions after 15 weeks’ gestation, SB1164. The law would go in effect 90 days after the current legislative session ends.
Elsewhere, pro-abortion protests turned into riots. In Los Angeles, California rioters attacked policemen and vandalized the city. In Portland, Oregon, riots incited by Antifa broke out.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.