Arizona speed bumps
On June 16, Gov. Jan Brewer told an interviewer with Fox News about the "...beheadings and the fact that people can't feel safe in their community." On June 27, during an interview with KPNX, she said, "Oh, our law enforcement agencies have found bodies in the desert, either buried or just lying there, that have been beheaded."
No coroner, medical examiner or anyone within Arizona law enforcement has been able to back up her claim, nor are their any records of even one beheading in Arizona. When confronted with this fact during her debate with Terry Goddard, Brewer managed to avoid answering the question a number of times. When questioned post-debate by the press, she again refused to answer the question by running out of the room.
Since that time, Brewer has stated that she "misspoke" and she apologizes if people were "misled" by her choice of words. As she retracted her ealier statements, state Sen. Russell Pearce, the man behind SB 1070, defended her by saying, "I can tell you there's been 300 to 500 beheadings and dismemberments along that border... [it] is a national security concern, yet we're worried about this game-playing, this word-smithing."
So the truth in numbers behind the beheadings in Arizona lies somewhere between 0 and 500. The 0 is backed up by statistics and facts, the 500 is backed up by a party who uses fear-mongering as a means of informing their voters on the issues.
Be careful when you drive through Arizona, no telling what you might run over.
