Earlier this week, we learned that two rabidly pro-Donald Trump women from Tempe, Arizona recorded themselves trashing a mosque. If that wasn’t disturbing enough, they had several kids in tow, and were actively training them to be Islamophobes.
Well, it looks like these women are going to pay a very stiff price for their depraved behavior. On Thursday afternoon, they were arrested on charges of burglary, and police have let it be known they consider this to be a hate crime.
Watch coverage from KNXV-TV in Phoenix here.
Police have been taking a long, hard look at Tahnee Gonzales and Liz Danenhauer since March 6, when mosque officials turned over evidence of their rampage that they posted to Facebook two days earlier.
They felt their rampage was justified, since they were “patriots” exposing “devil Satan worshipers” who “rape goats” and have pets for lunch, among other things. Apparently their idea of patriotism included taking several items from the mosque and encouraging the kids alongside them to use Islamophobic slurs. They were also heard berating a man coming out of the mosque, as well as calling Deedra Abboud, a Muslim-American woman running in the Democratic primary against Kyrsten Sinema for Jeff Flake’s Senate seat, a threat to America.
However, the investigation proceeded at a snail’s pace until HateHurts, a project of the Council on Islamic-American Relations’ Arizona chapter, blogged about the incident. Soon afterward, The Arizona Republic and HuffPost picked up the story.
Within 24 hours of HuffPost covering the incident, Gonzales and Danenhauer were taken into custody on charges of third-degree burglary, which carries up to two years in prison. Tempe police spokeswoman Lily Duran told the Southern Poverty Law Center that police will seek a hate crimes enhancement if Gonzales and Danenhauer are convicted.
While Arizona law does not provide for a separate hate crime charge, it does allow the judge to consider evidence that a crime was committed on account of the victim’s “race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, or disability” as an aggravating circumstance. Hopefully prosecutors are also at least thinking about slapping these two ladies–a term that must be used in its loosest possible sense in this case–with charges of child endangerment and contributing to the delinquency of minors.
Veteran Phoenix criminal attorney Scott Halverson told KNXV that there’s good reason to believe these charges will stick. Besides the publicity, Halverson thinks a judge won’t look very kindly on the fact they brought kids along. In an understatement, Halverson said that the average person would find that “pretty offensive.”
Gonzales and Danenhauer were previously affiliated with Patriot Movement AZ, a rabidly anti-immigrant and pro-Donald Trump outfit. PMAZ organized a notorious rally at the Arizona State Capitol in January at which members accused dark-skinned lawmakers and aides of being illegal immigrants.
However, in recent days, PMAZ has publicly disavowed Danenhauer and Gonzales, and denounced their behavior as “inconsistent and offensive” to its values. PMAZ even stated that it bounced Danenhauer as a member two weeks before her rampage with Gonzales went viral. Gonzales was never a member, but has taken part in a number of PMAZ events–including the January rally.
In contrast to their bombastic attitude at the mosque, Gonzales and Danenhauer were rather subdued when they appeared before a judge. After being released on bail and an ankle monitor, Gonzales was not nearly as talkative as she was while vandalizing the mosque. KPNX in Phoenix got raw video of her walking out of court.
Perhaps Gonzales realizes that her life as she previously knew it is over.
If there is ever a case for why convicted felons deserve to bear the opprobrium that usually follows them even after their sentences are complete, it’s this one. These two women deserve to have to tell prospective employers and landlords why they acted like such idiots that day.
(featured image courtesy Tempe Police Department via Daily Kos)
