Haley Holland When Haley Holland made noise at a re- cent One Fair Wage rally, it was all in a day’s work for the Phoenix-based activist. As a fair-wage organizer, Holland marched and protested and wrote speeches; in her spare time, she phone-banked seven hours a day, calling people to encourage them to tell their stories of being underpaid and to write letters to congresspeople demanding fair treatment. She knew where disgrun- tled minimum-wage service industry workers were coming from: Before the pandemic, she worked 65-hour weeks, bar- tending nights and weekends at a local res- taurant. She sees her activism — which lately includes mutual-aid work for Feed Phoenix and labor movement work at Jobs With Justice Coalition — as an opportunity to empower others to stand up for them- selves. Ultimately, as Holland keeps saying from various podiums and at public ac- tions, raising lousy wages isn’t about money — it’s about dignity. EEEEE Maricopa County Attorney Election Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich We thought we knew Mark Brnovich a lit- tle, back in 2015. He’s a Republican, but he told us that, as the son of an immigrant, he was sympathetic to the plight of those who come to America seeking a better life. “The day people stop trying to come to this coun- try is the day we’ll know something’s wrong,” he said. Now, he’s doing everything he can to stop them from arriving. Desper- ate to win what will be a tough primary and general election for Mark Kelly’s seat in No- vember, it seems like Brnovich is on Fox News every week, railing about immigrants and how they’re bringing in more CO- VID-19, attacking Biden’s immigration poli- cies, and blowing racist dog whistles. His rhetoric has become more like Russell Pearce 2.0: “This crisis will not end until Joe Biden and cartel [Mark] Kelly love Ameri- can … children more than they love the chil- dren of people that have entered the country illegally.” So disappointing. So Ari- zona. EEEEE ACAB Gang 38 Police and prosecutors had a problem last spring. A small gaggle of young white liber- Kyrsten Sinema’s Curtsy Dressed like a schoolgirl, the senior U.S. senator from our state cast her vote on a bill The race for Maricopa County Attorney in 2020 was a tough fight between two capa- ble, smart women. In the wake of the George Floyd murder and its aftermath, Re- publican Allister Adel was running neck- and-neck with progressive Democrat Julie Gunnigle. Then came Election Night. Would Gunnigle overcome the county’s ad- vantage in Republican voters and be swept to victory by the defund-the-police crowd? Tensions were high. The first votes were counted. Gunnigle was ahead. But then the story of this election went from being damned interesting to something worthy of a Netflix movie: Adel was suddenly rushed to the hospital with bleeding in the brain. After that, more votes were counted and Adel took the lead. Days passed, and her lead increased. A week later, Gunnigle con- ceded. But there was still no word from Adel. Had she become the first female county attorney in the county’s history, only to be unable to serve? Nope, she took office — although she recently stepped back for several weeks to address alcohol abuse and eating disorder issues. EEEEE als who support the Black community went on a minor rampage one night in Oc- tober in downtown Phoenix, daring to knock over construction signs as they chanted “Black Lives Matter” and “All Cops Are Bastards” (ACAB). Dressed in black, they used umbrellas to shield them- selves from rubber bullets and police cam- eras. The problem for police was that they couldn’t think of enough to charge these folks with. So they came up with a brilliant plan: They gave them a name (the ACAB Gang) and hit them with enhanced charges for being a criminal street gang. The au- thorities were thrilled with themselves and levied the criminal charges against the “gang members.” But when local activists, Democratic leaders, and the news media found out how they had concocted the case for the grand jury, outrage followed. The prosecutor’s office soon moved to dismiss the charges “in the interest of justice.” The blowback continues in the form of civil lawsuits by the protesters. EEEEE North Phoenix Baptist Church 5757 North Central Avenue It’s easy to live in Phoenix and become blind to all the parking lots. There are just so many in this car-centric, perpetually mobile city. The grandest one of all may be the sprawling lot around North Phoenix Baptist Church. Taking up some major real estate near Bethany Home Road and Missouri Avenue, and Central Avenue and Third Street, this lot is an essential part of life in the neighborhood. It’s hosted a slew of farmers’ markets and other community events. It’s where folks have learned to drive and even attended school. And, of course, it’s an essential place of worship for this part of town. Put all of that together, and you don’t just have a parking lot but a cornerstone of the community, a place with ample history and civic value. There are plenty of such places Valley-wide, but this lot stands tall as an example of the city turning asphalt into the fabric of shared experiences. to raise the minimum wage to $15: NO. As she did, she dropped a quick curtsy and a dramatic thumbs down, like a Roman em- peror calling for a gladiator to be executed. With that careless gesture and thumb, the lives of everyday Americans became harder, and millions of dreams deflated like popped balloons. The gesture marked the begin- ning of the end of Arizona’s Sinema honey- moon. She has vexed her Senate colleagues and fallen far behind Mark Kelly in ap- proval polls. Another term? Doubtful. EEEEE The Arizona State Capitol Guillotine On January 6, 2021, a day that will long live in infamy, an actual guillotine appeared outside the Arizona State Capitol, blade ready to slice. The guillotine sported a Donald Trump flag, and the group that lugged it out to the public lawn claimed to be protesting in support of the impeached president (who after his January 6 actions would soon be impeached again). These “protesters” refused to share their names with reporters. They made vague, belliger- ent statements, claiming to “not fear war.” Who would have thought that in a year of abject plague and record heat that the most “yikes” moment would be this? EEEEE Jake Angeli (Jacob Chansley) Of the thousands of Trump supporters, Proud Boys, white supremacists, and hope- ful insurgents who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, the most singularly memora- ble one is from Arizona. Go figure. Jacob Chansley, a 2005 graduate of Moon Valley High School, was at the Capitol in his guise as QAnon shaman Jake Angeli, dressed spec- tacularly in a fur hat with horns, Fourth of July makeup on his face, and nothing but tat- toos on his bare chest. Holding an American flag attached to a long spear, he was recorded walking through the Capitol with other riot- ers, clenching a fist behind the Speaker’s desk, and sitting in Mike Pence’s chair, where he wrote a note to the vice president that said, “ITS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME / JUSTICE IS COMING.” Back in Phoenix three days later, Chansley turned himself in upon learning the FBI was looking for him in its hunt for other protester-insurgents. Phoenix reporters already knew him from local right-wing protests: He was a 33-year- old wanna-be actor who lived with his mom in Glendale after falling behind on rent at his own apartment (the same mom who com- plained on his behalf when he wasn’t getting enough organic food in jail). In early Sep- tember, Chansley pleaded guilty to obstruct- ing a civil proceeding, and his sentencing is tentatively scheduled for November. Maybe federal prison will be able to keep up with his dietary requirements. EEEEE Maricopa County Ballot Audit This year, Republican cynicism or outright delusion about Trump’s failure to win the presidential election centered on Arizona, to a large extent, in one of the strangest bal- lot audits ever seen in modern politics. The Arizona Senate, led by Karen Fann and egged on by powerful state Republicans in- cluding the party’s state chair, Kelli Ward, ordered the Maricopa County Board of Su- pervisors to turn over all 2.1 million ballots cast in the county for the November 2020 election. The senate then hired an un- known Florida company, Cyber Ninjas, run by a Trump supporter, to conduct the au- BEST OF PHOENIX 2021 | WWW.BESTOFPHOENIX2021.C0M | SEPTEMBER 30, 2021 me g al o p olit an lif e B E S T P A RKING L O T B E S T A C TIV I S T B CLIF E S T PFH OLITIC A A NG L ER B AE PS O T SCA IGN OF THE E L Y PS B ULD END D T S HIT E C S O A S W S EMW IT H E KN O OCR O W TH AC A TY A NTI-IMMIGR E B S T NEW A NT BIG O T B E S T IN S URG ENT BOLITIC S E T D P UMB A L M A V O S E S B E S GA T FIC TI O N N G A L
