48 Best of phoenix 2023 | WWW.bestofphoenix2023.c0m | septemBer 28, 2023 goes the route of many journos these days and signs up for Substack, people will actually pay to read her columns. (Novel idea, that.) In recent years, Roberts has targeted mostly Republican stupidity. But as our purple state trends blue, you can expect her to shift like a mood ring to assailing Democrat inanity, of which there will be plenty. Roberts, thankfully, is an equal-opportunity cynic. Best Death of a Racist RUSSELL PEARCE Russell Pearce’s death on Jan. 5, at age 75 epitomizes a famous line from Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar”: “The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones.” So it is with Pearce, author and primary pusher of Arizona’s racist “papers please” law, SB 1070, which effectively turned local police into immigration agents with a green light to pull over brown people on the flimsiest of excuses and then inquire into their immigration status. Passed in 2010, the law sparked a boycott of Arizona, multiple lawsuits and a wave of anti-Hispanic hatred across the state. Pearce’s buddy Sheriff Joe Arpaio used it to terrorize communities of color, while the rest of the country looked on in horror. Pearce became president of the Arizona Senate and ruled with an iron hand. But not for long. Against all odds, Pearce’s opponents forced a historic recall election in his Mesa district, and Pearce was defeated by fellow Republican Jerry Lewis. The U.S. Supreme Court threw out much of SB 1070, but let the section allowing local police to do immigration checks remain, with certain restrictions. Pearce’s name became a byword for racism. He never regained office. Best Protests DAWN SHIM/SUPPORT EQUALITY AZ SCHOOLS Bigoted laws and bad policy ideas are constantly emerging, zombielike, from the muck of the Arizona legislature. Yet during the 2023 session, Arizona’s Republican lawmakers launched new and particularly vicious attacks on LGBTQ+ people in the state: bills targeting drag performers, bills limiting health care for transgender people and most of all, bills affecting LGBTQ+ youth. Arizona’s schools — and students — were a key target for lawmakers. They proposed bills this year that would prevent teachers from using students’ pronouns and bar transgender pupils from using bathrooms that aligned with their gender. Most of these bills didn’t make it past the desk of Gov. Katie Hobbs. And that was thanks in part to activism by students across the state, including Support Equality AZ Schools, a student collective led by Chandler high schooler Dawn Shim. Beginning in September 2022, after former Gov. Doug Ducey signed several anti- LGBTQ+ bills into law, and continuing through 2023, Shim helped organize walkouts out at their own school and high schools across the Valley, drawing awareness to the anti-LGBTQ+ bills flooding the legislature; the anti-LGBTQ+ crusades of Tom Horne, the new Arizona education chief; and the hostile school environments that queer youth often encounter in Arizona. Hundreds of students took to the streets — and school- yards — as a result of SEAZS’s organizing. But it was, of course, deeply unfair that the walkouts were necessary at all. In the words of one student organizer at a rally, it proved that Arizona had devolved into “pseudo-apocalyptic bullshit.” Best Tribune of the People CARLOS GARCIA Carlos Garcia cut his teeth as an activist fighting Arizona’s bigoted immigration law, SB 1070, and helping lead the fight against Maricopa County’s racist Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Typically, you would find Garcia in the streets, leading protesters and demanding an end to the mistreatment of his community by law enforcement. In 2019, he became a politician, winning a special election to represent District 8 on the Phoenix City Council. There, he broke all of the rules, often wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with “Stop Police Brutality” and spearheading a successful drive to create a civilian review board to oversee the Phoenix Police Department. In doing so, he butted heads with Mayor Kate Gallego, who engineered a challenge to Garcia by cop-friendly attorney Kesha Hodge Washington. Backed by the Democratic establishment and the real- estate crowd, she handily beat Garcia in a runoff election. So now, we’re back to a City Council dominated by status-quo Dems, but at least Garcia tried to change things in a town run by cops and devel- opers. For a moment, he gave us hope. Best Bonkers Political Ad JERONE DAVISON On July 6, just two days after Phoenix celebrated all things American, Congressional Republican candidate Jerone Davison dropped a political ad that can only be described as confounding. The ad begins with a horde of “Democrats” wearing KKK hoods while wielding bats, garden hoes and, perplexingly, a hatchet, as they ascend on Davison’s home in broad daylight. Next, Davison does his best
