They may have set out to teach their kids how to be bigots, but Tahnee Gonzales and Elizabeth Dauenhauer are the ones learning a lesson today. On Thursday afternoon, the two women, who went viral thanks to an appalling Facebook Live video that showed them storming a Tempe, Arizona mosque with three children and a dog, found themselves in handcuffs, according to AZ Central.
Tahnee Gonzales and Elizabeth Dauenhauer were arrested about 3 p.m. Thursday, according to Detective Lily Duran, a Tempe Police Department spokeswoman. They face felony burglary charges.
"Based on the details of the crime, an enhancement of hate crime will be considered for sentencing," Duran said.
The most damning video, posted on March 4 and removed from Gonzales’s profile once it picked up steam, clocks in at almost 25 minutes. It is, quite simply, a disgusting display of the racism and hatred that the gas station corndog in chief continues to embolden, as well as a horrific testament to the fact that bigotry is not inherent, it must be taught.
HuffPost sums it the video up nicely so you don’t have to watch it.
(T)he women are seen gathered in a car with Gonzales in the passenger seat narrating the group’s plans to “expose the mosque” with Dauenhauer driving and three children listening closely in the backseat. Upon arrival, the women began ripping flyers from a bulletin board and stealing other materials from the outdoor hallway. The women then praise their children for the burglary.
The children are then seen climbing upon the mosque’s funeral van while one of the women warns a boys about the “dead Muslims” and “sex goats” that she says were once stored in the truck.
Throughout the videos, the women are heard encouraging the children (to use) racist and Islamophobic language.
Both women left social media footprints that indicate a history of proud bigotry: Gonzales in particular enjoyed using the video camera on her phone as her pulpit. Her Facebook profile contains a slew of videos full of red-hat rants that don’t just target those who practice Islam, but pretty much all immigrants.
As recently as Sunday, at a Phoenix rally for Bernie Sanders, she allegedly accosted US Senate candidate Deedra Abboud with a rabid rant about how “you can’t coexist with people who want to kill you!” and “God won’t allow (her) to win” the seat vacated by Jeff Flake. In the video, Abboud keeps declaring that she loves her, and loves America, while Gonzales’s supporters can be heard chanting “We love you, Tahnee!”
Icing on the cake? Her clueless kids are often her co-stars in her hate campaigns, and she’s trained them terrifyingly well to be agents of cruelty. In the Abboud video, an elderly woman tells one of the children that she’s sorry she has to hear the vomit spewing from his mother’s mouth, and the child calmly tells her, “I’m sorry you have wrinkles,” drawing a triumphant laugh from Gonzales.
The child, again, clearly coached by her gem of a mother, also tells someone else to “suck my dick.”
Ahmad Al-Akoum, imam at the mosque, stresses that the involvement of young people is, to him, the worst part of this situation.
"The thing that affected me most was those young children being drafted by their mom and being taught hate and intolerance," he said.
The Islamic Community Center of Tempe continues to cope with the bigotry in their own backyard, which, unfortunately, is not exactly a new problem: agitators visit the mosque weekly.
The imam said he won't let attacks change how the mosque does things, however. Doors will remain unlocked, he said, and members will continue to welcome visitors of all faiths.
"With every incident, the amount of support that we receive at this place is way, way more than the intolerance," he said. "The phone has been ringing all day today with people saying, 'Stay strong, your neighbors support you.' I think the majority of people are good people."
Perhaps the majority of people are good people, but it sure is a shame that bad apples like Gonzales and Dauenhauer believe that they’re good American patriots, thanks to a president who has completely redefined what American greatness used to mean.