A common Democratic party narrative told to Latinos, especially in Arizona, is they should register as Democrats and vote a straight Democratic ticket, because those evil racist Republicans want to racially profile them and deport all Latinos. This is a blatant exaggeration, an obvious attempt to keep Latinos on the ‘liberal hacienda’, as few – if any – Republicans are seeking to deport Latino citizens.

A May 2001 in-dept study by Pew Research suggests a more accurate narrative to describe Republican attitudes on immigration: ‘a majority of Republicans favor immigration reform, including a path to legalization for unauthorized immigrants, and as with Americans in general, a strong majority of Republicans favor more immigration enforcement.’ The Pew Research poll also found that even among the most staunch conservatives, there is a 49%/49% split on immigration reform. Republicans are clearly not monolithic on immigration reform, and statistics like Pew Research’s hardly support any notion that Republicans are anti-Latino.

Contrary to the Democratic narrative, Democratic administrations have deported more Latino immigrants than Republican administrations. Obama has deported 1.5 million immigrants, mostly Latinos, and leading many to dub Obama our “deporter-in-chief.”

Which president has deported the most Latino citizens? Though Obama has deported more Latino citizens than any president in recent history, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt forced out more Latino citizens than any other president in history. During the great depression, a program called “the great repatriation” forced approximately one million “Mexicans” to leave the U.S. either by force or by making discrimination so pervasive that many could not find employment and simply left. Various historians estimate 60% of those who left were U.S. Citizens. The “great repatriation” was authorized by Herbert Hoover, but mostly took place during FDR’s administration.

Who is America’s worst racial profiler? Immediately for most, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio comes to mind. Sheriff Joe has become infamous among Latinos for his trademark immigration sweeps of Hispanic neighborhoods, looking for minor traffic and other infractions as a pretext to investigate immigration status. A recent study conducted by an outside police executive, and authorized by the U.S. Department of Justice, found Latinos in Maricopa County are from four to nine times more likely stopped by police than non-Latinos, and 20% of Latino traffic stops lacked probable cause. However, despite Joe Arpaio’s notoriety he is not America’s worst racial profiler.

However, the title of “racial-profiler-in-chief” rightly belongs to an Arizona Democrat named Janet Napolitano! As Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, she head’s America’s largest law enforcement agency, which includes Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). ICE and CBP are notorious for the use of racial profiling in immigration enforcement, but these agencies are only part of the reason Janet Napolitano merits this notoriety. Napolitano has very aggressively rolled out the Secure Communities program, in which state and local law enforcement share fingerprint data from local jails, even though this program has generated widespread complaints about the racial profiling S-COMM has fueled.

According to a recent study of Secure Communities, 93% of those arrested under S-COMM are Latinos, while Latinos represent 78% of the unauthorized immigrant community and 3,600 U.S. citizens have been falsely arrested. One revealing statistic is that nearly 50% of those arrested under s-comm were NOT jailed for committing a crime but rather traffic or similar non-criminal violations of the law, which confirms pervasive complaints that Latinos are being jailed rather than cited for such minor traffic infractions as cracked windshields, broken tail lights (including on bicycles), frost on car windows, expired vehicle registration, speeding, etc. State and local police don’t usually have the ability to check immigration status of those they stop, but jails do. It’s apparent that increasingly Latinos who are stopped for traffic infractions are being jailed rather than cited so their immigration status can be investigated, which is racial profiling because outcomes of traffic stops are different for Latinos, and some police will target Latinos for traffic stops on the suspicion they may be unauthorized immigrants. Less than one in five Latinos are unauthorized, so the result is that thousands of law abiding citizens are subjected to the humiliation of jail for routine police encounters such as traffic infractions!

Secure Communities has become so controversial that some states, including Massachusetts and New York have objected to participation, while other states already in the program, such as Illinois, have sought to withdraw. In response to widespread complaints about racial profiling, lack of following priorities, etc. DHS created a review panel, but in the end their recommendations were watered down, and the only change is that DHS agreed not to deport low level offenders for traffic infractions until they had been convicted. Five members of the panel were so outraged at the ‘whitewash job’ they quit the panel in disgust, while the other 14 panel members who didn’t quit were very critical of DHS.

Secure Communities started out as voluntary, but under Napolitano states now have no option but to participate and remain in the program if they wish to opt-out as they were promised under Bush. Like the great repatriation, which began under Hoover, Secure Communities began under a Republican administration as a pilot voluntary program, but vastly expanded under a Democratic administration.

Marshall, MN – National GOP Group Cafe Con Leche Republicans today called on Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio to refocus his energies on fixing severe management deficiencies in his department.

Bob Quasius, President, stated “We’re quite frankly aghast at the pervasive problems revealed in the recent racial profiling trial and DOJ report. Either Arpaio lied at the trial about racial profiling or he simply does not know what is going on in his own department. In 2008, the conservative Goldwater Institute issued a scathing report documenting that Arpaio’s priorities are clearly misplaced. Activities that generate PR for Arpaio are top priority, and basic crime fighting, such as investigating sex crimes and serving felony arrest warrants, continue to suffer. Arpaio needs to refocus his energies on running his own department, drop his quixotic birther quest, and settle the lawsuit with the Department of Justice by taking drastic action to address systematic discriminatory policing within his department.

We’re also shocked at today’s revelations by author John Woodman that Arpaio’s cold case posse’s latest claims are fraudulent. It appears obvious that Arpaio failed to do basic fact checking before his recent press conference in which he claimed “proof” that Obama’s birth certificate is a fraud. In fact, the timing of the press conference suggests an attempt to divert attention from the upcoming racial profiling trial.”

In a statement today (see below), author and computer expert John Woodman stated “The first image that they led people to believe was from 1961 actually came from a similar manual dated 7 years later, and the second image is even worse. They claimed they got their information directly from the federal government. Jerome Corsi, the conspiracy theorist whom Arpaio made an integral member of the posse, has claimed that they searched ‘for months’ before they ‘finally found’ the 1961 manual. But the second image is from 1969, and they quite clearly took it directly from a birther web site.”

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About Us – Cafe Con Leche Republicans is a national organization of Republicans who welcome “New Americans”, defined as immigrants and family of recent immigrants. Our mission is to make America and the GOP, more welcoming to “New Immigrants” through political activism, “in-reach” and education within the Republican Party, and lobbying government to adopt more immigrant friendly policies. We also seek to bring more conservative and moderate “New Americans” to the Republican Party. These efforts will strengthen the GOP, and lead more Republicans to embrace welcoming policies for immigrants and their families. We have chapters in Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Texas, Oklahoma, Arizona, Nevada, and California. Our members and leadership are predominantly Hispanic, though we define ourselves by mission and guiding principles, not ethnicity, and we welcome all who share our goals. Our leadership is 100% Republican.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Statement by author John Woodman

Confirmed: Arpaio’s Posse Fabricated “Indisputable Proof” that Obama’s Birth Certificate Is “Forged”

SPRINGFIELD, MO — An author who wrote the book — literally — on Barack Obama’s birth certificate says that Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s “Cold Case Posse” presented false evidence to the nation on July 17th, when they claimed to have “indisputable proof” that President Obama’s birth certificate was a “forgery.”

John Woodman has a copy of the 1961 manual that Arpaio’s posse claimed to have — and he says it directly contradicts their claims.

According to Woodman, the Posse’s most significant claim was that the penciled number “9″ by Obama’s father’s race meant that nothing at all should be in that box. The box contained the word “African,” creating an apparent conflict that Arpaio and his posse said was proof of forgery.

Both lead investigator Michael Zullo and Posse member Jerome Corsi have explictly stated that “9″ means “not reported” or “not stated.” And yet in the actual code book, “9″ means “Other nonwhite” — which would have been the appropriate category for “African.”

Just as bad however, says Woodman, are the visuals shown in the Posse’s official video — which depict documents other than the manual claimed.

“The first image that they led people to believe was from 1961 actually came from a similar manual dated 7 years later,” says Woodman. “And the second image is even worse. They claimed they got their information directly from the federal government. Jerome Corsi, the conspiracy theorist whom Arpaio made an integral member of the posse, has claimed that they searched ‘for months’ before they ‘finally found’ the 1961 manual. But the second image is from 1969, and they quite clearly took it directly from a birther web site.”

Woodman says it just doesn’t appear possible that an innocent “mistake” was made.

“There’s no way, if you have that 1968 document, that you can avoid seeing that it says ’1968.’ It’s in big, bold letters, right at the top. And a birther web site is a far cry from the US government.”

“In fact, there are at least four different falsehoods here. First, we have the two misrepresented documents. Then, there’s the claim of what the 1961 manual supposedly said, which the manual itself directly contradicts. And finally, their claim that the “9″ was even a federal code is untrue, too.”

“The real 1961 manual shows that the US government reporting was based on microfilm copies of birth certificates — not on penciled codes written by people in Hawaii.”

Literally all of their other “forgery” claims have also been disproven, Woodman says. “But this incident alone is enough to destroy their credibility.”

Woodman presents the full evidence at his web site, ObamaBirthBook.com.

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John Woodman has spent more than 20 years as a computer professional in varying capacities – programming, consulting, troubleshooting, and designing and building software. He is the author of “Is Barack Obama’s Birth Certificate a Fraud? A Computer Guy Examines the Evidence for Forgery.”

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The 234 page disciplinary report about Andrew Thomas and two of his deputies is shocking in it’s description of the breadth of corruption and abuse of power by former County Attorney Andrew Thomas and Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Arpaio is not subject to discipline from the panel making the report, but it’s clear from the report that Arpaio is at least as guilty as Andrew Thomas. It’s especially galling that in a 30 minute time span, Joe Arpaio testified 27 times that he “didn’t recall” anything about the events in question, yet from the 234 page report it’s obvious he’s a central figure in this travesty of justice! This news report does a good job of explaining the scandal.

The disbarment case is especially compelling regarding Judge Donahoe, now retired, who was the top criminal court judge at the time and highly respected for his integrity. From the report (reformatted for easier reading) it’s obvious that Andrew Thomas and Joe Arpaio, along with their henchmen, cooked up a criminal case against Jodge Donahoe to intimidate him on another case. The fact that several police officers refused to swear a complaint against the judge despite intense pressure from higher-ups is especially noteworthy.

THE CORE FACTS REGARDINGTHE FILING OF CHARGES AGAINST JUDGE DONAHOE

Judge Donahoe had scheduled a hearing for the afternoon of December 9, 2009 regarding the Notice and Motion filed by Thomas Irvine and Edward Novak on behalf of the County. The motion filed for MCBOS by Irvine and Novak sought an order prohibiting special deputy county attorneys from appearing before a grand jury.

On December 9, 2009, under Mr. Thomas’s authority and with his approval, Ms. Aubuchon through MCSO detectives filed a criminal case against Judge Donahoe. Mr. Thomas made the decision to file a direct complaint against Judge Donahoe following a meeting with Ms. Aubuchon, Mr. Hendershott, and Sheriff Arpaio. Mr. Thomas and Ms. Aubuchon denied that they wanted to file the charges against Judge Donahoe to stop that hearing. However, as discussed below, the Hearing Panel concludes that the evidence is clear and convincing that Mr. Thomas, Ms. Aubuchon, Sheriff Arpaio and then-Deputy Chief Hendershott decided to file the charges against Judge Donahoe so that he would not hold the December 9, 2009 hearing.

Ms. Aubuchon and Detective Gabe Almanza signed the direct complaint. It charged the judge with hindering, obstruction and bribery. There was no investigation in this matter prior to the filing of the direct complaint. Only after the direct complaint was filed did MCSO create a report.

Ms. Aubuchon attempted to file the charges against Judge Donahoe a day earlier on December 8, 2009, after a meeting with Mr. Thomas, Sheriff Arpaio and Mr. Hendershott.

On the afternoon of December 8, 2009, Chief Deputy Hendershott of MCSO called Sgt. Rich Johnson about filing a case against Judge Donahoe. Chief Deputy Hendershott told Sgt. Johnson that they needed it done “now.” MCSO Sgt. Brandon Luth, Sgt. Johnson and Deputy Chief Young called Ms. Aubuchon on the afternoon of December 8, 2009, to ask her what was going on and what they needed to charge. Ms. Aubuchon stated they needed a Form 4, a DR (departmental report) and a probable cause statement. Ms. Aubuchon told the MCSO officers she wanted to charge bribery and related charges. Sgt. Luth did not know what to write. Sgt. Luth’s orders were to put the case together and accompany Detective Cooning to “walk it through” that evening.

Later in the afternoon of December 8, 2009, Ms. Aubuchon, Chief Young, Sgt. Luth, Sgt. Johnson and Chief Hendershott met. Chief Hendershott told them about the racketeering lawsuit, and that they thought Judge Donahoe was going to throw MCAO off all County investigations. Chief Hendershott said that he had met with Mr. Thomas, Ms. Aubuchon, and Sheriff Arpaio, and that Sheriff Arpaio came up with the idea of charging the judge. Chief Hendershott told Sgt. Luth to use as the material for the Form 4, or probable cause (“PC”) statement, a complaint that the Chief Deputy had submitted to the Commission on Judicial Conduct against Judge Donahoe. Chief Hendershott printed off his complaint and wrote the charges on it. At the hearing in this case, Mr. Hendershott was unable to describe any criminal conduct by Judge Donahoe.

Sgt. Luth drafted the PC statement using Chief Deputy Hendershott’s judicial complaint at Ms. Aubuchon’s direction.

Sgt. Johnson called MCSO’s dispatch unit and obtained a Departmental Report number for the case. At about 5:00 p.m., Sgt. Luth took the Donahoe charging documents to Ms. Aubuchon. She read them. She said that “it worked for her.” Ms. Aubuchon signed the complaint as Deputy County Attorney.

Ms. Aubuchon attempted to have an investigator from MCAO file the direct complaint in Superior Court in the late afternoon or early evening of December 8, 2009. Ms. Aubuchon assigned the task of filing the direct complaint to MCAO investigator Lt. Richard Hargus. Lt. Hargus then asked MCAO Detective Timothy Cooning to meet an MCAO clerk in front of the court at 5:30 p.m. Det. Cooning did so, and the clerk handed him the Donahoe file. Det. Cooning read the file, returned to his office, and informed Lt. Hargus that he felt uncomfortable swearing to the truthfulness of the complaint against Judge Donahoe because he had not investigated the case. Det. Cooning also was uncomfortable signing the probable cause statement because it was unclear what crimes had been committed and who had investigated them.

Lt. Hargus told his superior, Commander Stribling, that Lt. Hargus and Detective Cooning did not want to file the complaint because there was no probable cause to support it. Commander Stribling agreed that none of his detectives should be put in the position of walking through a complaint on a sitting Superior Court judge when he knew nothing about the investigation that led up to the filing of the complaint. The commissioner assigned to the evening court might ask the detective questions, and the detective would not know what to say.

Commander Stribling called Mr. Thomas. Commander Stribling informed Mr. Thomas that Ms. Aubuchon was asking Lt. Hargus and Det. Cooning to get the Donahoe complaint filed.

Commander Stribling told Mr. Thomas that based on what Lt. Hargus and Det. Cooning had told him, there was no probable cause to support the complaint. Commander Stribling told Mr. Thomas that he refused to have his detective walk through a complaint about which the detective had no knowledge. Mr. Thomas agreed, but insisted that the complaint be filed no later than the next morning.

Commander Stribling then called Ms. Aubuchon to explain his decision. The conversation was heated. Commander Stribling suggested that MCSO Sgt. Brandon Luth file the complaint, since he was with the MACE Unit. Eventually, Ms. Aubuchon acquiesced.

Because Commander Stribling had refused to have MCAO investigators “walk it through,” Ms. Aubuchon turned to the sheriff’s office to assist her in filing the Donahoe complaint. At Hargus’s instruction, at 6:00 that evening Det. Cooning met Sgt. Luth in front of Det. Cooning’s office and gave Sgt. Luth the direct complaint. Det. Cooning told Sgt. Luth he refused to swear to the complaint. Sgt. Luth called Ms. Aubuchon and handed the phone to Det. Cooning. Ms. Aubuchon told Det. Cooning she “can’t believe this” and “this is outrageous” and hung up on Det. Cooning. Det. Cooning then agreed to meet Sgt. Luth at the IA court a few minutes later, where Sgt. Luth was to file the complaint. Once there, however, Sgt. Luth refused to file the complaint.

Sgt. Luth did not want to file the complaint against Judge Donahoe because he did not want to answer questions by the court about the case when it was filed. He arranged for Det. Almanza and Det. Tennyson to meet with him the next morning.

On the morning of December 9, 2009, Sgt. Luth, Det. Almanza and Det. Tennyson met with Ms. Aubuchon. Ms. Aubuchon handed Sgt. Luth the complaint against Judge Donahoe, which she had drafted, with the probable cause statement attached.

Sgt. Luth asked Ms. Aubuchon whether she had enough evidence to charge Judge Donahoe. Ms. Aubuchon referred to past court filings and decisions and outlined for Sgt. Luth why she believed Judge Donahoe should be charged with crimes. This struck Det. Almanza as bizarre because Ms. Aubuchon was telling Sgt. Luth what the evidence was, rather than the usual procedure, in which the investigator informs the prosecutor of the evidence.

Sgt. Luth and the detectives left the meeting. Sgt. Luth took the complaint he had received from Ms. Aubuchon, along with documents Ms. Aubuchon had printed off of her computer.

The complaint was filed the same morning of December 9, 2009. Detective Gabriel Almanza signed it under oath. Sgt. Luth told Det. Almanza to sign it. Det. Almanza was not comfortable doing so, because he had not been involved in drafting the complaint and he had no knowledge as to the truth or falsity of it. Det. Almanza had never filed a complaint before. Sgt. Luth assured Det. Almanza that Ms. Aubuchon believed she had enough evidence to charge the judge. Det. Almanza signed it based on his reliance on Ms. Aubuchon’s good faith.

MCSO Detectives Almanza and Tennyson served the direct complaint on Judge Donahoe. They secretly recorded the service. After Judge Donahoe was served, Sgt. Luth was ordered to take a copy of the direct complaint to Ms. Aubuchon and Chief Deputy Hendershott. When Sgt. Luth gave the copy of the complaint to Ms. Aubuchon, she said she already received an email notifying her that Judge Donahoe had vacated the hearing that had been set for later that afternoon. She appeared pleased and happy. Sgt. Luth then gave the complaint to Chief Deputy Hendershott, explaining that the complaint had been served and that he had just met with Ms. Aubuchon. Chief Deputy Hendershott said, “checkmate.”

By now, unless someone has lived in a cave the last four years, everyone has heard of the controversy about Obama’s birth certificate. Just last week, Sheriff Joe Arpaio announced his “volunteer posse” had concluded its investigation of Obama’s birth certificate and selective service registration document. If we take the investigative results at face value, yes indeed there is something fishy about Obama’s documents. As an electrical engineer by profession, I have a background in imaging, signal processing, etc. and I see the issues with Obama’s documents too, assuming the evidence presented itself has not been faked. Clearly there are questions to be answered, and answers to be questioned.

I am not a fan of Obama. In fact, I think Obama is the worst president in modern U.S. history, surpassing even Jimmy Carter. Obama is ‘Jimmy Carter on steroids’ and we need to rid ourselves of Obama, and just as Jimmy Carter was followed by Ronald Reagan, we need a new president to get this nation back on track. Let’s hope for our nation’s sake our next president will be like ‘Ronald Reagan on steroids.’

As much as I dislike Obama and would like to see him out of the oval office, I cannot give the recent Obama birth certificate controversy much credibility because the investigation was conducted under the auspices of Joe Arpaio. Joe Arpaio has a lengthy history of launching politically motivated investigations of his political enemies. Among Arpaio’s victims are journalists, judges, members of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, and community leaders, among others.

For years, if you criticized Joe Arpaio you soon found yourself on the wrong end of criminal investigations. In one case, a journalist published a story, and then unmarked vehicles with Mexican license plates came to his home in the middle of the night to arrest him for a minor misdemeanor, which was quickly dismissed by a judge, and clearly was intended to intimidate the journalist. In my opinion, Arpaio is a serial power abuser, with no respect whatsoever for our constitution, part of the ‘rule of law’ governing this nation.

Often arrests of Arpaio critics were quickly dismissed by judges as baseless, and in many cases Arpaio and his partner, former Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas, were unable to convince grand juries to indict. Many criminal law attorneys will tell you that generally speaking, prosecutors can get most grand juries to indict even a ‘ham sandwich.’ It’s rare that grand juries fail to indict, yet many grand juries saw right through the flimsiness of cases against Arpaio critics.

As a consequence of these politically motivated and baseless prosecutions, Maricopa County taxpayers may end up paying tens of millions in damages to victims of malicious prosecutions. During the last years of the Bush administration, the DOJ launched an investigation into these alleged abuses of power, and a grand jury has been empaneled. Andrew Thomas, the former Maricopa County Attorney is in deep trouble, and may well lose his law license for his role in this scheme. Yes, Joe Arpaio may himself be indicted for abusing his power under color of law. Clearly, any investigation of Arpaio critics or political enemies conducted under the auspices of Joe Arpaio is immediately clouded by questions about the integrity of the investigation.

Now, it has emerged that Mike Zullo, the lead investigator from Arpaio’s “volunteer posse”, has co-authored a book with Jerome Corsi and will split the profits with Corsi. Question: if the investigator had concluded Obama’s documents were authentic, would he be able to sell a book? I doubt it. The fact that Mr. Zullo is profiting off of his investigation naturally leads us to question his credibility as well.

Jerome Corsi has written extensively about various conspiracy theories, for example Corsi authored “The Late Great U.S.A.: The Coming Merger With Mexico and Canada“, claiming the Bush administration was plotting a “North American Union” that would merge Mexico, Canada, and the U.S., without ever obtaining the approval of Congress, even establishing a European style currency to be known as the “amero.” This is one of the most absurd conspiracy theories I have ever heard, very similar to another conspiracy theory called “reconquista”, which holds that undocumented immigrants come to the U.S. to procreate, and eventually create Hispanic majorities in the Southwest and return the Southwest to Mexico. Of course, the “reconquista” theory makes the ridiculous assumption that Mexican-American immigrants and their offspring never assimilate and want to be part of the very nation they fled in search of a better life. Corsi provided many of the materials for the investigation. I don’t find Corsi to be a credible individual, as he writes sensational books making a wide range of claims, some of which are not very credible.

I viewed evidence that Obama’s documents were forged, which certainly raises valid questions, assuming the evidence presented itself is not fake. In my opinion, there should be an investigation, but NOT by Arpaio or anyone connected with Arpaio. A DOJ investigation will never happen during Obama’s presidency, since our U.S. Attorney General works for Obama, and federal law no longer provides for independent special counsels as in the past. This investigation into whether any state laws were violated by the Obama campaign should be performed by Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne and the state police, or by another sheriff, which should NOT be Paul Babeu, who also lacks credibility.

Original posting

(note: this blog, as with all blog postings with a byline, is my personal opinion, and not the official position of Cafe Con Leche Republicans)

Watching the videos of Martin “Marty” Atencio was very painful and disturbing. Our condolences to the family on his passing.

After watching these disturbing videos over and over, it seemed that as the family alleges, excessive force was indeed used, so I asked myself, what are the best practices for the use of tasers by police? I don’t have a background in law enforcement, so I searched for guidelines on the use of tasers, called “Conducted Energy Devices,” or CEDs, by law enforcement, and found these April 2011 taser guidelines from Police Executive Research Forum (PERF).

One does not need a background in law enforcement to read these guidelines and recognize the excessive use of force used against this man. According to the Phoenix police, who arrested Atencio, they had no problems at all with him prior to arriving at the MCSO jail. His family and attorney said he suffered from bipolar disorder, which explains his odd behavior before he was arrested, and this jailhouse photo from the MCSO. His attorney claims he was tased at least four times.

In this video from YouTube, we can see the confrontation as it transitioned from an apparent non-violent argument to full fledged struggle initiated by jailers.

There’s also this video clip from Channel 10 News Phoenix:

Now, referring to the Taser guidelines, several violations of the guidelines immediately stand out.

13. Personnel should be trained to use an ECW for one standard cycle (five seconds) and then evaluate the situation to determine if subsequent cycles are necessary. Training protocols should emphasize that multiple applications or continuous cycling of an ECW resulting in an exposure longer than 15 seconds (whether continuous or cumulative) may increase the risk of serious injury or death and should be avoided.

and

21. Personnel should use an ECW for one standard cycle (five seconds) and then evaluate the situation to determine if subsequent cycles are necessary. Personnel should consider that exposure to the ECW for longer than 15 seconds (whether due to multiple applications or continuous cycling) may increase the risk of death or serious injury. Any subsequent applications should be independently justifiable, and the risks should be weighed against other force options.

From the Phoenix New Times:

Sources have stated that doctors at St. Joe’s believe Atencio may have been Tased as many as six times while in MCSO custody.

Clearly multiple use of the Taser goes well outside the guidelines, and can explain the cardiac arrest.
Also from the guidelines:

25. ECWs should be used only against subjects who are exhibiting active aggression or who are actively resisting in a manner that, in the officer’s judgment, is likely to result in injuries to themselves or others. ECWs should not be used against a passive subject.

The guidelines define “active aggression” as

Active aggression: A threat or overt act of an assault (through physical or verbal means), coupled with the present ability to carry out the threat or assault, which reasonably indicates that an assault or injury to any person is imminent.

From the video, it seems clear the large group of officers has Atencio at first cornered, and then completely restrained and under control, and certainly not in a position to inflict harm on the officer. At one point there were 15 jailers involved! It’s questionable whether they released him after using the taser the first time, to see if he was still a “threat.”

In another video from before the confrontation, two Phoenix police are seen bringing Atencio into the room handcuffed and handcuffing him to the bench, and does not show any resistance at all. It’s not clear when or why his handcuffs would have been removed, but they were.

Further, from the guidelines

34. Personnel should be aware that there is a higher risk of sudden death in subjects under the influence of drugs and/or exhibiting symptoms associated with excited delirium.

and

As the Institute for Prevention of In-Custody Death (www.ipicd.com) teaches that “Excited delirium is a medical emergency disguised as a police problem.”

It probably wasn’t known at the time whether Atencio was on drugs, but certainly he was demonstrating “excited delirium”, an added reason not to use a taser on him, especially when a large group of jailers clearly already had complete control over him. In fact, there were so many jailers on the scene that not all of them could help restrain Atencio, and some hovered around confrontation scene. If there are that many jailers present and they are holding his arms and feet, then why taser him at all?

Also from the guidelines:

36. All subjects who have been exposed to ECW application should receive a medical evaluation by emergency medical responders in the field or at a medical facility. Subjects who have been exposed to prolonged application (i.e., more than 15 seconds) should be transported to an emergency department for evaluation.

Clearly, by leaving him unattended in a cell for 9 minutes the guidelines were violated yet again, and when considering Atencio was not moving there was compelling reason to bring this man to an emergency room immediately!

The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) already has a horrible reputation for brutality, and Maricopa County Taxpayers have paid out nearly $50 million in judgments and settlements for wrongful deaths. We blogged about this recently, posting an interview with Michael Manning, who is now the attorney for the Atencio family.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio has had years to clean up his department and clearly is not. Time for Joe Arpaio to resign!