Gene Rodriguez – New York Leader

Gene Rodriguez — who is the New York State leader for  SOMOS INDEPENDENTS (a/k/a the National Tequila Party Movement) is an American of Puerto Rican descent, and he released this statement with regard to H.R. 1726  today:

Recognizing these brave men that were taken from their warm homeland as volunteers to forego the freezing temperatures of Korea to save trapped Marines, shows the love of country overcame the discrimination they had to endure. They performed the last bayonet charge in American military history. They were the last segregated unit in the Armed Forces. This recognition is long overdue.

From Borinqueneers Congressional Gold Medal Alliance:

Contact your (2) U.S. Senators and your (1) US House of Representatives member (Congressman). The adoption of the Borinqueneers Congressional Gold Medal will require the co-sponsorship from 2/3 of our US legislators. That’s 290 US House of Rep’s members & 67 US Senators!

Contact them, preferably via phone call or email so there is a record. In most cases, the email method will be a web form which is quick & easy to complete. Just include your personal info, & copy and paste the content of the sample letter/email linked below or use your own words requesting their co-sponsorship of the legislation awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to the 65th Infantry Regiment Borinqueneers!

NEW April 25, 2013: The official bill number in the US House of Representatives is H.R. 1726 for “The Borinqueneers Congressional Gold Medal Act”. In the US Senate, we will post the bill number once it’s introduced.

• US Senators list (2): http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
• US House of Representatives list (1): http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/
• A sample letter/email is available in various formats at: http://www.65thCGM.org/resources.html.

If you live in Puerto Rico, call or email (web form) The Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico, the Hon. Pedro Pierluisi, and thank him for introducing the legislation in the US House! Urge him to keep championing the bill!

• English: http://pierluisi.house.gov/english/contact-us.html
• Spanish: http://pierluisi.house.gov/espanol/contactenos.html

You may also contact other elected officials to seek their support.

Muchas Gracias!

Democratic politician via Barry West of Tennessee apologizes to Mexican-American community today and recognizes our contributions and our efforts.  Bottom line:  He admits what he said, he apologizes, he wishes he never said it, he wishes he never targeted groups, and he has learned his lesson.

Barry West, a Coffee County Tennessee commissioner returned my phone call today with regard to the Mexican remark he made to the the Tullahoma News.  He said he returned my call because I did not block my number and I did not leave a hateful message.  He told me he has been receiving hateful emails and threats.  He cancelled his facebook account and changed his email recently in light of the numerous non-delightful emails he has received.

In my voice mail to Mr. West … I communicated to him that I was a Gulf War I woman veteran who served my country honorably and I expressed my frustration with regard to the anti-Mexican rhetoric I perceived.

He called me back and said he was a veteran, too –  of the Vietnam war and confessed to serving and working with fellow Mexican-Americans who fought beside him in that American war.  I was glad West acknowledged Mexicans as “hardest working sons of guns.”  You see — I believe we are hard workers, too.

He said:

“I’m a God fearing, people-loving human being. I’m not a bigot. I’m not a racist. The Mexicans I served with in Vietnam War were just as diligent as anybody. We were Americans fighting an American war together.”

Speaking with Barry West … I have come to the absolute conclusion there is still a disturbing and wrong perception out there in southern parts of our Nation where many forget about the economic contributions Mexicans have given to the United States economy.  We have a lot of work yet to do with regard to educating and reminding people in those dark ignorant places when indeed Mexicans contribute billions and billions of dollars to our economy.  Immigrants do pay sales taxes, gasoline taxes, liquor taxes, tobacco taxes and so on.  In addition to that, immigrants offer a competitive labor wage rate KEEPING OUR FOOD PRICES AFFORDABLE.  If it were not for the Mexicans — agricultural farm industries would die.  But this economic fact is not getting out there enough with regard to the contributions given by those of Mexican descent.  Therefore I did a bit of research:

In Coffee County, there are approximately 93.1% white person, 3.9% black persons and 3.9% brown persons (of Latin descent):

Coffee County Population Statistics in Tennessee

Here is what the population looks like in Tennessee:

Tennessee population

The point in bringing to light the various ethnic groups and population living in Tennessee has much to do with the bad information that is out there regarding Mexicans.

Apparently there are people out there who believe Mexicans are taking advantage of welfare benefits when in all actuality  the majority of welfare recipients are Anglo.  In other words … Tennessee cannot blame Mexicans for being one of the top ten Welfare states in our Union when the majority of the people living in there are Anglo.  Approximately 80% living in the State of Tennessee are Anglo, about 17% are African-American and only 4.7% are of Latin descent.   The majority of the Mexicans who live in Tennessee work in the agricultural industry and  they are helping the United States American farmer keep their businesses afloat.

That said, it seems everyone is ignoring the large elephant in the room with regard to farm subsidies.

Did you know that Tennessee ranks 25 out 50 with regard to receiving farm subsidies?

Farmers are getting billions of dollars in ‘welfare’ a/k/a subsidies, too, and of those billions — only 10 percent of the farms are getting 87% of those subsidies. How does that happen?

Here’s a snapshot below:

Snapshot of Tennessee Farm Subsidies

As you can see….we have a lot of work to do with regard to writing about the economic contributions of the Mexicans. We will no longer stand for drafting Mexicans only to deport them later.  We are the most patriotic people you will ever meet and it is high time we start treating fellow man like human beings.

Bottom line: We are going to be the ones who take care of our elderly regardless of race and religion, and we intend on sustaining social security benefits.  Immigrants will also help to become the new taxpayers that will sustain the aging white baby boom generation (currently usurping approximately 60% of the federal tax payer revenues due to Social Security, medicare and medicaid).

Moving forward, we ought to stop targeting ethnic groups.  It’s hurtful.   The blame game gets us nowhere.  Thinking out of the box and finding solutions are helpful.

On a last note:  While I was in the military … I was taught not to view fellow comrades as white, black,  brown or yellow. We were taught that green was the only color we should see when serving with one another because green was the color of our Battle Dress Uniform (BDU) as we all continue to fight for freedom, achieving the American DREAM, and the preservation of our Nation.

Here’s a little reminder on how the US and Mexico sought to work together during WWII via this propaganda poster. This poster was all over Houston, South Texas and California. (Photo shared by Russell Contreras)

As Obama visits Mexico, here’s a little reminder on how the US and Mexico sought to work together during WWII via this propaganda poster. This poster was all over Houston, South Texas and California. (Photo shared by Russell Contreras)

Happy Cinco, Amigos!

I want to share a great story by AP writer Russell Contreras since a bunch of us “Messicans” viven aqui in the great Southwest.

An ol’ story about Cinco de Mayo and how it evolved.  

FULL AP story can be read here:

Often mistaken for Mexican Independence Day (that’s Sept. 16), Cinco de Mayo commemorates the 1862 Battle of Puebla between the victorious ragtag army of largely Mexican Indian soldiers against the invading French forces of Napoleon III. Mexican Americans, during the Chicano Movement of the 1970s, adopted the holiday for its David vs. Goliath storyline as motivation for civil rights struggles in Texas and California.

Over the years, the holiday has been adopted by beer companies as a way to penetrate the growing Latino market, even as the historical origins of the holiday remain largely forgotten.

David Hayes-Bautista, a professor of medicine and health services at UCLA and author of the newly released “El Cinco de Mayo: An American Tradition,” said the holiday’s history in the U.S. goes back to the Gold Rush when thousands of immigrants from Mexico, Central and South America came to California during the Civil War.

According to Spanish-language newspapers at the time, this first group of multinational Latinos on U.S. soil identified with the Union Army’s fight against the Confederacy and often wrote pieces about the evils of slavery. Hayes-Bautista said these Latino immigrants were concerned about the Union’s lack of progress and Napoleon III’s interests in helping the South.

“It wasn’t until the news came about the Battle of Puebla that they got the good news they wanted,” said Hayes-Bautista. “Since Napoleon III was linked to the Confederacy, they saw the victory as the first sign that their side could win.”

They didn’t, of course, at least not for a few years. French forces took over Mexico after the Battle of Puebla, and installed Habsburg Archduke Maximilian as Emperor of Mexico. He was captured by Mexican forces five years later and put to death.

But in the years that followed, Latinos in California and the U.S. Northwest celebrated Cinco de Mayo with parades of people dressed in Civil War uniforms and gave speeches about the significance of the Battle of Puebla in the larger struggle for abolition, said Hayes-Bautista.

The Cinco de Mayo-Civil War link remained until the Mexican Revolution, which sparked another wave of Mexican immigration to the U.S. Those immigrants had no connection to Cinco de Mayo – except that U.S. Latinos celebrated it.

“That’s when it became about David vs. Goliath, Indians beating a European force, and it took on a new meaning,” said Hayes-Bautista. “The Civil War ties disappeared.”

The date received another jolt during World War II during the U.S. government’s “Good Neighborhood Policy” aimed at building good relationships with Mexico and during the Chicano Movement, when Mexican American activists adopted the day to reinforce civil rights demands. Two police beatings of Cinco de Mayo revelers – one in Houston in 1978 and the other in Washington DC in 1991 – resulted in riots and sparked protests and calls for reforms from Latino advocates.

The holiday spread outside of the American Southwest as more Latinos moved to new areas around the country. Alyssa Gutierrez, 35, a teacher who is originally from Robstown, Texas but now lives in New York’s Harlem neighborhood, said Cinco de Mayo was barely noticed when she moved to New York in 1998. “Now there are Mexican restaurants on almost every block and all do something on Cinco de Mayo, usually around a boxing match,” said Gutierrez.

Jody Agius Vallejo, a sociology professor at the University of Southern California and author of “Barrios to Burbs: The Making of the Mexican-American Middle Class,” said Cinco de Mayo is now used by assimilated Mexican Americans as an easy way for them to showcase their ethnic identity.

“It’s very similar to how Irish-Americans celebrate St. Patrick’s Day,” said Vallejo. “One way they can honor their ethnicity is to celebrate this day, even when most don’t know why.”

But not all buy in. “To others,” she added, “this holiday is kind of viewed as a joke because they feel it’s their culture that is being appropriated and exploited.”

Hayes-Bautista said because the theme and focus around Cinco de Mayo has transformed a number of times, it won’t be surprising if it changes again.

“No one has owned Cinco de Mayo,” said Hayes-Bautista. “And no one ever will.”  FULL STORY>>>

DREAM Act student, Joaquin Luna, took his life in Texas at 18 years old because he felt he had no hope.  He was one of ours and Texas Sen. Cornyn voted AGAINST the 2010 DREAM Act  that could have given this young man some hope.   Courtesy of KGBT Action 4 News 

Senator John Cornyn of Texas is up for re-election in 2014.  Texas Senator John Cornyn is also the Vice Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference Task Force on Hispanic Affairs – but what good does that do when  he is Missing In Action (MIA) on legal comprehensive immigration reform efforts? In fact, according to a Congressional Record search via the Library of Congress, the Senate Republican Conference Task Force on Hispanic Affairs has basically been MIA since the late 90′s.

Indeed the State of Texas shares a whopping 64% of it’s border length with Mexico — yet both Texas Senators are nowhere to be found with regard to the Gang of 8 and  legal immigration reform that will fix the much needed broken immigration system.   If Jeb Bush plans on running for President in 2016, he ought to convince these Texas Senators why they should help American families who are of Mexican descent and who can help ease tax burdens.   Current American tax payers do not want an increase in our taxes burdens, and we should create new tax payers from those who are already here buying houses, cars and etc.

Almost a year ago today, Sen. Cornyn made a controversial statement about Arizona’s SB1070 law when he made his “mañana” comment.

Now “mañana” is “today” for Mr. Cornyn.

According to an opinion by Cesar Vargas featured in the Houston Chronicle:

Since 2005, Sen. Cornyn has had a record of defeating reform efforts while portraying himself as a fighter to fix the country’s outdated immigration system. At the 2011 Hispanic Leadership Network conference, Cornyn said, “They (Democrats) have controlled Congress for four years, have occupied the White House for two years, and yet they’ve broken every promise to lead on immigration reform.” And last month, while accepting the “Small Business Advocate of the Year” award from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Cornyn talked about the need to fix our broken immigration system. And yet, Cornyn in 2010 voted against the DREAM Act – a bill that would provide a path to legal status for certain undocumented students – and recently introduced a “border security only” bill despite the country’s overwhelming support for a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau:

Hispanic Americans By the Numbers

More than 50%
The percentage of all the Hispanic-origin [most of which are of Mexican descent] population … According to the 2010 Census, California was home to 14.0 million Hispanics, Texas was home to 9.5 million…

9.5 million Mexican-American families in Texas are affected by the inaction of Texas Senator Cornyn.

District Judge Reed O’Connor, a federal judge in Texas was appointed by former President George W. Bush in 2007, and last

Joaquin Luna (DREAMer) committed suicide in Texas the day after Thanksgiving in 2011 because he felt he had no hope. Courtesy of KGBT Action 4 News.

week he he indicated he was likely to block President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) process.According to David Leopold — past President of AILA: “…the order, written by Judge Reed O’Connor, came in a lawsuit challenging DACA and prosecutorial discretion filed by nativist lawyer and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach on behalf of ICE Union Boss Christopher Crane. The judge found that the DACA process, which gives eligible DREAMERs a temporary reprieve from deportation, likely, violates the law…”

What are the implications of Judge O’Conner blocking the DACA process that helps DREAM Act students across our nation?

For starters — we know that Mexican-Americans are already livid with Texas Republican lawmakers who are trying to implement anti-Latino laws, and it is creating quite the stir — particularly in south Texas.

2016 Presidential hopeful via  Jeb Bush already has concerns with regard to Texas.

Florida Governor Jeb Bush tells Joe Hagan of New York magazine: “It’s a math question. Four years from now, Texas is going to be a so-called blue state. Imagine Texas as a blue state, how hard it would be to carry the presidency or gain control of the Senate.”

…  “Sitting down across from me, [Jeb] assumes his role as party Cassandra, warning of the day when the Republicans’ failure to tap an exploding Hispanic population will cripple its chances at reclaiming power—starting in Texas, the family seat of the House of Bush.”

DREAM Act students are well educated students who know no other way except the American way.  They have pledged allegiance to our United States flag, and they want to contribute their much needed talents and taxes that could only ease the burdens of existing American tax payers.If this Texas Judge blocks the DACA process, there will be a Mexican-American / Latin backlash like never before if continued inaction by Texas Senators continue.  The backlash will occur because the Republican National Committee failed to control the bigotry that stinks amongst their political ranks.  Nativist Republicans like Kansas Sec. of State Kris Kobach are destroying the Republican Party with their bigotry faster than a raging sagebrush  fire that sits on top of a Texas oil field.  I do not know the final outcome with regard to this Texas case (where the plaintiff lives in the State of Utah), but I do know that there will be grave political consequences and unprecedented political collateral damage for the Republican Party once more and more Mexican-Americans find out that this judge was appointed by a former Republican President via George W. Bush.

Are you listening, Texas?

Can you afford to turn a blind eye to legal immigration reform and fixing what is broken in a state that shares 64% of the border length of Mexico?

What are you afraid of?

Does Sen. Cornyn cite his participation with the Conference Task Force on Hispanic Affairs when it only benefits him and during campaign years?

 

Senator John Cornyn is against legal immigration reform and voted against the 2010 DREAM Act. Mexican-American voters in Texas will remember this when he is up for re-election in 2014.

 

 

From ROLL CALL:

ROLLING MEADOWS, Ill. — Iraq War veteran Tammy Duckworth (D) had a 10-point advantage over freshman Rep. Joe Walsh (R) in the most recent poll of the suburban Chicago 8th district.

Duckworth led Walsh, 50 percent to 40 percent, in the Chicago Tribune poll of 600 likely voters. Notably, Duckworth led Walsh among female voters, 54 percent to 34 percent.

The new numbers come one day after Duckworth hosted Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) to discuss Walsh’s comments on abortion. Speier opened up about her own medically necessary abortion on the House floor last February.

It also does not help to know that Mitt Romney dodged the Vietnam War draft 4 times and I consider him a ‘yellow’ belly.

This is just in from VOTEVETS.ORG:

By Amanda Terkel  |  Huffington Post  |  View story in the original context
PUBLISHED: October 03, 2012

On Monday, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s campaign sent Wisconsin officials a letter expressing concern that the state is not doing enough to make sure that military members serving overseas will have their votes counted.

“I am writing to express my concern regarding your office’s attention to the voting rights of men and women in uniform, and to urge you to take immediate action to correct recent violations of military voting rights,” wrote former Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony Principi, who is the national chair of the Veterans and Military Families for Romney Coalition. The letter was sent to David Deininger, chair of the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board (GAB).

At issue is a federal law — the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voter Act (UOCAVA) — that requires election officials to send absentee ballots to military voters at least 45 days before a federal election.

“In this election cycle, your office was required to ensure the transmission of absentee ballots to military voters no later than September 22, 2012. According to your office’s records, however, at least 30 Wisconsin municipalities under your supervision failed to transmit ballots to UOCAVA voters by the 45-day deadline,” Principi wrote in the letter, which was obtained by WisPolitics.com.

Sending ballots to overseas citizens and giving them time to vote and mail back their ballots takes time, hence the 45-day period. The Romney campaign is worried that without that full window, military members may not have their votes counted in time.

“It takes a long time to get the ballots overseas,” Romney campaign spokesman Ryan Williams told The Huffington Post. “Many times, members of our armed forces are on a mission that would require them to be away from their mail facility for several days. Sometimes they move around from different bases or different facilities. Of course, the ballot would have to catch up with them. So that 45-day window is critical.”

In his letter, Principi requested that the Wisconsin GAB immediately make sure servicemembers receive their ballots and extend the deadline by which election officials must receive the completed ballots.

Williams said the campaign has not yet received a response to the letter.

GAB spokesman Reid Magney disputed that the problem was as serious as Principi’s letter made it seem. He told HuffPost that, of the 4,288 military and overseas Wisconsin voters who requested absentee ballots, only 44 were not sent their ballots on time.

“Of the 44 sent late, all but six ballots were sent out in time for there to be 45 days of transit time (from the day sent to the last day for return the Friday after the election),” he added. “Of the six, five were emailed to the voters, so they received them immediately. The sixth voter is in basic training in Georgia, and his ballot was sent to him by mail on October 1. He did not have an email address. He also received information about how to use the new MyVote.WI.gov site to receive an absentee ballot immediately online.”

Regarding the Romney campaign’s request to extend the deadline, Magney said that would need to be done through a court order.

When asked for comment on the situation in Wisconsin, an Obama campaign spokesman said, “We absolutely support extensions that will allow our men and women serving this country to exercise the freedoms they protect and ensure their vote counts. We believe that everyone eligible to vote should be able to vote.”  FULL STORY HERE>>>

See a video below from a Veteran Organization and former military members reminding Indiana Richard Mourdock how he did not support jobs for them.

Hector P Garcia the Mexican-American hero / founder of the American GI FORUM fought poll taxes in Texas.

Dr. Hector P. Garcia was the founder of the American GI Forum in Texas.  He is our hero because he fought on behalf of the Mexican Americans. He worked for improved health conditions for children in Texas’s segregated schools, raised funds to argue legal cases, campaigned against the poll tax, and lobbied for fair labor practices.

Over time, these efforts succeeded. Movie theaters, restaurants, and hotels were open to Mexican Americans by the end of the 1950s, with beauty salons and barbershops following in the 1960s. Desegregation did not reach Texas cemeteries and swimming pools until the 1970s.

Now we see the Republican Party implementing poll taxes again to quash the elderly, the disabled and minority vote. Poll taxes do not just affect the African-American vote — it also affects the Mexican-American vote, too.

Rise up, Tejanos, Chicanos, Mexicanos!  Fight against the poll taxes now and let your voice be heard on November 6, 2012!  Vote against all politicians who support poll taxes and continue the fight Dr. Garcia fought!

Attorney General Eric Holder on Tuesday compared the new Texas voter ID law to the post-slavery efforts to keep blacks from voting known as a “poll taxes.”

The law was passed last year by the GOP-led state legislature, then signed by Gov. Rick Perry, in an effort to curb voter fraud.

In a speech at the annual NAACP conference, in Houston, Holder said many voters would have to travel “great distances” to get a government-issued photo ID and that some would “struggle” to pay for the requisite paperwork.

“We call these poll taxes,” Holder said.

Though an early supporter of the Vietnam War, Romney avoided military service at the height of the fighting after high school by seeking and receiving four draft deferments, according to Selective Service records. They included college deferments and a 31-month stretch as a “minister of religion” in France, a classification for Mormon missionaries that the church at the time feared was being overused. The country was cutting troop levels by the time he became eligible for the draft, and his lottery number was not called.

President Barack Obama, Romney’s opponent in this year’s campaign, did not serve in the military either. The Democrat, 50, was a child during the Vietnam conflict and did not enlist when he was older.

But because Romney, now 65, was of draft age during Vietnam, his military background _ or, rather, his lack of one _ is facing new scrutiny as he courts veterans and makes his case to the nation to be commander in chief. He’s also intensified his criticism lately of Obama’s plans to scale back the nation’s military commitments abroad, suggesting that Romney would pursue an aggressive foreign policy as president that could involve U.S. troops.

Here is Mike Stauffer’s reaction to the autopsy report of a Latino Veteran who died under the supervision of Joe Arpaio.

Mike Stauffer reacts to Latino Veteran autopsy (print screen by DeeDee Garcia Blase)

From Talking Points Memo:

Attorney Michael Manning told TPM he planned to ask for an outside agency to examine the case of Ernest “Marty” Atencio, who lost consciousness and later died following a fight with law enforcement officers inside one of the sheriff’s jails in Phoenix.

Manning said the results of an autopsy released this week, six months after the death, proved what surveillance footage from the jail had already led him to believe: that Atencio would still be alive if sheriff’s detention officers and Phoenix cops hadn’t ganged up on him, pinned him down and given him electric shocks with a stun gun.

“When you look at the report, coupled with the video of Marty’s torture and death, plus interviews with witnesses, it confirms that this was a fairly gratuitous manslaughter of Marty Atencio,” Manning said. “They took it to the lethal level and really killed him in an absolute jailer riot.”

A military veteran with a history of schizophrenia, Atencio was arrested by Phoenix police on suspicion of assault and brought to one of Arpaio’s jails in the early morning of Dec. 16, 2011. The arrest took place just hours after the Justice Department released a scathing report accusing the sheriff and his office of regularly abusing the civil rights of Latinos.

Surveillance video released just days after the death showed that at some point during the booking process Atencio folded his arms and backed up against a wall. That’s when officers grabbed him and began to wrestle him to the ground. During the struggle, the video showed, one of the sheriff’s detention officers used a stun gun to shock Atencio into submission. Soon he was dragged into a holding cell, where he was stripped naked and left laying motionless on the floor for several minutes until medical help was called. He was quickly declared brain dead and several days later was taken off life support.

…. Manning said on Thursday that fellow jail inmates have said officers there used Atencio’s mental health issues to taunt and toy with him while they were booking him.

“They knew he was mentally ill. They teased him. They mocked him. They tried to make him clown for them and ultimately ganged up on him and killed him,” Manning said. “They were playing with him. It was sport to them that night.”

Representatives of both the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office and Phoenix Police Department declined to talk about autopsy report, citing potential lawsuits.

The Tequila Party Movement wrote the FBI with regard to Marty’s death. In our letter to the Director of the FBI, we seek an outside investigation with regard to the incident of Ernest M. Atencio, a 44-year-old Gulf War veteran who was  booked into the jail in Phoenix, when he was allegedly tasered and suffered a heart attack according to his family.  We have been told that an internal investigation is being carried out, however, we believe the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) should conduct a full investigation with regard to the possible excessive abusive actions by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) under the leadership of Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

See our  joint open letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller regarding Gulf War Veteran Ernest M. Atencio below:

December 19, 2011

 

FBI Headquarters

Director Robert Mueller

935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20535-0001
(202) 324-3000

 

Subject:  Gulf War Veteran Ernest M. Atencio while in custody of Sheriff Joe Arpaio

Dear Mr. Robert Mueller:

We are seeking outside investigation with regard to the incident of Ernest M. Atencio, a 44-year-old Gulf War veteran who was recently booked into the jail in Phoenix, when he was allegedly tasered and suffered a heart attack according to his family.  We have been told that an internal investigation is being carried out, however, we believe the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) should conduct a full investigation with regard to the possible excessive abusive actions by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) under the leadership of Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

According to recent news media, his family told local TV station Channel 5 that he was a ‘loving and sweet boy’ who suffered from a mental illness and is now fighting for his life.

Commensurate with the Daily Mail Reporter, one U.S. veteran of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan attempts suicide every 80 minutes, according to new study.  The report reveals 1,868 veterans made suicide attempts in 2009 alone. Many veterans face dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder, high employment and a loss of military camaraderie after returning from tours.

According to the Pew Hispanic Center, while Latinos make up 9.5 percent of the actively enlisted forces, they are over-represented in the categories that get the most dangerous assignments – infantry, gun crews and seamanship – and make up over 17.5 percent of the front lines.  DOD numbers reveal 35,000 non-citizens currently in the active Armed Forces.

The MCSO should have been trained on how to handle war veterans particularly when there is a history of mental illness and they should be vigilant with regard to the excessive abuse of these veterans.  We are seeking the help of the FBI.  An investigation should be conducted by the FBI in light of the recent findings provided by the feds via the Department of Justice (DOJ).

Sincerely,

Bernie Abeytia

Immediate Past American GI Forum Commander of the State of Arizona

 

Shirl Mora James

Lead Co-President of National Tequila Party Movement

Civil Rights and Immigration Attorney

 

DeeDee Garcia Blase

Founder, Co-President of National Tequila Party Movement

 

 Adam Bustos

National President, SOMOS REPUBLICANS

 

 

“…the next time you’re down in Washington, D.C., to go to the Vietnam War Memorial and look at the names engraved in black granite, you’ll find a whole lot of Hispanic names…who love this country so much that they’re willing to risk their lives in its service….remember that these are God’s children…” – Senator John McCain