It’s still not clear what exactly happened to Ernest Atencio, but we do know that just days after the Department of Justice accused of Sheriff Joe Arpaio “unconstitutional policing” and creating a “pervasive culture of bias” against Latinos,  a 44-year-old Latino man, Ernest “Marty” Atencio, became unconscious while in one of Arpaio’s prisons, and is now brain dead and on life support.  We know that Atencio got into a fight with the officers in jail and that he was put into a “safe cell.” He was found unconscious and taken to the hospital where he was declared brain dead.  The family claims Atencio, who is mentally ill and a veteran of the first Gulf War, was tasered. Atencio’s brother Mike, acting as the family spokesman, said ”The sheriff’s office murdered my brother….That’s what I want to get out to the public right now:Sheriff Joe is murdering inmates.”

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