>>> PLEASE DISTRIBUTE WIDELY <<<



Sunday, January 8, 2006

DID COSTA MESA POLICE CHIEF JOHN HENSLEY TARGET A

CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST?

Surprising video shot by Minuteman suggests the

lawman had Coyotl Tezcalipoca illegally arrested

By DUANE J. ROBERTS

duaneroberts92804@yahoo.com

COSTA MESA, CA -- During the past 48 hours, video

footage has unexpectedly appeared on the internet

containing a number of startling images which suggest

that Coyotl Tezcalipoca, a young Mexican civil rights

activist who has been openly critical of Costa Mesa

Mayor Allan Mansoor's proposal to merge city law

enforcement with immigration duties, was illegally

arrested by police officers at the Tuesday, January

3rd meeting of that municipality's City Council.

The footage in question, a high quality five minute

video clip of that meeting, was taken by a

self-professed "Minuteman" who lives in Los Angeles,

and was posted on www.immigrationwatchdog.com,

a website that is dedicated to fighting "the human

tsunami of millions upon never ending millions of

poor illegal aliens from Latin America ...

[threatening] ... our way of life."

A careful, but detailed analysis of this clip not only

completely contradicts newspaper accounts claiming

that Tezcalipoca was taken into custody because he had

gone over his time limit during public comments and

had refused to leave the podium, but shows that

Costa Mesa Police Chief John Hensley himself may

have acted improperly -- and possibly illegally --

when he ordered several of his officers to arrest

the young activist.

The video clearly shows that Police Chief Hensley

ordered Tezcalipoca arrested shortly after Mayor

Mansoor stated twice over his microphone that the

meeting was temporarily being adjourned for what

appears to have been a pre-planned recess or

"break." If this is the case, as it appears to be,

then Hensley had his officers take Tezcalipoca into

custody for "disrupting" a Costa Mesa

City Council meeting which, technically, was no

longer in session. This casts serious doubts over

the validity of the arrest.

In addition to this, the video establishes for the

first time that Mayor Mansoor did in fact abruptly cut

off Tezcalipoca two minutes and twenty seconds into

his public comments -- out of the three minutes that

were available to him according to the Costa

Mesa municipal code. Civil libertarians looking

into this case argue this was an outright violation

of Tezcalipoca's constitutionally protected right to

free speech and assembly.

A separate investigation being conducted by John Earl,

publisher of the www.ocorganizer.com, a website that

covers labor and immigrant rights issues in Orange

County, not only has uncovered additional evidence

corroborating some of the claims brought up in this

article, but has discovered video clips showing that

Mayor Mansoor did in fact allow Minuteman founder Jim

Gilchrist to do things he refused to allow Tezcalipoca

to do during public comments.

"It seems that Mansoor's message to the public," Earl

told me yesterday via Yahoo messenger, "was that if

you are a Minuteman you may stand for your beliefs,

but if you are Mexican, please remain seated."

The video also shows, contrary to claims that Police

Chief Hensley made to the press last week, that

Tezcalipoca, although appearing upset over the fact

his comments were cut short by Mayor Mansoor, not

only was fully complying with orders by officers

to leave the podium, but was in the process of

exiting the building shortly before they violently

pushed him out the door.

VIDEO CAN BE SEEN AT WWW.IMMIGRATIONWATCHDOG.COM

Click on the following links to download them to your

computer in the appropriate formats.

QUICKTIME:

http://www.immigrationwatchdog.com/media/costamesa/bad_2.mov

WINDOWS:

http://www.immigrationwatchdog.com/media/costamesa/bad_2.wmv