Grijalva calls for investigation into attacks on Hernandez

The young intern, Daniel Hernandez, who cared for his boss, Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, as she lay shot outside a Tucson grocery store, has become the target of dirty and hate-filled politics. As a Sunnyside School Board Member, who has questioned the failing status quo, Hernandez and his fellow reform-minded board member, Buck Crouch, are being targeted for recall.

If that wasn’t enough, Hernandez is now the victim of malicious fliers that are focusing on his sexual orientation. Congressman Raul Grijalva rightly condemned the attack and called for an investigation into what appears to be little more than absolutely reprehensible dirty politics.

“I find myself deeply offended and disgusted by the malicious attacks being directed at Mr. Hernandez,” said Grijalva in a statement issued last week. “In public life, we all endure some baseless personal attacks but the trend to malign political figures based on race, gender, or sexual orientation is unfortunately becoming a norm of campaigning which has no place in our democratic process. This trend is fueled by anonymous and cowardly groups, and individuals who have turned politics and campaigning into an exercise of personal destruction. My campaigns have endured racist and personal attacks with increasing frequency and the anonymous parties responsible are never held accountable.”

Grijalva asked the Pima County Attorney and the Pima County School Superintendent’s office to fully investigate the recent attacks on Mr. Hernandez. “Finally, we will make an inquiry to the U.S. Department of Justice and FBI to assist the offices of the Pima County Attorney and School Superintendent in a vigorous investigation of the attacks as a hate crime,” said Grijalva.

However, according to social media, it is Hernandez’s fellow board members who are most likely responsible for the hate speech. Most people are pointing the fingers at fellow Democrats and Governing Board members Bobby Garcia and Board President Louie Gonzales.

For years, Gonzales has lorded over the District, using students to promote bond elections in violation of state law and protecting the District’s Superintendent Manuel Isquierdo.

It was the Board’s decision to renew Isquierdo’s contract that really riled the Sunnyside community. The Sunnyside Unified School District Governing Board voted to extend Isquierdo’s contract for another two years. Before an angry public, the Board voted 3-2 in favor of the controversial leader.

After that vote, many spoke of the “hostile environment” Isquierdo has created throughout the District. District staff said that he had created an “air of distrust” for staff and parents.

Just this past year, Isquierdo attempted to leave the District, but his money troubles caught up with him, and the Texas district he had hoped to go to rejected him for their top job.

Last week, in a meeting with Tucson City Councilman Richard Fimbres and an emissary of TUSD’s Superintendent H.T. Sanchez, Isquierdo said of the two districts’ sagging enrollment numbers and large drop out populations, “We need to get these kids back quick; it doesn’t matter if they leave again later.”

It is his lack of commitment to the students and teachers that has angered many Sunnyside stakeholders. Despite the community’s concern, Gonzales has been loyal to Isquierdo, and Gonzales controls the majority of the Board.

As a result, things like Open Meeting Laws appear to be ignored.

There was one instance in which it appeared that those laws had been violated, which prompted Board member Buck Crouch to file a complaint with the Arizona Attorney General’s Office. Unlike Gonzales and Garcia, Crouch was very open about his concerns and his decision to file the complaint.

It is that complaint that is really at the core of the attacks on Hernandez. Many believe that the recall effort against Crouch and Hernandez is political payback.

It is not such a stretch to believe that they are capable of dishonest behavior. According to KVOA News, “Bobby Garcia apparently never told constituents about some reports in his official police record: He was suspended twice for department violations that might seem especially outrageous for someone now on a school board. The News 4 Tucson Investigators have learned that in 1997, Garcia was suspended for 20 days without pay for having a relationship with a teenaged girl.”

KVOA reported that Garcia claimed that he only signed a paper saying he would accept the 20-day suspension. “I never signed anything saying that I committed or made a criminal act. I will look you straight in the eye and tell you, I have never done anything wrong in these reports,” he told a reporter.

The report also noted that on one occasion, Garcia arranged a sexual liason between the girl and another person, and that, “He was present, if not a participant, in the sexual activity which then occurred.” This liaison occurred after the girl turned 18. Garcia told KVOA, “I was in the area, but I never was involved in any of that. That was between those two people.”

KVOA reports that in 1995, a report was filed against then Officer Garcia when he broke into the home of a former girlfriend, had a physical confrontation with her, and then initiated an unauthorized investigation of a male friend of hers. Garcia told KVOA that the Internal Affairs investigative report was also not true.

Laura Cruz, the mother of Garcia’s 12-year-old granddaughter, filed an injunction against Garcia for harassment this month.

Cyndi Cruz-Oxman posted the most damning claim against Garcia on Facebook, “I have to add my two cents here about the “flyer.” It has Bobby Garcia written all over it. How do I know? Because I have received an “anonymous” Bobby Garcia flyer in the past. This is how he operates. He had threatened to “expose” Mr. Hernandez and a few days later an “anonymous” flyer about traffic tickets related to Mr. Hernandez was sent out to Sunnyside administrators. He’s a common thug and a liar and the public should be informed!”

RightWingWatch.org, a project of People For the American Way, a liberal group “dedicated to exposing right wing Christians,” noted on their website that the story behind the recall is the kind of “byzantine saga found only in local politics.”

RightWingWatch.org received two of the fliers and reported that one of their sources in the district reports that Hernandez’s opponents are handing them out to parents dropping their children off at schools in the district. According to Right Wing Watch, they repeatedly tried to contact Marcos Castro, the manager of the effort to recall Hernandez and brother-in-law of School Board President Louie Gonzalez, to discover whether the fliers came from his campaign, but Castro refused to take their calls. Later, Castro did contact them and claimed that he has “no knowledge” of where they came from.

One Tucsonan said, “Grijalva’s assertions of discrimination against Hernandez are intended to be divisive. They don’t call out who is doing the discrimination and what kind of discrimination; they sort of suggest that its gay discrimination and race discrimination. He keeps the festering divisions and focuses on differences within the community.”