Monday, November 9, 2009

Speak English or Get Ticketed

Apparently, over the past 3 years Dallas police officers have issued 39 tickets for not speaking English. The fine - $204. After "discovering" that his officers had been issuing tickets for this non-existent charge, Dallas police Chief David Kunkle stated to the Dallas Morning News:

"I was surprised and stunned that that would happen, particularly in the city of Dallas....In my world, you would never tell someone not to speak Spanish."


Perhaps Chief Kunkle needs to come back to THIS world where HIS officers are doing just that. His city of Dallas is the same city that practically rioted when the pizza chain "Pizza Patron" started accepting pesos a few years back. This is the same Dallas whose DA's office was discovered to have a long-established practice of racially discriminating to get all-white capital case jurors. So I'm not sure that discriminating based on the language someone speaks is all that surprising (sorry!). Kunkle mentioned to the Dallas Morning News that he was worried this would damage the department's relationship with the Hispanic community. My response: (1) duh, (2) ship might have sailed on that one awhile ago.

So what will the outcome of all this be? Any outstanding tickets issued for not speaking English will be dismissed and those already paid will be reimbursed. The department is going to do an investigation, blah, blah, blah. In the meantime, if the writers for Reno 911 are short on material, this surely would make for a ridiculous show!

God Bless Texas
~Andréa

No comments:

Post a Comment