WTF?

Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle said this afternoon that his officers have written at least 39 citations to people over the past three years for not speaking English.

Apologizing publicly to the city's Spanish-speaking community, the chief said all officers and supervisors involved will be investigated for dereliction of duty. All pending citations will be dismissed, and people who paid fines will be reimbursed.

"I was stunned that this would happen," Kunkle said at a news conference.

The police chief added: "In my world, you would never tell someone not to speak Spanish."

The bogus citations – there is no law requiring Dallas residents to speak English – came to light after it was revealed that a rookie officer, Gary Bromley, had issued a citation on Oct. 2 to Ernestina Mondragon for being a non-English-speaking driver.

Bromley had stopped the 48-year-old woman for making an improper U-turn in the 500 block of Easton Road, near East Northwest Highway, according to the citation.

Police officials at first dismissed Bromley's action as the foolish error of an inexperienced cop.

"That's a charge that does not exist here in the city of Dallas," said Sgt. Warren Mitchell, a department spokesman.

"Although we believe it was a sincere mistake ... there's no excuse for it."

He said that charge and a charge of failure to present a driver's license were dropped.

In all, about Dallas police write about 400,000 citations a year, department officials said.

Bromley, 33, is a trainee officer in the Northeast Patrol division. His trainer on the date the ticket was issued was Senior Cpl. Daniel Larkin, 53, said Deputy Chief Tom Lawrence, Northeast Patrol commander.

Under the Dallas City Code, taxi drivers must be able to communicate in English. Mitchell said there is also a federal statute that says commercial drivers must speak English, but it would not have applied in this case.

Mondragon's daughter Brenda Mondragon said her mother was rushing to take her younger sister to school that day and did not see the "no U-turn" sign. Records show Ernestina Mondragon has a driver's license, but her daughter said she had forgotten it. She said her mother, a native Spanish speaker, speaks limited English.

"She was very mad; she was very upset," Mondragon said of her mother's reaction. "We ended up taking her to the [emergency room] because she was nervous; she was just stressing over the ticket."

http://www.dallasnews.com...?nTar=OPUR

Dallas

Im gonna say something that might upset some people BUT!!

If you can't speak english why live in a contry that English is the mother tongue!?

If I ever wanted to live in france/italy etc I would (out of respect) try my best to adapt to their culture, their language. Im not being racist, I just get sick and tried of this shit. If you can't speak/read english how can u abide to the contrys laws?! U can't...
Im not picking on any body here, nor contry..Don't want to make people mad now do I

Just my 2 cents!

andykeen said:

Do you live in DFW? Most of the population is Hispanic-so this really makes no sense, but I can see your point.

Would she have been ticketed if she spoke Russian, French, Italian, Yiddish or Korean? Why are Spanish-speaking folks being targeted?

uPtoWnNY said:

I agree especially when that's most of this area's population.

nurseV said:

Im travelling around the world at the moment, Currently Im living in Sydney and I spoke to a shop keeper who could only grunt, couldn't even say Hi, he just used he's eye brows to communitate...When i was in germany I made sure I spoke enough to get me by...

It just makes me sick that these people could actually gain accepetance to a country just because their sons or daughters studied here and got residence, But when I (A english speaking, A-level student) Tries to get a exteneded visa(For one more year) gets turns away.. I just can't see any justice in this!

andykeen said:

You are aware that the USA does not have a national language, right???
BTW - as far as "Mother" language, I'm sure very few people speak Cherokee, Navajo, or Sioux

andykeen said:

Makes sense and the shop keeper sounds like an idiot-who the hell has a business but can make no efforts to communicate with consumers? Crazy

MuaPetahl said:

You got us there Mua your username sounds familiar Ever lived in Oklahoma?

andykeen said:

Two grammar mistakes in one sentence !

andykeen said:

You´re too funny....unintentionally.But I do understand your point,one should of course learn the language of the respective country you´re living in.

What does the ticket say? What authorization gives officers the right to issues such tickets? I mean is there some civil code that people don't know about.


Officer:
"you are in violation of abc.123 section p.h.o.n.y subdivision z" and are hereby being issued a ticket for non-compliance. Do you understand the meaning of this ticket?

Innocent Person Minding Their Own Beeswax:

"Que?"


oh well...i see both sides I suppose but come on...a fuckin ticket??

DesireeNevermind said:

Que? u are so wrong

DesireeNevermind said:

http://www.scribd.com/doc...ng-English

You can zoom in on the citation.but it reads "Failure to present a DL Non-English Speaking Ding" I think that says Ding.

EmeraldSkies said:

ohhh... so they are getting people on not having ID basically? is that right? I mean if you have a DL (driver's license) then who cares if you speak english or spanish. you must have done something right to get the DL.

Ima stop saying DL cuz it makes me think of "down low" which is so not appropriate for this thread.

DesireeNevermind said:

I can see getting her for not having her driver's license,but to add the no english thing is stupid,there is no law that states that if you live in Dallas you must speak english,even though it might be helpful.

andykeen said:

I see what you're saying but I think that argument might hold more weight if the U.S. actually made English its official language. As it is, it's just the one most commonly used.

andykeen said:

That's no excuse for giving people tickets for not speaking English.

2elijah said:

nop! how would he like it if he was in a Spanish speaking country or a Spanish speaking neighborhood and he was driving and an officer who only spoke spanish came up to him and gave him a ticket for not speaking spanish?

put ur self in others shoes!

Where I live a lot of people speak Spanish, but a lot of them are bilingual..

People not speaking english is something that personally irritates me. But the second I go to another country or even region of THIS country, I completely sympathize. I recently moved down south from California. It's damn near a different language and I don't necessarily wanna speak it.


In the US though, capitalism rules. If the (place corporation/company here) wants to make money, they'll cater to the spoken tongue and not wait for said tongue to learn a new language. They have every right to not speak english and in California, New Mexico, Texas an EASY environment to remain in their original tongue. Spanish people are VERY community driven, it's a strength their culture has. I don't fault them for it at all.


When I was young, from time to time I made fun of spanish speaking people trying to speak english.....untill EYE tried to learn spanish. Then EYE was the one who ended up as an adult sounding like a 4 year old. I speak english VERY well but I sound like a retard when I speak spanish. So I stopped making fun of those spanish speakers attempting to better their lives. They seemed to never make fun of me when I tried, I only got encouragement.