Dallas News Blog

Sorry but if you live in a country for 30 years and have not learned enough of the local patois to talk your way out of a traffic ticket then you are just lazy.

Oh, bite me, NYT. Seriously, our cops may be bad, but I don't see the words "broomstick" or "Haitian immigrant" anywhere in the media coverage of the failure-to-speak-English tickets.

Over the last 26 years, New York prosecutors have brought 4,750 cases and obtained 2,550 convictions under a cruising law that was deemed unconstitutional over 25 years ago.

Even after a judge ordered the city to send out letters to police, district attorneys and trial judges that the law was long-ago ruled unconstitutional and should not be currently enforced, the city has continued to bring charges under the unconstitutional law - 85 such prosecutions since May when the letter was ordered to go out.

A quick (but not exhaustive) search shows no editorials in the New York times about this issue.

I have lived in Texas since I was born. My family is from far Southwest Texas, down in Pecos County in the Big Bend region, very close to the Mexican border. Some of my own relatives are Mexican. I know enough Spanish to get by. I've known it since I learnt to talk. The folks on that side of my family teach our young'uns the "ABCs and 123's" in two languages. What's the big deal? This is Texas. Spanish was a part of our heritage long before it was Mexico. Remember, we have six flags here (actually we have nine, but I digress) and one of those flags is the one from Spain. That's where Spanish came from.

Lots of people who speak Spanish as a primary language and have been here for years also know enough English to get by just fine. I know many of them. They are neighbors and they understand how to get to a neighborhood association meetings but need a little help with finer points and longer conversations. But again, they know enough to have a casual chat in English, albeit a very short casual chat.

People get flustered when they are stopped my cops, even if they have no reason to be scared. The questions they ask and the things they want from you aren't really the same words used in a casual conversation. If I were in France where I know a limited amount of French, enough to get by, and I were stopped by a cop, I would be at a loss. I would certainly tell him that I only petit pou French.

Ms. Mondragon probably does speak a little English, just not enough to be fluent and chat up a cop about the weather while he's writing a ticket for an illegal U-turn (when was the last time ANYONE got a ticket for an illegal U-turn by a Dallas cop???)

PS- I shocked, SHOCKED, that this thread was posted at 8:15 this morning and there are only six comments so far.

"People get flustered when they are stopped my cops, even if they have no reason to be scared."

Right, especially Mexicans born and raised in Mexico because not trusting the Policia is a way of life.

The whole "make America's official language English" is very Tea Baggerish. Scared White people.....

@toots "very Tea Baggerish"

what does Tea bagger mean in its original sense?

We really should make English the official Language. But, not for the reasons for against racism, or Hispanic pride, or whatever the hell makes this such a stupid and controversial issue.

A society must have an agreed upon form of communication, particularly when it comes to law enforcement, emergencies, and other official businesses. Obviously these traffic stops don't matter, but, what it were was a traffic accident? How is the lady supposed to describe to an EMS unit or Doc as to what her injuries are like, if there was anybody else in the car like a toddler, etc.?

Once we agree on the OFFICIAL form of communication, then I suggest that schools teach both languages in their curriculum.

The prevalence of Spanish as a second language throughout our culture these days tells us one if not both of several things, that Spanish-speaking people congenitally need more help bridging the language gap than any others or/and that Spanish-speaking people, unlike speakers of other languages, are singularly dictating what languages will be spoken in the U.S.

The one thing we should be grateful for is the absence of violent resentment on the parts of speakers of native languages other than Spanish. No one in his right mind wants to have to deal with an angry, resentful Croat.

"M'kay"....WTF?

You are either gay or a woman with a family in Lake Highlands.

Don't watch much Southpark do you?

Actually, in Mexican culture, there is still a very strong stigma surrounding teabagging (outside of Mexico City, of course, where they actually have teabagging clubs). However, this is slowly beginning to change; a subplot of a recent telenovela involved a character who teabagged. His family members beat him insensible, dragged him behind a burro, flayed him pecker and testes with sticks festooned with magical herbs, and humiliated his human dignity at every turn, but just the fact that they acknowledged it was a huge step forward in this deeply traditional culture.

Teabagging in Mexico is as entrenched as cockfighting.

"I'd say we bend over backwards for the people too lazy or too stuck on racial pride to learn english, but, when it comes to driving there is safety and lives of others at stake."

But the police should probably wait until it's actually against the law before writing the tickets, right?

Or does the DPD have discretion to make up its own laws?

Or does the DPD have discretion to make up its own laws?

You mean like the DPD deciding not to enforce immigration laws because they're scared of being called racists? That kind of making things up? Seems like they do that already, but you're not too concerned about that are you? No, of course not. Wouldn't want them to enforce any politically incorrect laws and hurt peoples feelings now would we?

YOU DON'T HAVE TO DEPORT, MAKE E-VERIFY PERMANENT. THEY WILL SELF-DEPORT WITHOUT WORK BY 'ATTRITION."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada used a procedural move to chop an amendment offered by Sen. Jeff Sessions that would have required unemployment compensation recipients to be verified through E-Verify. The working program accessed on any computer from Homeland Security, clearly can remove illegal alien workers, unless their documents prove otherwise by identifying their legal status at Social Security. A clear stand that Americans must be forced to compete with foreign labor. Simply speaking it just illustrates to me that he cares--ABSOLUTELY NOTHING--for the 15 million American Workers. Reid is more concerned with fulfilling his obligations to pariah businesses that want to hire illegal aliens instead of citizens and legal immigrants. We must keep pushing the Senate-House for a mandated-permanent E-Verify that cannot be rescinded by either party. SEE THE OTHER COLLABORATORS AT NUMBERSUSA, AND REMOVE A FEW FROM OFFICE IN 2010, INCLUDING SEN. REID. No question in my mind that these ruthless politicians, are out to derail E-Verify as they are/were in consultation with the Supreme court judges. You must wonder what tricks there up to, in seeking devious advise about the constitutionality of Arizona's immigration enforcement laws. If these administrations have manipulated their own immigration laws, or ignored them altogether. Why should the government try to intimidate states, because the people got tired of nothing being seriously accomplished by those morons in Washington?

It's authorized for appropriations for three years, but that doesn't mean these jokers in Washington cannot side-track of completely obliterate it? I will repeat that HS chief Janet Napolitano has made some excuse to weaken the 287 G, general police rights to question and arrest illegal aliens on the streets or higways, if they have been trained by the feds. Even ICE raids are down to a trickle, obviously softened by the Democratic leadership? Senators and Representatives are all suspect, so call them at 202-224-3121. Be aware of immigration issues and immigration enforcement grading at NUMBERSUSA, Learn about corruption lawsuits, including ACORN sleaze at JUDICIAL WATCH. AMNESTY means OVERPOPULATION that needs your urgent attention at CAPSWEB. Be armed with knowledge of the coming BLANKET AMNESTY and how it will effect your paycheck. Once the word goes out millions more indigent, uneducated neglected people will rush the borders, or overstay their tourist visas to reach US soil. My question is when uncountable numbers of foreign nationals arrive in America through the fence, what excuses are the open border fanatics going to explain that unimaginable crisis away?