Rookie Dallas cop tickets woman for driving while not speaking English -- UPDATED
By David Neiwert Friday Oct 23, 2009 2:00pm
Of course, the local cops are calling it a "rookie mistake":
A Dallas rookie police officer erred when he cited a woman earlier this month for being a non-English speaking driver, police said.
Officer Gary Bromley issued a citation Oct. 2 to 48-year-old Ernestina Mondragon after stopping her for making an illegal U-turn in the 500 block of Easton Road, near East Northwest Highway, according to a copy of the citation.
"That's a charge that does not exist here in the city of Dallas," said department spokesman Sgt. Warren Mitchell. "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.
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.
Seems to me the problem is not merely with Officer Bromley's assumptions about Driving While Mexican, but those of his training officer, who presumably oversaw the citations as Bromley was writing them up.
Of course, if Officer Bromley winds up washing out in Dallas because of this, he needn't worry. He would probably be welcomed at the Maricopa County Sheriff's Department with open arms.
UPDATE: Now the Dallas police chief is admitting that there have been dozens of such tickets:
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.
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To think, something like this happened in Texas!
You can't make this shit up.
can't spell in English. He wrote 'diver' instead of driver. Isn't that a false police report?
Maybe she was wearing a wetsuit.
ass. They're in no position to critique others' command of English when their command of the language is usually mediocre at best. Sometimes for kicks, when I am confronted with those types, I'll point out all of the spelling, punctuation, and grammar errors in their little tirades. Trust me, I've yet to see an English-only person who can handle all three of those well. ;)
rape of the English language, text speak, drinking buckfast. That is what white pride is about nowadays! Good night white pride. Fucking bollocks!
Fucking scumbags is what they are!
I have much more respect for non-English speakers in this country who try the best they can with what bit of English they pick up from their children than I do the nativist scumbags that are so proud of the English language but mangle it everytime they open their undereducated pie holes...
My Italian cousins always would tease me and say we don't speak english, we speak american. LOL. In european schools they are required to take english or french (at least in Italy). My cousin decided to take french. Go figure.
I don't know what americans living on military bases overseas would do if a foreign cop would stop them because they can't speak their language while driving? If this woman passed her test for driving than this cop was way, way out of line. Overseas soldiers and their families that want to drive in the country they are in they must learn the driving signs. In Germany there were over 70 or more signs you had to learn. This is so stupid. I think he gave a her ticket for being a hispanic.
I think they said 38 such tickets had been written by various officers. Crazy. One person who paid the fine is supposed to get their money back.
Dallas is a joke.
Now the police chief here has come out and admitted that this was not an "isolated incident", but that they have so far uncovered 39 citations of this type issued by the department. I wish I could feign surprise, but unfortunately, living in this area, and seeing the constant fearmongering that the governor and talk radio engage in regarding the "invasion" from the south, this is just depressingly familiar.
Yeah, right. And those pending citations will be dismissed. Yeah, right. And those who paid the fines will be reimbursed. Yeah, right.
The only problem with this practice is that they got caught. Otherwise, it would have been business as usual. And, six months from now it will again be business as usual. After all, it's the Republic of Tejas.
Bush Family members go to Dallas without their Hispanic chauffeurs, haha.
.
Sincere Mistake = Ignorant Racism
.
in his racism.
Sincere racism & ignorant mistake.
Just another case of sincerely ignorant racism by Texan cops.
.
Q U E S T I O N:
What Race is American?
.
Jay-sus Murkin.
Lucky she didn't get death penalty. Texas is getting soft. Must be Obama's impact.
so I don't get a ticket for knowing English.
LOL
http://www.123teachme.com/learn_spanish/begin...
Having lived in Dallas for about 30 years, I'm really surprised. Spanish is pretty much a second language in this city. Many of the officers are hispanic, or have hispanic roots. Spanish is routinely spoken. I'm just wondering where this officer is from, and what was he thinking. Ditto for his traning officer.
...what the other 38 officers were thinking as well...
...but to play devil's advocate here...
..it wasn't JUST that she either couldn't or wouldn't speak English, she made an illegal U-turn and after being stopped failed to produce a valid driver's licence, which I'm pretty sure is required in every State when operating a motor vehicle. Being a rookie cop, that combination could be construed as being intentionally uncooperative an attempt to avoid getting a ticket.
Not saying this is the case, and I certainly wouldn't assume that would apply for the other 39 similar citations.
And it's not being racist - I dated an Hispanic guy in college who spoke perfect English, but when confronted by any situation he didn't like, suddenly, all he could speak was Spanish. (I've even done it myself, when I lived in Paris, speaking only French when I didn't want to be bothered by rude tourists...)
Just saying I'd rather have ALL the facts before I brand an entire police force (who tend to react badly enough when accused of shit they HAVE done), or the entire state of Texas... much as I'd like to, just for inflicting Dubya on the rest of us...
well said
and have been stopped for speeding. One time I didn't have my license, the cop said it is ok he can just look it up. It's not that big of a deal here.
talk about rude! Maybe if Parisians bothered to learn a few modern gratuities they wouldn't be universally despised. I was treated horribly at times while being my most gracious. Not saying this is the case, blah blah blah
Did you even bother to speak at least a few words of their own language before going there?
That is the cause of most Americans calling Parisians "rude".
I speak a little French and my visits to Paris have been delightful every time. Even as rubbish as my knowledge of the language is they are happy to help me out for even having tried to not be yet another rude foreigner demanding them to speak my foreign language.
Knowledge of English is not a requirement to drive in the US.
Period.
And that cop should have known it, as should the other 38 cops who gave out tickets for the same thing.
When that is written on the ticket as a charge there is no excuse.
But if you believe the someone is being intentionally uncooperative, you don't write a ticket for the non-existent charge of driving while not speaking English. There is a specific criminal charge called "obstruction."
The trainee may have been making a dumb-ass mistake, but his training officer sure as hell should have known better.
and narcissistic Americans have once again become as much as anything.
We seem to thrive and revel in it these days.
I live in Texas as well.
"If we made English our national language and a pre-requisite for citizenship, we wouldn't have this sort of problem."
have to learn 2 or 3 or 4 languages just to survive on a day to day basis though.
Was she calling a Mexican sleeper cell on her cell phone??
in English but just can't speak it?
Personally I would dangerous if I drove in a Foreign country and couldn't read anything. I suppose I could guess though.
http://www.mexbound.com/images/road-signs.jpg
where they are still fighting The Alamo.
When I lived there in the 70's it was a pretty cool place.
An island of sanity in a very red-necked state.
. .
and we want to keep it that way :).
It even has a nude beach.
I will always give Austin a pass for producing the Vaughn brothers.
where they are still
fightinglosing at The Alamo.FIFY...
I really don't like it when broad assumptions are made about an entire state based on one incident. Texas is not still fighting the Alamo. I suppose where you live no cop or anyone else for that matter has ever done anything that seemed racial? Glass houses.
C'mon folks. It's an honest mistake. The taxi drivers and commercial drivers ARE required to speak English. And given that other tickets have been given out for the same offense, there's obviously some misunderstanding about the laws throughout the force. That doesn't make it a widespread racist conspiracy. Unless there's some other sufficient reason to consider this guy a racist, write it off as a mistake.
there have been numerous tickets written by various officers for the same thing.
That's more than a 'mistake'.
various. As in other. As in senior cops this rookie is looking to for guidance. Not this one guy doing the same thing 39 times, which would indeed smack of intentional racism. That it's been done before 39 times does appear to indicate a serious problem the police should (and now no doubt WILL) address, and probably is attributable to entrenched racism. It's not the sort of thing that disappears overnight, but gets chipped at day by day by things like this being brought to public scrutiny.
Again, and I'm only playing devil's advocate here, it's a new cop, he made what could be an honest mistake and unless proven otherwise, I'd prefer to judge him by the same standards I would expect to be judged by myself. The woman also made a mistake, making an illegal U-turn and neglecting to carry her driver's licence. No one was hurt, and if she hadn't been cited for 'not speaking English', she would have had no recourse but to pay a justifiable fine - not exactly a punishment on the level of being hauled off to Guantanamo Bay. As it is, (to my mind) she overreacted to the point of hystrionics, you don't go to an emergency room because you're upset over a ticket - that's pushing the victim card a bit hard.
So again, I question the value of pushing this issue into a generalized damnation of the entire police force in the entire State of Texas. Seems like once they've been called on it, they got their house in order. At least on this one issue. Believe me, I'd like to see them get their house in order on much bigger, deadlier, and far more racially offensive issues.
how funny i didn't know that, they didn't report it on the news here that she did that.
Well, after the fiasco with the football player's mother in law and the other month in FW with the gay bar....that area doesn't have much to desire in the way of police departmental judgment calls.
if someone doesn't know English, how would they know where they are going? Our signs are in English. Unless they are only driving locally?
street, etc. names are in Spanish, like much of them are in the Southwest in general. I imagine some folks are able to recognize non-Spanish geographic names with the help of English-speaking relatives. And they can learn to memorize the shapes, colors, and symbols of road/traffic signs.
Do you actually read all the street signs when you are driving? No, you recognize locations (if you've been there before). You recognize the shape and symbols on road signs. And if you're going somewhere new, you've asked someone directions - go to the first light past the Quik Trip, turn right, take the third left, etc. And I don't speak Spanish, but I could figure out if the street name I have written down is the same word as what's on the sign.
I understand it being a rookie mistake. I can accept that. I also accept that the ticket was dismissed. What I DON'T understand is why they should drop the charge of "Failure to present a valid driver's license??? I am as liberal as the next guy, but, a valid charge like that should NOT be dismissed.
If this is a pattern of harassment, then it should be looked into, BUT, if it is a simple dumb mistake, it is a non-story. Think about it with a clear unbiased head for a moment...IF the cop truly was a rookie, and IF there are traffic laws on the books that state that certain drivers MUST have a comprehension of English, then is it not plausible that the cop got his wires crossed and wrote up an erroneous ticket? Can't we give him the benefit of the doubt? At the best he comes off dumb, at the worst, well, your posts say it all.
I had issues with the Quebec police at times due to language differences and laws that were on the books that I was ignorant of when I lived there for a time in the 80's, but I never felt I was driving while "English" or worse yet, "American." I was simply ignorant of the laws and language and took my tickets and paid them and learned enough French to get by, and to avoid stupid mistakes.
This story is quite possibly the type of mountain out of a molehill that divides us further and further with each passing day...NEXT...
charge could have been dropped by her presenting the license to the court on or before the day of her hearing.
Slow news day?
Will they be reimbursed WITH INTEREST, as they demand happen in the case of motorists paying late?
I didn't think so. Only happens one way.
I have been to Dallas several times and I tell you, I will NEVER go there again. Not even as a connection, when flying. I live in CA, and if I have to go to, say, Maine, to avoid Dallas, I will. I hate that town.
The alleged officer in question should be cited for an IQ violation.
That one would stick.
he knew how to spell IQ. That should be first on the test.
With all the waves some cracker on the Farmer's Branch city council caused trying to limit social services to illegal aliens, it's surprising this happened.
However, this seems to be the norm (NORM!!!) all over the country. The rather staid and conservative US News and World reported in May 2007 that local governments were wasting money from Homeland Security Services, engaging in extremely questionable practices. I've noticed an increase locally of bullying type behavior from police officers since 9-11.
This also ties into the taser debate.
That being said, if she had a license, she had to have taken a test, presumably in Spanish, so she should know the procedure, and as always, ignorance is not an excuse
Unless you're in the last administration.
I drove all over Europe not knowing the various languages. But there the important signage is pictographic. We haven't arranged it that way. So I too am uneasy sharing the road with non English-speakers/readers.
isn't hard to decipher. she broke a law. none of which was 'not being able to speak english' while driving.
This is a state to state matter. In WA, you are not allowed to make a U turn at any left turn lanes.
In Nevada, U turns are leagal almost everywhere, except when posted. Many intersections here in Vegas have U turn signs along with left turns.
gotta give props to the DALLAS police chief of all people to not lie about this and being so upfront.
...by the Dallas Morning News is that comments have been disabled. Yeah, I just bet.
I was smiling at the Barney Fife-ness of it all, but the part about the 38 other tickets wiped the smile right off. That's outrageous and scary.
I have a cousin who lives in Houston who is Greek-American, like me, but has jet-black hair and swarthy skin. When he was a kid and his mother was teaching him to drive, a cop pulled them over. The cop told his mom to make sure her son always kept his hands on the wheel when he was pulled over, because he looked Mexican. The guy was really offhand about it, like of course Mexican guys face a greater risk of getting shot by the police, and we don't want that to happen to decent white people, do we?
This is just intolerable. Every asshole cop who wrote one of those "doesn't speak English" tickets should be suspended at least two months without pay.
I lived in Brewster County Texas before moving (back) to Mexico, which -- like some other places in Texas -- always has been majority Spanish-speaking. One can't assume a Spanish-speaker is "Mexican" though it's a safe bet most Tejanos had ancestors from that country.
Dallas is just Baja Oklahoma.
Last January, I was in Punta Gorda Florida and got pulled by a cop. He was going to give me a warning for driving 51 in a 40 mile/hour zone. When I looked at the ticket (which I still carry in my wallet), there was a question for the officer to fill out:
Ethnicity: Hispanic or Non-Hispanic
I swear it's true. I should scan it and show it on the news.
next the other box to fill out will be: muslim or non-musliim
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pq28qCklEHc
The message has been out there.
It's the listening and understanding part that needs work.
Rhetorical undercurrents are there too.
Given that this is Dallas, it is something of an improvement from the good old days when you could get a ticket just for being slightly darker than Wonder Bread. Being of an even darker hue could get you hauled off to jail for being black on a nice day. Just more of those conservative family values we keep hearing about.
Hahaa. That's a BNP wet dream. Ticket those filthy foreigners!
Job stealing scumbags!
/snark!
Some day,Texas will be dragged,kicking and screaming,into the 1960s
She made an illegal U-turn. This is potentially dangerous. You can kill somebody that way. That's why it's illegal.
She could not present a driver's license. This too is illegal.
I don't know why the officer cited her inability to speak English, but I don't jump to the conclusion that he is some kind of racist for doing so.
How in hell is she going to be able to obey and follow traffic signs if she can't read the language?
In order to get a license, you have to speak the language of the country you're in. That's universal.
Maybe there might be an exception in a State with bi-lingual signs, but I doubt it.
A wee bit of protesting too much over this incident, imo.
This case reminds me of a very funny sketch on Not The Nine O'clock News featuring Rowan Atkinson (Mr Bean) and Griff Rhys Jones. Jones played the part of a police constable who didn't realise he was racist.
http://www.boreme.com/boreme/funny-2007/ntnon...
In a pigs eye!
Race baters.
Texas has its own unique, racist cop training school for dummies.
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