American cops sued for not speaking Spanish
posted at 11:57 am on October 2, 2006 by Bryan
Why we need an official language (English):
An attorney for a Hispanic man who was allegedly knocked to the ground and kicked by a police officer is seeking over $1 million dollars for his client, arguing that the city’s failure to teach law enforcement officers “fundamental Spanish” is the reason excessive force was used.
According to the suit filed in a Hunt County, Texas, district court on Wednesday, Jose Lopez was assaulted at a football game in 2004 by a Royse City police officer who allegedly knocked him to the ground and kicked him in the knee and face while wearing steel-toed boots.
Dallas attorney Domingo Garcia argues in his filing that the city was negligent for not monitoring and training the unnamed officer – specifically, for not training him to speak Spanish “in order to properly communicate with Spanish-speaking persons.”
I’ll go on the record now and saw that I expect this lawsuit to go nowhere.
But. The suing attorney’s name is Domingo Garcia. Does that name sound familiar? It should. Mr. Garcia is the former mayor pro tem of Dallas and currently the National Civil Rights Chairman for LULAC, the League of United Latin American Citizens. They’re supposedly a moderate Latino civil rights org; Garcia is supposedly a moderate Democrat. Yet here he is using his considerable legal acumen and his position within LULAC to sue American police for not speaking Spanish.
Moderate? Doesn’t look like it to me. And this isn’t Garcia’s only lawsuit against Texas police for having an insufficient grasp of Spanish:
Garcia, a former Texas legislator, ex-mayor pro tem for the city of Dallas, and national civil rights chairman for the League of United Latin American Citizens, the nation’s oldest Latino civil rights organization, has filed a similar suit against the city of Irving, Texas.
In that suit, Domingo charges that an Irving police officer, who was cleared of all charged associated with the pepper-spraying and baton beating of Jose Palomino, an illegal alien who refused his orders to lay on the ground, was forced to use such tactics because he could not communicate in Spanish.
Whatever you think of cops in Texas not speaking Spanish, don’t call people who are here illegally “illegal aliens.” The moderate Mr. Garcia thinks the legal term describing someone who has entered a given country outside the legal means of doing so is a racial epithet. And he’ll probably find a way to sue you.
(h/t Moonbattery)
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So, can we sue them for not speaking fundamental English when we order food, talk to customer support on the telephone, etc.?
I’d be a rich man if I could..
rightside on October 2, 2006 at 12:29 PM
A counter suit is in order. Garcia’s client should be sued for being unable to understand a law enforcement officer’s directives.
darwin on October 2, 2006 at 12:53 PM
Boy it better not go anywhere.
Hey Garcia, THEY’RE ILLEGAL ALIENS- CRIMINALS! the moment they put one foot across the border, they are illegals, criminals, enemies of the State, EXPENSIVE TO THE U.S., and obviously just plain trouble mostly.
SO SUE ME- I cant speak spanish either.
Most ridiculous item of the
day,week,month, YEAR?shooter on October 2, 2006 at 12:56 PM
Ignorance of the Law has never been a real, or legal, defense.
Not speaking English in America is ignorant.
shooter on October 2, 2006 at 12:57 PM
Call me a copycat, but it’s time to call this organization League of United Liberal Latin American Citizens.
This organization is such a joke.
Yes, I’m a Latino too, but I don’t think the organization has the interests of legal conservative latinos in mind.
batperez on October 2, 2006 at 12:59 PM
This is absolute B.S. About 2002 or 2003, there was a threat that it could be imposed on cops that we had to read Miranda or Implied Consent in the native language of the person we had in custody. We were very nervous, and verbal, because in this crazy day, you never know what’s going to happen. Thank God that was struck down because that would be humanly impossible to do. We joked about having to carry a separate binder with us to accommodate all the Implied Consent and Miranda cards in all the languages of the world, but it really wasn’t a funny thought at all.
That’s what I fear though, and I agree with Allah 150%. We need to make English the OFFICIAL and ONLY recognized language by U.S. Government entities.
MsUnderestimated on October 2, 2006 at 1:14 PM
> an illegal alien who refused his orders to lay on the ground
Looking at the video, I noticed that the cop was shouting and pointing down, and the guy understood him enough to squat down. The cop continued to shout and point down. If I were that guy, I would have concluded I hadn’t gotten down far enough and gone the rest of the way to the ground. So, was this guy drunk, stupid, or trying to set up a lawsuit?
Laura on October 2, 2006 at 1:31 PM
Garcia knows that each time he fights in court for the use of Spanish that it’s another baby step towards a dual society.
Even if he doesn’t win, he’s succeeded in stirring the entitlement pot.
I wonder what Dwight D. Eisenhower or Theodore Roosevelt would think of our current southern invasion problem?
I would especially love to hear what they would have to say to our current administration.
Speakup on October 2, 2006 at 1:31 PM
Unfortunately, I believe you’ll be wrong on this one Allah. I’ll go on record now that I believe our government has caved in so deep that this clown will win at the lower level. It will have to be over-turned on appeal, but there’s absolutely no recent event to draw upon to cause one to believe this will fail.
Illegals are hoisting Mexican flags up Post office flag poles under the protection of the police, illegals publicly march waving signs containing death threats and urging the overthrow of our government, given free college educations, social security benefits, and routinely win legal battles in a country they have no legal right to even be standing.
What makes you think this case will be any different?
Gregor on October 2, 2006 at 1:38 PM
I’m sorry Bryan. I had thought Allah wrote this story.
Gregor on October 2, 2006 at 1:39 PM
Therin is the kernel the PC and multi-culti adherents, primarily on the Left, will not address.
Sorry, but if one doesn’t know basic English after 23 years, one is incredibly ignorant.
Yes, I’m all for learning/speaking other languages, but first and foremost one must speak the language of the county one lives/works in. If I’d have to work/live in China, hard as it would be, I’d learn Chinese.
Here in Southern Calif. we experience this over and over. The legal/illegal Latino immigrants are shocked if one expects them to speak a bit of English. They address us, with the expectation that we should know fluent Spanish.
Occasionally I’ll mention that I’ve learned more Spanish than they English, in the same time-span, even though it would be more beneficial for them to perfect their English, and they are hysterically surprised and non-chalant about it.
Their ‘protectors’ and ‘promoters’ do them a great disservice professionally and personally. They are held back due to none or poor English. This is intentional discrimination on the part of the PC and multi-culti elite.
But if you think it, say it, you’re racist. I also didn’t know English when I came to this country, and so didn’t millions before and after me. But we never expected anything, least of all to transform this country into our language or culture, or to take it over.
Entelechy on October 2, 2006 at 2:43 PM
1. I live in Irving.
2. Domingo Garcia is a racist. (yes you can be a racist and be brown) He was on The Greg Knapp Experience on AM 570 KLIF earlier this year. Greg had several members of “la raza” on his show for a round table discussion of the issue. Mr. Garcia wasn’t afraid to say nigger, let’s just keep it at that.
3. The illegal immigrant “immigrant rights” march that took place earlier this year in Dallas shut down the entire downtown. I know. I showed up downtown an hour early to attend my wife’s diversity celebration performance where she was to read Vietnamese poems. I was unable to attend. Guess why. Illegal immigrants blocked every street to the theater.
IRONIC DON’T YA THINK – ILLEGAL FRIKKIN IMMIGRANTS BLOCKING MY ENTRY TO SEE MY WIFE, THE DAUGHTER OF LEGAL VIETNAMESE IMMIGRANTS???
Oh, I forgot, “la raza” is the race suprema, they are entitled to block my way, til they get their way.
Last point. I was there. Surrounded. By MEXICAN FLAGS, and a few American flags. Don’t believe what you see on the news. That was firt-hand proof that They don’t show much footage of the Mexican flags and the bias present within the MSM.
Go ruin another country, or at least come here legally before you try to.
BirdEye on October 2, 2006 at 2:45 PM
Correction to post, above:
Therein is the kernel the PC and multi-culti adherents…
Entelechy on October 2, 2006 at 2:46 PM
And the march toward the Balkanization of America carries forward…. I hope that Allah is right, and that this law suit will go no where. However, if an illegal alien can win a ranch from a rancher in a liability suit, then there is no reason to believe that this particular suit might have smallish legs underneath it.
Pulchritudinous Patriot on October 2, 2006 at 3:21 PM
“In that suit, Domingo charges that an Irving police officer, who was cleared of all charged associated with the pepper-spraying and baton beating of Jose Palomino, an illegal alien who refused his orders to lay on the ground, was forced to use such tactics because he could not communicate in Spanish”
Or maybe he used the tactics because he would not obey him.
“Dallas attorney Domingo Garcia argues in his filing that the city was negligent for not monitoring and training the unnamed officer – specifically, for not training him to speak Spanish “in order to properly communicate with Spanish-speaking persons.”
How insensitive of this police officer for speaking in his native tongue.
stm on October 2, 2006 at 3:26 PM
Well, if illegal aliens should not be called ILLEGAL what in flaming, bloody, hell should we call them…
MISPLACED TOURISTS?
Notice the tactic and reasoning my fellow and sister commentors and Malkinites…
The question is not whether Palomino should be speaking English after so many years of being an illegal alien (whoops! I mean being a MISPLACED TOURIST), but the police officer should be SPEAKING SPANISH.
But, I really cannot fault Garcia for filing the language negligence suit because he knows that he can probably get away with it. Why? Because for some strange reason, too many judges are willing to listen to ridiculous cases (like not speaking a foreign language) and sometimes dismiss valid cases.
The False Dervish on October 2, 2006 at 7:53 PM
How the hell are the police expected to know what nationality a person is, what country they are from, what language that they speak? Do our police have to know how to speak every language spoken in our world today? This whole thing is just stupid, with a Capitol S! And by the way, when I travel to other countries I strive to make sure I know the laws to the best of my ability. Can you imagine getting arrested in another country and explaining to them, gee I don’t speak your language, or understand your laws. So you have to be nice to me. LOL Ask Dog the Bounty Hunter if that’s how it works. They’d say, tough crap pal, and there you would rot. It’s time we do the same. Except, instead of locking them up, how bout we send them home!
soulsirkus on October 3, 2006 at 2:56 PM