You Speaka The Spanish?

Cops Sued For Not Knowing Spanish


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. A Dallas attorney argued 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."

It's a joke, right? No, but it's a frivolous lawsuit that is going nowhere. However, there is a point behind it.

America is becoming more & more a multi-cultural,multi-linguistic society, thanks to rampant immigration both legal & illegal. Unlike the immigration waves of 1850 & the early 1900's,today's immigrants are not assimilating into American society. There is no impetus to learn English when government & private agencies cater to these immigrants in their own language.

We see it from a personal perspectivee. Someone walks into our office & is barely understandable when they say, "You speaka the Spanish"? When we say no, it is like their world is crushed. They don't understand why we don't speak Spanish - after all Spanish spoken in Mexico City, so why not here? It is the same with the Brazilians & Portuguese who walk into our office. And the Chinese - "Lu spleek China"? No we lon't.

We cannot imagine living in China & walking into a Chinese government office not knowing a word of Chinese. We would take someone with us who does speak Chinese. Not in the good ol' USA however. The USA is quickly becoming the new Tower of Babel. The thing is that the foreign speaking more or less expect that we speak their language. And why shouldn't they? We give driver tests on 50 languages although we have yet to see a Polish stop sign or Arabic Yield sign. We press 20 buttons on the phone for the correct language. Bi-lingual education in some schools is 70% of the student body. We are becoming enclaves of tongues. What helps unite a country is a common language. We are not as united as we once were.

There is no demand that the foreign-speaking learn English. Instead, we cater to them in their language. And for the foreign-speaking criminals among us, that means you will be taken down like a dog because the police rightfully no speaka the Spanish.

The greater issue is the massive invasion of immigrants to the USA. We cannot slowly absorb them or hope for any chance at assimilation, whether they want it or not. The numbers are too great. With an estimated 12-20 million illegals in the country the problem is only exacerbated.

Which brings up another issue - loyalty & a sense of belonging to American society. But that is for another post.