Woman given a ticket for no hablo englis?

[NiteStryker]

Dallas Cops Gave 38 Tickets for Drivers Not Speaking English, Were They Wrong?

DALLAS (CBS/AP) Ernestina Mondragon understood she would have to pay a fine when a rookie Dallas police officer ticketed her for making an illegal U-turn.

But it was the ticket he gave her for being a "non-English speaking driver" that shocked her.

She wasn't the first.

Dallas police officers have improperly cited drivers for not being able to speak English 38 times in the past three years, Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle said Friday.

The discovery came after Mondragon was pulled over earlier this month for making an illegal U-turn and was given a ticket for being a "non-English speaking driver."......On Oct. 2, Mondragon was pulled over by Officer Gary Bromley, a rookie who was still under supervised training. He gave her a ticket for not speaking English along with citing her for making an illegal U-turn and failing to carry her drivers license.

"I wanted to tell him," Mondragon told The Associated Press in Spanish on Friday. "I couldn't talk back to him out of respect."

Good.

I read a separate article that said this woman has been in America for 20 years.

How do you go 20 years in America without learning English? I think its fair to give her a ticket. Call me narrow minded or whatever you want, but I think if you are going to live in our country, at least have conversational english.

And Im not sure if they have driving tests in spanish.

[computernerd]

Agreed, if you want to live here you should learn our language, and not vice-versa.

[Afterburner]

I agree that you should have to speak English to live in the U.S., but I don't think cops giving out tickets for it is the right way to go, and I don't see how they at all have the authority to do so right now. The cops that gave out these tickets definitly need to be punished somehow for simply not following their own regulations, unless this is actually a law on the books that I'm unaware of.

[Smitty025]

Originally Posted by NiteStryker

Call me narrow minded or whatever you want, but I think if you are going to live in our country, at least have conversational english.

Why? For the most part it's only to the immigrant's disadvantage to not speak English. So long as she could understand the signs there is no problem with her driving. (Yes, she made an illegal turn, but that's not necessarily because she didn't understand the sign.)

[NiteStryker]

Originally Posted by Smitty025

Why?

Because this isnt Mexico / France / Europe / whereverthefuckyoucomefrom. This is America. Im not saying discard your own language and customs and traditions, but at least know our language. Especially after 20 years of living here.

Originally Posted by Smitty025

So long as she could understand the signs there is no problem with her driving. (Yes, she made an illegal turn, but that's not necessarily because she didn't understand the sign.)

Im not talking about knowing english in the context of just driving, Im talking about everyday life.

[Inyri Forge]

Originally Posted by computernerd

Agreed, if you want to live hear you should learn our language.

The irony of this statement I think sheds some light on why this whole thread is a little silly.

[Mr. Pedantic]

If someone can find me a piece of legislation that says it's illegal to have no comprehension of English in Texas, then I will agree this is a good idea. Otherwise, those police officers are assholes and have no right to wear that uniform. And if I may say so, I don't hold out much hope for being proven wrong, seeing as the US doesn't even have an official language anyway, let alone English.

I read a separate article that said this woman has been in America for 20 years.

How do you go 20 years in America without learning English? I think its fair to give her a ticket. Call me narrow minded or whatever you want, but I think if you are going to live in our country, at least have conversational english.

That is irrelevant. If it is law, then fine. If it isn't, then the police have no right giving out tickets like that and they should be suspended for abuse of their position.

[Smitty025]

Originally Posted by NiteStryker

Because this isnt Mexico / France / Europe / whereverthefuckyoucomefrom. This is America. Im not saying discard your own language and customs and traditions, but at least know our language. Especially after 20 years of living here.

So by that reasoning shouldn't we not speak English either? After all, this isn't England.

[MrFancypants]

Two problems here, the problem of cops making up laws on the spot in order to punish people for what they personally think is acceptable or not is clearly an abuse of power.

As for the language-problem: I agree that it is not good at all if an immigrant doesn't speak the official language of the country they migrated to after 20 years. That's a sign a very poor integration which can cause all sorts of trouble. In Germany language-tests for potential immigrants were introduced recently for that reason.

[Mr. Pedantic]

As for the language-problem: I agree that it is not good at all if an immigrant doesn't speak the official language of the country they migrated to after 20 years. That's a sign a very poor integration which can cause all sorts of trouble. In Germany language-tests for potential immigrants were introduced recently for that reason.

However, it is not against the law. And that is what is important here. There are probably millions of people in the United States who do not speak English. Are you going to stare disapprovingly at each and every one of them until they decide to learn English?

In any case, seeing as America as a whole does not have an official language, what's to say that they should learn English? Why not Spanish? Chinese? French? Japanese? Italian? Or even (heaven forbid) they language they know already? *Gasp!*