11.21.09
LIFESTYLE

Dallas Woman Ticketed for Not Speaking English

AP Photo

When Ernestina Madragon was pulled over by the police in Dallas, she understood that she'd be getting a ticket that she deserved for making an illegal U-turn. It was the citation on the ticket for "not speaking English" and the accompanying fine that confused her. "He asked me if I spoke English. I said I speak a little and understand it," Madragon said.

Officer Bromley,  a rookie just out of the police academy, eventually issued a citation for the illegal U-turn, failing to carry her drivers license and being a "non-English speaking driver." Madragon, embarrassed and intimidated, accepted the ticket but knew that something wasn't right. "I wanted to tell him," Madragon told the Associated Press in Spanish on Friday. "I couldn't talk back to him out of respect." Eventually the charges for both the failure to carry her driver's license and being a non-English speaker were dismissed.

But in the last three years, police officers in Dallas have issued 39 citations to drivers for the non-existent infraction of "not speaking English." David Kunkle, chief of police in Dallas, has since issued an apology to the Spanish community in the Texas metropolis, saying, "I was stunned that this would happen. In my world, you would never tell someone not to speak Spanish."

 

3 Comments
thats really sad that she got a ticket for not understanding english i think a law suit should be filed! As for african americans wearing there colorful colors i have seen many of them made fun of or a officer treating them like dirt. its not just latinos. Its just that if your not fully white or fully black this is just what happens its sad, and action needs to be taken!
Hey Latinos, there's not time to get mad...just take action!!! It's discrimination, throw a lawsuit; liberty and justice for ALL!!! Please show us what law book restricts us from speaking our native language. It's been happening for years, we are not allowed to speak Spanish unless we are translating. We get paid less, but speak two languages. We are not allowed to use bright colors, because it's inappropriate, but African Americans can wear their yellow, orange, green, and red; and G-d forbid anyone tells them something. We are given over loads of work and paid less to exhaust our work efforts, then called lazy. We are constantly brought into the office to be reprimanded, yet other employees who are the ones who break company policy are not even corrected. It's getting harder to provide for our little ones right, because people are fighting for jobs, and it seems easy to get rid of the Latino; and discriminate against them because they don't FIGHT BACK!!! Well it's time to make a Change Latinos!!!!! Stick together, and fight back with respect and honor!!! Let's let them know we are the majority, and will not tolerate their abusive behavior, and discrimination toward "OUR KIND". We need to start educating more Latinos to become doctors, attorneys, judges, nurses, school teachers. Police officers, government employees, etc. It's only going to get worse until we stick together, and fight back, just like the African Americans did.
if you get a ticket for not-speaking english, THEN WHY IS THE TEST IN SPANISH TOO!!!!

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