Trooper tickets legal immigrant for not speaking English (America, states) - Visas, moving, passports, work, students, lawyers - City-Data Forum

The Dissenter · 01-23-2009, 05:10 PM

O Jornal - Trooper tickets legal immigrant for not speaking English (http://www.ojornal.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=2677&dept_id=543384&newsid=20248023&P AG=461&rfi=9 - broken link)

Quote:

But there is a law that states that federal law prohibits the inability to speak English for commercial vehicles.
"That is a truck team that cited that person, " said State Police Lt. David Wilson. "It is under federal guidelines. Federal guidelines state you must speak English to be driving a commercial motor vehicle."

The last thing i'd expect from liberal heaven Massachusetts.

1AngryTaxPayer · 01-23-2009, 05:21 PM

So how do they know it was a real cop if the ticket wasn't signed? It is a funny story though and I wish he would have called ICE instead of a dumb ticket.

Huckleberry3911948 · 01-23-2009, 05:22 PM

very few do not speak english. not speaking english is used often to frustrate the arrest.

1AngryTaxPayer · 01-23-2009, 05:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Huckleberry3911948

very few do not speak english. not speaking english is used often to frustrate the arrest.

That's why it should be an immediate call to ICE. Even if they cannot speak English if American they should have proper id on them to be driving.

delusianne · 01-23-2009, 05:31 PM

He's a legal immigrant, why call ICE?

I dont blame him for publicizing it. Not only is the ticket unsigned, it's a "his word against mine" situation about "no English," plus -

"Teixeira says he was driving a late model Dodge and maintains it is not a commercial vehicle. State police said that they are unaware of any law, which would prohibit a non-commercial vehicle's driver from not being able to speak English."

antialphabet · 01-23-2009, 05:51 PM

Didn't this exact situation happen sometime last year?

Anyway, this looks like just a minor incident of police harassment, type of stuff that happens all the time. It's really weird the officer didn't sign the ticket.
Even another cop says the ticket is invalid.

Quote:

Framingham Police Deputy Chief Ken Ferguson said that he was unaware of any law which penalized someone for lack of English skills.
"This ticket is not valid," he said after O Jornal delivered a copy to his office for comment. "This is absurd. Considering the trooper did not sign the ticket, I think it should be torn up."

Cops aren't unemotional law enforcing robots.
They're people. Some are good, some are bad. Some have pet peeves others don't have. Maybe this guy's pet peeve was some who couldn't speak English. Or maybe people who speak Portuguese.

I don't know the full story, but it seems like this cop was giving him a hard time, and just gave him a small BS ticket. I would've let it go, but the guy might have a valid complaint. Why didn't the officer put this name on the ticket? Did he really break the law, or did the officer give out a BS ticket that he didn't expect a non-English speaking person to look into?

Some cops are cool, some cops like to bust balls. This cop was likely the latter. I know I've gotten a ticket for speeding when I wasn't, and got searched for no reason other than driving on the street in the wrong part of town at the wrong time of night. Sh_t happens.

1AngryTaxPayer · 01-23-2009, 06:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by delusianne

He's a legal immigrant, why call ICE?

I dont blame him for publicizing it. Not only is the ticket unsigned, it's a "his word against mine" situation about "no English," plus -

"Teixeira says he was driving a late model Dodge and maintains it is not a commercial vehicle. State police said that they are unaware of any law, which would prohibit a non-commercial vehicle's driver from not being able to speak English."

Oops, you are right, it said LEGAL immigrant, I read it wrong. I'm wondering what this will result in? It sounds like a fake cop to me but who knows. A doubt any cop would give out a real ticket from his book for something like that. It's still traceable.

If it is a real Cop then he's a gomer to not write a citation for a law that was broken.

antialphabet · 01-23-2009, 06:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1AngryTaxPayer

Oops, you are right, it said LEGAL immigrant, I read it wrong. I'm wondering what this will result in? It sounds like a fake cop to me but who knows. A doubt any cop would give out a real ticket from his book for something like that. It's still traceable.

If it is a real Cop then he's a gomer to not write a citation for a law that was broken.

It sounds like the State Troopers acknowledged the ticket.

Quote:

"I don't know that, but we have his ID number on the ticket,"said Lt. Wilson.

Quote:

"That is a truck team that cited that person, " said State Police Lt. David Wilson

I think the cop was just busting balls. Probably didn't expect the guy who couldn't speak English to do anything but pay without making a fuss or asking questions.

1AngryTaxPayer · 01-23-2009, 06:29 PM

Any Cop that would pull someone over and write a ticket without an infraction cited on it is a dummy. They have to have a reason to pull you over, every Cop knows that. There is more to this dumb story then is being printed. Either this Cop is out of a job now for being stupid or he's on desk duty or there are multiple infractions.

ArizonaBear · 01-23-2009, 08:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1AngryTaxPayer

Any Cop that would pull someone over and write a ticket without an infraction cited on it is a dummy. They have to have a reason to pull you over, every Cop knows that. There is more to this dumb story then is being printed. Either this Cop is out of a job now for being stupid or he's on desk duty or there are multiple infractions.

I have to agree with your assessment as well.