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NYT Editorial on Dallas Tickets for Drivers Who Don’t Speak English

Posted on November 4th, 2009 10:41am by Tim Rogers
Filed under immigration

The New York Times today runs an editorial about the 39 tickets that Dallas police officers have issued to drivers since 2007 for not speaking English. My heart swells with pride.

4 Comments to “NYT Editorial on Dallas Tickets for Drivers Who Don’t Speak English”

David Margulies @ November 4th, 2009 at 11:52 am

I sent the following letter to the New York Times concerning their editorial. I did not mention that no Dallas officer gunned down an innocent man reaching for his wallet or that the former New York Police Commissioner is now in prison.

Your recent comments concerning the Dallas Police Department were ill informed and out of line. The Dallas Police Department is one of the most professional and effective departments in the country. The department is diverse, the city has not asked to participate in programs where the police department enforces federal immigration laws and there is no evidence the department engages in racial profiling. The tickets in question were an honest error, based on faulty computers. The fact that there were not caught among the thousands of tickets issued each year is hardly surprising. This case is evidence that even honest, hard working people with the best intentions can sometimes make mistakes. The department immediately apologized and is working to correct the errors. You selected a poor example to make what was otherwise a good point.
Steven @ November 4th, 2009 at 12:17 pm

What’s embarrassing is that the NYT editorial seems to be largely copied in structure and content from a recently published column by Ruben Navarrette.
David Margulies @ November 4th, 2009 at 1:43 pm

Ruben was always a man with an agenda. He sees an anti-Hispanic conspiracy under every tree. I read his column and it didn’t make any more sense than the New York Times piece. Good ridance to someone who belongs in California.
LakeWWWooder @ November 4th, 2009 at 5:27 pm

“The country is in the middle of a fierce debate over how local police departments should deal with recent immigrants”

Not excusing the tickets but the NYT apparently missed that the lady who brought the lawsuit has been here 30 years. At least that’s what I’ve heard. I mean I am not NYT material but…