Cops Speaking Spanish Won’t Make Streets Any Safer
By Brian Yates (09/03/04)
As of August 21, 2004, there had been 41 homicides in Metro Louisville. That’s ten more than the city had at this point in time last year. So, in the city’s never ending quest to make our streets safer, it makes perfect sense that the most important tool being added to our officers’ repertoire happens to be…Spanish classes.
According to the Courier-Journal, nineteen Louisville police officers have spent the last eight months – not to mention 80,000 federal dollars – learning to speak basic conversational Spanish. This was part of the department’s first Advanced Language Spanish Program, and it met three days a week for two hours each time.
Meanwhile, back on the mean streets of the Metro, crime is up and clearance rates are down. (A case is considered to be cleared when a suspect is arrested or indicted.) For 2003, only 47% of homicides were considered cleared. Here’s a thought: instead of spending eighty grand teaching cops to speak a language that most of us don’t speak, how about teaching them a few investigative skills so – I don’t know – they could solve a few of the area murders.
Metro police commanders blamed these lower clearance rates on having more drug-related crimes, which are harder to solve. However, the Fraternal Order of Police have a different take on why metro police can’t solve crimes: there are too few officers on the streets.
So instead of putting 19 much-needed cops on the street, the city locks them in a classroom to learn to “speak the language of a big, emerging minority in this community,” according to the Courier-Journal. But Yates, don’t you think this might prove helpful here and there? It certainly won’t hurt to have a few officers speaking a second language. However, folks, I think it might be just oh so slightly important to prioritize a little here. How about we put that $80,000 toward solving a few of the 41 murders we’ve had in eight months here? How about we put that $80,000 toward getting the local drug dealers off the street corners and into prison? Hey, maybe if we could put a hurtin’ on the drug trade, our crimes would suddenly be easier to solve! Or we could just spend that $80,000 on improving officers’ equipment or – here’s a thought – hiring an additional street cop to protect the citizens of this fine city.
The Courier-Journal, predictably, thinks this program is the greatest thing to hit Louisville since the second coming of the Messiah himself, Jerry Abramson. A recent editorial spoke in glowing terms, telling readers to “imagine” that an “officer levels his revolver and shouts, ‘Policia – ne se meuva!’ You might not move. But if you don’t know Spanish, you just might panic and run, which could lead to a very bad end.” They then ask you to remain in dreamland for another moment and imagine the reverse: “you are a Spanish-speaker in some kind of confusing encounter with a local lawman who shouts…” And, well you get the idea. If you speak Spanish, and a cop waves his gun and yells in English, you’re going to try to run and end up with a bullet in the back of the head.
First of all, may I interrupt here to point out that, if a cop has to yell and aim a gun at you, then the situation really isn’t all that confusing…you’re busted.
Secondly, allow my interruption to continue as I also point out that, if a cop is yelling and aiming his gun at you, it’s not a good idea to turn and run, no matter what language he’s screaming in. If a police officer yells at you, and your first instinct is to run away, then you’re most likely guilty of something.
Thirdly, and this is the final interruption I promise, if you make your home in America and you can’t comprehend STOP, then what are you doing here in the first place? Not to mention, man in blue waving gun would seem to speak in a universal language.
Eighty thousand dollars is a good amount of money, but in truth, our officers need even more. However, there’s no point in handing it to them if we’re just going to teach them to speak a second language. Maybe we ought to give the Hispanics some English lessons and teach them a new primary language. That way they could fully assimilate themselves into the culture of America…where they live. If they would prefer their cops to speak Spanish, they can always move back to Mexico. If I travel to Mexico City, I expect that the police will speak Spanish, and I’m not going to demand they converse in English. And should they shout and wave a gun in my face, I’m going to have the sense to stop. (And I don’t even need to know Spanish to do it, either!)
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