On one hand I agree with you both - everyone should be strongly
encouraged to learn English in this country.
That said, as a marketing professional I have worked with clients who
focus on the Hispanic community and one of the popular misconceptions
is that people come here and don't want to learn English. While
there may be cases of that for the most part it is not true. In
fact, most Hispanic immigrants realize that the only way to succeed
in this country and really take advantage of the opportunities that
the US provides is to learn English. So perhaps rather than simply
villifying those who can't speak the language an effort can be made
to provide an opportunity to learn English? I know what you are
going to say - "why should the government...". But many of these
immigrants (legal and undocumented) work long hours for little pay
and live within a small community of family and friends who share a
Spanish as their common language. So despite a desire to learn
English it becomes very difficult to learn it.
Now for the other hand. Werner, I do understand your sentiment
however it is not the police's job to promote English. It is their
job to investigate crime and prevent it if they can. The police do
not control the demographics of Asbury Park, and must adapt their
approach to succeed at their task - again that's fighting crime. If
crimes go unsolved because they are not able to communicate with many
of the residents of the city will everyone give them a pass and say
it's not the police departments fault? I don't think so, nor do I
think they should. Solve the problem of a lack of English (my
solution is above, many others exist) but don't saddle the police
force with mandates that prevent them from doing their job. I don't
care how many languages the police need to speak as long as the city
is safer.
--- In AsburyPark@yahoogroups.com, "justifiedright"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> Exactly. Prompting them to learn English benefits them, not just
> us, which is why it's never xenophobic to askit of them. It's
> compassionate.
>
> Wow, Werner and I agree. I guess if you live long enough you'll
see
> everthing! ;-)
>
>
>
> --- In AsburyPark@yahoogroups.com, "wernerapnj" <wernerapnj@>
> wrote:
> >
> > Since Maureen mentioned my comments at the Council meeting I see
> that
> > its stirred up a small debate.
> >
> > Allow me to clarify what my point was, and it is very Asbury Park
> related.
> >
> > First off- the Police department was being asked to give special
> > consideration for our Spanish speaking residents.
> >
> > I find this inappropriate and ill-advised. Increasing the costs
and
> > burden of our Police department for a specialty group is
certainly
> biased.
> >
> > What if tomorrow a Haitian resident is murdered, or a Russian, or
> > Korean...? Do we then ask that the Police department become
fluent
> in
> > those languages ? Where do we stop ?
> >
> > There is a common denominator - The English Language. That is the
> > language of government and governmental agencies in Asbury park.
> >
> > All residents of Asbury Park should make the effort to acquire at
> > least some proficiency in the English language to ask for
> assistance
> > from from the Police or a passerby.
> >
> > Werner
> >
>
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