And around and around she goes, artfully kept in motion now by spinmeisters subsidized by the McHenry County taxpapers.
Now the McHenry County Sheriff's Department is putting out-sourced legal counsel to the task of spokespersons for Sheriff Nygren. How much longer will taxpayers put up with this nonsense? And the Northwest Herald editors keep falling for it. Or maybe they aren't "falling" for it? Are they supporting it? Is there such a thing as an investigative reporter at the Northwest Herald? Has that paper ever considered a reporter for such a role?
The latest? There isn't any "investigation" into racial profiling at the McHenry County Sheriff's Department. It's a "review". Cough, cough; please pass the gas mask.
And who says so? "Attorneys for the department". Oh, you mean the McHenry County State's Attorney. You mean "the" attorney for the Sheriff's Department.
No way.
Now the spokespersons for the Sheriff's Department are private, out-sourced attorneys in private private, James G. Sotos (James G. Sotos & Associates, LTD.) and one of his staff attorneys, Elizabeth K. Barton (John Marshall Law School, 2008).
The Northwest Herald article in today's paper referred to a "court document". OK, which court? U.S. District Court for Northern Illinois, Western District, in Rockford?
Reportedly Barton "argued" (in a court filing) that internal investigation materials shouldn't be released (made public) because they are relevant to an ongoing police investigation. What? "Investigation"? I thought it was a "review." Very cool that the Sheriff's own attorney uses the word "investigation". Police don't "investigate" unless there is some suspicion of illegality. Do they?
But how do you impartially investigate yourself??? Isn't the outcome fairly certain? Isn't the purpose of the "review" to show that no racial profiling occurred? Soon we will hear again, "No evidence of racial profiling was found." Ho-hum.
Were any of those 51 deputies foolish enough to complete the questionnaire? Did any of them first ask if they were suspected of any illegal act? Didi they violate their oath of office? Did they falsify official documents? Were they read their Miranda Rights? "Anything you say (or write) can and will be used against you in a court of law?"
Hey, deputies, how do you feel when you hear those words (instead of saying them)? Did you call your lawyers and ask how (or whether) you should complete those questionnaires? If you have the constitutional right to remain silent, you had better give it up only upon the advice of your attorney (and maybe not even then).
Aww, it was just a simple mistake that over 5,000 tickets show certain drivers' names as Caucasian. Names like Gomez, Zepeda, Villaloboz, Martinez, Sanchez, Mendez, Maldonado, Hernandez, etc. Over 5,000 "simple mistakes".
Where was the supervisor who checked over a deputy's work at the end of the shift? How did they overlook 5,000 "mistakes"? Did they not ask their deputies how they ascertained that Gomez was Caucasian and not Hispanic? Didn't they ask, even once, about an emerging pattern of mislabeling of drivers' races?
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6 comments:
Last time I got a ticket, I didn't notice ANY spot or box on the citation to mark ANY race, black, white or whatever. Where is this questionable notation located on the uniform traffic citation?
What should have been marked, wherever, for a white lady who marries a hispanic male, and like most people in the US, take their husband's last name?
I am disgusted that the Sheriff Department critics want to continue to profile our neighbors by race.
To do so based on how they feel about ethnicity of someones name is actually racially profiling.
As the U.S. census bureau points out the majority of U.S. Citizens that have what are typically ethnically sounding Hispanic names self identify themselves as Caucasian. To tell them they can not self identify themselves by the portion of their race they want because of the sound of their name is something that we should have been past decades ago.
Several years ago a local cop told me he had to fill out a racial-profiling form. I wanted to ask him if officers had to prove that they stopped old white guys every once in a while, but I didn't.
Someone wrote here recently that officers/deputies cannot ask a driver his race. How do they decide?
How about 1) physical appearance? 2) name; 3) language or speech characteristics; 4) statements by driver as to country of origin or where he lived (Mexico) before coming to McHenry County; 5) speaks Spanish, but not English?
Now, think a deputy ought to record his race as Hispanic or Caucasian?
Wasn't there a rollcall when deputies were told to "Avoid racial profiling by just putting everybody down as White"?
Is the box for Race on the back side of the ticket? A driver won't get a copy of those notes.
It is AGAINST the law to ask someone their race, unless you are the census bureau. Unless you want the officers to "guess" (reminds me of the joke, 'Funny, you don't look Jewish'), I still don't believe that there is, or by law, can be, a checked box for race. Some are obvious; only speaking a foreign language, black, asian; beyond that, I agree with But Seriously. This whole agruement is nothing more than side-taking, Zipler (sp) vs Nygren, period.
AZ, sorry, but I don't agree that this whole discussion is because of Seipler v. Cundiff et al.
Let's go back to the summer of 2008. July 13, exactly. Deputies waited on Rte. 12 for a party to break up and then stopped many drivers because they had brown skin. This was the day when a civilian's car was hit in the side by a deputy who started a U-turn off the shoulder before the lane was clear. His prisoner was Hispanic. No witness statement was taken.
As I understand it, deputies know the party's sponsor didn't have a liquor permit, but nothing was done to halt sales of alcoholic beverages. But they did wait for drivers leaving the party and stopped them.
There may have been as many as four deputies stopped with drivers from the party where the crash occurred.
When I had my encounter with Huntley PD, they had a "box" for race, and they got mine wrong.
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