Post by tcrashfx on Apr 28, 2007 2:42:39 GMT -5
Judge Moon Says Latinos Should Learn English
posted April 27, 2007
posted April 27, 2007
General Sessions Court Judge Bob Moon told members of the Brainerd Kiwanis Club Friday that "Latinos and other non-English speaking people who reside in the United States would have a much better quality of life if they would learn to speak the English language."
Judge Moon told the group at the Country Place Restaurant of a police officer in Collegedale who was investigating a burglary in progress behind a local business late one night. When the officer arrived, an Hispanic man was standing close to the wall and window behind the business. The officer told the man to raise his hands and lie on the asphalt. The man said something in Spanish that the officer did not understand and then pulled something silver from his pocket.
Judge Moon said, "Had the cell phone light not come on with an in-coming call, the officer would have shot and most likely killed the man. The police officer would have been justified under the totality of the circumstances and most likely would have either not been charged or charged and acquitted based upon a reasonable mistake of fact defense.
"The officer, in telling me the story, said that he had already begun to put a slight amount of finger force on the trigger. An innocent man was almost killed while excusing himself, not because he was committing a crime, but because he did not speak the English language."
