Latino backlash in GA and other Law Enforcement news…
25 07 2006Cross posted by Take Back Georgia
In Illegal Immigration News:
Backlash emerges against Latino culture
The influx of immigrants has some cities and towns restricting taco stands and Spanish speakers.By Patrik Jonsson | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
NORCROSS, GA. – In some ways, the traveling taco stand has become a symbol of the rise of Hispanics in the US. Here in Gwinnett County, Ga., it wasn’t any different - until lawmakers outlawed the $1 street-corner taco vendor last month.
Hispanic purveyors of the workingman’s lunch represent an immigration policy many Americans feel has gone haywire. In many interior states where the Hispanic immigration had been minimal until recently, residents are encountering more new faces speaking an incomprehensible language and infiltrating street corners with their cilantro-spiced fare.In resisting the sudden and growing influence of Latino culture, some cities and towns across America are requiring the use of English and restricting culinary mores and even the Hispanic tradition of sitting on the front porch.
“People are … realizing how much [illegal immigration] is costing them, they watched the May 1 demonstrations, and they are mad,” says Richard Lamm, a former Colorado governor, who codirects the Institute for Public Policy Studies in Denver. “They’re reaching for whatever tool is available, and some of those tools are harsh and not very sophisticated.”
More Hispanics - legal and illegal - live in Gwinnett County than anywhere else in Georgia. The Hispanic population in the county has swelled to more than 105,000, expanding from 10 to 15 percent of the total since 2000, according to the US Census. Displays of Hispanic culture - from used tire shops to carnicerías or butcher shops - dot the Buford Highway in Norcross, Ga., a bustling outpost of Atlanta.
The influx of immigrants in states outside the Big Six immigration states - California, New York, Illinois, New Jersey, Texas, and Florida - has changed the landscape so dramatically, so quickly, that the voting constituency has hardly been able to keep up, experts say. In 2002, illegal immigrants living in the US used $2,700 worth of government services per person more than they paid in taxes, according to the Center for Immigration Studies, an organization that advocates curtailing immigration levels.
Powerless to seal or control the US borders themselves, locals are taking their own action.
Last month, the Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners became one of the first in the country to ban mobile taco stands, which officials said were cluttering street corners. One Gwinnett politician described the proliferation of rolling taco stands as “gypsy-fication.”
Nashville, Tenn., is now considering a similar law. “I don’t think you’d see this generalized fear if they were selling grits,” says William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution in Washington.
Others have taken even more flagrant actions toward Hispanic immigrants. A Philadelphia sub shop owner, Joseph Vento, has a sign up that reads: “This is America. When Ordering, Speak English.” In Ohio, Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones has put up a yellow sign saying “Illegal Aliens Here,” with an arrow pointing to the county jail.
The mayor of Hazleton, Pa., Friday signed a law that punishes landlords for renting to illegals and mandates that all official city business be conducted in English. Since 2000, the percentage of Latinos in Hazleton has jumped from 5 percent to nearly 30 percent.
” … [T]o illegal immigrants and those who would hire or abet them in any way … You are no longer welcome,” Mayor Lou Baretta wrote in a letter posted on the city’s website.
While anti-immigrant hate groups increased 33 percent in the past five years, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, overall acceptance of immigration is at a five-year high, according to a recent Gallup Poll.
“What we’re seeing is little towns in Kansas trying to ban people from sitting on their front porch, because that’s what [Hispanics] do,” says Gabriela Lemus, of the League of United Latin American Citizens in Washington. “On the other hand, there is a real challenge in places like Little Rock, Ark., and Cicero, Ill., where [towns] aren’t prepared for a community they didn’t expect to have.”
To Mexicans, “tacos are life,” says Juan Martinez, a construction worker in Norcross. Mr. Martinez, a green-card holder from central Mexico, prefers to make his own tacos, but says that mobile taco stands serve many Hispanic workers stuck at construction sites. The lack of protest about the ban in Gwinnett County doesn’t surprise him. “This is not our country, we don’t have the power,” Martinez says. “[Americans] are going to do what they’re going to do.”
Still, these restrictions come about because of inaccurate stereotypes that all Hispanics are undocumented or poor, says Dan Tichenor, an immigration expert at the Eagleton Institute of Politics in New Brunswick, N.J. “Getting nostalgic about our own immigrant past, but dreading the latest newcomers, is something that has been around since Ben Franklin,” he says.
The local ordinances are a forerunner to developing a national policy for immigration reform, says Mr. Frey. “Part of the price we have to pay before we come up with reasonable national solutions is this kind of interim action where local officials try to grandstand for small political gains,” he says.
But such ordinances are little more than “feel-good” efforts by frustrated Americans, says Robert Nilles, a Hazleton city councilor. “It’s a little funny in a way, because you’re trying to control something you have no control over,” he says.
Did you hear that? We are trying to control something we have NO CONTROL OVER…without the borders being closed - ‘ya damn right.
Ok – this makes absolutely no sense at all. We all know that the absenteeism rate of Gainesville High School is due to the lack of parental involvement with their children, along with the influx of illegal immigrant parents who choose not to get involved with any kind of governmental institution.So tell me…WHY do the schools feel that nixing the old ‘8 day rule’ and increasing the days a child can be absent without suspension is their solution to the problem?
It would make much more sense to allow only legal, US citizens to attend public school – we would see a dramatic reduction in absenteeism – guaranteed. Don’t believe me? Prove me wrong. PLEASE.
Absenteeism up at high schools
by Jerry GunnGAINESVILLE - Absenteeism increased last year over the year before at Hall County high schools.
Superintendent Will Schofield told school board members Monday night high school and middle school administrators are considering an incentive program to boost attendance during the coming school year.
“We need to have something in place that rewards students for showing up and doing what they’re supposed to,” he said
Schofield added he wants students to learn that attendance is a life skill and they need to be in school every day if possible.
In December, the school board got rid of the “Rule of Eight”, approving a revised absence and excuse policy.
Board member Nath Morris said at the time the new policy would foster regular high school attendance as the path to successful course completion.
“There’s eight days they can miss, they may take seven and then get down and have a sickness, a real need to miss class,” Morris said.
Morris added that under the old nine-year-old attendance policy, students had the idea they had eight free days. The new policy was effective in January and is based strictly on excused absences only under state law and state Board of Education rules.
Here we go – with the new school year only a mere week away – Hall county approves 306 new teachers to help cover the influx of new students. Anybody want to take a guess on how many kids or their parents are illegally here in the first place?
More new teachers than ever in Hall
By Jerry GunnGAINESVILLE - Hall County School Board members learned Monday night that a record number of new teachers are coming to work in the new school year starting early next month.
Assistant Superintendent of Personnel Dr. Richard Hill said it shows how fast the Hall School System is growing.“The Board approved 88 recommendations tonight and that added with the ones that they’ve approved earlier this year brings us up to 306 total for the ‘06/’07 school year,” Hill said.
Dr. Hill added that reduced class sizes and retirements also drove the new teacher
numbers up.New Teacher orientation begins Tuesday morning at Chestatee High School.
The Board also approved administration changes recommended by Superintendent Will Schofield.
Chris McMichael, current principal at Myers Elementary School, will head the combined Lanier Career Academy day program and Alternative School to be housed on the Academy campus.
Raymond Akridge, interim principal at North Hall Middle School, goes to Myers Elementary School to serve for a year as interim principal.
Neil Yarrington leaves Wauka Mountain Elementary School will serve as educator on special assignment for the system’s growing special education program.
AYP HELP
The Hall School System’s new Assistant Superintendent for teaching and learning told Board members she plans to involve the community in improving the system’s Average Yearly Progress report.
Dr. Eloise Barron the goal is to get Hall schools off the federal AYP deficiency list.“We’re looking at starting a brain storming session with community leaders to find how we can work closer to help us raise the literacy standard,” she said.
Dr. Barron said the effort will also involve parents and others to identify how to get children better prepared for school
Another illegal busted on his way out of the Country….
Man charged in 4 month old murder
by Ken StanfordWINDER - A 21-year-old man has been charged by Winder police with a nearly four-month-old murder.
Lieutenant Dennis Dorsey says Yonlenon Roblero was picked up at an apartment in Winder over the weekend after an officer received a tip that he would be passing through Winder - possibly on his way out of the country.
The shooting happened April 7th and left a man dead and a woman wounded. Police are not sure of any connection between the two men and have not established a firm motive for the incident.
…anybody want to guess what country he was going to?In other legal GA news:
Halelujah! A federal judge acts to protect the children of Georgia, rather than catering to convicted sex offenders.
Judge reverses ban blocking Georgia sex offender living restrictions
Associated PressATLANTA - A federal judge did not extend a temporary order blocking the state of Georgia from banning sex offenders from living within a thousand feet of school bus stops.
U.S. District Judge Clarence Cooper’s order backs off an earlier ruling that blocked the state from enforcing the law.
In a federal lawsuit filed last month, the Atlanta-based Southern Center for Human Rights contended that the law renders vast tracts of Georgia’s residential areas off-limits to Georgia’s roughly eleven-thousand offenders.
State attorneys argue that the provision is necessary to protect children. They also disputed claims that sex offenders would be forced to move, arguing that untold numbers of the state’s bus stops are not officially designated by a school board.
Cooper seemed swayed by the state’s argument. He said he found no evidence that indicated whether local school boards had designated bus stops.
In Police news…Jackson County is getting popular and it looks like they may have their own police force in the works.
Jackson Co. to study creation of county police forcefrom staff reports
JEFFERSON - Jackson County could soon be getting it’s own police department, which would take over some of the duties of the sheriff’s department.
County commissioners have voted to form a citizens committee to study the idea, which would ultimately have to be approved by the voters.
If established, a county police department would enforce local and state laws, duties that are now in the hands of the sheriff’s department. The sheriff’s office would continue to run the county jail, provide security at the county courthouse and serve warrants and other court papers.
…and an officer was injured in a traffic wreck in Oakwood yesterday…
Deputy OK after minor wreck
A Hall County Sheriff’s Office deputy was treated and released at a hospital early Monday after he was involved in a minor wreck, authorities said.
The deputy, 38-year-old Stephen Mickels of Gainesville, was rear-ended about 9 a.m. on Atlanta Highway (Ga. 13) at Mundy Mill Road, Georgia State Patrol operator Jesse Lewis said.
Mickels was taken to Northeast Georgia Medical Center as a precautionary measure and later was released, Hall County Sheriff’s Maj. Jeff Strickland said. There was little damage to either vehicle, he said.
The 2002 Ford Explorer that hit the deputy’s patrol car was driven by Matthew Orris, 21, of Gainesville, Lewis said. Orris was charged with following too close, he said.
…Police divers identify the woman that jumped from a bridge into Lake Lanier…
Woman’s body recovered from Lake Lanier
The Associated Press - GAINESVILLE, Ga.
The body of an 18-year-old woman, believed to have intentionally jumped into Lake Lanier, has been recovered, authorities said.
Hall County Sheriff’s divers found the body of Quyen Thu Hua on Monday, Hall County Sheriff’s Maj. Jeff Strickland said. The sheriff’s office said Hua was from Forest Park but her death notice listed a Gainesville residence.
Strickland said family members saw her jump into the lake from a bridge Sunday evening.
“Family members knew of her intentions and arrived as she jumped,” he said.
Rescue divers tried to locate her late Sunday but canceled the search because of the “extreme danger involved in nighttime diving,” Strickland said.
Dive team members also resumed searching in the lake Monday for Marc Lee Webb, 38, of Forsyth County. But searchers had to stop for the day after searching eight hours and as bad weather neared.
Webb was last seen falling from a WaveRunner on July 8 after he hit a large wave near Holiday Marina in Buford. Previous dive team searches have been hampered by the lake’s deep water and by uncertainty over where he disappeared.
…and finally, a Cop wins his racial lawsuit against Lilburn PD…
Lilburn, cop reach deal in racial lawsuit
07/25/2006
By Andria Simmons
Staff Writer
andria.simmons@gwinnettdailypost.comLILBURN — The city of Lilburn has reached a confidential settlement with a former police officer who claimed he was passed over for a promotion because of his Puerto Rican heritage.
A settlement was reached last week, according to an attorney for former Sgt. Jorge Portalatin. Conditions of the agreement prohibit Portalatin or his lawyer, Joan Crumpler, of Nix, Graddock & Crumpler in Decatur, from discussing it.
“We are very pleased with the settlement,” Crumpler said.
City Manager Tom Combiths could not be reached for comment about the settlement on Monday.
Portalatin filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in December 2004 alleging the Lilburn Police Department had become a hostile work environment because of his race. Although Lilburn has a large Hispanic community, Portalatin was the only Hispanic officer in the department, the federal agency’s investigation revealed.
When it came time for promotions, Portalatin was one of three applicants for a lieutenant position. He was clearly “better qualified than the selectee,” who was not Hispanic, but he was not promoted, according to the EEOC investigation.
Portalatin also believed he was retaliated against for complaining about discrimination. He was suspended and then fired in 2005.
Initially Portalatin said he wanted his job back, but it is almost certain he will not return to work in Lilburn. He is working as an officer in the Clarkston Police Department, Crumpler said.
Two other EEOC complaints filed against the city of Lilburn and its police department are still unresolved.
The EEOC upheld a complaint by Lt. Rob Worley, a 13-year veteran of the department, who stated former Chief Ron Houck retaliated against him for supporting Portalatin. Worley said he was given a low performance evaluation and his job duties were changed because he testified on behalf of Portalatin when Portalatin’s firing was appealed to the city merit board.
Crumpler, who also represents Worley, said they are waiting for a right to sue letter to be issued by the U.S. Department of Justice before pursuing a settlement or filing a lawsuit in that case.
Loxie Sanders, a Mexican man fired by the Lilburn Police Department when he flunked a required course at the police academy, also submitted a discrimination complaint shortly after Portalatin and Worley. Sanders said he failed the police academy because he had to miss a day of firearms training to care for a sick child.
Because he was never considered a full-time employee, the EEOC did not uphold his claim, Crumpler said. Sanders has since moved to the New Orleans area to seek work.
After the EEOC complaints were made last year, Houck, who had been Lilburn’s police chief for 28 years, announced his retirement. City officials said the timing had nothing to do with the controversy over racial discrimination. Houck never commented publicly about his retirement or the EEOC complaints.
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We graduate from Citizen’s Police Academy this Thursday night!!! I liked it so much…i’m applying for the one for Hall County next…until next time…
**This was a production of The Coalition Against Illegal Immigration (CAII). If you would like to participate, please go to the above link to learn more. Afterwards, email the coalition and let me know at what level you would like to participate.
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