He has a badge and a gun — Different incident; but, you get the idea!
❝ Two Montana women are suing US Customs and Border Protection officers for detaining them at a gas station last year because they were speaking Spanish…
Ana Suda and Martha Hernandez were questioned in May by a uniformed officer as they waited in line to buy eggs and milk at a convenience store in Havre, Montana — a tiny town 35 miles from the US border with Canada. The officer then detained the two women, who are American citizens, for 30 to 40 minutes outside by his patrol car.
❝ Suda filmed the heated encounter on her cellphone
❝ Detaining someone solely for speaking Spanish is the same thing as stopping someone solely because of their race — which is illegal.
Not that I would expect everyone with a badge and a gun to know the law or respect the law. I know many who do. I have also confronted some who don’t care about anything but their sense of power – and personal bigotry.
“…You better go back to from where you came
Because the cops don’t need you
And man, they expect the same”
Bob Dylan, “Just like Tom Thumb’s blues” (Highway 61 Revisited) 1965
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQweZyOTusauYSEkIi1MZs-DNGI6g06kr6YOW4AtgpLIMNQblTt
Two American citizens have reached a settlement in a lawsuit they filed against US Customs and Border Protection after an agent asked them for IDs because he heard them speaking Spanish. https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/29/us/border-patrol-lawsuit-trnd/index.html
The United States has no official language. Though English is spoken in most homes — and used for government documents, court proceedings and business contracts — at least 350 languages are spoken in the country, according to the US Census Bureau. https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2015/cb15-185.html
[New Mexico has protections for Spanish speakers that stretch back before statehood. Those protections survive today in the state Constitution, in laws and in regulations, and their impact is felt from classrooms to courthouses to voting booths. see https://www.abqjournal.com/208492/spanish-not-enshrined-as-official-nm-language.html ]