This reprehensible and completely preventable tragic incident from August, where a twice-convicted drunk driver who was an illegal alien from Bolivia, killed one innocent woman and seriously injured two other women, could just as easily have happened here in South Florida as it did in Northern Virginia.
Frankly, given the raw numbers down here that are our everyday reality, the odds are higher that it would.
(This would also explain, in part, the plague of hit-and-run automobile accidents in South Florida, not that the South Florida news media has any interest whatsoever to actually pursue that storyline, for fear of a Hispanic backlash.)
But IF this had occurred here, you had better believe that if experience is our guide -and isn't past performance always said to be the best predictor, absent some other important countervailing variable, whether in sports or investing?- the centrality to the story of the person accused of killing one nun and injuring two others being an illegal alien would NOT have been there if it appeared in the Miami Herald, given their gaping-wide blind spot on all aspects of the issue of illegal immigration.
On this subject, their reporters and columnists can NOT write fairly or objectively.
Period.
That bias and disinclination to aggressively ferret out facts that are less than favorable to either the Hispanic majority in Miami-Dade County in general or illegal aliens in South Florida in particular, may be the highest mountain of evidence in all of South Florida, far surpassing anything possessed by the U.S. Attorney's Office or Katherine Fernandez-Rundle's Miami-Dade States Attorney Office on any wrong-doing by any individual or gang.
(Sidebar: I first met KFR in D.C, circa 1989 or so, during Bush 41, when she and a colleague were in D.C. for a DOJ event, and I walked around with them for a bit on Capitol Hill, made some suggestions for things to see and do -and avoid- and took some photos of them standing in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. This was back when she was the Chief Assistant Community Affairs for Janet Reno's M-D SAO.
Year's later, as I've noted here previously, I used to see AG Reno all the time over at Thompson's Boathouse in Georgetown -next to Washington Harbour, one of my favorite spots- before and after she went rowing on the Potomac.
My aqua Dolphin cap was the original ice-breaker that first time we spoke, and was always the thing that reminded her who I was that caused her to wave back, or motion me over to talk.
Yes, Dolphins solidarity in the very heart of the Redskins!)
That clear-cut bias in a hypothetical article with a similar storyline would have even been more
egregious if the demonstrably pro-amnesty Herald reporter Alfonso Chardy had been assigned the story, since we are only all too aware of his pro-immigration bias, his oh-so predictable citing of 'the usual suspects' to get a very sympathetic quote and positive spin, no matter the storyline, no matter the true facts.
Worse, though, from both the point-of-view of a South Florida resident who grew-up here, and
from a journalism point-of-view, is Chardy's very curious penchant for refusing to actually include all the known and relevant information in a story to give readers the benefit of the doubt in parsing those facts for themselves, and his rather obsequious softball questioning of his well-known favorite sources, that are cited over-and over to a fair-thee-well.
Like Cheryl Little of F.I.A.C., of whom I will have much more to say about in the future.
The go-to sources whose very name in a story cause me to instantly start saying aloud exactly what they'll say later in the piece.
I'm almost ALWAYS right.
Why?
Because I've (we've) seen that same exact episode so many times before, I know everyone's assigned role and dialogue from the get-go.
Or should I say, stereotypical role to play, as Chardy invariably writes a dim-witted, simple-minded narrative where someone else is always to blame, not the actual parties involved.
In the case of DREAM ACT kid stories, the illegal alien parents who knew exactly what they were doing, ALWAYS seem to be M.I.A. from the story, don't they?
(And also unable to speak English despite being in the U.S. for 15 or more years.)
Yes, choreographed just the way that Cheryl Little intended them to be reported from the start by the South Florida news media, who don't dare ask her hard, probing questions, lest they lose access to her and her tragic "clients."
Not that the latter fact ever sees the light of day, on-air or in print.
I'm smart and discerning, sure, presumably one of the reasons that at least some of you keep coming to this blog from time to time to see what's on my mind.
But really, for me to be right so often on one subject by one Herald reporter, as has long been the case here, ought to really give management at the Herald cause for concern.
I'm NOT the only person in South Florida who sees this curious fact pattern repeat itself over-and-over.
And sees it for the clear reporting bias it is.
Is that a good thing when just the very mention of a person's name telegraphs the predictable quote from a mile away?
I was taught that it isn't.
Word to the wise and all those friends and blog readers who have written me the past six months after receiving some of my emails on some of Chardy's strangely incurious articles and fishy use of "facts."
Some time after Election day, 18 days hence, you should expect to start seeing a series of posts here calling into question the veracity of facts in his articles, as well as bias, predictability and intentional misleading of Herald readers.
So much so that reporters at other newspapers around the state noticed it immediately, too, after I shared the articles with him.
These are legitimate concerns that I shared many months ago with the Herald's management downtown, but as of today, it was all to seemingly no avail, despite emails from One Herald Plaza to investigate the matter.
As you can well imagine, I'm NOT holding my breath waiting for anyone at the Miami Herald or McClatchy to be accountable or transparent to me about a reporter's ethics or bias, self-evident though it may be.
This weekend, I'll have yet another post about a recent Herald blunder that caused my head -and many others in South Florida- to explode.
You will see the facts presented here, my arguments, and then can draw your own conclusions.
And just so you know, the topic of Chardy goes back many years for me and many people I know, so this has been long in the pipeline.
In fact, I could've actually started this year off with this Chardy-related post that I've had stored in Draft:
01/01/10 Miami Herald's Chardy gets jump on biased, one-sided stories in new year with latest illegal alien agitpropTalk about starting the year off with a whimper!
That's why I put it in draft -Chardy's reporting is such a buzzkill!
Now on to the tragic subject at hand.
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The Washington Post
Findings secret on crash that killed nun
By Shankar Vedantam
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 13, 2010; B1
The Obama administration will not release the results of an investigation into why an illegal immigrant with two drunken-driving convictions went almost two years without a deportation hearing before a crash that killed a Virginia nun, a senior official said.
Carlos Martinelly-Montano, 23, who entered the country illegally from Bolivia as a child, is accused of killing Sister Denise Mosier, 66, and critically injuring two other Benedictine nuns while driving drunk in Prince William County on Aug. 1.
The furor over the way Martinelly-Montano's case was handled by Immigration and Customs Enforcement prompted the agency's boss, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, to announce an investigation.
"Why is it that this individual was driving?" Napolitano asked at a news conference Aug. 2, one day after the accident on Bristow Road. "He was in the removal process. Why did the removal process take so long?"
The inquiry is complete, but Homeland Security does not plan to make the results public, according to the senior official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the matter.
Read the rest of the story, with more information and links at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/12/AR2010101206295.html-----
The Washington PostBreaking News Blog
Wolf demands results of immigration probe in drunk-driving caseBy Shankar VedantamWashington Post Staff WriterThursday, October 14, 2010; 11:55 PMA Virginia congressman has demanded that the Department of Homeland Security release the findings of its investigation of why Carlos Martinelly-Montano, an illegal immigrant who was allegedly driving drunk in an August car crash that killed a woman, was not deported before the accident."The Department has an obligation to publicly disclose as much of the report as possible, without compromising any 'law enforcement sensitive' information," Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-Va.) wrote in a letter sent Wednesday to Homeland Security Secretary Janet NapolitanoRead the rest of the story, with more info, links, photos and videos at:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/14/AR2010101406308.htmlReader comments at:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/14/AR2010101406308_Comments.html-----
The Washington Post
Illegal immigrants risk deportation by driving without licenses
By Tara Bahrampour
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 3, 2010; 5:50 PM
Jesus eased his black Chevy Tahoe through a neighborhood of tidy brick and clapboard houses, postage-stamp lawns and chain-link fences. It was 6 a.m., and Woodbridge was dotted with Hispanic men waiting for carpools.
Sometimes Jesus, 43, a tall, muscular bricklayer from Mexico, gets a ride to work, too, with a brother-in-law who is a U.S. citizen and has a driver's license. But often, like a growing number of illegal immigrants who live in states where they cannot legally obtain a driver's license, he takes a risk: He drives without one, although he knows it could get him deported.
Jesus, who like others in this story did not want his last name used because he fears attracting the attention of immigration authorities, said he obeys the speed limit, signals at every turn, and stops at every stop sign. He also doesn't venture onto the roadways at night.
"Driving in the work hours, you don't have no problems," he said, joining the river of commuters on the Beltway. Portraits of the Virgin of Guadalupe and Jesus Christ hung above his left shoulder. "I just drive and try to drive good," he said, "so the police do not stop me."
About 11 million immigrants live in the United States without authorization, according to estimates by the Pew Hispanic Center. It is impossible to know how many of them drive without licenses, experts say.
Last year in Prince William County, 205 illegal immigrants were charged with driving without licenses - 10 percent of those cited for that offense, police said. And in Frederick County, 31 percent of those arrested for driving without a license - 124 people in all - were referred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
But most police departments do not keep separate arrest statistics on undocumented immigrants. Nor does ICE track the number of people it deports who were caught driving without licenses.
But it is safe to assume the numbers have soared as more states, in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, have stopped granting licenses to those who cannot not prove legal presence in the United States or produce Social Security numbers.
In 2002, at least 16 states, including Maryland, issued such licenses, according to the National Immigration Law Center. Now, only New Mexico and Washington state issue licenses without either a Social Security number or proof of legal presence. (Utah also offers year-long "driving privil+ege cards" to thousands of people without Social Security numbers or proof of lawful presence.)
The District requires only a Social Security number. Maryland last year began requiring both proof of lawful presence and a Social Security number. Virginia has required both since 2004.
And last month, Virginia announced it would stop accepting federal work permit cards as proof of legal residence after a drunken-driving accident in Prince William County killed a Benedictine nun and injured two others. The illegal immigrant charged in the crash, Carlos A. Martinelly-Montano, was a twice-convicted drunk driver using a suspended license that he had obtained with a work permit.
Virginia's decision sparked protests outside the Department of Motor Vehicles office in Arlington, but the debate about whether to grant driver's licenses to illegal immigrants has been heated for years.
Critics argue that giving undocumented immigrants licenses enables them to live in the United States more easily and will encourage more to come here illegally.
"Giving them a license is a tacit legitimization of their presence here," said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which supports tighter immigration controls.
Advocates counter that the undocumented will drive if that's the only way they can get to work or other places they need to go. Giving illegal immigrants licenses or permits makes them more likely to insure their vehicles and allows the government to keep better track of them, they say.
"They have kids who need to get to school or who need to get to the doctor. They need to buy groceries," said Joan Friedland, managing attorney at the National Immigration Law Center. "People would prefer to have licenses and get insurance."
Adrian, a 45-year-old carpenter from El Salvador who lives in Gaithersburg, said his heart pounds every time he gets behind the wheel. He drives only when he has no other way to get to a job.
"Every time I get in the car, I think of my family," he said. In El Salvador, he supports a wife and four children, whom he hasn't seen in seven years. "If the police arrest me, then who will look out for them?"
For now, Adrian's car, a Toyota Camry, is insured through his son, 24, who got a Maryland license before the law changed. But that license, like those of illegal immigrants in other states that have ceased to grant them, will one day expire and will not be renewable.
"Statistics are hard to come up with because you're getting more and more people who had driver's licenses in the past, and now they're expiring," said Marty Rosenbluth, staff attorney with Southern Coalition for Social Justice. As the licenses expire, immigration experts predict, more drivers will join the ranks of the unlicensed.
Adrian said about half of his friends drive without licenses. Ten who were caught doing so are in deportation proceedings and wear ankle-bracelet monitors.
But getting stopped and found to be driving without a license doesn't always lead to deportation, said Kraig Troxell, a spokesman for the sheriff's office in Loudoun County, which, like Prince William's, trains its police officers to identify and detain illegal immigrants. If drivers can identify themselves and have no criminal record or other reason police are seeking them, he said, offenders are often issued summonses and sent on their way.
Prince William also gives officers discretion to issue a warning or a summons, said Sgt. Kim Chinn, a police spokeswoman, adding that even when the police stop illegal immigrants who have no licenses, they generally are not taken into custody if they can prove their identity.
Part of the reason may be because ICE is unequipped to deal with the increasing number of illegal immigrants driving without licenses. The agency has said it is concentrating on the pursuit and deportation of those with more serious criminal backgrounds.
But fear of deportation prompted Feliz Ayala, 53, a Honduran living in Gaithersburg, to stop driving without a license after only two days.
"Every time I saw a police car," he said, "I thought he was coming for me."
Adrian said he hates breaking the law. And if he is caught, he has no question of what would happen. "They would deport me," he said.
And then what? Would he return to the United States? He paused. "Maybe not. Because the laws are worse now."
Yet they are not bad enough to deter Carlos, 43, who has spent the past year using public transportation or relying on friends to ferry him from his Gaithersburg home to jobs in the region. Without driving, however, he has not been able to earn enough money to support his wife and four children in Mexico.
So he has made a decision. With the help of a friend who is legal, he is going to buy a car. His friend will get the plates and insurance, and Carlos will pay for it.
"I'm scared," he said, "but I'm going to do it."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/03/AR2010100303384.html
Reader comments at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/03/AR2010100303384_Comments.html-------
The Washington PostDriver in fatal Va. crash had previous DUI violations
By Jennifer Buske and Paul Duggan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 3, 2010http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/02/AR2010080205264.html?sid=ST2010101406785
