This is not a knock on all of our fellow spanish, latino americans. This is a knock on the ones that use I speak no english to get out of something or to take no responsibility for their actions.
I was driving on San Fernando Blvd this morning in Valencia towards the 14 freeway to take my 4 year old nephew to school. This is a 4 lane road all the way from our house to the 14. I'm getting close to the intersection of San Fernando and Race Street when I notice that traffic is very heavy. I look ahead about 15-20 cars ahead of me and see this little boy crossing the street by himself. He looked to be about 4 or 5 years old. No one stopped, no one helped. They just kept driving around him and two people almost ran over him. I tried to get to him as fast as possible. I called 911 on my cell phone just in case. I pulled over to where he was and about 4 people came out of a store in front of where he was standing. None of them knew who he was. He was a little spanish kid.
I tried to communicate to him but I didn't know enough spanish to be able to get him to tell me where his parents were or where he lived. I stayed on the phone with 911 who at this time put me through to the Santa Clarita police (there is more to this, but later). After about 15 minutes an older gentleman came across the street. He told one of the people that he was the grandfather. I tried to talk to him, but of course, I speak no english was all he could say. I grabbed a lady out of the store who spoke english and told her to ask him exactly what I told her to ask. He answered all the questions. He was at the park with his grandson and four other kids when he had to go to the bathroom. 4 other kids!! I told her to ask him where the 4 other kids were. They are still at the park, by themselves. All early teens (oldest 13). It turns out that he asked the teens to watch the little boy while he went to the bathroom. I then said to him face to face, only loud enough for him to hear, I bet you would speak english if you came over here and found the kid dead wouldn't you. I then told the lady to get his information so I can contact the parents later. I also told her to tell him that if I ever saw this kid unattended again, that I didn't care how old he was or that he didn't speak english, I would find him and kick his ass.
There is many things wrong with what happened this morning. And I would appreciate anyone who reads this to pass it along. What the hell was wrong with the people who were driving pass this kid and why did they not stop to get this kid out of the road? Why would anybody leave a 5 year old kid unattended at a park thinking that other kids would watch them? Why was a police officer sitting less then a mile away in his car drinking coffee and not responding to a 911 call 20 minutes prior to me seeing him sitting there? Why is it that spanish people use this excuse of not speaking english to get out of taking responsibilty for things they do? If you are an adult and you live in the US, you better learn to speak my language in a situation like this. It took everything I had not to rip this guy a new you know what, but I was standing there holding this kids hand while trying to talk to him.
I pray that I never see anything like this again. Because next time, I may not be so nice to the person responsible.