Salem (MA) Evening News
Letter: Disturbing experience at scene of Peabody crash
To the editor:
Not long ago, I witnessed an automobile accident involving a female and male driver in which the male driver was at fault.
The accident occurred on Route 114 in Peabody. When I approached the young lady to see if she was OK, I could see she was shaken up and her vehicle badly damaged.
When the Peabody police officer arrived, he took the young lady’s information and then requested the male’s information. When the male stated he “did not” have a valid Massachusetts driver’s license and was from Brazil, the officer requested proof of auto insurance.
Upon observing all this, I inquired of the officer whether there would be an arrest, to which he stated, “No.”
The young lady was baffled as well as I stood by her as a witness and for temporary moral support because she was in tears.
The illegal Brazilian male used his cell phone to call his employer, a U.S. citizen, who showed up and was allowed to drive the vehicle away from the scene of the accident, after he provided the police officer a valid Massachusetts driver’s license.
Next, the young lady inquired why the illegal Brazilian male was not arrested nor his car towed for lack of a license. He was, after all, responsible for the accident. To which the officer, to sum it up roughly, said: “It involves too much paperwork. The Brazilians refuse to show up for court when summonsed.”
Now I am curious what the training and rules of procedure are of Peabody Police Department concerning the disposition of persons found to be “without” a valid driver’s licenses? Likewise, are Illegal Brazilians without proof of a license truly above the law?
It would appear to me that the Illegal Brazilians are giving the legal Brazilians an unfair rap on this matter by not being held to the same laws U.S. citizens are responsible for obeying.
If the law is meant to protect all, is it not to be enforced upon all? Or, are some just above the law?
BILL DeTUCCI SR.
Peabody
Here is a photo from April 2005, in the same newspaper, of a wife and mother getting the news that her husband, a police officer, had been run down by an illegal immigrant who had been in the country for ten days. How many hundreds, thousands of times has this happened in between?
As I said in 2005, its time to put the illegal back in illegal immigration.