Tag: Seattle

Washington State: Somali rape case to be retried, enormous costs for interpreters alone!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is an interesting story even if it wasn’t about a Somali rape trial that must be repeated at enormous cost to the King County taxpayers.  It seems that if jurors do ‘googling’ related to the case, the case must be retried.

Judge Mary Roberts: Must do the trial over again!

But, it’s the cost to “welcoming” communities of refugee crime cases that draws our attention and one of those costs is for translation services.   Wake up Wyoming (will it be Casper or Gillettte?), or all of this ‘diversity’ is going to be yours someday!

King County had to pay interpreters fees to the tune of $20,000 for the first trial!

From The Seattle Times (hat tip: ‘pungentpeppers’):

Last week, in King County Superior Court, a jury foreman sat before a judge, hands clasped, and tried to explain. He had violated her orders not to do any research on the case. She wanted to know why.

[….]

Now his Web surfing, brief as it was, threatened to undo everything. His research had taken him beyond what had been presented in court: Jurors get instructed on what constitutes a crime, not on the potential sentence. So Roberts had to decide whether to order a new trial. If she did, that would mean five weeks wasted — not just her time, but that of the lawyers, the bailiff, the court reporter, the members of the jury.

Five weeks is how long the trial had lasted for 26-year-old Abdulkadir Gargar, convicted in November of first-degree rape and attempted unlawful imprisonment. Prosecutors say that in May 2012, Gargar assaulted a 23-year-old woman in a Tukwila motel.

A new trial would mean the woman would have to testify again about being threatened, choked and bitten. A new trial would mean money wasted. Gargar speaks Somali. During the trial, the court spent more than $20,000 on interpreters alone.

On Monday, as the judge prepared to rule, the woman’s parents sat in the courtroom, waiting.

[….]

The judge ordered a new trial.

And, of course the poor victim will have to testify all over again, read it all.

If it weren’t for this legal crisis involving a juror this is one more refugee crime case that would never have made it into the mainstream media, and yet, unless you help spread the word, it won’t make it out of Washington State!

Just for fun, check the top ten languages (and innumerable minor ones!) your welcoming community must be prepared to provide interpreters for, not just for criminal cases, but for medical care, education, and other legal matters.  It is federal law.

Like to learn a useful foreign language? Try Somali

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

That is not my title, it is the title of a Seattle Times article this past Thursday.

Here is how the article begins (emphasis mine):

At Foster High in Tukwila, an evening class is helping people learn to speak Somali. It’s not easy to learn, but in a region with a lot of Somali immigrants, learning it is not only is useful in the work world, but can also build community.

The steam from sweet Somali tea floats out of white plastic-foam cups as a handful of people weave in between desks tentatively greeting each other: “Barasho wanaagsan” (good to meet you).

This cheery Tukwila classroom, on loan from Foster High School, is hosting a series of weekly Somali-language classes through December.

It’s the second such course offered by the nonprofit Somali Community Services Coalition and it’s a rare opportunity for those who work and live with our region’s sizable Somali community.

“There’s no Somali-language classes available elsewhere,” says Nick Valera of the coalition, “I think there’s one that started in Minnesota recently … other than that there’s nothing that we’re aware of.”

Tonight’s students are paying $150 and spending one evening a week here for the next three months for a number of different reasons.

You gotta laugh, one commenter said another reason to learn Somali is that Somalia is a great place to vacation.

And, I’m thinking of another reason—-that hopefully our FBI is training agents in the Somali language.

Members of the SCSC from their “advocacy and civic engagement” page at their website. YOU pay for their advocacy! So who are they raising their fists at?

But, my interest in this article was in finding out more about the “nonprofit” Somali Community Services Coalition.

They are obviously an ECBO (Ethnic Community Based Organization) aka Ethnic Self-Help Organization (the newer federal terminology).

ECBOs modeled after ACORN

Do you remember when investigator James O’Keefe exposed ACORN?   Basically ACORN was funded by you (your tax dollars) and its function was to teach poor people how to access their welfare goodies, AND to community organize—sign up new voters, stir up chaos and generally push voters to the Left, to the Democrat Party.   That is what an ECBO does on a smaller scale and their political action is geared to getting taxpayer goodies and “rights” for THEIR people.

We have a whole category on ECBOs here, if you want to learn more.

Although there are federally-funded ECBOs for a wide variety of ethnic group, the Somalis have been very aggressive in setting them up—-some cities have more than one ECBO just for Somalis.

Here is a recent list of grants awarded to ethnic “self-help” groups at the Office of Refugee Resettlement (that is in the Dept. of Health and Human Services).

Now, here is the history of the Somali Community Services Coalition of Seattle.  Remarkably they say the following about the Somali resettlement numbers in the US—that they are four times larger than we have ever been able to document.

Resettlement agencies began placing Somalis in the United States in 1992 and, in 19 years, these agencies have overseen the resettlement of nearly 415,000 Somali refugees in the U.S.

As we have said many times, Americans have the right to congregate and form groups of all sorts (not groups for criminal activity of course), but why should taxpayers be forced to support goals like these (again, from the SCSC website):

When seeking aid, East Africans rely on community-based organizations, like SCSC, because of a shared language, history, and culture. SCSC remains grounded in our mission to enhance the well-being of Somalis throughout King County, empower families and individuals, and preserve the community’s rich cultural heritage. We fulfill our mission and respond to the needs of our community by offering immigration and employment assistance, community outreach, cultural events, social services and referrals, advocacy, an after-school tutoring program, and a youth summer enrichment program.

Why should the average hardworking US taxpayer have to pay for this?

Here is the SCSC’s most recent available Form 990.

Check out page 9, you will note that they took in $311,170 that year and $175,335 of that was from GOVERNMENT GRANTS.

So, again, why are we paying for Somali (or any particular group’s) “advocacy?”  

Photo is here.