Tuesday, April 07, 2009



Congressman Reprimands Father of Teen Killed by Drunk-Driving Illegal Alien for Calling Criminal Aliens 'Banditos'

I thought Mexico was full of bandidos. There's certainly a huge amount of drug-related killing there
"In emotional testimony before a House joint panel this week, a Virginia man recalled the death of his teenage daughter in 2007 – a death caused by an illegal immigrant who was driving drunk and who had been arrested twice before the crime, but was not deported.

“Two years ago this week, my 16-year-old daughter, Tessa, and her best friend Allison were killed as they were sitting at in intersection waiting for a red light to change,” Ray Tranchant said, as friends placed a photograph of Tessa Tranchant on an easel behind him.

Since his daughter’s death, Tranchant, a professor from Virginia Beach, has become an advocate for the enforcement of immigration law.

On Thursday, as Tranchant applauded local law enforcement in Virginia for its increased efforts to work with federal immigration authorities since his daughter’s death, he referred to individuals listed on the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s database of illegal aliens with criminal backgrounds as “banditos.”

That comment drew a rebuff from Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.). “Mr. Tranchant, can I share with you as the father of two daughters, I thank you for bringing your testimony here, but I suggest to you that if we refer to people as banditos, as you referred to them in your testimony, it does not help to solve the problem,” Gutierrez said.

Source

In the Spanish of Spain, a "bandido" is an outlaw. So where "bandito" comes from I am not sure. I assume that it is a Western Spanish pronunciation of "bandido". If so, it seems a fair description of chronic criminals to me.

2 comments:

Brian from Virginia said...

From what I remember of my high school Spanish classes, any Spanish word that ends in '-ito' or '-ita', is a diminutive of the original word. For example, abuela is Spanish for grandmother, so abuelita means granny or little grandmother.

That said, any congresscritter dresses me down after my child has been murdered by some scumbag, he better watch his back. Once again the victim is the bad guy, while the bad guy is a victim.

Bobby said...

Hey Brian, the "ido" or "ita" isn't always a diminutive.

"Bandido" is a unique word, not the diminutive.

However, with "ladrĂ³n" (thief) you could say "ladroncito" if you where talking about a child.

Other than that, I see nothing wrong with the word bandido, a drunk driving illegal alien is a bandido of sorts.

In fact, there's nothing racist about the term, the father of the victim didn't refer to his victimizers as spicks, beaners, goddamm mexicans, taco benders or any other the other terms that can be racist.

Rep. Luis Gutierrez reminds me of those Italian-American organizations that get upset when you say "mafia" instead of organized crime.

It is truly upsetting that liberal congressmen are more concerned with semantics than actual crimes.

What Gutierrez should do is show some sensitivity to a grieving father and cut him some slack.