As Manhattan grew too expensive for ordinary humans, the lesser ones were forced over bridges and through tunnels toward places where they wouldn’t take up space to which their betters were entitled. The worst of these unsavory characters went to New Jersey, and would up in a place called “Hoboken.” Hoboken is a native American word, created by the Lenni Lenape tribe, meaning “place for outcasts from Manhattan.”
Vesselin Dittrich may not have realized that he stood on a rung so low on the ladder of Importance as to open himself to question. He likely thought himself entitled to the privileges and immunities of which Americans are so proud. In Hoboken.
Vesselin Dittrich, 64, of Hoboken, said he was involved in a conversation in the PATH station in August 2010 with a woman who yelled at him for supposedly looking at her tattoos. The woman summoned a police officer, who told the two to disperse. Dittrich says that the officer said there would be no charges, but asked to take down Dittrich’s information anyway.
Dittrich said he provided information from his driver’s license, but when the officer asked what country he was from, he declined to answer, believing it to be irrelevant and unconstitutional. He says the officer issued him a disorderly conduct ticket for “refusing to provide pedigree information.”
You may notice that the name Vesselin Dittrich is somewhat different than, say, a fine American name like John Smith. No need to ask anyone named “John Smith” what country he’s from. He’s American. The only question would be what he’s doing in Hoboken, since Smith clearly has no business being in New Jersey.
Since Hoboken is filled with unsavory characters, the local prosecutors know how to teach them to engage appropriately with law enforcement. Their type needs a lesson, which Mr. Smith may not.
After Dittrich failed to accept a fine and guilty plea on that date, Hoboken Municipal Prosecutor Ron Venturi told the judge that “if [the court] goes forward and [Dittrich] is convicted I will be requesting of the court that he be incarcerated for a short period of time,” according to court transcripts.
Dittrich, the obstinate fellow he is, turned down this gracious opportunity to avoid jail for his offensive name. You might mistakenly think that the police officer’s question reflects some intransigent bias, some cultural attitude that comes from only wearing blue. Steve Coleman, spokesman for the Port Authority who runs the Path Trains, clears up this misconception.
“In general, the need for PAPD to ask a suspect for country or origin pedigree information is made on a case by case basis, determined by several factors, including whether there is a language barrier (so we can get an interpreter) or whether we need further information to confirm a person’s identity,” Coleman said.
Dittrich speaks with an eastern European accent.
It’s certainly understandable, when all Dittrich had to offer in proof of his right to be here was a drivers license. Certainly “several factors” come immediately into play when a person speaks with an eastern European accent, not the least of which is communist block spy. Would you want commie spies walking among us for lack of asking the right question?
Naturally, some of you will harken back to the issues raised in Arizona, where local police were compelled to make people prove their right to be here when the officers had reason to suspect they might be “illegals.” Foremost among the “several factors” was being short with darkish skin, black hair and a name ending in a vowel.
A famous legal battle swept through Arizona in 2006 and 2008 over a law requiring immigrants to present paperwork upon request from law enforcement. A law was finally passed in that state in 2010 making it a crime for an alien to be in the state without carrying certain identification documents, and requiring state police to determine a person’s immigration status during a lawful stop if there is suspicion that the person is an illegal immigrant.
But that’s Arizona, where crazies love their compadre, Joe Arpaio, and tanks driven by movie stars are used to kill chickens. This is Hoboken, so close to Manhattan that you can throw a rock across the Hudson and hit an investment banker. One can never be too sure that only the right kind get on the Path Train, and if that means an extra bit of pedigree, so be it.
H/T
Radley Balko
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EASTern european accent? Close to the Middle EAST? 9/11- HELLO!
A suspicious foreigner was stalking an innocent woman, obstructing a criminal investigation, and then disparaged our legal system, and you question the officer’s right to protect honest citizens? Hell, the perp was one stop from Ground Zero!
…sorry, been watching too much Colbert.
But this is HOBOKEN! HO-BO-KEN! Doesn’t anybody care about Hoboken?
If you look funny, sound funny or have a funny last name [which is everyone on both the Italian and Hungarian sides of my family], then this case should scare the KISHKA out of you.
PAPERS… ver are your PAPERS?
“Kishka” is such a harsh way of putting it. Why not “bejesus”?
Naw, just Jersey City.
in Cleveland Hoolihan & Big Chuck were the guys who ran movies on Friday nights – with sight gags, ethnic jokes slamming their own ethnicity and music- including “I Dropped My Keilbasa Down The Sewer” and the always popular “Who Stole The Kishka” polka… having tried some in Warsaw – perhaps you’re right – Kishka doesn’t have to be scared out of you…
I am kind of getting caught up by this statement from the article “having a conversation with a woman who yelled at him for supposedly looking at her tatoos.” That makes little sense to me, since it sort of defeats the entire purpose of having an uncovered tatoo to not let anyone look at it.
But maybe “tatoos” means something different in New Jersey.
Rhetorical Question: When did Lese Majesty get put into the statutes of the state of New Jersey?
These charges boil down to “refused to correctly fellate authority figure on demand”. Repugnant. I hope the judge tears the prosecutor and the arresting officer a new one.
I can’t be the first one to have noted that Sheriff Joe has a surname ending in a vowel. Has he been asked The Question ?
Please let the answer be “repeatedly”.
With a name like Vesselin Dittrich and an “Eastern European accent”, you’d think that he’s understand “papieren , bitte” even in Ameringlish. Hell, you’d think that he’d see, without needing it explained, the significance of “pedigree information”.
Oh, wait: maybe his problem is that he did.