Posted on 03/26/2015 10:29:23 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A Carmel teaching assistant is still behind bars in Spain after he was arrested and charged with assault and resisting arrest. Now, his church community in Indiana is doing what they can to help the family bring Brett Wright home.
The 23-year-old man is a special education teaching assistant at Clay Middle School. Wright was arrested in Spain on March 15 after he fought with police officers. This was Wrights first trip outside the country, and he doesnt know Spanish.
(Excerpt) Read more at fox59.com ...
i guess his teaching education never taught him not to fight the police.
He didn’t expect the Spanish apprehension.
Nobody does.
lol
Three plain clothed guys, well dressed with slick backed hair. He didn`t know where they were. They appeared themselves basically as thugs and that scared him. They made a couple comments to him about being Islamic. He said no my mom is white. My dad is black,
What would you do?
Many years ago I visited Sweeden. I don’t spek Sweedish but when a cop came along and told us to move our motorcycles, I had no problem undeerstanding his hand and arm signals. This yard bird in spain needs to do the time in the callaboose (sp?). When he gets out, even if it is a six month sentence, he will be fluent in Spanish.
When I was younger, I lived in Spain for several years. I loved the culture and the people but I learned several things that apply here.
First, don't go to a foreign country and expect it to be like the US in it's customs or the law. Seriously, that is why it is called "foreign".
Second, don't play the ugly American and expect that behavior to be endearing to the locals. To them, you stick out like a sore thumb because you are a foreigner. It's like the guy driving the fire engine red Corvette and expecting the cops not to notice you speeding on the highway. You're going to draw attention, no matter what.
And finally, learn the culture and some of the language before going, so you avoid getting into the trouble this guy did. One thing stands out from the article that caught my attention was this was his first time out of the US and he didn't know how to speak Spanish. My thought was, uh-oh, a recipe for trouble.
He may very well be innocent of the charges. But he more than likely acted inappropriately for the circumstances in a place where he didn't know the customs, culture, law or language. A perfect storm for trouble in a dangerous world nowadays for travelers.
I wonder if these plainclothes policemen were Guardia Civil (the national police). Under Franco the Guardia Civil was a group you didn’t cross if you didn’t want to disappear. Nowadays they don’t do that sort of stuff but when I loved over there the locals told me you could just ignore the local cops but never the Guardia Civil. People are still a bit nervous around them.
He didn’t know they were police. How could he have known? Did you read the article? They were in plain clothes, they accosted him, and he doesn’t speak Spanish.
hey that’s good advice, should we share this with all the illegals we’re footing the bills for?
In the picture of this guy at the link, he does look middle eastern. He may not have been doing anything nefarious, but the law enforcement guys may have been looking for terror suspects and profiled him. Don't expect Spanish law to mimic US law when it comes to civil rights. Besides, the whole country is full of leftists.
Again, the source article says he "fought" with the police. When he decided to tangle with these plainclothes police, that puts the "not-so-smart-a-thing-to-do-in-a-foreign-country" burden on the back of the American. The policía were probably just doing their jobs, which to some people, especially in the US lately, is problematic enough to denounce them.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.