July 17, 2009 11:56 AM
On June 8, a mother and her daughter, Lori and Kayla Donohue, were killed by a drunk driver driving a contractor's truck in Brewster, Putnam County. Last night the town of Southeast, which includes Brewster, held a meeting to discuss what to do about the horrible deaths, and I attended. They decided that the problem was not about drunk driving, but was, instead, about immigration.
Zacaria Conses-Garcia, who immigrated illegally to the United States from Guatemala, has been charged in the deaths. His alienage is apparently the governing factor in the town's analysis of the cause of the two deaths.
In their discussion of the loss of Lori and Kayla Donohue, the members of the town board emphasized that this was not an issue of race. Then they talked about what they were doing to go after Latinos in the area.
For example, town councilmen bragged about a recent press event in which town leaders, along with Assemblyman Greg Ball (R-Patterson, shown left), went to what one member described as a "raid on a tent city" inhabited by immigrants. The "tent city" had seven people living in it as far as the raiders could determine. But that doesn't sound as scary as using the term "tent city". Smallest city I ever heard of.
As my regular readers know, the tent city was so tiny that Greg Ball posted pics of a similar outing last year to make the tent city appear bigger, perhaps.
Anyway, there was no indication that the citizens of the tent city were drivers, drunk or otherwise. But they were Latinos, so that made them a relevant topic of discussion at a meeting on the deaths of this poor mother and her child by a man driving drunk.
The town fathers, and they were all men, also talked about raiding the homes of immigrants to determine if they are living in overcrowded conditions. And if they are overcrowded, they will be thrown out of their homes and, no doubt, be given directions to the tent city where they can serve as useful props for the next raid.
This is one of the first alcohol abuse programs in history that views homelessness as the solution to drunk driving.
Let's see, what else did illegal immigrants do to the Town of Southeast, where the hearing was held? Oh, yeah, one legislator told the audience that Blockbuster Video had closed in Brewster. Not sure whether that was do to drunkenness, overcrowded housing, the tent city, or some other cause. Another legislator reminded his colleagues that Blockbuster said it closed its Brewster store due to a rise in the rent for the building. But I'm sure the immigrants caused that, too.
When some people pointed out that rising rents indicated a revived village economy in Brewster, and one speaker who actually goes to Brewster regularly said everyone should go there for a good meal, many white people in the audience visibly shuttered and the woman next to me spat out "I don't like Mexican."
Now why would a meeting following DWI deaths spend so much time talking about immigration? Could it be that only immigrants drive drunk? Not so, I was told by one long time resident. In fact, the leader of the charge against immigrants, Town Supervisor Michael Rights has been arrested twice on alcohol related charges. This is how The Journal News described his driving record: "Rights pleaded guilty to driving while ability impaired after a June 2007 accident in which his car flipped over on Milltown Road and then pleaded guilty to driving while intoxicated in July 2008 after being stopped on Route 22." Town Councilman Paul Johnson says that Right's efforts against immigrants are part of an effort to rehabilitate his own career.
Better to rehab at a health facility.