New York City – New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly has named a new second in command, and it’s the highest post ever held by a Hispanic.
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Rafael Pineiro was named First Deputy Commissioner on Wednesday replacing George Grasso, who left the department last week to become a Brooklyn Criminal Court judge.
He is a career officer with 40 years at the nation’s largest police department. He helped lead efforts to increase minority hires at the NYPD and served as a precinct commander.
Mr. Kelly said Mr. Pineiro has helped make the department the most diverse agency in the city, one that truly reflects the city’s population.
Mr. Pineiro was born in Spain and lived in Cuba until he was a teenager.
Uniformed personnel in the NYPD are 25.6% Hispanic, 16.4% black, 4.5% Asian and 53% white.
i hope he’s apt for this job and i wish him good luck.
i’m just afraid that in a few years from now all of us will have to be fluent in spanish in order to get our way around in the city. when i recently called 311 the automated system told me “for english press 1” as if this isn’t the assumed language.
does anyone feel the same?
He has an impressive record. The fact that he’s Hispanic is a benefit to PD but he does have the credentials. As for what he’ll do, the job is less significant because Commissioner Kelly really runs the department.
As for your comments about Spanish in general, the bottom line that the Hispanic population is growing quickly (maybe the the fastest growing group) throughout the US. At this point, it pays to learn some Spanish–it’s good customer service and is a pleasant surprise (or an unpleasant surprise when they find out you know what they’re saying!).
I’m not worried about the US. 100 years ago, people were saying the same thing about Yiddish.
😉
He looks like a white guy, since when did having a Spanish-sounding surname turn one into a “Hispanic” and since when did that become a race?
On a side note, when the Lubavitcher Rebbe and his wife immigrated to the U.S., their foreign passports listed their race as “Hebrew”.
Coming from california you have to know spanish were ever you go. and I heard that in the airport you have to know spanish to get a licence