The killing of Dixon Rodriguez by two Police Officers in Perth Amboy has been the topic of intense interest since it happened on the afternoon of Dec. 4.

What bothers me are the two tapes – one supplied by the Perth Amboy Police Department and the other by the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office.

Since both tapes were in Spanish whoever translated for each tape had a slight but significantly different interpretation of what was said.

What pops out at me is that, on the City tape, Rodriguez’s mother is translated as saying, “My son is violent,” while on the tape provided by the Prosecutor’s Office, the translation said, “My son is becoming violent.”

In both tapes, “violent” is the operative word. But in one, the use of “becoming” seems to offer a significantly different interpretation. According to dictionary.com, the word “become” is defined this way: “to come, change, or grow to be (as specified): He became tired. The word may have very little meaning to a police officer facing a potentially violent person, or it may have a lot. But a single word can make a difference. In one case, being violent signifies something that has already happened; perhaps violence has taken place. In the other, it is only a potentiality. No one knows what goes on in the mind of a police officer as he or she faces a dangerous situation, but the wording, as passed on from the young man’s mother to the dispatcher, through the machinery of the 911 system, and finally to the police officer entrusted with following a safe course — to the subject, the officer himself, and any passersby — can be changed slightly or radically, depending on the words that are used.

Another sentence that bothers me is in regards to Dixon’s medication. On the Police tape of the 911 call, when the dispatcher asks if Dixon has a medical history, the mother replies, “Yes, yes. He doesn’t have medicine because it harms him and so I am not giving it to him.”

When I hear this, the implication is that the mother controlled the medication and was responsible for giving it to him. She decided not to give it to him.

On the prosecutor’s version of the 911 call, the response the mother gave to the 911 dispatcher in regards to the medical history was, “Yes, yes. But he is not on his medicine because it hurts him so he is not taking it.”

When I hear those words it is as though Dixon himself made a decision not to take his medication.

Maybe I’m putting too much stock in the way the translation is presented. So the only thing I can turn to, that is presently not available to the public, is the surveillance tape taken from the scene on Hall Avenue. In my mind, seeing what actually happened would put to rest a lot of questions not only for myself, but for all of the residents of Perth Amboy.

There have been many demonstrations protesting the injustice of the killing of Dixon Rodriguez. There was a march that originated at Hall Avenue and proceeded to the Five Corners in the heart of downtown.

Several marchers carried signs in both English and Spanish stating of the injustice of the killing of Rodriguez.

After a brief stop, the marchers continued down Smith Street and proceeded to City Hall. When they arrived, some of the participants held up lit candles, while one person lit a candle that was in a glass holder, placing it on the grass near the ledge by the elm tree in front of City Hall.

Some local community leaders and activists spoke to the crowd in Spanish in front of City Hall.

There have been other shootings by the police resulting in deaths. Some of these cases have not been without controversy.

When a police officer is involved in the killing of a resident, the emotions are very different. What makes this case different with many residents is the fact that Dixon was a special needs case and the effects of the medication he was supposed to be on.

On one hand, many people who knew Dixon well stated that he would never harm a fly, while the Prosecutor’s Office said the officers were being attacked by Dixon.

There had been talk about the specific parts of the body where Dixon had been shot that led to his death. The big question that a lot of people want to know is: “Couldn’t the officers shot him where it would have less lethal?”

For the public to view the surveillance tapes would answer that question. Meanwhile, people with a thorough knowledge on Spanish and English should review the audio tape, which can be found on the amboyguardian. com website, to see how they themselves would interpret the conversation. We would be interested in knowing what they think.

One of our regular readers of our paper called and said they were interested in knowing how the dispatcher relayed the call to the officers who responded to the scene.

It’s easy to be an armchair quarterback when you are not in the situation. It’s an ordeal that I’m sure all who were involved wished never had to happen-  -C.M.