Elk Grove, Calif — While Bobbie Singh-Allen insists on politicizing the racial injustice she dispersed onto a once unsuspecting and quiet community, the Elk Grove 2020 mayoral race was rife with chaos even before its full inception. Before anyone knew that the brittle-skinned, cowardly lion was going to launch her bid for mayor in a fit of rage one morning, B.S. Allen had already landed herself at the center of controversy when she arrogantly and ignorantly declared that the Hmong culture — of which she hadn’t a sliver of understanding of — controls, intimidates, attacks, and silences women.
But her tirade against this small ethnic community didn’t end there. B.S. Allen would go on to racially profile any Hmong person who spoke out against her racism as a politically motivated supporter of her political opponent, Mayor Steve Ly, who also happens to be of Hmong descent.
To portray them as such allowed her to stifle and discredit the very real concerns of the Hmong community. To portray them as such allowed her to freely and actively disparage and engage in a plethora of racist comments spewed by a number of her supporters against the Hmong people whom she sought to slash and burn.
When her “expertise” on the Hmong culture failed to impress her victims, however, B.S. Allen furthered her antics by asserting her 3rd-party proficiency of the Hmong language. This, she demonstrated through the mayor of Elk Grove’s interviews on Hmong media, which she insisted was a contradiction of the public apology he issued on August 7th to the women who had come forward with allegations of harassment at the hands of his associates.
And so in a desperate scheme to catapult these newfound allegations forward against her political rival and manipulate public opinion, B.S. Allen sought to have these interviews translated from Hmong to English. These translations would be used as a tool to absolve herself of any wrongdoing by further deflecting and misrepresenting the Hmong community’s pain as a result of being misled by Mayor Steve Ly.
In a hit piece published by Elk Grove Tribune on August 31st headlined, ‘Mayor Steve Ly Tells Hmong TV That The Women Are Lying After He Apologizes & Says He Believes Them On English News Media,’ a Hmong-to-English translation can be found. Expertly translated statements such as, “Even though you are severely accused, you could only let them do it,” and, “This is another year that I will be participate in the election for a mayor,” displays an 'impressive' grasp of the Hmong and English language.
Elk Grove Tribune, whose owner is a known supporter and mouthpiece for B.S. Allen and who also has her own history of harassing the Hmong community, states that, “The translations were done by court certified interpreters. The Elk Grove Tribune has verified that the translation service used for the translation is legitimate.” This statement brought comfort to all 3 of Elk Grove Tribune’s readers.
The following screenshots are the proclamations of a court-certified translation by B.S. Allen and her pride of lyins:
These proclamations were further echoed during a tearful September 15th press conference where B.S. Allen shared an offensive Facebook message she received from a man by the name of Kong Lee. Like clockwork, B.S. Allen racially profiled Kong Lee as a supporter of Mayor Steve Ly. To draw her conclusion, she provided an in-depth analysis: “He is a Hmong individual.”
In a condescending display of pity for the Hmong community, B.S. Allen stated during her press conference, “They continue to be misled by people in their own community like Mayor Steve Ly.” This was followed up by B.S. Allen’s Campaign Manager, Pablo Espinoza, who reasserted that the translations of the mayor’s interviews on Hmong media are certified, notarized, and that, “These translators are court-accepted.”
Except they’re not.
Further investigation into the firm, LA Translation, who translated the mayor’s interviews on Hmong media revealed the following:
· The Hmong-to-English translation of the mayor’s interviews was sent out to LA Translation’s Vietnam branch who subcontracted the translation out to someone in China as there does not exist, in the state of California, any court-certified Hmong translators.
· LA Translation was not aware that the mayor was speaking in both Hmong and Lao. Due to this lack of awareness, LA Translation did not seek out a Lao translator.
Furthermore, LA Translation revealed a history of problematic Hmong translations with their firm:
· LA Translation receives 1 or 2 requests per year to translate the Hmong language.
· The last Hmong translation completed by LA Translation ended rather disastrously as that translation was also poor in quality.
· LA Translation will no longer be accepting Hmong translations in the future as the Hmong language is a difficult language to translate, and there are so few people who can properly do the job.
The source of this investigation also uncovered email correspondences showing that the translation of Mayor Steve Ly’s interviews on Hmong media was initiated and sought out by a friend and supporter of B.S. Allen's by the name of Jake Rambo (Facebook alias: Bono Malum Superate).
Once he received a response back, Rambo referred LA Translation to Pablo Espinoza to complete the transaction. According to LA Translation, Rambo first asked for a quote on August 25th, but he never asked for a court-certified translation. LA Translation clearly explained to him that the translation would be agency-certified, which constitutes 90% of their business.
Pablo called LA Translation on August 31st and asked for a court-certified translation. LA Translation explained to him that there is no court-certified Hmong translator in the state of California. There are, however, court-registered Hmong interpreters.
LA Translation had grown frustrated with B.S. Allen’s team, who had no idea what court-certified, transcription, and translation meant. These terms had to be explained in great detail to them. In addition, LA Translation explained that there are different kinds of certifications and that a court-certified translation would cost more. LA Translation even suggested ways to help reduce cost, but Pablo responded, “You provided me a certificate, and I hope that is enough.”
These email correspondences reveals that B.S. Allen and her campaign knew as early as August 31st that there is no court-certified Hmong interpreter in the state of California; yet, they chose to actively pursue misleading the public on its validity and certification. The misrepresentation of these translations was then used to misguide the public on the grievances of the Hmong community.
It leads one to speculate just how far reaching B.S. Allen’s corruption extends. After all, she seems to have friends in high places who are working hard to protect her despite her pattern of dismissing, deflecting, and projecting her own political motives and wrongdoings onto the Hmong community. Her mismanagement of information, her history of fraudulent financial activities, and her disdain for minorities like the Hmong, and even her own Sikh community, should alarm the citizens of Elk Grove.
But at least she got one thing right during her press conference: “It’s not right to leverage misinformation and falsehoods to attack people just because they dared to speak up.”
Imagine an Elk Grove where elected officials like B.S. Allen actually lived by the words that they preach.