As Buffalo Police District Chief Brian Patterson talked to a group in the West Side Community Center yesterday, he stopped frequently to allow interpreters in both Karen and Burmese to speak. The moment showed the growing influence of immigrants in the city.
Advice ranged from reminding them to lock their doors and windows to not walking and talking on their cell phones.
U.S. Attorney William Hochul was in the audience to listen and remembered how his family went through some of the same issues.
"The first Hochuls were here, just a little over a hundred years ago. Didn't speak a word of English and they no doubt had the same challenges that the immigrant communities are facing now," Hochul said.
"My own parents didn't speak English until the third grade. Their native tongue was Polish."
Hochul said new immigrants are dealing with some of the same issues, from learning a new language to finding a job and getting by in a new country with new job demands.
