Sign Language Mumbo Jumbo

Make mine pepperoni

Tampa, Florida -- Hearing-impaired people who tuned into a news conference about the arrest of a serial killer suspect last week in Florida were treated to a similar show that occurred when then-President Obama spoke in 2013 at the Nelson Mandela Memorial celebration in South Africa. It was pure gibberish to them then and pure gibberish now from an American Sign Language interpreter.

Tampa Police Chief Brian Dugan announced the arrest of Howell Donaldson on Wednesday evening while interpreter Derlyn Roberts was standing next to him making signs that made no sense.

Rachell Settambrino, who is deaf and teaches American Sign Language at the University of South Florida told the Tampa Bay Times through an interpreter that "She sat up there and waved her arms like she was singing Jingle Bells."

But actually, Roberts was signing something possibly more clandestine: "Fifty-one hours ago, zero 12 22 (indecipherable) murder three minutes in 14 weeks ago on old (yadda yadda indecipherable) murder four five 55,000 plea 10 arrest murder bush (yadda yadda indecipherable) three age 24."

Sure, it sounds like gibberish, but hey, you never know. 

Alex Jones believes that this is clearly code and it's coming from a spy satellite controlled by Russia. "The plan clearly pleas for the murder of George W. Bush due to the fact that he murdered 55,000 defenseless people and 10 people were wrongly arrested for those murders, three of them only 24 years old."

Others don't believe Jones, but he gets that a lot.

"I was disappointed, confused, upset and really want to know why the city of Tampa's chief of police, who is responsible for my safety . . . did not check her (indecipherable)," Settambrino said through an interpreter.

The city mucky mucks were just as confused.

Tampa Police Department spokeswoman Janelle McGregor told the newspaper that officials are conducting a review because they didn't even request an interpreter for the Nov. 28 news conference.

The following day's follow-up news conference, a different interpreter, Ben Zapata, did the signing.

This is merely the most recent example of gibberish signing by an unqualified signer at news conferences. Beside the Obama debacle, in September, as Hurricane Irma approached Florida and officials announced mandatory evacuation, an interpreter from Manatee County began signing words like "monster," "pizza," and "bear," along with a slew of additional gibberish. The audience didn't know whether to flee or grab a slice.



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