"Ramming SPEEEEEEED!"
Posted on 08/27/2012 10:13:23 AM PDT by blam
Why In A Town That's Only 16% Black, African-Americans Account For 91% Of Jaywalking Arrests
Rebecca J. Rosen
August 27, 2012, 12:46 PM
I once heard it said that every successful Freedom of Information Act request is a failure of open government.
In other words, every time activists, journalists, or other citizens are able to get data or other records through a FOIA request, that information should have already been available, somehow, somewhere on the Internet, without the hassle of a request process.
The thinking is that FOIA is an antiquated system, designed for a time when the government did not have a great way to make the information it holds public.
Now doing so is (relatively) easy, but the FOIA system persists, putting the government in an essentially passive role as a resource.
The results of such a request from VíveloHoy, a Spanish-language Chicago-based news site, show just how powerful government data can be. Recently, VíveloHoy submitted FOIA requests to the police departments of Champaign and Urbana, Illinois, looking for five years of arrest data broken down by race.
Champaign and Urbana are two different municipalities that, straddled by the University of Illinois, function as one metro area. The request has now been fulfilled, and, VíveloHoy says, "We found major disparities in the number of arrests of black people in both communities."
The two towns are 16 percent black, according to the 2010 census, but, in each of the years the data covered, more than 40 percent of the arrests were of black people. The disparities were not equal across crimes, and one in particular stood out: Jaywalking. Yes, jaywalking.
VíveloHoy breaks down the numbers:
"In Champaign from 2007 to 2011, 658, or 88 percent, of the 744 jaywalking arrests were of black people.
(snip)
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Maybe because they jay walk more?
Them er white mans laws..
Uhhh, maybe it's because 91% of the jaywalkers are African-Americans.
Someone needs to string some cameras up to quantify what really is going on. I certainly wouldn't jump to the conclusion that police are discriminating based on the two stats.
They arrest people for jaywalking? I’m not even sure what the term means.
In some neighborhoods a few towns over, the kids like to show that they “own” a block by walking, slowly, in front of traffic on side streets. Then they’ll walk back, slowly, and sometimes if you get four kids doing this, they can effectively tie up traffic. Naturally this is done in the middle of the block and not at an intersection with a crosswalk.
It is no doubt great fun and an easy way to show the folks in the cars who has the power.
Maybe these “jaywalking” arrests are related to that?
When is the last time someone in your town got arrested for jaywalking?? Is jaywalking really, really a crime?? Should it be a crime?
Culture.
Because when the police confront them about their jaywalking, on average they’re 9% as cooperative as other groups are?
‘Ima walk where I wanna walk’
In my town, pedestrians, who happen to be black, actually slow down when they see you coming. It’s a power trip, as if to say, ‘I can make you slow down and stop your car for me’.
reparations
Jaywalking is when you cross the street not using a crosswalk. Crosswalks represent ‘the white man’s laws’ so blacks cringe at the sight of them.
Maybe it's like moonwalking, which would account for the higher arrest rates among blacks.
Frankly, I don’t give a hoot about jaywalking arrests. I’m more interested in the black/white breakdown on violent crime—rape, forcible robbery, murder, carjackings, inter-racial incidence of physical attacks, etc.
Jaywalking detentions are often used a precursor to stopping drug dealers and searching them. As they run across the streets to do their bid’ness, the cops use the opportunity to stop and search them.
So I’ve been told.
It doesn't have a damn thing to do with sidewalks, or lack thereof.
Take a drive (if you dare) through any mostly black neighborhood and you will see cars stopped in the middle of the road and gangs of yutes standing in the road talking.
Likely are drug deals etc, but without probable cause the cops can't arrest/search them.
What they can do is charge them with jaywalking, for lack of anything else to charge them with.
Mystery solved.
Ask any food server what group they least like to serve because this group leaves the most miniscule tips.
Crap.
There’s a large grocery store in downtown Cleveland’s “Chinatown.” The area surrounding the store is actually about 25% Chinatown, and 75% ghetto and industrial. The store fronts on a busy main street, with it’s parking lot across that street. There’s a crosswalk, with it’s own traffic light, right in front of the store’s front doors. That traffic signal is completely ignored! People just mosey across the street, as slowly as possible, stopping traffic. The cops could write hundreds of tickets a day there, and the jaywalkers would ALL be Aframs!
It's called "arrogance," and just like the examples I just mentioned, jaywalkers, no matter what color skin they have, are too arrogant to obey the traffic laws. They believe they are above the law. That's what is wrong with society today.
I have a solution: Blacks get a pass on jaywalking and people who run over them mid-block also get a pass. There, problem solved!
"Canadians."
forget the jaywalking how about them crossing the road a bit quicker
When I went to Vanderbilt here in Nashville, they warned us to only cross street at designated crossings because the police would ticket you for jaywalking.
Dictionary.com "to cross a street at a place other than a regular crossing or in a heedless manner, as diagonally or against a traffic light."
I wonder how many people got arrested for crossing in front of oncoming traffic (think insurance scam).
Probably more like:
“OK Mr Smith, you are under arrest for Felony Possession of Narcotics, Felony Possession of a Handgun, Possession of Drug Paraphernalia, Possession of a Stolen Vehicle, Felony Fleeing, Reckless Endangerment, Felony Speeding and Jaywalking”
“Jaywalking?”
“When you jumped out of the car at the end of the chase and ran across the street, you didn’t use the crosswalk”.
“And I didn’t have no Paraphernalia. My cousin used to smoke that and it made him cross-eyed. “
>>>In my town, pedestrians, who happen to be black, actually slow down when they see you coming. It’s a power trip, as if to say, ‘I can make you slow down and stop your car for me’.<<<
Floor it and go straight at them. They suddenly sprout wings and fly out of your way. Works for me every single time.
When I worked downtown Minneapolis, it was actually quite a problem. You could be driving down a busy street when someone with a terrible attitude would just start walking across the middle of the street without even looking either ways to see if any cars were coming.
To make it worse, it was just as common for a mother with a stroller to just start walking across the middle of the busy street without caring to look once to see what was coming.
The general attitude was “I’m going to walk across. What are you going to do about it?”
Around here I see black people walking in the street - even when there is a perfectly clear sidewalk available. They don’t just walk on the edge of the street, but in the middle of the lane. They don’t just walk in the middle of the lane, they saunter, they pause, they meander back and forth.
I believe our area has less than 8.5% black population, yet I have NEVER seen a white or Hispanic person shuffling around in the middle of the lanes this way. These jerks do this on side streets as well as on Main St. The only place I don’t see it is on the parkway (where the best shopping is) which actually does not have a sidewalk - the speed limit is higher (and everyone breaks it) on the parkway, so they don’t seem as inclined to walk in the street there.
It is definitely a power play by the useless sh*ts that do this. I don’t let it stop me or slow me down much. And they get the benefit of learning that a big powerful car is a dangerous variable.
crossing too slow would be “in a heedless manner” and would constitute jaywalking.
It’s been going on for years. In my home town, I’m so used to it that I just watch them walk-on-by.
On one occaision, a black gentleman, with whom I graduated high school, was directly behind me as an amish-yute did his slow-roll in front of me. My acqaintance rolled down his window and shouted, “Hurry yo ass up! Our ancestors fought and died so you and I wouldn’t have to slew-foot for whitey!”
All I could do was point at my friend and shrug.
Now looka hear. If’n I’m done come outmah partmint ta waddle on down to da lick-er sto ta gits mah gin ‘n juice, and da dam liqour sto bes right there crost da street an’ ahm s’pose a shamble all da weigh down to da lite ‘n crost ‘n have ta trun roun ‘n come backs da other weitgh, well it jes don’ makes no sense is whut ah’m tryina tell you.
"Ramming SPEEEEEEED!"
I hate to have to point this out because it’s not politically correct ‘n all but when black people jaywalk at night it is a lot more dangerous for them and the motorists than when other ethnic groups do it.
Damn straight.
Needs more Train Horn!
Because, 91 percent of the drug dealers are black and busting them for jaywalking is an easy way to search them.
“It is definitely a power play”
Spot on! It sometimes seems like a never ending angry power play though.
It has somehow become more acceptable among blacks to jaywalk, thus more tickets.
The police discriminate on issuing tickets.
The police are concentrated in black areas for reasons not related to jaywalking, which happens to lead to more black jaywalking arrests.
Blacks are walking more than whites.
So, you don't know...
There is a 99.994% probability that there is a disproportionate number...
Hey, if you don't know, you don't know!
“In some neighborhoods a few towns over, the kids like to show that they “own” a block by walking, slowly, in front of traffic on side streets”
I’ve experienced this.
I’ve clipped a few with my deer grill and just kept driving.
Never had a problem. They aren’t going to call the po-lice.
True. It warrants further investigation. String up some cameras and count how many people are jaywalking.
Yup, try it in NYC and see if you can make it across the street.
Imagine what it’s like in a town that doesn’t enforce jay-walking laws?
Example: Albany, NY
If you’ve been there, you know what I’m talking about.
Most white people know that when they go into the inner city where there are lots of blacks, they pay almost no attention to crosswalks, lights, stop signs, intersections. Urban Blacks walk wherever they want, when they want, and don’t look both ways.
Gunning the engine might help spur them along.
here’s an example of how things get out of hand:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgFenCL0jzw
If you don’t Dougie dance in the middle of the street, then there is a 100% chance you won’t get hit by this ice cream truck.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kquQLe0ZSWY&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Here’s another “disparity”: Blacks are 16% of the population, yet commit 70% of violent crime. Funny how the author is not concerned about that.
That is exactly that happens in my little town. The stroll at an impossibly slow pace, walk at an angle to maximize the distance and time they spend on the street and studiously ignore you or in any way acknowledge your presence. And it isn’t just side streets. It is the main drag.
Don’t you realize that its hard to walk quickly while holding up your pants with one hand and texting with the other?
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