In a Car-Culture Clash, It’s the Los Angeles Police vs. Pedestrians

New York Times ^ | 25 December 2013 | ADAM NAGOURNEY

[DariusBane]

I really didn’t care about the intent of the article. New York City is the last city on earth that should try to export it’s scintillating way of life.

[ThunderSleeps]

I would have to ask myself - is there nothing better I could be doing as a law enforcement officer other than handing out jaywalking tickets? No other crimes in LA that need attention?

[absalom01]

This is on a small gubment website.

Most SoCons would be more likely to identify as "limited government", rather than "small government".

That said, California has always been more aggressive with Jaywalking than east coast cities, at least in part because of a quirk in the state vehicle code that gives the right of way to a pedestrian in a crosswalk, marked or unmarked pretty much all of the time. The linked article is pretty clear that the primary motivation for tasking their traffic officers with jaywalking enforcement is the negative effect it has on traffic. I drove through this part of downtown just the other day, and it was pretty clear that the jaywalking was out of hand just in terms of moving in a straight line. Forget about trying to make a turn.

[DariusBane]

Do you think that people could be made to cooperate without enormous fines? Maybe use this horde of cops to interact with the public, gain willing cooperation?

Gee, that just might work.

[glorgau]

It wasn’t a “problem” when “homeless” people wandered in the streets.

And the homeless sure as heck wouldn't pay a $197 ticket!

[absalom01]

Horde of cops? It's a couple of guys from the traffic division who've been assigned to do jaywalking enforcement for few hours a day. Doesn't really qualify as a horde in my book, but since there's no specific number of people in a horde, I guess you're entitled to your own definition in that regard.

I doubt that a "warning" would be as memorable as getting a ticket. Who knows, maybe they're doing that too, as well as writing a few tickets.

[DariusBane]

Seems to be enough of them to lurk downtown and harass peds. That qualifies as a “horde” in my book. In fact one azzhat with the full power and authority of The State qualifies as a horde. Try taking one on and see if he is not a “horde”.

[Redcloak]

The LAPD and LASD really do need to start enforcing jaywalking laws. Idiot pedestrians get flattened in this town almost on a daily basis. It's gotten to the point where if the roadkill/almost-roadkill pedestrian isn't somehow interesting (Very young, very old, interesting backstory, etc.) then it won't even make the nightly news.

One day I was walking to a sandwich shop to get lunch. A bunch of morons were jaywalking across a busy street, texting away, and completely oblivious to their surroundings; so much so that they didn't realize that they were jaywalking in front of a Sheriff's deputy until he yelled "If you're gonna jaywalk, could you at least put down the phone?!" over his loudspeaker at them.

(My other pet peeve is bicyclists who can't figure out which side of the road is the right one; or that the sidewalk isn't part of the road. Twice last week I almost killed the same guy who was riding on the wrong side of the road, at night, with no lights.)

[Sicvee]

Seattle is one place where jaywalkers have never been tolerated. When I was in the seventh grade and fresh from Eastern Washington I jaywalked diagonally across Beacon Ave and S. Myrtle St. The cop read me the riot act and gave me a ride home. And I got ticketed for jaywalking when I attended the UW. So Seattle residents just don’t normally do it. When I worked in Olympia you could always tell the people from Seattle because they didn’t jaywalk, whereas the natives had no fear.