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Jaywalking decriminalization, 100 years after the auto industry made it a crime

virginiamercury.com

61–70 of 459 posts

Re: Jaywalking decriminalization, 100 years after the auto industry made it a crime

#61
post #30

Can we do shoplifting next? Make it a civil offense like wage theft?

I can't tell if this is sarcasm or not.

'Tis not. (Though I admit it's slightly trollish.)

Edit: once you see all the ways in which our justice system protects capital, it's kind of hard to un-see...

Re: Jaywalking decriminalization, 100 years after the auto industry made it a crime

#62
post #11

Seeing as encounters with law enforcement are probably more deadly on average than jaywalking - I wholly support this change. Being poor in a car city is something most folks in the circles I run in now have never experienced or thought about. The documentary “Los Angeles Plays Itself” has a fantastic section about this.

> encounters with law enforcement are probably more deadly on average than jaywalking 36 pedestrians were killed last year in accidents in my city. We have one contested police shooting. 31 the year before that, two contested shootings. At least biweekly there's an article in the local paper about someone hit while illegally crossing a highway, often at night. I have unfortunately seen a pedestrian get hit by crossin…

Criminalizing jaywalking is not going to stop any of this.

Re: Jaywalking decriminalization, 100 years after the auto industry made it a crime

#63
post #26

> Before the advent of the automobile, pedestrians in America were widely recognized as having the right of way in all situations. OK, let's go back to this. You can argue right-of-way with a ton of fiberglass and steel going 35 mph. Tell us all how that works out for you. Placing blame doesn't mean anything when the laws of physics dictate which one's going to be the winner in any given scenario.

If that's the case, why is the car going 35 mph in the first place?

Maybe they shouldn't be going that fast in areas with pedestrians?

Re: Jaywalking decriminalization, 100 years after the auto industry made it a crime

#64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assume because of selective enforcement. The more that we make normal everyday events technically illegal, the more likely the police will have to pick and choose what they enforce and what they let slide. Then you have ample opportunity for that discretion to be applied in a discriminatory way.

Sure, but why make a specific point about that with jaywalking? Can't that argument be made for just about any crime? Just seems like a useless red herring to make it about race when it doesn't need to be; it's a related but separate issue to whether jaywalking should be a crime in the first place.

No, the argument only applies to "crimes" that are very commonly committed. It isn't a racist law in itself but it allows racism to flourish.

Re: Jaywalking decriminalization, 100 years after the auto industry made it a crime

#65
post #26

> Before the advent of the automobile, pedestrians in America were widely recognized as having the right of way in all situations. OK, let's go back to this. You can argue right-of-way with a ton of fiberglass and steel going 35 mph. Tell us all how that works out for you. Placing blame doesn't mean anything when the laws of physics dictate which one's going to be the winner in any given scenario.

In Norway pedestrians have the right of way on zebras. There was a fair bit of discussion a few years ago about how someone jogging in the dark would dart across a zebra and then drivers had to slam on the brakes not to hit them.

As a driver though, most roads to my right have the right of way. So if there is a road to the right where the view is blocked by some bushes or a house ... I will slow down just in case a car could pop out of there. That is what right of way means.

I also do this for zebras. I will slow down just in case, unless I'm sure that no one could possibly cross.

Re: Jaywalking decriminalization, 100 years after the auto industry made it a crime

#66
post #30

Can we do shoplifting next? Make it a civil offense like wage theft?

For that matter, make wage theft criminal, since it accounts for so much more real value stolen.

Very much not interested in locking up more people. Have you seen our (USA) numbers?

Re: Jaywalking decriminalization, 100 years after the auto industry made it a crime

#67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Christ, why? Have you see what decriminalization of street crime has done to San Francisco? It’s a disaster.

Decriminalization without functioning social work infra is this result. Just because SF is incompetent in this regard does not mean continued criminalization of minor offenses should continue. There’s nuance, and that nuance is critical to the discussion.

There's a massive gulf between crime with a victim like shoplifting and general petty theft and crime without a victim, like jaywalking, that everyone seems to go willingly blind to on an ideological as-needed basis.

Re: Jaywalking decriminalization, 100 years after the auto industry made it a crime

#68
post #26

> Before the advent of the automobile, pedestrians in America were widely recognized as having the right of way in all situations. OK, let's go back to this. You can argue right-of-way with a ton of fiberglass and steel going 35 mph. Tell us all how that works out for you. Placing blame doesn't mean anything when the laws of physics dictate which one's going to be the winner in any given scenario.

[deleted]

Re: Jaywalking decriminalization, 100 years after the auto industry made it a crime

#69
post #21

Jaywalking drives me crazy... sometimes I wish American culture was more German/Japanese in this area and Americans walked the extra 20 feet to the nearest crosswalk and waited for the light. A few times now I've had to tap my brakes for some guy dashing across the street to the island in the middle because he was too impatient to wait for the light to change. Sometimes it's a lady with a shopping cart. These aren't…

Why do you think the default should be that it's your right of way in the car?

Why should pedestrians keep out of your way and not cross your path? Why don't we instead say you should keep out of the pedestrians way and not cross their path?

Maybe we should reset the expectation that cars own the streets, and make them a guest there, deferring to human beings in the first instance.

Re: Jaywalking decriminalization, 100 years after the auto industry made it a crime

#70
post #11

Seeing as encounters with law enforcement are probably more deadly on average than jaywalking - I wholly support this change. Being poor in a car city is something most folks in the circles I run in now have never experienced or thought about. The documentary “Los Angeles Plays Itself” has a fantastic section about this.

> Seeing as encounters with law enforcement are probably more deadly on average than jaywalking There are far more instances of jaywalking than police interactions, and yet pedestrian deaths are 6x higher than deaths from police. So no that is not true in any way, especially when you account for armed vs unarmed police shootings (~25 unarmed black people were shot and killed by police in 2019, where unarmed includes…

>There are far more instances of jaywalking than police interactions, and yet pedestrian deaths are 6x higher than deaths from police.

"And yet" is entirely the wrong conjunction here; if there are more instances of jaywalking than police encounters, then it logically follows there would be more deaths.

In fact, I'd argue that there are far more than 6x as many instances of jaywalking than there are police encounters, which kind of undermines your whole point.

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