Okay now... I'm starting to get a little pissed off here. As I said before, feel free to comment on my posts, but be ready for me to return fire.
No offense intended to justusforall, but am I really wrong to write people tickets for jaywalking? I get shit from just about everyone I rag for it, but does that mean I should stop writing them altogether? Justusforall, are you a cop? I'd bet the answer is no, or else you're very new at it.
Let me put it to you this way.... Have you ever taken an auto vs. ped collision? Have you ever rolled up to find a man lying on his face in the street struggling for breath because the car that just hit him squashed his guts into places they were never intended to go? Have you ever SEEN a shattered pelvis? Have you ever had to explain to the person this guy had been walking with that it really didn't look good for his friend? Have you ever had to deal with an emotional witness who just watched this guy get plowed by a vehicle traveling at 35 miles per hour? Have you ever heard an Intensive Care nurse say words like cerebral hemorrhage, detached retina or abdominal trauma when describing your pedestrian's injuries?
Have you ever determined an area of impact based upon the location of property that flew out of a guy's pockets when the car hit him? Have you ever actually seen someone come out of their shoes? Have you seen the damage a human body does to the front of a motor vehicle, let alone the emotional damage it does to the driver of that motor vehicle? Have you ever had to convince the driver of the vehicle that there was truly NOTHING he could have done to avoid that collision because the guy literally stepped right out in front of his vehicle, in the middle of the block? Have you ever had to take that guy's vehicle as evidence anyway, even though you knew the collision wasn't his fault?
If you had to do these things, then you would know why I write jaywalking tickets. If you haven't, then don't give me shit for stubbing people for jaywalking. When you pull a 12 year old kid out from under the wheels of an SUV whose driver was HUA (that would be Head Up Ass), then come see me and we'll talk.
I don't write jaywalking tickets because it's fun. I write them because those things I mentioned are most certainly NOT fun, and if I can avoid doing them by writing a few more tickets, I'll take the writer's cramp any day, thank you very goddamned much. I get paid the same whether I write the tickets or the crash.
Again, no offense to justusforall, but make sure you cross in the crosswalk or I'll write you one too...
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10 comments:
AMEN!!!
I am with you on this one! There are laws in place for a reason. They are meant to PROTECT people. And it is our job to enforce those laws. For that is what we do - we serve and protect!
Well, I can tell you I’m not a police officer but couldn’t possible agree more with your decision to cite her. Apparently the other commenter hasn’t ever seen someone killed by a car because of jaywalking but I have- it’s not a pretty sight! Had the individual I saw hit simply taken the time to cross at the crosswalk he wouldn’t be dead and the driver’s 10 year old son sitting in the passenger seat wouldn’t be scarred for life. Keep up the good work! There are plenty of civilians out there that see the value in what you do and won’t cross examine you for the decisions you make. If that $75 dollar ticket (the fee for jaywalking in my city) makes her think twice about doing it again, you may have saved her family a $5,000.00 dollar funeral! Small price to pay with a big lesson attached.
Officer Smith- I certainly feel that you did the right thing by issuing this woman a citation. It never ceases to amaze me that we as police officers are scrutinized like we are by the same people that we took an oath to protect. I just wonder if the woman you cited had a child that was killed crossing the street, would she question why her child didn’t take the time to cross at the light?
In my city, we have an above average fatality rate with pedestrians because of jaywalking, it has become such a serious problem that we have been told no more warnings, we must issue citations.
Aza, I couldn’t agree more, very well written. I know we have discussed this before as well as worked a few pedestrian deaths near your house.
It only takes seeing one dead pedestrian and hearing one screaming driver to convince me. Good post.
I wish MORE officers would ticket jay walkers. I'm sooooo tired of sitting at the stop light watching pedestrians look up at the sky, then down at their feet and doing just about everything except cross the street when it's time to cross the street. Without a doubt, the minute my light turns green, these idiots snap to attention and step right out in front of me. If I have to obey the laws in my car, they need to obey the laws of da feet:)
In other words... tell this "JACKASS" to shut up. Should we not arrest people for credit card fraud because "no one got hurt" and the companies charge such a high rate anyways and can write it off... so they should just chalk it up to part of doing business?! About as smart as the people I tell "sir, you need to get in a taxi and go home or I'm going to arrest you for being drunk in public".... {severely slurred speech}.. "I'm Drunk, but I'm NOT DRIVING!"
Flame on, people! LOL...
Seriously though, I wasn't looking to disrespect you. I'm from Chicago, so I know all about people wandering into the streets without looking (old people possibly suffering from senility, dumb punks who think they own the block, drunks, etc).
I'm also not a police officer. I'm actually a defense lawyer. Ouch! But I respect your job, and realize that you guys have to deal with the $!@#heads of the world, and thank you for doing it so I don't have to do it myself.
The only reason I ragged on you for giving that lady a ticket was because it seemed like you weren't really doing it because you wanted to teach her a lesson about safety. At least from the verbal exchange you wrote down you never mentioned safety rules or any of the terrible accidents you've witnessed when people ignored the rules.
Now, this doesn't mean that you forgot to write down that before you gave her the ticket you told her to 'not act like a dumb b!@#$ and look both ways before your dumb ass crosses the street again'. You probably did tell her that, which is more than I would have done. I would have honked, given her a dirty look, maybe the finger, and then driven off.
On a side note, given the exchange between you two, I would guess that whatever is afflicting that woman, there is no cure for. And that despite your warning, she probably will die in the street, but not necessarily from a car.
My two cents. Much respect and stay safe.
A DEFENSE LAWYER?! YOU, OFF MY BLOG!!! Just kidding...
I think what happened is you may have misunderstood the intent of my original post. I was simply relating a story I felt was amusing because of her attitude.
I only write people tickets to educate them and make them safer. There is no other reason to write tickets.
So, we'll call it even and move on.
As a EMT I thank you for doing this!
I think it comes down to where someone is jaywalking. If there are no cars about that pose any threat then what's the harm? Where jaywalking becomes an issue is the morons who don't carefully check the traffic before doing it.
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