Black Californians are up to 4.5 times more likely to be stopped for jaywalking than their white peers, according to data the state collects under the Racial and Identity Profiling Act (RIPA). The Freedom to Walk Act, a bill introduced by Assemblymember Phil Ting (D-San Francisco) and pedestrian safety groups, aims to address this disparity by decriminalizing walking in the street outside of a legal intersection.
Police interactions even over minor infractions for crossing the street can be deadly, especially for people of color and individuals experiencing homelessness, whom police commonly stop for non-serious infractions and quality-of-life crimes related to their unhoused status.
Stopped for Jaywalking
On September 23, 2020, members of the Orange County Sheriffs Departments homeless outreach team shot and killed 42-year-old Kurt Andras Reinhold after stopping him for jaywalking. Before the fatal encounter, deputies body-worn microphones recorded the officers arguing about whether Reinhold had actually illegally jaywalked when he crossed at an intersection.
Three years earlier, in April 2017, a Sacramento police officer stopped pedestrian Nandi Cain, then threw him to the ground and punched him repeatedly, breaking Cains nose and giving him a concussion.
That same year, in Asheville, North Carolina, then-officer Chris Hickman beat, choked, and shocked another Black man, Johnnie Rush, after stopping him for crossing the street.
Both Cain and Rush survived and received settlements from their cities.
In another instance, in 1993 an LAPD officer, Clark Baker, was convicted of misdemeanor battery for kicking and slapping a man, twisting his arm, and dragging him by the hair after the 23-year-old, who reportedly spoke little English, asked the officer to read his jaywalking citation to him.
Walking in the street is not the only minor infraction that leads to violent police encounters.
Last August, LASD deputies fatally shot Dijon Kizzee, a 29-year-old Black man, after stopping him for riding his bike the wrong way.
Advocates say that pedestrian and bicycle laws and other low-level, commonly committed vehicle violations allow law enforcement to conduct racially disparate pretextual stops and searches while filling the citys coffers with tickets that often cost hundreds of dollars each.
Whether its someones life or the hundreds of dollars in fines, the cost is too much for a relatively minor infraction, Asm. Ting said at a press conference announcing The Freedom to Walk Act (AB 1238) in March. Its time to reconsider how we use our law enforcement resources and whether our jaywalking laws really do protect pedestrians.
Stopping, Searching, Citing, and Arresting Black Residents
In Los Angeles County, Black people account for 23 percent of jaywalking stops and citations. Black residents and are three times more likely to be stopped and cited by LA County Sheriffs deputies than white pedestrians, and 3.7 times more likely to be stopped and cited by members of the LAPD.
These numbers may be alarmingly high, but there are jurisdictions with worse disparities. Sacramento is one of them. In 2016, half of the 233 jaywalking tickets Sacramentos law enforcement officers issued went to Black people. Yet, Black individuals make up just 15 percent of the citys population.
Data from the Racial Identity and Profiling Act (RIPA)
Arbitrarily and disparately enforced jaywalking laws emerged in the 1930s, backed by the booming auto industry, with the intention of improving streets for an ever-increasing number of drivers and shifting the blame for driver-pedestrian accidents to pedestrians.
Legalizing most street crossings would go a long way toward addressing a system that disproportionately impacts Black residents and saddles low-income individuals and families with tickets costing hundreds of dollars, according to Asm. Phil Ting and the advocacy organizations he partnered with to introduce the bill CalBike, California Walks, and Los Angeles Walks. In California, jaywalking citations cost at least $197.
Low-income communities and communities of color are more likely to be cited for crossing unsafely due to societal racial bias and poor crosswalk conditions in their neighborhoods that emphasize drivers needs over other road users, said Caro Jauregui, Co-Executive Director of California Walks. Walking should not be a dangerous activity in the communities where people rely on walking for transportation.
The bill repeals portions of state law that place blanket prohibitions on pedestrians stepping into a non-residential street under any circumstances other than when crossing between adjacent intersections controlled by traffic control signal devices or by police officers.
AB 1238 would prohibit a pedestrian who crosses or enters a roadway when no cars are present from being subject to a fine or criminal penalty.
The bill does, however, have a carveout for street crossings in which a reasonably careful person would know that an approaching vehicle was so near or moving so fast that crossing would constitute an immediate hazard. Some advocates have expressed concern that this language will create just enough legal space for police to continue problematic jaywalking stops.
The bill passed through the Assemblys Transportation Committee on April 27, and is now awaiting a hearing in the Appropriations Committee.
Meanwhile, last Tuesday, May 4, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a motion to officially support AB 1238.
Crash data, motion author Supervisor Holly Mitchell wrote, shows that the number one cause of death in a car crash [involving a pedestrian] is the speed of the vehicle, rather than behavior from people walking.
Traffic safety improvements that redesign streets and increase pedestrian amenities are more effective at reducing traffic fatalities than any other strategy, said Mitchell. For instance, installing an all pedestrian phase signal (pedestrian scramble) reduces pedestrian crashes by up to 35 percent.
The board received a handful of public comments in favor of the motion.
In many neighborhoods and communities, the length of the sidewalk from one crosswalk to the other is ridiculously long, said Maygin McEwen. Depending on ones physical condition it is far more difficult to go an eighth of a mile to the corner across the street go another eighth of a mile back down to where you need to go when you could have simply crossed the street at a safe time.
One woman wrote to the board to say that she had been arrested and jailed overnight for allegedly jaywalking. This is a corrupt system that shouldnt exist! the commentor, Tieira, said. Pedestrians deserve more space to walk!
We need to support walking and not arrest people, especially people of color, for trying to safely cross the street, said Deborah Murphy, chair of the City of Los Angeles Pedestrian Advisory Committee and founder of Los Angeles Walks.
In February, the Los Angeles City Council voted to explore options for replacing police enforcement of traffic violations, which includes jaywalking, with a team of unarmed civilian responders, likely from the Department of Transportation. With their vote, the councilmembers directed the DOT to conduct a feasibility study focused on civilian-led traffic enforcement. Transportation officials were also tasked with creating a task force that will hold community listening sessions and develop recommendations for traffic safety alternatives to the citys current enforcement system.
The need for systemic change around traffic safety in Los Angeles and across the state is made clear in a recent report from Advancement Project Californias RACE COUNTS Initiative and PUSH LA.
The report revealed that LAPD officers spent 183,616.3 hours on stops for traffic violations between January and September 2019. And they tended to spend more time on stops involving Black individuals than white people.
Black people were five times more likely to be stopped and just under nine times more likely to be arrested for traffic violations than white people, according to the report. And Latinx individuals were 1.6 times more likely to be stopped for traffic violations and 3.5 times more likely to be arrested than their white peers.
The report recommended agencies immediately cease the use of extremely dangerous and harmful pretextual stops, remove the LAPDs scandal-plagued Metro Division from South LA, ban vehicle consent searches, and hold officers accountable for wrongdoing. Report authors also call for improvements to urban design that boost traffic safety, as well as the adoption of strategies that address the root causes of traffic safety issues.
The recommendations from this report outline the changes needed to move towards reimagining public safety in a way that honors the clarion call of activists, while actually improving safety outcomes at once, said Los Angeles Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson.
Image by swanksalot, Creative Commons.
More here:
- Opinion | U.S. religious freedom effort gets an unwelcome message in Saudi Arabia - The Washington Post - March 20th, 2024 [March 20th, 2024]
- Freedom Caucus urges GOP to reject government funding deal without border reforms - The Hill - March 20th, 2024 [March 20th, 2024]
- The Equal Justice Initiative's soon to open Freedom Monument Sculpture Park - Montgomery Advertiser - March 20th, 2024 [March 20th, 2024]
- Freedom school district to go to referendum April 2 for capital improvements totaling $62.5 million - Post-Crescent - March 20th, 2024 [March 20th, 2024]
- Press freedom in Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda: what journalists have to say about doing their jobs - The Conversation Indonesia - March 20th, 2024 [March 20th, 2024]
- She bought an animal testing site and turned it into a rehab sanctuary - The Washington Post - March 20th, 2024 [March 20th, 2024]
- Young Americans for Freedom said UW-Madison's security fees were 'unprecedented.' Records show that's not the full ... - Daily Cardinal - March 20th, 2024 [March 20th, 2024]
- Responds to Outcome in Ohio GOP Senate Primary - Reproductive Freedom for All - Reproductive Freedom for All - March 20th, 2024 [March 20th, 2024]
- Biden Redefines Freedom and Democracy - AMAC Official Website - Join and Explore the Benefits - March 20th, 2024 [March 20th, 2024]
- Freedom snaps three-game streak of wins at home - MaxPreps - March 20th, 2024 [March 20th, 2024]
- DePauw Faculty Talks Merit Pay, Academic Freedom, Donor Funds, and Event Planning at Monthly Meeting - The DePauw - March 20th, 2024 [March 20th, 2024]
- SC governor: Proposed Medical Freedom Act could place innocent lives at risk - Live 5 News WCSC - March 20th, 2024 [March 20th, 2024]
- Li Yilei recaptures the freedom of childhood through sound - The FADER - March 20th, 2024 [March 20th, 2024]
- The massive copper mine that could test the limits of religious freedom - Grist - March 20th, 2024 [March 20th, 2024]
- Netflix Is Rethinking Employee Freedom, a Core Tenet of Its Vaunted Culture - WSJ - The Wall Street Journal - March 20th, 2024 [March 20th, 2024]
- Freedom Caucus touts bill banning Ranked Choice Voting - Pelican Post - Online Newspaper - March 20th, 2024 [March 20th, 2024]
- Proposed TikTok ban is an affront to economic and personal freedom - The Hill - March 20th, 2024 [March 20th, 2024]
- Chase Freedom Encourages Cardmembers To Celebrate With Family, Given and Chosen, With Q2 2024 Quarterly ... - Yahoo Finance - March 20th, 2024 [March 20th, 2024]
- Baseball Game Recap: Freedom Patriots vs. East Bay Indians - MaxPreps - March 20th, 2024 [March 20th, 2024]
- 'The veils and the women': Can we really advocate for freedom when we are banning them? - LSE Home - March 20th, 2024 [March 20th, 2024]
- Freedom wins going away against Brandon - MaxPreps - March 20th, 2024 [March 20th, 2024]
- Protect the founder of WikiLeaks for the future of press freedom - The Baylor Lariat - March 20th, 2024 [March 20th, 2024]
- Applauds Confirmation of Judge Nicole Berner to Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals - Reproductive Freedom for All - Reproductive Freedom for All - March 20th, 2024 [March 20th, 2024]
- Five Themes Discussed at Princeton's Workshop on Decentralized Social Media - Freedom to Tinker - March 20th, 2024 [March 20th, 2024]
- Meghan Markle Unveils New Brand on Poignant Date with Prince Harry - PEOPLE - March 20th, 2024 [March 20th, 2024]
- Freedom set to open the 2024 season against Torrey Pines (CA) - 69News WFMZ-TV - March 20th, 2024 [March 20th, 2024]
- Texas A&M Creating A Task Force To Work On Academic Freedom - Navasota News - December 28th, 2023 [December 28th, 2023]
- H.S. BASKETBALL ROUNDUP: Freedom teams advance to Christmas tournament title games - Morganton News Herald - December 28th, 2023 [December 28th, 2023]
- Gow cites freedom of expression in defending porn videos which led to his firing as UWL chancellor - WIZM NEWS - December 28th, 2023 [December 28th, 2023]
- Sound Of Freedom: All Updates & Controversies Since It Released - Screen Rant - December 28th, 2023 [December 28th, 2023]
- Im ready for freedom, Gypsy Rose Blanchard says as she gets early release from jail after role in moms... - The US Sun - December 28th, 2023 [December 28th, 2023]
- Turkish Airlines Hasn't Applied For Permission to Operate Crucial Fifth-Freedom Flights From Singapore to Australia - paddleyourownkanoo.com - December 28th, 2023 [December 28th, 2023]
- New ballot language submitted for proposed changes to Arkansas Freedom of Information Act - Mountain Home Observer - December 28th, 2023 [December 28th, 2023]
- The SRFOE calls on States to guarantee freedom of expression as a fundamental right for gender equality and the ... - Organization of American States - December 28th, 2023 [December 28th, 2023]
- Irene Crcoles releases 'Closet', a single that screams freedom - WECB - December 28th, 2023 [December 28th, 2023]
- Sound of Freedom Is Now Streaming: Heres Where to Stream the Controversial Crime Thriller Online for Free - Hollywood Reporter - December 28th, 2023 [December 28th, 2023]
- FIA consider more freedom in technical regulations - The Judge 13 - December 28th, 2023 [December 28th, 2023]
- Texas A&M Academic Freedom Task Force Is Nearing Completion Of Its Recommendations - WTAW - December 28th, 2023 [December 28th, 2023]
- 2023 was a dire year for freedom of speech on campus, says this organization. Will next year be any better? - Fox News - December 28th, 2023 [December 28th, 2023]
- The Spellbinding Freedom of Baldur's Gate 3 - The New York Times - December 28th, 2023 [December 28th, 2023]
- Stream It Or Skip It: Sound of Freedom on Prime Video, the Child-Trafficking Movie That Became a Culture War Flashpoint And Box Office Sensation -... - December 28th, 2023 [December 28th, 2023]
- Rare Mammoth Specimen Unearthed at Freedom Mine near Beulah, North Dakota - Net Newsledger - December 28th, 2023 [December 28th, 2023]
- Frontlines of Freedom TV Ep. 1 | 2023 Year In Review | Gaza | Ukraine | Trump RDI - Renew Democracy Initiative - December 28th, 2023 [December 28th, 2023]
- We need more freedom of speech on campus, but that can't include advocating for genocide - Minnesota Reformer - December 28th, 2023 [December 28th, 2023]
- Freedom, first and last Sonoma Sun | Sonoma, CA - Sonoma Valley Sun - December 28th, 2023 [December 28th, 2023]
- Home for the holidays, from wrongful imprisonment - Star Tribune - December 28th, 2023 [December 28th, 2023]
- The Freedom to Dress Cannot Be Overstated - Highsnobiety - December 28th, 2023 [December 28th, 2023]
- Freedom Town Column: Selectmen's meetings have resumed at the town office - Conway Daily Sun - December 28th, 2023 [December 28th, 2023]
- Did Disney own the rights to Sound of Freedom? - Dexerto - December 28th, 2023 [December 28th, 2023]
- Freedom Fitness 615 is ready to take on new year's resolutions - Lebanon Democrat - December 28th, 2023 [December 28th, 2023]
- Expressing the freedom of self-expression for Holocaust Memorial Day - North Kesteven District Council - December 28th, 2023 [December 28th, 2023]
- Airdate: Jamie Lee Curtis: Hollywood Call of Freedom - TV Tonight - December 28th, 2023 [December 28th, 2023]
- Harry Belafonte Used Fame to Fight for Freedom - The New York Times - December 28th, 2023 [December 28th, 2023]
- Abducted Anambra truck driver regains freedom - Punch Newspapers - December 28th, 2023 [December 28th, 2023]
- OP-ED: Kwanzaa, Freedom, Justice and Peace: Principles and Practices For A New World - Black Press USA - December 28th, 2023 [December 28th, 2023]
- Webinar to give overview of Arkansas Food Freedom Act - Searcy Daily Citizen - December 28th, 2023 [December 28th, 2023]
- Statement to Mark 25th Anniversary of International Religious ... - USCCB - October 25th, 2023 [October 25th, 2023]
- Freedom of Information Act - Health.mil - October 25th, 2023 [October 25th, 2023]
- 'Freedom' to be featured on GS merchandise - Statesboro Herald - October 25th, 2023 [October 25th, 2023]
- Freedom students say they feel safe on campus; social media ... - thepress.net - October 25th, 2023 [October 25th, 2023]
- What kind of freedom? | News, Sports, Jobs - Marshalltown Times Republican - October 25th, 2023 [October 25th, 2023]
- Woman has few hopes for freedom in shaken bay death conviction - Mississippi Today - October 25th, 2023 [October 25th, 2023]
- MFRR Monitoring Report 575 media freedom violations in the first ... - European Centre for Press and Media Freedom - October 25th, 2023 [October 25th, 2023]
- Michigan's Freedom of Information Act Must Be Significantly Reformed - Mackinac Center for Public Policy - October 25th, 2023 [October 25th, 2023]
- Freedom without justice - IPS Journal - October 25th, 2023 [October 25th, 2023]
- Free speech concerns arise in wake of journal editor Eisen's firing - STAT - October 25th, 2023 [October 25th, 2023]
- Salman Rushdie calls for defense of freedom of expression as he ... - Spectrum News 1 - October 25th, 2023 [October 25th, 2023]
- Governor Murphy Sounds the Alarm on Incoming GOP Assault on ... - InsiderNJ - October 25th, 2023 [October 25th, 2023]
- Soloviev Group Announces Affordable Housing Units in Freedom ... - New York YIMBY - October 25th, 2023 [October 25th, 2023]
- North Macedonia Curbed Roma Citizens' Freedom of Movement ... - Balkan Insight - October 25th, 2023 [October 25th, 2023]
- NCT 127: We are limitless but that freedom also has a lot of ... - NME - October 25th, 2023 [October 25th, 2023]
- Academic freedom or state control: Court hearing will consider blocking key higher ed law in FL - Florida Phoenix - October 23rd, 2023 [October 23rd, 2023]
- Salman Rushdie calls for defense of freedom of expression as he receives German prize - Euronews - October 23rd, 2023 [October 23rd, 2023]
- It's Cold War II, and the enemies of freedom are lining up to forge a new world order - The Telegraph - October 23rd, 2023 [October 23rd, 2023]
- Freedom Caucus Urges GOP Leaders To Remain in Washington ... - The Messenger - October 23rd, 2023 [October 23rd, 2023]
- Statesboro: 'Freedom' the Eagle now has his own merchandise - WJCL News Savannah - October 23rd, 2023 [October 23rd, 2023]
- Escaping North Korea: 'Beyond Utopia' documents one path to ... - The Christian Science Monitor - October 23rd, 2023 [October 23rd, 2023]
- PRH, WNDB Launch Freedom of Expression Award - Publishers Weekly - October 23rd, 2023 [October 23rd, 2023]
- Carbondale branch of NAACP hosts 46th Freedom Fund Banquet - The Southern - October 23rd, 2023 [October 23rd, 2023]
- 'Herald favored our freedom of speech' The Durango Herald - The Durango Herald - October 23rd, 2023 [October 23rd, 2023]