I’m in LA and motorists here are hostile toward pedestrians. There are a few intersections I use nearly everyday where I see people make a right turns into the crosswalk(with the walk signal lit) fully knowing pedestrians are stepping into the street. A few days ago a saw a woman with a toddler and a young child crossing an intersection. I saw not 1 but 3 cars nearly hit them while making a left turn. These fools couldn’t bother to wait those extra 6 seconds till they made it to the curb. One of the cars had to swerve into the opposing lane to avoid them. He saw them but wouldn’t wait. I shudder to think what would have happened if the little child let go of mom’s hand.

And the laws still do not comport with our Constitution. If the 18th was necessary, where are the other amendments?

The cops don’t actually have to be anywhere near the crosswalk. They just pull the guy over and say, “Hey buddy, you almost hit that guy in the crosswalk!”

Then when the guy stupidly points out there wasn’t anyone in the crosswalk, the cop says, “Hey! Are you resisting arrest? How would you like to meet Mr Taser?” By that time all the other cops have joined in because they smelled the potential for an opportunity to pummel some little person into jello.

Normally, Dave, I’m with you. But in this case, you might want to read the article. First there was a guy at the crosswalk. Second, they gave 75% of those pulled over a warning, meaning they weren’t doing this for revenue enhancement. Third, nobody got beat up that we know of.

We read a lot of bad cop stories here, this isn’t one of them. I refuse to slander these officers given what we know about them.

AFAIC, you can stick him in a cyclotron and set it on “deep fry.”

#40 RM

Is it just me or was your website down (as in domain name expired)?

I was getting that from work almost all day yesterday, but when I got home, the site came up fine. Nice to know it wasn’t just me.

Then when the guy stupidly points out there wasn’t anyone in the crosswalk, the cop says, “Hey! Are you resisting arrest? How would you like to meet Mr Taser?” By that time all the other cops have joined in because they smelled the potential for an opportunity to pummel some little person into jello.

There seems to be another case of prosecutorial misconduct in Texas, or maybe sheriff abuse. The Winkler County nurses are facing 10 years in jail for reporting a doctor to the medical board, as they are supposed to do.

IANAL but it seems like pretty blatant abuse. Maybe you can lend your eye.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/07/us/07nurses.html

http://www.texasnurses.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=509

http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2010/02/report_a_bad_doctor_to_the_authorities_g.php

Or, the cop could walk out into the street in front of an oncoming car and hope he doesn’t stop…but doesn’t hit the cop either. Do that every day for a year and you’ll have another police funeral to attend.

Yep, I checked CA law on crosswalks. To their credit, the law states that pedestrians can’t be unreasonable (e.g, jump right out in front of car where it’s too late for car to avoid them). But, as usual, there’s tremendous leeway for the cop…for instance, I thought the law was dumb enough to require you to wait for ped even if they’re on the opposite side of the street, but actually it specifically says you simply have to wait till it’s obvious that the ped is out of danger. I can see how easy this would be to fight if you had to take it to court, since usually cop’s version of what’s dangerous is pretty far off from mine (and yes, I’m very respectful of right of way, particular that of peds).

The college student that was jacked up by TSA FBI and the Philadelphia police for Arabic flash cards is suing all of them.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20100210_Daniel_Rubin__TSA_suspicious_of_an_interest_in_the_world.html

Hopefully some cop families will be kicked to the curb naked in a blinding snowstorm after the award foreclosures.

Also, charring a steak vaporizes its own nitrosamines. Rationally speaking, policy involving tobacco-poisoned walls, shouldn’t even be considered until we’ve banned the cooking of meat. That’d be interesting to see…

Once a technique becomes accepted, cops will usually abuse it. Stings are just one form of the deceit and trickery they use to entice someone into doing something that is ultimately going to hurt them. That’s not serving and protecting.

As a driver what are you supposed todo if somebody is standing on the sidewalk next to a crosswalk? When exactly should the undercover officer put his foot into the road? In the stings I witnessed the undercover officer was waiting on the sidewalk until a car started coming. This particular crosswalk did NOT have a crossing light and was not at an intersection. So the only way you know you need to stop is if a pedestrian has his foot in the road or perhaps if you see him walking towards the crosswalk. Depending on the timing of things it would be very tough to distinguish entrapment from a valid stop.

Now an undercover cop sitting on a bench watching a busy crosswalk seems like a good idea. A cop putting his toe on the road the moment a car comes by is clearly not.

But then I remember all the shitty things cops do that Radley reports here and I realize that the profession has a long way to go before I’ll give them any sincere kudos.

This is not uncommon. SoCal cities do the same thing. Pedestrian courtesy is huge in SoCal, as any resident would attest. It’s actually so universally observed by drivers that I’m surprise the popos still do it here. Most chaotic city I ever saw regarding peds vs. cars is Boston. Pure anarchy. Well, it’s Boston — what did you expect.