Fair enough. Cops in Iran will harass and abuse citizens over fashion offences. I suppose they're just doing their jobs, just enforcing the law. Anyone who gets hurt it's their own fault for not complying. My opinion on the matter (not neccesrily the law, my opinion), is that as a driver you must be prepared for jaywalkers at all times. True, some pedestrians can be totally reckless, but the vast majority can look out for their own safety without obstructing or inconveniencing traffic while taking the shortest route from point a to point b. Jaywalking is something that should be expected at any time. As a motorist, it is something I expect and anticipate. Some will be unaccompanied children who do not know any better, and are less visible due to their height(obviously they should be properly looked after and instructed on safe crossing, but in reality they often are not). I feel that a pedestrian should have as much right to be on a public street as a person in a vehicle*. Pedestrians and cyclists are the most vulnerable. I know some people take the opposite view. They see a hierarchy with pedestrians at the bottom, and giant trucks and SUVs at the top. And that's their opinion. I have no respect for cops who see pedestrians crossing the road as a problem to be dealt with. Maybe that's just what they were told to do, but nonetheless I disagree with it. I do agree that it's in our own best interests to be cooperative and treat them with respect and avoid trouble as much as possible. That's how I do it. But that is not to say that to disrespect police is to deserve trouble. They are servants of the people. Some people think they are masters of the people, and that to lay a hand on them is to assault them, and to deserve every retaliation that follows, whether it be a taser, a punch to the face, or worse. However foolish and inadvisable the girls' behaviour may have been, what the cop did was the true assault. That's how I saw it. Sure, he was provoked. Maybe with the stress of the situation and the heat of the moment he lost his temper, that's entirely understandable. But however understandable, I don't find face-punching an appropriate, acceptable behaviour when dealing with matters of such trivial nature. These girls were not criminals. Police need to be pragmatic when picking their battles. (* naturally this doesn't include some sort of high-speed expressway for obvious practical reasons.)
Are you attempting a pseudo Godwin? Because I'd call it at that. Well, I feel that you need to note your own asterisk. Building a pedestrian bridge not a small expense, and if a city has built one over a road it likely means that said road is not safe for a person to cross. The officer was ultimately trying to help save lives by warning jaywalkers that what they are doing is illegal and unsafe. As for the rest of your traffic argument, in areas of low traffic jaywalking isn't an issue. Those are generally just neighborhood roads. If a road has crosswalk markings then a pedestrian should cross at those designated places since crosswalks are laid out so that the driver of a vehicle should either be stopped or have advance warning of a potential pedestrian interference. Generally the higher the traffic volume and speed the more that planners and designers try and separate people from cars. This specific location seems to one of those places. I do speak from personal experience as I work at a civil engineering firm with a dedicated road department that I have done drafting and design work for.
This reminds me of a really funny Jaywalking story. We were all waiting at a crosswalk, about... 15 people. 10 decide "Fuck this" and cross on the red light. Cop on the other side of the street made the most hilarious "You have GOT to be kidding me!" look on his face, then he shook his head, pulled out his whistle to get their attention and said "Hey, can I have a word with you people?" as he flips out his ticket book and starts taking names. BTW, she had it coming.
That's what I was waiting for. Yeah, he could have shot her ass. Maybe he should have given her a Hallmark card. Also LOL at the C.O.P.S. and COPS. Great stuff guys.
I kept waiting for the pepper spray. She had it coming in spades, in fact I think he was trying to go out of his way not to be forceful with them which is why they weren't face down in the dirt with the zipcuffs on.
Chris Rock - How not to get your ass kicked by the police! YouTube - Chris Rock - How not to get your ass kicked by the police!
Clearly the Cop should have known she was 17 before he hit her. Give me a break. She put her hands on him and got punched for it. Good for the Cop.
eh, I think the cop should've done it different, there's plenty of other options. Understandable though, you never know what the suspect will do and a cop does'nt have the time to take those chances. A 17yr old girl can be just as deadly as anyone.
Now, I'm far from the type of guy who blindly supports police decisions, trust me...but he had every right. You don't push and fight with a cop. I have to admit, I actually laughed my ass off when I first saw the video. It was justified.
....1) Invoking Godwin's law(even this pseudo version) is always fail. 2) Jaywalking on busy city streets is a serious saftey risk to those who are walking and those who are driving. It's not a problem in small towns and side streets, but this was a multi-lane road and not some tiny little backwoods road. 3) Regardless of what the actual road was like, what they did was illegal and the cop was doing his job by pulling them aside to at worst lecture them with a warning. This situation escalated, not because of the jaywalking, but because one dumb bitch had an attitude. Multiple other people were pulled aside at the exact same time for the exact same reason and nothing bad happened to them. But one stupid woman threw her hissy fit and thus caused an escalating problem. And my opinion, as someone who both walks and drives, is that no matter how you're traveling, you follow the rules of the road. These rules are there for your safety as well as the safety of everyone around you. But even then, if you do decide to bend or break the rules, which I'm sure we've all done at times, if you get caught by a cop doing it, you man up and accept responsibility for breaking the law. ...win
Haven't you heard? Personal responsibility is so passe. It now someone else fault for a person's stupidity. It's also a good way to make money through lawsuits. Get with the times man. Geez
Not so. The poster I was responding to felt that views on jaywalking are irrelevant to how the girls were treated. For me they are not, much as I wouldn't separate personal views on 'fashion crime' from how citizens are treated in such 'police work'. The intention was not to denegrate by association. If the comparison didn't work for you, disregard it. I'm very pro-pedestrian, pro-cyclist, etc, so the very idea of ticketing someone for jaywalking is something I don't separate from the heavy-handed tactics used to subdue the 'offender'. Just more unnecessary brutish authoritarianism. However ill-advised it may be to treat a cop with anything but grovelling politeness, I think she was entirely justified in resisting such petty harassment. And in calling it a 'pseudo Godwin', aren't you drawing comparisons between the Iranian government and Nazis? Lucky there's no one around to get offended. Probably. Now if I can safely cross a multilane road in an urban area without inconveniencing traffic, why would I inconvenience myself by walking up onto a bridge to cross? I've been in countries where no one jaywalks. With no traffic on an empty road, they will walk in the opposite direction from where they are headed to a pedestrian crossing, where they will wait patiently for the lights to change. Even in the pissing rain. That to me is madness. Worse still, the drivers who refuse to even take their foot off the pedal, who think a pedestrian has no business on a public road. But putting aside views on 'jay-walking', lets come at it another way. Everyone who thinks that sort of behaviour is acceptable from a representative of the state, seems to be equating legal justification with moral justification. Don't believe me? How come laying a hand on a cop = assault? That's a legal definition right there. Nothing those girls did was an act of aggression. It was all defensive. Misguided yes, but they never struck him. He punched her in the face. Maybe a punch to the face is no big deal to some of you, but that's another matter again.
And if I feel I can drive safely enough to my destination, why should I have to inconvienience myself by abiding any traffic laws at all?
