Posted on 08/16/2023 1:14:59 PM PDT by grundle
As the City of Los Angeles struggled to reduce pedestrian deaths after its deadliest year in decades, state lawmakers have repealed jaywalking laws in the name of equity. And one high-profile prosecutor questioned whether the new rules are saving any lives.
So far this year, according to the Los Angeles Police Department, the city is on track to see a reduction from 2022's 20-year high in pedestrian fatalities. But nearly three-quarters of the deaths involved potential jaywalkers.
Deputy District Attorney John McKinney, the DA candidate who landed a life prison sentence for the man who killed rapper Nipsey Hussle, is calling the deadly results "predictable outcomes."
"The new law, which legalized jaywalking, was enacted in January of 2023 and has already led to 19 fatalities due to unsafe crossings" out of the 26 pedestrian fatalities in Los Angeles through Aug. 7, McKinney said. "California’s pedestrian fatality rate is [already] 25% above the national average."
McKinney, who called the new jaywalking law "equity run amok," is running to unseat his incumbent boss, District Attorney George Gascon, in the upcoming 2024 election and has been sharply critical of soft-on-crime policies.
"Lawmakers justified legalizing jaywalking to reduce law enforcement’s contact with citizens," McKinney said. "Supporters of the new law believed it would remove a justification for police to stop and question people in minority communities. The predictable trade-off for reducing traffic enforcement has been more deaths of pedestrians."
California state Assembly GOP leader James Gallagher told Fox News Digital that "legalizing jaywalking is a clear example of California Democrats' reckless disregard for public safety. Like so much of their legislation, this bill put Californians in danger in pursuit of a radical agenda to eliminate consequences for breaking the law."
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
Stevie Wonder could have seen that coming.
I don’t think the illegal Mexicans know or care whether there are jaywalking laws on the books or not.
I guess there should also be no penalty for a driver who hits a jaywalker either just to extend that equitable thing. No fault jaywalking.
Most fatalities were probably wasted drunk or stoned out their minds on their hard drug of choice.
I hope the new law makes it legal to “accidently” run over jaywalkers too.
I thought California has always allowed jaywalking.
I remember my father telling my mother to be careful driving because people would walk right out in front of you from the sidewalk, and it was legal. That’s when we lived in Los Angeles, long ago.
I moved from Illinois to San Diego in the late 70s and was told that cars had to stop for pedestrians wherever they were crossing in the block. It was true - cars stopped. Maybe that changed as drivers become less attentive.
Jaywalking laws are for white people.
The law of unintended consequences bitch slaps another bunch of arrogant progressives.
All in the name of abortion and jaywalking, human life does not matter; population reduction by any means justifies the action.
Ray Charles would have seen it coming - and he’s blind and dead.
Who cares about deaths? If they cared, our southern border, would not be open for rapists and murderers to come by the thousands. If they cared, they would enforce our laws. If they cared, they would prosecute the offenders. There is not a single Democrat Social program or idea that has ever been held accountable for the death and destruction they have caused. How many thousands of residents and visitors have died at any one of the urban renewal, public housing projects that came out of the great society programs of the Johnson era. In my town any one of those projects is responsible forthousands of deaths over the past 40 to 50 years. There’s no accountability there’s no responsibility. Just keep shoving those people in there and carrying them out in bags.
The laws are not about reducing deaths and injuries. They are about more and bigger paydays for personal injury lawyers, who will have more cases and an easier time pinning liability on rich capitalist vehicle owners. When it is considered a crime for dope heads, drunks, and idiots to stumble or dart in front of vehicles, how they gonna get money for skool?
Try the homeless
¿Por qué no los dos?
“As the City of Los Angeles struggled to reduce pedestrian deaths after its deadliest year in decades, state lawmakers have repealed jaywalking laws in the name of equity. And one high-profile prosecutor questioned whether the new rules are saving any lives.”
Did they actually think repealing jaywalking laws would save lives?
How about repealing laws against bank robbery? I’m sure that will result in fewer bank robberies.
I don’t know the exact numbers but my first thought wasn’t Mexicans or Hispanics. They might be a close second in the DC area but from what I see, they aren’t the majority of the ones crossing wherever and whenever they like.
There are people that won’t walk in front of moving cars not because they will be hit but because it’s against the law?
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