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Generally speaking, cops won't bother you for jaywalking in the Northeast as long as you don't obstruct traffic. They'll sit and watch you cross against the lig

by bpyne 10y ago

Generally speaking, cops won't bother you for jaywalking in the Northeast as long as you don't obstruct traffic. They'll sit and watch you cross against the light. As long as cars don't have to jam on their brakes, the cops won't bother with you. As soon as you cause a hazardous situation, you'll get at the least a tongue-lashing. In the same vein, pedestrians in the city of Providence have the right of way at all crosswalks unless a walk signal is present, in which case the jaywalking rule above applies.

runako 10y ago
> Generally speaking, cops won't bother you for jaywalking in the Northeast as long as you don't obstruct traffic. Again, the point of TFA was that minor ordinances are selectively applied ("generally"). What you say is true only in some neighborhoods. But in neighborhoods where the police are looking for a pretext to stop someone, jaywalking ordinances are a handy tool. Selective enforcement of the law has been written about quite frequently, and is a well-studied phenomenon. As such, I won't try to rehash the body of work, but here's an example from NYC I found in a few seconds: http://www.villagevoice.com/news/the-nypd-enforces-jaywalking-when-it-damn-well-feels-like-it-7650140 http://www.villagevoice.com/news/the-nypd-enforces-jaywalkin... "A look at the precincts that report comparatively significant numbers of jaywalking citations over the past few years reveals a pattern: the South Bronx, Harlem, north Brooklyn." (TL;DR; those areas were not selected due to particularly high accident fatality rates.)
- bpyne 10y ago
  Sorry. Didn't mean to obscure or contradict that point. I was trying to demonstrate a cultural norm in the Northeast, which as you point out, gets selectively applied. I'm not sure about jaywalking citation stats in Boston and Providence, but random stops have been a part of life in poorer neighborhoods in both cities.

by bpyne 10y ago

runako 10y ago

> Generally speaking, cops won't bother you for jaywalking in the Northeast as long as you don't obstruct traffic. Again, the point of TFA was that minor ordinances are selectively applied ("generally"). What you say is true only in some neighborhoods. But in neighborhoods where the police are looking for a pretext to stop someone, jaywalking ordinances are a handy tool. Selective enforcement of the law has been written about quite frequently, and is a well-studied phenomenon. As such, I won't try to rehash the body of work, but here's an example from NYC I found in a few seconds: http://www.villagevoice.com/news/the-nypd-enforces-jaywalking-when-it-damn-well-feels-like-it-7650140 http://www.villagevoice.com/news/the-nypd-enforces-jaywalkin... "A look at the precincts that report comparatively significant numbers of jaywalking citations over the past few years reveals a pattern: the South Bronx, Harlem, north Brooklyn." (TL;DR; those areas were not selected due to particularly high accident fatality rates.)

bpyne 10y ago
Sorry. Didn't mean to obscure or contradict that point. I was trying to demonstrate a cultural norm in the Northeast, which as you point out, gets selectively applied. I'm not sure about jaywalking citation stats in Boston and Providence, but random stops have been a part of life in poorer neighborhoods in both cities.