Jaywalking: Worry About the Police, Not the Cars

Everyone knows what jaywalking is—crossing the street anywhere that isn’t designated for pedestrians—but how one views the illegality of jaywalking in the U.S. might depend on what you look like. Many white Americans probably think of jaywalking as an act that only has (minor) consequences if you’re unlucky enough to get caught. White people might only worry about paying small fine if they were to be stopped by a police officer for the heinous offense of jaywalking. This mindset might be common for the average white American, but what if you are a person of any other race? What happens if a police officer sees you jaywalking and decides that you look “suspicious”? The consequences could be much more severe than a ticket.

There are lots of stories detailing tragic outcomes from police stopping black Americans for “jaywalking”. According to a Bloomberg CityLab article written by Caro Jauregui and Mike McGinn, black people in California were shown to be “five times more likely to be stopped for a walking infraction than white people” by police. This finding comes from a bicycle advocacy group CalBike which collected its data from the California Racial and Identity Profiling Act (RIPA). It would be very difficult to believe a claim that black people jaywalk five times as much as white people, so where does that leave us? Police officers must have some reason to favor enforcing this minor crime on some people more than others.

Let’s ignore the easy conclusion at this point and consider a claim made by The Los Angeles Times’ Editorial Board. In one of their editorials, the board points out that the historical redlining of black, Latino and immigrant communities placed hard-to-cross highways and freeways between these communities and urban centers. These marginalized communities in many cases have fewer transportation options that can make urban centers more accessible. Without these accessibility options, the people who live in these communities may be forced to walk farther distances and in areas with little to no consideration for pedestrian traffic (this is not to say that high-quality pedestrian infrastructure is widespread in many locations in the U.S.). So, one could argue that these communities are more frequently targeted by police for jaywalking due to their less-than-ideal environmental circumstances.

Now, let’s return to the more obvious conclusion that the police stop black citizens more often due to racial profiling and bias. An article from the ACLU written by Mike Meno details the disturbing treatment of a black resident of Asheville, North Carolina by police. The resident, Johnnie Rush, was filmed by officer Chris Hickman’s body camera getting tackled, beaten, tased and choked by Hickman and another officer, Verino Ruggiero. What did Rush do to deserve this treatment? He allegedly failed to use the crosswalk on his way home from work. Police brutality incidents like these have become part of the regular news cycle, whether they arise from traffic stops, wellness checks or “jaywalking” offenses. It is not difficult nor far-fetched to draw the conclusion that these incidents are racially motivated. Jaywalking is just another excuse supported by the law to scrutinize average citizens for the crime of not being white.

The push for decriminalizing jaywalking is often met with the argument that jaywalking laws contribute to the safety of pedestrians. An article from Streetsblog USA written by Kea Wilson examines street safety in the U.S. compared to Europe. Wilson illustrates how pedestrian fatalities are much higher in the U.S. than in European peer nations, where jaywalking laws are virtually nonexistent. If pedestrians are safer in Europe than in the U.S., one can presume that jaywalking laws are probably not making much of a dent in fatality statistics. Rising pedestrian deaths in the U.S. have been blamed on the increased popularity of larger and heavier automobiles such as SUVs. It is also worth pointing out that American automobile infrastructure largely isn’t built to accommodate pedestrians, and neither are traffic laws.

The decriminalization of jaywalking is a relatively isolated movement in the U.S., and it is mostly concentrated in the state of California. Most Americans accept jaywalking as a largely unenforced law that is ubiquitous across the country. But for black and brown individuals who are more often forced to walk in locations that are unfriendly to pedestrians, this common law may be perceived as more than an inconvenience and potentially deadly. We as a society should reconsider our blind acceptance of jaywalking laws and recognize them as tools for discrimination and bias by police. In addition, we should examine how our country’s automobile infrastructure does and does not accommodate pedestrians in order to address the concerning upward trends of pedestrian fatalities. Ignoring laws that don’t directly affect the masses can lead to devastating direct effects on individual lives.