Hello my mingle 2 family, I feel good today, the weather is warm, bright sunshine, & it has everybody in my city in good gracious. Before I start this with another straight to the head topic I want to send my good wishes off to one of not just a loyal follower of mines with my forum topics, but we grew to be great friends and she's a lady I respect dearly. All good lucks go out to " Ms. Harmony". Okay, I was here at work, and I was web surfing as I usually do this time of day, and I came across this article on Bing.com. It's explaining that an occurrences happen in Sacramento, California an African American with no criminal history was walking home from work, the street was emptied of cars except a cop car off the side. The cops get out after a couple of words body slams the man & hits him in the face with his fist several times. Even the department fought the cops behavior disturbing & troubling & yes the cop was white. racist or not. The department said the incident began when the officer attempted to stop a pedestrian observed crossing the street unlawfully. the man ignore the cops orders challenged the man to a fight according to the department. long story short this all goes back to "Jaywalking". Do you think its about " Jaywalking" or is it bigger than that & it was disorderly conduct on both ends. Or was the cop wrong? what's you r take America, lets talk about it!

Im still here,,
it comes down to the discretion given to cops,, 'disobedience' is a crime punishable at their discretion

Without a way to read the story, how should anyone here know?

Ms Harmony,

Hey you just made my night, good seeing you. yes it is about discretion but the question is at who's discretion? The Cop or the Pedestrian?

Dodo_David,

well I basically based this topic on the actual article I wish I knew how to load the article from bing to mingle2, I haven't figure how to load articles yet on here.

CBS News has a story about this incident.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/sacramento-cop-caught-on-video-taking-down-beating-alleged-jaywalker/

Same thing happened to a man in Dallas a couple of years ago. He was jay walking and two cops slammed him down causing a permanent disability.
Was it because he was jaywalking or because the cops were white or because he was white?

I saw the video several times. I don't understand why the cop was stopping him to begin with, because he was crossing the street at the wrong time? He was walking kind of casual. The cop is threatening and the pedestrian just faced the cop and took off his coat very slowly. Then the cop has him on the ground and punching him over and over. What's that all about?

IMO if a jay walker gets beat up I'm okay with that.
IMO jay walkers should get everything up to being run over by a car.
I have to obey stop signs when no ones around. I have to obey stop lights when no one is around. I have to drive on the right side of the road when no one is around. I have to use my headlights at night when no one is around. I have to wear a seat belt when no one is around.
Doesn't matter if no one is around, that doesn't really make something legal. Might as well say "it's okay to rape someone in a coma if they don't have family or anyone that cares about them."

For jaywalkers "no one around" is a worse excuse. They're walking at most 3-4 miles an hour across the road. I'm driving anywhere from 25-45 miles an hour.
"No one around" can change very quickly.
I get annoyed by jay walkers. Same with people that don't stop behind stop signs but just kind of keep rolling up almost into the street.

Every single damn day I see men, women, children, parents with strollers, going into the street like they're playing live action frogger.
When they do that, I have to pay more attention to them, put more focus on them. I have to figure out if they're going to try and run in front of me, if they even see me, if they feel entitled to me stopping to let them walk like in front of walmart. The more I have to focus on pedestrians in the middle of the street and what they're doing, the less I can focus on the cars and traffic around me.

Accidentally hitting a pedestrian at 30 mph is going to be a million times worse than accidentally hitting another car at the same speed.
Sometimes pedestrians are standing in a left turn only lane and I have to keep driving and turn around a mile later just because they couldn't walk 20 feet to the crosswalk.

Jaywalkers are breaking the law, they're annoying as hell, they disrupt traffic, they're stressful.
IMO beating a guy for jaywalking is perfectly valid, as long as it's less of a beating than they'd get if struck by a car going the speed limit.
Jaywalkers are inconsiderate a-holes.


Probably not. Jaywalking citations are a means for the city to generate funds. Not a violent menace to society.


Bigger, but not much bigger.
Just one a-hole seeing another a-hole doing something a-holish and resorting to violence for the sake of social pecking order.
I don't think it's "bigger" in the sense that there's some sort of centralized government conspiracy against jaywalkers or that particular guy that jaywalked.


Doesn't really matter.
It only matters if the cop behaved in a way that can't be argued as supported legally or by policy.


I don't like jaywalkers and would like to see more beat up vigilante style.
Smacked around, picked up, carried, with each step counted, "see there? One, two, three, fifty steps to the crosswalk, you see that? Yeah? Oh you such a good boy, yes you are, yesh you are! You gonna use the crosswalk from now on? Good boy! Let's get you a treat!"

Dodo_David,

yeah its a deep story, my opinion is they both was wrong. the cop should have not lost his cool but then again the pedestrian should of just cooperate with the officer, it don't need to escalate into a case.

AlleOops,

wow in Dallas Texas, see here in philly they don't enforce jaywalking like other cities , I mean you just cross the street in the middle of a block but what cripple us is people driving without auto insurance & licenses. maybe us in philly need a jaywalking law.

Do I agree with the cop? No. That is why he is on administrative leave. Jaywalking is illegal. Ignorance of the law is no excuse. Is it a big deal (unless they get hit by a car)? No. It is a citiation.

Now let me ask this. The guy walks away when stopped. How does the cop know if he has warrants or a wanted fugitive? He doesn't. Should the cop let him go? No. What if he let a wanted rapist walk? Did the cop use excessive force? i believe he did but the guy should have complied. Just because the jaywalker was black and the cop was white, doesn't automatically become racist

In the town I live, pedestrians have the right of way. They can cross where ever they want and drivers must stop.

Catinidaho,

Hey you, it suppose to be like that here in philly but we so out of control people race to see if they make a move first and sometimes that leads to tragedy or road rage.

In the town I live, pedestrians have the right of way. They can cross where ever they want and drivers must stop.

With all due respect...Salmon Idaho doesn't have the same population as Sacramento CA.

CireTom,

Welcome back my friend of mingle, well I can say this I agree with what you said and disagree. I mean jaywalkers isn't really a major concern, but I will admit people should follow the rules of the road. now the question is do I think the cop was right...no. do I think the pedestrian was right...no. using logic and intelligents would been the right thing to do. I always tell people stop being combative with the police, let them do there job, then you be on your way and you never see him again. If an officer gets to forceful then take him to court, not fight him. you fight him that's a battle you in this country will never win. He has the law behind him, guns, and the shield.

YellowRose10,

Hello welcome back to my cyber mansion. well I see the whole incident just got out of control. Again logic and common sense would ended that a hell of a lot better. besides, with the tension between black & brown folks and law enforcement lately that situation just drew the lines even further apart. I think as citizens of all kinds & your local police department should have a town meeting and talk. express how you feel, let the officers explain themselves, come up with solutions without bloodshed. we have to think about our children, growing up in this world we want to keep them safe, not to teach our children to fear or hate law enforcement.

See? To me this is assumptions. No one knows if it is race related but the race card continues to be thrown. Neither was right. Why does it have to be racist?

EyeAmYourHost39,

Sit & A Cup Of My Hot Tea With A Slice Of Controversy part 20!

My Weekly Rant!......My Logic

Okay, America its been sometime now since my last rant, how I feel about this here, well again things could of been done differently, as the pedestrian, if you didn't know about your city's jay walk laws and you violated that's one thing. If you did you didn't care well you have to take the consequences with your action. Now if I'm a cop and saw that, do your job, stop him, ask him are you aware you jaywalked? Did you know that's against the law? Now if he was humble and didn't know , remember I'm the cop, I would either let him go with a warning. I could just give him a small fine, I don't think imprisonment fits but I would do my job. Its no excuse to take it any further than that. If I was a cop the last thing I want glued to me is police brutality. But if the suspect charging at me, well you better believe I'm use a little more force just to protect myself.