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This article was written 草莓传媒鈥檚 news partner聽聽and republished with permission. Sign up for聽听迟辞诲补测.
Though it didn鈥檛 garner as much attention as other police reform measures during the special legislative session that ended this fall, a provision to decriminalize jaywalking in a聽 蹿谤辞尘听, D-Arlington, means that come March 1, police will no longer be able to stop folks for the act of crossing the street outside of a marked crosswalk.
Criminal justice reformers called it a small step along the path to reducing encounters with the police, especially for people of color.
Although jaywalking will remain illegal, other advocates worry decriminalization could encourage pedestrians towards further unsafe crossings at a time when聽.
But are such fears聽founded?
Most countries would consider the concept of聽 that Americans have been聽.聽 In the Netherlands, for example, traffic engineers and urban planners have actually worked to lower the country鈥檚 curbs so as to encourage people to cross wherever they like.
Before the advent of the automobile, pedestrians in America were widely recognized as having the right of way in all situations.聽 The road to car culture鈥檚 dominance in the United States was literally paved with blood 鈥� drivers had already聽 by 1920.聽 In response, auto industry groups launched campaign to place blame for collisions on pedestrians rather than drivers.
Walking while Black
The passage of laws making jaywalking expressly illegal over the following decades also led to an increase in pedestrian interactions with the police.聽 African Americans have long complained of police stops for the offense of 鈥�.鈥�
A 2019 audit of the New York Police Department revealed that officers issued聽聽of 鈥渋llegal or unsafe crossing鈥� tickets to Blacks and Hispanics although those two groups make up just 55 percent of the Big Apple鈥檚 population.聽 A聽聽in Jacksonville, Florida similarly found Black residents received 78 percent of all tickets for 鈥渨alking in the roadway where sidewalks are provided鈥� despite comprising just 29 percent of the city鈥檚 population.
The lack of such figures for Virginia localities comes down to an absence of reporting.聽 鈥淒ata on police encounters is difficult to gather, especially on something like this because jaywalking is very frequently just a pretext for stopping someone and not the actual thing the police officer wants to investigate,鈥� said聽聽鈥� the founder and executive director of聽.
Haywood and the other public defenders behind Hope鈥檚 bill crafted the legislation based on their experience 鈥渞epresenting poor, Black and brown people against some of the most ridiculous reasons for stops,鈥� such as objects dangling from rearview mirrors, loud mufflers and tinted windows among others.
To Haywood and his colleagues, the disproportional enforcement of jaywalking was clear: 鈥淣one of us had ever had a White client who was stopped for jaywalking. I probably jaywalk two times on my way to work every day, and I鈥檝e never been stopped for it and likely never will. It鈥檚 just one of those things that led to racist policing.鈥�
鈥淚 heard from countless communities of color that this type of thing happens to them all the time,鈥� Hope said.聽 鈥淛aywalking is a leading contributor of people being stopped and sometimes arrested. A disproportionate number of people that are stopped for these infractions are people of color and the purpose of this bill is to get at that issue and curb the number of negative interactions with police over minor offences.鈥�
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story included a statistic claiming that 65% of people pulled in traffic stops in Arlington County were Black, despite African Americans making up 10-12% of the county’s population. A 2019 crime report from Arlington County says that this number is nearer 28.5% when counting non-residents and around 4% for residents.聽
Doyle鈥檚 concern stems from Virginia law鈥檚 stance on聽. 鈥淲hat that term means is if the person who has been hit by a car is deemed to be even one percent at fault for the crash, then that person that was run over doesn鈥檛 get a single cent of compensation,鈥� said Doyle. 鈥淢ost of the time the driver is the one at fault, but it doesn鈥檛 matter because the car always wins and the pedestrian always loses in a crash.鈥�
Other advocates argue decriminalization won鈥檛 trigger a spike in jaywalking because the true deterrent to pedestrians for an unsafe crossing was never a fine but rather the risk of being run over. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think this bill will encourage even one person to jaywalk,鈥� Haywood said. 鈥淢aybe people will behave differently when there is a cop looking directly at them at an intersection, but other than that I don鈥檛 think anything will change. Around where I live the cops jaywalk too.鈥�
Hope said the legislation is unlikely to cause an increase in dangerous crossings: 鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 say that these infractions are no longer illegal, just that they can鈥檛 be the primary reason for someone to be stopped.鈥�
The danger of disinvestment
Focusing on the act of jaywalking is to ignore the larger historical and structural context that has made crossing the road so dangerous, especially for people of color, argues聽, a senior researcher and adjunct professor at聽.
鈥淚 find it disingenuous to hold accountable a population for jaywalking when they lack the proper infrastructure to traverse their communities safely to begin with,鈥� he said. 鈥淧eople jaywalk out of necessity, so I find it unjust that we are targeting those who jaywalk when they are basically responding to the environment which they have been given.鈥�
Brown points to聽聽which often demolished prosperous Black neighborhoods in favor of imposing infrastructure like inner-city highways. In Richmond, the destruction of a large portion of Jackson Ward 鈥斅犅犫�� for I-95 and the聽聽for new highways are a few Virginia examples of the practice.
鈥淏y destroying the very fabrics of these communities by placing highways here, the government has prioritized the car over the safety of the folks who live in these communities and then over polices residents trying to navigate these dangerous corridors,鈥� Brown said.聽 鈥淥nly an unjust system would not provide people with the infrastructure they need to safely move through their environment and then police them for not doing so.鈥�
The criminalization of jaywalking also ignores logical, safety-based reasons people may cross mid-block.聽 鈥淚n some cases people are choosing jaywalking over confrontation and potential violence,鈥� said Brown.
Brown hopes decriminalizing jaywalking may lead to a paradigm shift in how pedestrians in overpoliced areas perceive their world.聽 鈥淔eeling like they have the freedom to move and exist in public space like everyone else does a lot for people鈥檚 mental health and wellbeing,鈥� Brown said. 鈥淭his move could also lead to better trust and respect between law enforcement and these communities, but most importantly this will allow police to focus on the more pressing issues of violent crimes.鈥�
