http://www.surenews.com/police/this...s-she-end-up-in-handcuffs-crying-for-help.htm I'm pretty sure there is no law requiring pedestrians to carry identification. And ticketing for jaywalking? Really? That is a shit law right there, but the arrest for not having identification is absolute BS and an abuse of power.
http://kut.org/post/after-video-goes-viral-austin-police-defend-jaywalking-jogger-arrest "In other cities there's cops who are actually committing sexual assaults on duty, so I thank God that this is what passes for a controversy in Austin, Texas," [Police Chief] Acevedo said. That's American Security Forces for you right there. "Hey, at least we aren't raping you." I'm glad you set the bar so high for your enforcers Chief Acevedo.
You know, Captain Acevedo was a real prick on the Shield, i'm not surprised he still is now that he's Chief. Also, in before Garamet, regarding the jogger? I'd hit that.
Fuck these pigs. A time will come soon, when average people won't tolerate this kind of bullshit anymore.
Nope, she kept insisting on giving me a private dance. She had some nasty ass stretch marks on her belly, and I told her that her stretch marks were pretty nasty and that they were making me feel like I was going to vomit. That's when she started crying.
As always, there's what's legal and then there's what's right. This may have been legal, but I certainly don't think it was right.
My son saw a dude get arrested for jaywalking and taken away. Technically anything a cop tickets you for they can book you for. Obviously they rarely have the resources for this, but it is within their rights.
Just for my clarification, the arrest was for jaywalking + fuck yeah, we can? On the question of producing ID, am I correct that such is not a reason for arrest?
Where I live there is no response. The cops don't care, and if they did, the fine is a dollar, which feeds back in to not caring. Nor should they. The streets should not be restricted to cars. Jaywalking laws were created as a way to protect drivers from responsibility for pedestrians. Make it illegal for pedestrians to step in to the street and suddenly some public space no longer belongs to the entire public.
Ticketing. Though most cops are pretty lax, and let it slide, as they don't like making a lot of extra work for themselves, particularly over something so minor. Nevertheless, it is a ticket-able infraction in virtually all jurisdictions (US).
There's a whole chain of legitimate and well meaning powers that all depend on each other and were abused here. There are several laws governing police powers in play, but the short answer and net result is yes, if you're being charged with a crime, you have to produce ID. The law's intent is still well meaning and it's good law. It says that if you are actually being placed under custodial arrest, I can detain you until you can produce ID or someone I trust ID's you. The idea is to keep people from making bond on an alias and absconding before their true identity is known. But, as we can see, it's easily abused.
One night Isaac and I were coming back from dinner downtown with some friends. While crossing the tracks (here the line is center running in raised median) I passed an ST Transit cop. It's one thing to jaywalk without really caring, it's another to just blatantly be a dick and do it in front of a cop, you're basically putting them in a bad position. So even though it was drizzling a bit I hit the button and waited. He turned back and yelled "It's a long light, go on and go. Have a good night."
Good example of a dick cop, happened to my son's bud: dude has a beater car. It breaks down/runs of gas right on the expressway on-ramp in the middle of the day. So, he figures he can walk to the convenience store/gas station which is about 1/4 or 1/2 mile way. He figures he can buy a can there and gas (or may have had one with him, it doesn't matter). Cops come by and ask what's the deal. Of course they passed by his broken down car on the way to question him. He told them what happened, and they said "get in." They passed the gas station and he asked what the deal was. They said they were taking him in because it's illegal to walk on the expressway. Of course the guy asked what was he supposed to do? The cops told him he was supposed to sit there until the cops came.
Well, there's not really enough info in the original story to draw much of a conclusion. Ticketing for jaywalking is unusual, but I don't see any real problem with it in, for example, cases where a cop observes a jaywalker actually obstruct traffic. As for the failure to produce identification, I see no indication whether she was arrested for not providing an ID card or for not providing a name; the latter would be justifiable. You may not have to carry an ID card with you, but if the police have legally detained you you can't obstruct them from identifying you either. I'd guess this was probably an abuse of police power, but it's not clear.
Art Acevedo, like much of Austin, comes from California. He is famous for being hostile to gun shows and for encouraging his officers to increase the number of traffic stops in order prevent other crimes not related to moving offenses. He's a dick.
Most states require that you do have an ID or at least that if asked for ID, you don't lie about your ID. For example, you can't say your name is Jim Kirk. I think you can be detained until they find out who you really are, but an arrest is excessive. I'm pretty sure there are ACLU articles on this and this may not hold up in court. http://www.flexyourrights.org/faqs/when-can-police-ask-for-id/
For what it is worth, the state of Texas is very big on towns and cities making themselves VERY "car friendly". I lived in Tyler, TX. for two years and it was one of the worst places in Texas for non drivers IIRC. There are not a week that went by when you didn't see an ambulance show up for a pedestrian or bicyclists who had been struck by a car. On the other hand it was incredibly easy to drive in.
I wouldn't defend cops abusing their power anywhere. A little more background about the jaywalking being enforced, in the last year in downtown (where she was jogging) there was a spike in people being hit by cars. The trend found was that the people being hit were usually jaywalking so the police started ticketing it very heavily. The video wouldn't play when I tried so I don't know if this was her attitude over being ticketed getting her arrested or Dbag cops taking things too far, my guess is it's both.
That's logical -- cars not paying attention to pedestrians, so let's make it illegal to be a pedestrian. I recommend instead vehicular homicide charges for the drivers. Punish the operator of dangerous equipment rather than the potential victim. Alternatively, I suppose we could start ticketing women for wearing short skirts because rape.
It's not about being illegal to be a pedestrian, it's about everyone using the road following the rules of the road. Of course, punishing people for putting themselves in danger doesn't sound very productive, much less having four or so cops put a woman in cuffs on the ground and then in the back of a police car. Depending on what all actually happened in this incident, probably simply saying 'hey lady! You almost got hit by that car! Maybe try running without headphones and using the crosswalks' would have been more effective than handcuffs and paperwork and legal proceedings.
