Police Nab Jaywalkers in Downtown Los Angeles
Your photos and story about the crackdown on jaywalkers in downtown Los Angeles (Metro, July 13) brought to the fore a question that has long intrigued me.
The pictures show Officer Mike Hagen in full jaywalk, avoiding one car that has just whizzed by and running toward another approaching vehicle, to write a ticket for a young man who, according to the story, started running across Hill Street at 6th “just as the pedestrian signal started flashing ‘Don’t Walk.’ ” At a running gait, it is impossible that he had not reached the other side before the light turned red.
So we have a police officer committing the gravest form of jaywalking to write a ticket for somebody whose violation was minimal at best.
How often have we seen police officers commit serious traffic offenses to apprehend motorists whose transgressions pale by comparison?
Isn’t this just a lower level of the same kind of ends-justify-the-means, we’re-above-the-law thinking that caused the downfall of one President and is threatening the Administration of another?
JAMES GROTH
Claremont
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