Jaywalking

I had to laugh, with sadness, when I read the letter from Sara Arditti. It seems a big bad motorcycle cop "had nothing better to do" than cite her for jaywalking, even though she was seven months pregnant. Sara, I am an L.A. motor cop, and a few years ago, between writing tickets to pregnant women and men with white canes with red tips, I received a traffic accident call on La Brea. When I arrived, I was met by the paramedics, who informed me that a pedestrian, a pregnant woman, had been hit trying to cross La Brea, mid-block.

In a sting aimed at curbing accidents along the Blue Line, police and sheriff's deputies staked out a two-mile stretch of the line's tracks in downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday and ticketed nearly 300 jaywalkers and drivers they caught using cellphones and making illegal left turns. Transportation officials said the crackdown was the latest effort in a push to improve safety along the Blue Line, the city's oldest and most popular light rail line but also its most dangerous. Ninety-nine people have died in accidents and suicides involving the line in the nearly 20 years since the service from Los Angeles to Long Beach began.

Re "9-year-old boy killed," June 5 Hit-and-run is a crime, and rightfully so, especially when injury or death results. That said, jaywalking is illegal for a reason. The laws help to protect pedestrians by giving them guidelines for dealing safely with the potential lethal weapons driving down our roads. I was taught to look both ways and cross only in crosswalks when the signal allowed. Today, many people use the streets as pedestrian walkways. They assume vehicles will see them and stop.

Jay Leno is still tinkering with the format behind his new 10 p.m. talk show that premieres next month. But viewers should get ready for one change: There'll probably be less Jay than on "The Tonight Show." Leno told reporters at a news conference in Burbank Wednesday that "The Jay Leno Show" will still start with a monologue tied to the day's news, and he'll still have familiar segments like Jaywalking and weird headlines. But, in lieu of the interviews that occupy most of "Tonight" and other late shows, Leno will spend a lot of time highlighting taped pieces by younger comics such as D.L. Hughley, Liz Feldman and Mikey Day. "I hope we can make some stars in this," Leno said.

Greenfeld's column so reminded me of an incident which occurred to me one afternoon more than four years ago. It was the unbearably hot Olympic summer of 1984 and I was a large seven months pregnant with my first child. I was returning to my car, which I had parked in the middle of a very long block of La Brea Avenue to go to an art supply store directly across the street. Rather than waddle all the way to the corner in the humid heat, I committed the sin of jaywalking. After carefully ascertaining that there was no traffic in either direction, I crossed and was opening the car door when an enormous motorcycle policeman roared up, his face hidden behind mirror glasses and a helmet.

After 20 years in this city, I have finally been made the butt of L.A.'s small joke on the unwary and uninitiated. Crossing an otherwise deserted street on an otherwise fine and sunny day about a week ago, I heard a siren wail somewhere behind me. Without looking, I knew my fate. I had been busted for jaywalking. So there I stood on the sidewalk, making a fig leaf with my hands, while a cop the size of a rodeo bull brought me to justice.

To hear pedestrians in Los Angeles tell it, you walk in the street and you get walked all over. By the police. "They sit there and wait for you to jaywalk. I heard one cop say it's like catching fish in a barrel," said Kari Johnson, a Larchmont Village store clerk. Her boss, shop owner Linda Friedman, said she always looks both ways before she steps into the street. She's looking for motorcycle officers and patrol cars.

Once Horton Plaza opens in August, nobody's going to pay much attention to all those decorative pavers being installed on the nearby streets and crosswalks. But right now this street-improvement effort has emerged as the Great Downtown Obstacle to Pedestrian and Vehicular Ease--or, more bureaucratically, the GDOPVE.

On the morning of July 19, we wrapped up our Los Angeles vacation by spending close to $200 at retailers along Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade, followed by an enjoyable lunch at the Broadway Deli. As we walked to our car, we discussed how the only negative was being repeatedly and aggressively panhandled in full sight of the police, who did nothing. Imagine our surprise when these same police stopped us and ticketed us for jaywalking! Our explanation that we were visitors, who had no idea that (unique among our travels in the Western world)

So the Los Angeles Police Department is now writing jaywalking tickets in downtown L.A. They have received tremendous press in the process. As a businessman in this area for several years I have seen and heard of far greater crimes going on in Pershing Square. Almost daily muggings, robberies, shootings or stabbings occur in the park. Meanwhile on 5th Street between Broadway and Spring, crack dealers are not only selling their product in full view, but they are smoking the stuff without concern of ever being caught.

Errant motorists beware: Puppy hit-and-run could soon be a crime. Pushing animal rights in a new direction, a state lawmaker has proposed slapping California motorists with a fine and possible jail time if they flee after hitting a jaywalking dog, cat or any other pet or farm animal. The measure by Mike Eng (D-Monterey Park) would require that drivers attempt to provide aid to an injured critter and notify the owner or animal-control authorities.

Re "9-year-old boy killed," June 5 Hit-and-run is a crime, and rightfully so, especially when injury or death results. That said, jaywalking is illegal for a reason. The laws help to protect pedestrians by giving them guidelines for dealing safely with the potential lethal weapons driving down our roads. I was taught to look both ways and cross only in crosswalks when the signal allowed. Today, many people use the streets as pedestrian walkways. They assume vehicles will see them and stop.

A UCLA study found that the city's year-old Safer City Initiative to clean up skid row has reduced crime but that few additional social services have been initiated. "There have been unintended consequences that have negatively impacted the homeless and mentally disabled people, with unpaid citations for jaywalking leading to people going to jail and a focus on small-quantity drug buys ending up with ordinary addicts being sent to state prison," said author Gary Blasi, a UCLA law professor.

I bumped into my pal Mr. Ayers on the street the other day and asked what was new. "This," he said, handing me a jaywalking ticket he'd been issued that morning on skid row. To be more specific, the ticket said he had walked "against red don't walk signal." At the time, Mr. Ayers was pushing his shopping cart, which is loaded with musical instruments and lots of other stuff. Sometimes it's hard for him to cross a street before the light stops flashing.

A woman walking against a red light and outside the crosswalk was struck by a car and killed Tuesday, police said. The victim, who was not identified pending notification of relatives, died at Western Medical Center-Anaheim shortly after the 6:50 a.m. accident on Katella Avenue at Walnut Street, police said. The woman was hit by an eastbound car driven by a 23-year-old Anaheim woman, who was not identified.

An Anaheim man died Friday after being struck by a van while jaywalking, authorities said. His name was not released, pending notification of relatives. Sgt. Tony Montanarella, an Anaheim police spokesman, said the man was outside the crosswalk in the 3000 block of West Lincoln Avenue when he was hit by an eastbound van. He was taken to Western Medical Center-Anaheim, where he was pronounced dead. The van driver was not cited, Montanarella said, and the accident remains under investigation.

A Ventura man has filed a brutality complaint with the city's Police Department, alleging he was beaten by an officer after being stopped for jaywalking. Duane Stanford, 42, was walking across Telephone Road near Jasper Avenue about 8 p.m. May 5 when he was confronted by Officer Jeff Brooks, according to Earnest Bell, Stanford's attorney. Concerned because Brooks had a baton, Stanford attempted to flee but was chased down and beaten with the baton, Bell said.

A woman jaywalking across a Santa Ana street died Monday night when she was struck by a pickup, police said. Gloria Estrada, 52, was walking south on 1st Street near Grand Avenue about 7:30 p.m. when she was hit, said Santa Ana Police Lt. Bob Chavez. The name of the truck's driver, a 37-year-old Lake Forest man, was not released because he was not cited, Chavez said. Police said they did not yet know where the woman was from. She died at the scene.