A society can’t sustain itself without paternalistic policies. I used to think that advocates of the concept that everybody can function under some sort of libertarian autonomy were doing so because they wanted to separate from diversity without being labeled racist.
Now, my suspicion is that anyone advocating for personal responsibility as a viable model for managing our diverse economic zone is simply an imbecile. Case in point, legislation recently passed in Virginia to decriminalize jaywalking in order to protect black people from police.
The reality is that the police protect black people from jaywalking. This particular demographic has a predisposition towards its most dangerous form, walking on the yellow lines between fast traffic moving in opposite directions.
This is a familiar sight for drivers in the grittier areas of a place like Hampton Roads. If a side view mirror ventures a tad too close to an errant pedestrian, he’s getting whacked into an oncoming vehicle with a gruesome result. The other thing that can happen is a driver panics and slams on the breaks, which can also lead to a crash.
WTOP feels obligated to mention that Virginia has achieved an all-time high in its pedestrian death rate and then proceeds with the usual attempt at rationalizing the ridiculous which accompanies all MSM coverage of this stuff:
Most countries would consider the concept of jaywalking a scam that Americans have been conditioned to believe is normal. In the Netherlands, for example, traffic engineers and urban planners have actually worked to lower the country’s curbs so as to encourage people to cross wherever they like.
Traversing a narrow European street laid out centuries ago isn’t analogous to crossing 4 lanes of speedy traffic to get to an American strip mall, or just wading down the center as cars rush by on both sides.
The road to car culture’s dominance in the United States was literally paved with blood — drivers had already killed some 200,000 people by 1920. In response, auto industry groups launched a “jaywalking” campaign to place blame for collisions on pedestrians rather than drivers.
Okay, so it’s a conspiracy on par with the Sackler family. Physics dictate that it’s much easier for you to notice an oncoming car and avoid stepping in front of it rather than the driver reacting suddenly at 40 mph. I had a black associate who made such an attempt at moral righteousness. He died at the scene.
Other advocates argue decriminalization won’t 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.
Well old chap, I recommend utilizing historical price data from the VIX to assess risk to your portfolio. Let’s continue our discussion at that bistro across the boulevard. Oh no, a minivan!!!!
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 Charles T. Brown, a senior researcher and adjunct professor at Voorhees Transportation Center at Rutgers University.
Don’t ever delude yourself into thinking we live in a serious country where a “transportation center” would seek to improve the efficiency of transportation rather than concocting idiotic theories for why people get struck by vehicles they could easily avoid. Were you aware how many people China employs for such a purpose? Zero. Shocking, I know.
Brown hopes decriminalizing jaywalking may lead to a paradigm shift in how pedestrians in overpoliced areas perceive their world. “Feeling like they have the freedom to move and exist in public space like everyone else does a lot for people’s mental health and wellbeing,”
Yeah, that’s bit like what happened to Minneapolis. The police stopped doing their job and then all the criminals realized they had the freedom to move and exist in public space. This stupidity is going to keep rolling on, no matter how many pedestrians stagger in the way.
I’m proud to officially announce my candidacy for the office of Dogcatcher.
The hopeful me prays that this latest policy shift will cull the herd. The pragmatic me knows the White drivers of automobiles hitting black clad D’aquon while he tries to mosey through a highway at night. Just when I really regret my mother’s decision to come to the United States – I read the Irish dissident threads and realize this ridiculousness is everywhere. The West is done.
The hopeful me prays that this latest policy shift will cull the herd. The pragmatic me knows the White drivers of automobiles hitting black clad D’aquon while he tries to mosey through a highway at night will get charged with a hate crime. Just when I really regret my mother’s decision to come to the United States – I read the Irish dissident threads and realize this ridiculousness is everywhere. The West is done.
Nowhere in Virginia is this phenomenon more visible than the streets around Jefferson’s University in Charlottesville. It is here where scholarship black athletes, the ever-increasing Asian population of students, and the progressive, dreadlocked, trust fund baby white, all randomly walk into traffic while staring at their small screens. I have yet to determine if they are simply oblivious, expressing entitlement, or both. The low-income resident blacks are even worse and seem to enjoy strutting as slowly as possible to impede traffic. Exercise extreme caution if ever in this area.
I had an odd experience at the University of Virginia just a few weeks ago– actually my first visit to Mr. Jefferson’s college.
Charlottesville in the Autumn is staggeringly beautiful, it is easy to see why the PMC managerial class have nested in the area. And on the whole I have to say that my experience with Charlottesville and UVA itself were mostly positive. I was in touch with a friend of mine who has access, and I was able to get into their library and see some cool stuff, and even able to enter Poe’s dorm room on “The Green”, which is the oldest part of the campus.
What was horrifying though is that the actively used dorms on “The Green” were occupied by people who obviously and patently *hate* the University of Virginia. Virtually all of the doors were plastered in some way with a slogan about seizing Native American land, or calling UVA awful names etc.
It struck me how absolutely fucked an institution is, if it gives its most prestigious positions and spends all its discretionary funds on propping up people who not only despise them, but are willing to say how much they despise the University with placards on their door.
Anyway, I lost my pipe and one of the University Ambassadors was kind enough to find it and mail it back to me. So civilization isnt quite dead.
Remember, watch out for those “Hidden Figures,” seriously, watch out – they’ve got a thing for hanging out in the road.
https://youtu.be/XA241Lg70fg
https://youtu.be/qClBRaretEk
China is the other extreme. With summarily enforced fines, beatings, segregation, and dead joggers that crossed too soon, maybe nature will help selection along. This, to avoid having drones and rubber band barriers and snitches and shame screens everywhere, for such a simple misdemeanor (not to mention, joggers love being on screen, and kill more snitches than any libertardian would dare to).