‘I’m walking here!’: Jaywalking legalized in New York City

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‘I’m walking here!’: Jaywalking legalized in New York City

2024-10-30 07:19 Last Updated At：07:21

NEW YORK (AP) — Jaywalking -- that time-honored practice of crossing the street outside of the crosswalk or against the traffic light -- is now legal in New York City.

Legislation passed by the City Council last month officially became law over the weekend after Mayor Eric Adams declined to take action -- either by signing or vetoing it -- after 30 days.

Council Member Mercedes Narcisse, a Brooklyn Democrat who sponsored the legislation, said Tuesday that the new law ends racial disparities in enforcement, noting that more than 90% of the jaywalking tickets issued last year went to Black and Latino people.

“Let’s be real, every New Yorker jaywalks. People are simply trying to get where they need to go,” she said in an emailed statement. “Laws that penalize common behaviors for everyday movement shouldn’t exist, especially when they unfairly impact communities of color.”

The new law permits pedestrians to cross a roadway at any point, including outside of a crosswalk. It also allows for crossing against traffic signals and specifically states that doing so is no longer a violation of the city’s administrative code.

But the new law also warns that pedestrians crossing outside of a crosswalk do not have the right of way and that they should yield to other traffic that has the right of way.

Liz Garcia, an Adams spokesperson, declined to elaborate on the mayor’s decision to let the bill become law without his action.

But she noted the bill makes it clear that crossing against the light and mid-block is highly risky behavior. People may also still be liable in civil actions for accidents caused by jaywalking, Garcia added.

“All road users are safer when everyone follows traffic rules,” she said in a statement. “We continue to encourage pedestrians to take advantage of safety mechanisms in place — such as daylighting, pedestrian islands, and leading pedestrian intervals — by crossing in a crosswalk with the walk signal.”

Other cities and states, from Denver and Kansas City, Missouri, to California, Nevada and Virginia have decriminalized jaywalking in recent years, according to America Walks, a Seattle-based group that's been tracking the proposals.

“Cities that truly care about safety focus on street design, speeding and dangerously large vehicles," Mike McGinn, the group's executive director, said Tuesday. "Not jaywalking laws.”

The laws were pushed by the auto industry in the 1930s as a way to keep people off streets and make more room for vehicles, according to America Walks.

The term “jaywalking” dates to the early 20th century and has its roots in Midwestern slang for a country bumpkin or rube, according to dictionary maker Merriam-Webster.

In New York City, where struggles between pedestrians and motorists are constant, the jaywalking law had been on the books since 1958 and carried a penalty of up to $250.

In the 1969 film “Midnight Cowboy,” Dustin Hoffman famously yells, “I’m walking here!” as his character is almost hit by a cab while crossing the street in Manhattan.

The Legal Aid Society, meanwhile, called the legislation long overdue. The non-profit organization, which provides free legal representation to New Yorkers that cannot afford a lawyer, said police for decades have used the violation as a pretext to stop, question and frisk residents — especially those of color.

“With this legislation now codified, we hope that both the Adams Administration and the City Council will continue to abolish relic laws that serve no public safety purpose and only ensnare people in the criminal legal system,” the organization said in a statement.

Police department spokespersons didn't immediately respond to emails seeking comment, and a spokesperson for its largest union declined to weigh in.

But Narcisse said officers she has spoken to say their time could be better spent on other police work, rather than issuing tickets for jaywalking.

“No one’s ever said, ‘I’m so glad they caught that jaywalker.’ By eliminating these penalties, we allow our police officers to focus on issues that truly matter,” she said.

Follow Philip Marcelo at twitter.com/philmarcelo.

Harris to promise to 'put country above party and above self' in closing argument against Trump

2024-10-30 07:16 Last Updated At：07:21

WASHINGTON (AP) — Kamala Harris will promise Tuesday to “put country above party and above self” in the closing argument of her presidential campaign, to be delivered from the same site where Donald Trump fomented the Capitol insurrection, in the hopes that it offers a stark visualization of the choice voters face.

One week out from Election Day, the vice president was to use her 7:30 p.m. ET address from the grassy Ellipse near the White House to pledge to Americans that she will work to improve their lives while arguing that her Republican opponent is only in it for himself.

Trump "has spent a decade trying to keep the American people divided and afraid of each other: That’s who he is,” Harris will say, according to prepared remarks released by her campaign. “But America, I am here tonight to say: That’s not who we are.”

She hoped to sharpen that contrast by delivering her capstone speech from the place where Trump on Jan. 6, 2021, spewed falsehoods about the 2020 presidential election that inspired a crowd to march to the Capitol and try unsuccessfully to halt the certification of Democrat Joe Biden's victory.

With time running out and the race tight, Harris and Trump have both sought big moments to try to shift momentum their way.

“It’s a place that certainly we believe helps crystalize the choice in this election,” Harris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said of the setting, calling it “a stark visualization of probably the most infamous example of Donald Trump and how he’s used his power for bad.”

Campaign aides stressed that Harris will not deliver a treatise on democracy — a staple of President Joe Biden’s own attempts to draw a contrast with Trump — or spend too much time focusing directly on the shocking imagery of that day. Harris aides said the vice president aims to make a broader case for why voters should reject Trump and consider what she offers.

“He has an enemies list of people he intends to prosecute,” Harris is to say. “He says one of his highest priorities is to set free the violent extremists who assaulted those law enforcement officers on Jan. 6. Donald Trump intends to use the United States military against American citizens who simply disagree with him. People he calls 'the enemy from within.' This is not a candidate for president who is thinking about how to make your life better.”

Her campaign drew a massive crowd to Washington for the event, with an overflow crowd spilling under the Washington Monument on the National Mall. More critically, her campaign hopes the setting will help catch the attention of battleground state voters who remain on the fence about whom to vote for — or whether to vote at all.

Ahead of Harris' remarks, her campaign organized a speakers list of ordinary Americans, rather than the star power that has been featured at some of her recent events, or the parade of elected officials often in the program at Washington events. They included Amanda Zurawski, a woman who nearly died from sepsis after being denied care under Texas' strict abortion ban, and Craig Sicknick, the brother of Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, who died in the wake of the Jan. 6 attack.

Ruth Chiari, 78, of Charlottesville, Virginia, was attending the rally with her husband to “support democracy.”

“I think everybody understands what’s on the ballot,” she said as she waited in line near the Treasury building to enter the event. “We’re either going to have an autocrat or freedom.”

Kathleen Nicholas, 36, a government relations worker in Washington, remembered Jan. 6 and loved the contrast of the crowd and atmosphere to that day. “I like she chose this place for her closing,” she said. “Having something that is a direct contrast to that day is what we needed.”

The address comes days after Harris traveled to Texas, a reliably Republican state, to appear with megastar Beyoncé and emphasize the consequences for women after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. That, too, was a speech meant to register with voters far away in the battleground states.

The vice president’s latest address has been in the works for weeks. But aides hoped her message would land with more impact after Trump’s rally Sunday at Madison Square Garden in New York, where speakers hurled cruel and racist insults. Harris said the event “highlighted the point that I’ve been making throughout this campaign.”

“He is focused and actually fixated on his grievances, on himself and on dividing our country,” she said.

Harris was expected to use her speech to lay out a pragmatic and forward-looking plan for the country, including reminding voters about her economic proposals and pledging to work for access to reproductive care, including abortion.

“Unlike Donald Trump, I don’t believe people who disagree with me are the enemy,” Harris is to say. “He wants to put them in jail. I’ll give them a seat at my table. And I pledge to be a president for all Americans. To always put country above party and above self."

Also central to her message: positioning herself as a “new generation” of leader after Trump and even her current boss, Biden. She's going to be “talking about what her new generation of leadership really means and centering that around the American people and what they care about," O’Malley Dillon said.

As for Trump, Harris said Monday, “People are literally ready to turn the page. They’re tired of it.”

Ahead of Harris’ speech, Trump used remarks to reporters at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida on Tuesday morning to accuse Harris of closing with a message that doesn’t address everyday Americans’ day-to-day struggles and kitchen-table concerns.

He said Harris keeps “talking about Hitler, and Nazis, because her record’s horrible,” a reference to Harris amplifying the warnings from his former chief of staff that Trump spoke admiringly of the Nazi leader while in office.

Harris' aides, many of whom also advised Biden’s campaign before he dropped out, still believe that centering the race on who Trump is and how she's different will be their strongest message for voters.

“She’s already made her case, she’s presented the evidence. She’s offering up a summation tonight, and she has faith in the wisdom of the jury," campaign communications director Michael Tyler said.

Biden told reporters Tuesday that he will not attend Harris’ speech because the event is “for her,” but he planned to watch it on television.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, said it was important for battleground voters to be reminded of the consequences of their choice this fall and for Harris “to really drive home the stakes of this election and the clear contrast in the race.”

He said Harris had the stronger argument on economic policies, reproductive freedom and the matter of chaos vs. order, adding that she "has a vision that’s going to bring more order and more hopefulness and more joy.”

Harris was spending the day ahead of her speech taping television interviews airing in Detroit, Milwaukee, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and Spanish language radio in Pennsylvania, her campaign said.

Associated Press writers Michelle L. Price in Palm Beach, Florida, Ayana Alexander in Baltimore, and Fatima Hussein and Gary Fields in Washington contributed to this report.