Jaywalkers in Manila get smacked with wet blankets

[Champ]

MANILA (Reuters) - Filipinos who walk in the street or cross the road illegally will no longer get a slap on the wrist. Instead, they risk a smack with a wet blanket.

"We've tried talking to pedestrians, asking them to walk on the sidewalks, but it wasn't effective," said Richard Apodarado, a traffic enforcement commander in Manila, the congested capital of 12 million people and seemingly as many vehicles.

Under the new campaign, about 20 trucks patrol the city with wooden poles attached to damp blankets emblazoned with the warning: "No walking or standing in the streets". People who don't step back onto the kerb are in for a rude shock.

In the past, offenders who blocked the road while waiting for public transport were fined, jailed, told to do community service or made to sing the national anthem in public.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=856&ncid=856&e=1&u=/nm/20050117/od_uk_nm/oukoe_philippines_blanket

[RadicalMom]

1. And I thought the L.A. cops were tough on Jaywalkers. I guess

it beats getting smacked with a large truck.

[NYC]

2. Made to sing the national anthem in public?

I don't know. Now wet blankets. Strange, just strange.

[Swamp Rat]

3. Jailed?

That sounds worse than getting smacked with a wet blanket.