11 year old kids ticketed for jaywalking

[cynatnite]

TEANECK, N.J. - Teaneck officials will meet with parents who are fuming after police ticketed middle schoolers for jaywalking. Some of the Thomas Jefferson Middle School students are as young as 11.

About half a dozen students were returned to school in police cars so their parents could be notified.

Some parents and civil rights leaders question whether police are singling out a predominantly black section of town.

Police say they are responding to complaints from neighbors.

Principal Antoine Green says students were warned to stay on the sidewalk.

Deputy Mayor Lizette Parker tells The Record of Bergen County there's something seriously wrong giving tickets to 11-year-olds.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070926/ap_on_fe_st/odd_jaywalking_tickets

:wtf:

[kurth]

1. Is there any common sense anymore?

Stupid brownshirts.

[TheFriendlyAnarchist]

2. New Jersey. . .

Nah, I'm just fucking with ya :P.

I've never actually had the courage to go there ;)

[smokey nj]

12. Why are you afraid of NJ? It's a lovely state and not all of it smells

bad.

[candymarl]

3. These were extremely dangerous jaywalking 11 y/olds

Book 'em Dano!

[Tesha]

4. I see nothing wrong with this.

If the police didn't act to stop the jaywalking
and a kid was hit/killed, we'd be up in arms about
that.

Did the kids deserve tickets rather than warnings?
We'd need more particulars to be sure, but perhaps
we've already passed the "warnings" stage.

Tesha

P.S.: Mr. Tesha learned to drive in New Jersey and
still takes me for a ride there once in a while;
Given what I've seen and know, I'm not sure even
the sidewalks are a safe place for these kids! ;)

[mainegreen]

5. Indeed. While a ticket may have been harsh,

people die when they dart out in traffic against the lights.
Jaywalking tickets, like speeding tickets, are designed to primarily save lives.
(The financial return to the municipality does play a role though ;) )

[LisaL]

6. Maybe giving them a ticket will actually save these kids from

getting hit and run over.

[Odin2005]

7. Looks like a few racist cops wanted an excuse to harass some black kids.

[THUNDER HANDS]

8. i hate when people walk in the street

walk on the damn sidewalk. that's what it's there for.

[LWolf]

9. I was ticketed for jaywalking as a middle schooler. In 1973.

I was 13, and in the 9th grade. Police periodically hung out in front of school when the bell rang, to try to deter us from darting out into the heavy after school traffic on the street. The traffic light was a block down the street, and nobody ever wanted to walk down there and wait at the light.

I had to go to court with my mom. I had to work to pay the ticket. I learned to pay much closer attention to who was in the vicinity when I jaywalked.

[Tian Zhuangzhuang]

10. Were they Tasered.

This story is useless if they were not tasered.

[book_worm]

11. if the police started giving tickets for jaywalking around here

that's all they would be doing! Not only to kids but most other people who happen to walk quite a bit.