January 8, 2007

Atlanta Police Protect Historians' Meeting From Rogue Jaywalkers

While historians were discussing statelessness, speech codes, and the war in Iraq this past weekend in Atlanta at the annual meeting of the American Historical Association, the local constabulary was dealing with a far-weightier threat: jaywalking historians.

According to a lengthy article on the History News Network, the Atlanta police staged a crackdown on a common species of municipal scofflaw, and it was just the visiting historians’ bad luck to be caught in the dragnet.

Most of the historians were only hassled. But one scholar, Felipe Fernández-Armesto, an expert at Tufts University on colonial, environmental, and Spanish history, was “thrown on the ground and handcuffed” after he attempted to cross the street from one hotel to another. According to testimony in a later courtroom appearance, the situation “got out of hand” when Professor Fernández-Armesto, a former don at the University of Oxford, asked the police officer who challenged him for identification since the lawman was not in uniform.

The HNN report includes a three-part videotaped interview with the professor, who was concerned that the incident would affect his chances at a green card.

After eight hours’ incarceration and an awkward appearance in court, where “even the prosecutors seemed embarrassed by the incident,” officials dropped all charges against Professor Fernández-Armesto.

Comments

1. What people are neglecting is that the “street” that people were being denied their constitutional right to jaywalk across between the Marriott and the Hilton was a very heavily traveled local throughway via which cars are dumped into downtown proper. Crossing it against the light and in the middle of 6 lanes from 7 AM to 9 PM or so is VERY DANGEROUS. One of my friends from Atlanta says that people get killed every year.

   The cops were placed there to keep historians from being road kill. None of the cops I saw ticketed or arrested anybody, even when the historian kept on doing what he/she was doing after a direct command from a law officer to cross the street at the light for their own safety — and talked back to the cops as they did so.

   The problem is that the hotels are not connected by any usable path, yet the AHA chose to flow important business — jobs and messaging from the Marquis panels and meetings at the Hilton. I can’t see blaming the cops. The flagrant contempt shown to them by some historians was truly amazing.

   Some of the historians I saw were really abusing the cops, continuing to walk across the street and making snide comments as they did so. I can imagine that sort of thing escalating. Not that it excuses any sort of rough treatment, but what’s being left out here is the cops were there to keep people safe from traffic going 50 plus along that stretch — not to harrass historians.

   — AHA attendee    Jan 8, 11:34 AM    #

2. What an intellectually elitist sentiment that historians should be above the law because, as the article implies, historians deal with weightier issues and should be treated with kid gloves. The crossing between hotels at the AHA meeting was busy and dangerous, and I for one appreciate the awareness of the fact that was given by the Atlanta Police. I did not feel hassled, and if anyone did, I must wonder if it is because of prejudice against the police and failure to realize that police are working people and not faceless automatons.

   — Historian at a Crossroads    Jan 8, 11:43 AM    #

3. Ri-i-ight. So, to protect Fernández-Armesto from being swiped by a car, the cops put him in a chokehold and threw him in the brig for the night.

   Does this strike anyone else as nuts?

   — Rod Blaine    Jan 8, 08:22 PM    #

4. Putting one man on the ground IS nuts, the fact that they didn’t throw everyone that was ignoring them and hurling insults into a chokehold shows sheer self restraint and an amazing amount of patience. Abusing the police is never acceptable, just as police abusing citizens is never acceptable. The historians apparently need a ‘time out’, and the police need to have more patience with infantile behavior?

   — University Industry Employee    Jan 9, 08:52 AM    #

5. I live in Atlanta and jaywalking is a problem of epic proportion. However, I have never, ever seen enforcement of the law. It’s ludicrous to target a group of out-of-town visitors. The police should focus on the local clientele instead.

   — Atlanta 20-something    Jan 9, 09:03 AM    #

6. If the street is “too dangerous” the cops should be slowing down traffic, or stopping it so that people can cross safely.

   — Eavesdropping in Brooklyn    Jan 9, 11:39 AM    #

7. How exactly is jaywalking a “problem of epic proportion”? I walk several blocks to and from work every day, and the only times I’ve come close to being injured were at crosswalks — by drivers who, like many in Atlanta, don’t seem to realize that they are in control of mortally dangerous machines. One ran a red light several seconds after I had a walk signal, and the other blew through a non-light-controlled crosswalk (which is supposed to become equivalent to a stop sign when a pedestrian sets foot in it) while going the wrong way on a one-way street. My years of experience walking in this town have taught me that jaywalking attentively near the center of the block is the safest way to cross the street.

   — Atlanta Jaywalker    Jan 9, 11:50 AM    #

8. #

   Ri-i-ight. So, to protect Fernández-Armesto from being swiped by a car, the cops put him in a chokehold and threw him in the brig for the night.

   Does this strike anyone else as nuts?

   Does me! Right up there with using plainsclothes cops to govern traffic. Looks to me as tho the Atlanta police forceand the City Manager/Mayor needs a call from an AHA lawyer who perhaps can explain how things work.

   — AJ Plotke    Jan 9, 03:26 PM    #

9. I live and work in downtown Atlanta. I know that intersection well. Yes, its busy, but its also between two large hotels and people jaywalk there all the time.

   Despite the hyperbole you hear from post #1, people are not routinely killed there.

   What is not included in the story, however, is that Atlanta police have an unfortunate reputation of beating first and asking questions later. Search for recent stories on abuse of power by Atlanta police on google and you will see what I mean.

   The Atlanta police are also very law in displaying their credentials — and this policeman was not even on-duty — I have lived and worked in downtown Atlanta for 17 years and I know exactly what the Professor means when he says he did not know this guy was a cop.

   The city of Atlanta owes this man an apology — I hope the Mayor has the sense to give him one.

   — Palmer    Jan 9, 08:59 PM    #

10. I saw the photo of those cops with the Prof. on the ground — I believe they just thought he was a cow or other food, as they simply had never seen a human that thin.

    — SmedleyF    Jan 9, 09:40 PM    #

11. The Best way to deal with this behavior on the part of city employees is via the “Pocket Book” ; Professional Meetings should stay away from the city of Atlanta. The Message is either change or no tourist money.

    — RGC    Jan 10, 06:42 AM    #

12. From post #2: “What an intellectually elitist sentiment that historians should be above the law because, as the article implies, historians deal with weightier issues and should be treated with kid gloves.”

    No, the question is whether or not the police should be above the law. I’ve been to many cities in which the police were able to enforce laws about jaywalking without using undercover officers and throwing non-violent offenders to the ground.

    — Jim Good    Jan 10, 08:23 AM    #

13. I have attended several conferences held in the Atlanta Hilton and Marriott across the street. The hotels that are making the $$$ off of these conventions (Hilton & Marriott) need to build a pedestrian bridge across that street— or the city of Atlanta should put a crosswalk in the middle of that block. Conventioners hurrying from a session in one hotel to a session in another are not going to walk an extra half block down to wait on a light and half block back. They will jaywalk.

    — CHH    Jan 10, 10:02 AM    #

14. Barney Fife strikes again!

    — James Conely    Jan 10, 10:11 AM    #

15. A note of PRAGMATISM:
    The cops were not “protecting” anybody. I was at Atlanta, and I tried to jaywalk at that intersection. Yes, it is a fairly busy street… but it is one-way, and there’s a traffic light a half block up. When that light was red, or (as was the case on all of Saturday and Sunday) there was NO traffic, then it was simply STUPID to walk down half a block, wait for the walk signal (while not a single car went by), wade through the enormous puddle that the poorly-drained street had collected (ruining one’s shoes)—all because some over-zealous police officer was blowing a whistle at me.
    I’ve rarely seen such an idiotic waste of police presence.
    I mean, if you’re going to pay an officer overtime, why not have him do something USEFUL... such as guiding pedestrians across, or actually, you know, directing traffic??!!

    I am a law-abiding historian. But I am not some automaton, following blindly every decree that someone shouts at me.
    The Atlanta PD were idiots twice-over: first, wasting everyone’s time enforcing a meaningless law; and then MASSIVELY overreacting when someone got justifiably irked.
    I only wish it was me who took that officer to task: I’m white, and would’ve been treated with more respect, I am fairly certain.

    — David    Jan 10, 10:32 AM    #

16. The professor HAD EVERY RIGHT to ask for and be shown the non-uniformed police officer’s identification. The historian may have been a scofflaw (or merely following the pack), but the cop broke the law.

    — lk    Jan 10, 12:10 PM    #

17. This story has just hit the UK and as a previous recipient of “polite US police conduct” I am not surprised by this event. In the UK a police officer has to legally identify himself before taking action and is in possession of a warrant card, which he has to provide on request. Otherwise any tom dick or harry can don a police suit and claim to be that, which he is not.
    It is only proper that he ask for identification prior to agreeing to any direct order legally or otherwise.

    I ask a question, if an individual in a police uniform came up to you and ordered you to give your car keys to him and report to a police station would you do it without asking for proper identification.

    If not …. then I would say you have a naive sense of trust in the honesty of people, which will no doubt be exploited by criminals and terrorists the world over..
    ing with an arrest ?!!!

    — Alex    Jan 10, 09:17 PM    #

18. I live in Atlanta. Professionals need to stay away if the police in this city cannot clean up their act. The city will simply not learn otherwise.

    I was truly amazed by the fact that we devote such resources to jaywalking when crime in my part of town is out of control. Unless a police officer is shot or otherwise injured, the cops just don’t respond at all. The most surprising element of the whole story to me was that the cop called for back up and had several other officers on the scene within 2 minutes. Murders, robberies, drug deals and other crimes in my part of town do not receive such attention from the cops.

    — Stan    Jan 10, 10:23 PM    #

19. Breaking a regulation outside of criminal law does not make a person a criminal.

    On the other hand, committing a felony, like assault, does.

    It is the commission of a crime that makes a person a criminal.

    Judges and juries at best merely transform criminals into convicts.

    Any police officer who commits crimes is a traitor in the war on crime.

    — Keith    Jan 11, 12:39 AM    #

20. Only in the ‘Land of the Free’ can you see such silly restrictions placed on individuals. In Britain we have no ‘jaywalking’ laws whatsoever – you can cross the road wherever you like, at your own risk. We don’t need the State to tell us how to look after ourselves.

    It’s also worth pointing out again that this wasn’t a police officer on duty, it was a cop taking a job on the side as some sort of traffic warden – yet he was clearly behaving as if he still had his big gun strapped on him.

    A somewhat obvious question to ask is what instructions were given to him by his employers (the conference organisers) – I’m guessing it wasn’t “Blow your silly whistle in our customers’ faces and shout at them if they cross the road near you”?

    Say bye-bye to the convention business Atlanta….

    — Michael D    Jan 11, 05:34 AM    #

21. In England there is no such crime as ‘Jaywalking’. We can cross the street as frequently as we want; where and whenever we wish. I would be astounded to be stopped by an armed policeman for doing so (UK Police don’t carry weapons) and I’m sure that the Professor felt likewise.

    Here, in England pedestrians have the right of way, but no-one is allowed to intentionally obstruct traffic.

    In England, we don’t have to carry ID.

    In England, a policeman would never put a suspect on the ground unless they were armed – 5 officers to do it ?
    Presumably, it was the officer’s ‘right’ to do this – would he have done the same if the Professor was a woman ?

    While Dr Arnesto was naive to assume that Atlanta would have similar laws to the UK, the policeman should surely have made some allowances for someone who was obviously a foreigner. After all the USA is also a ‘free country’ where you might expect similar rights ?

    Yes, people should obey the law, but the Police should excercise commonsense and discretion in cases such as this.

    This ‘News’ (with photos) has been in every daily national newspaper in the UK and on national television; it doesn’t show Atlanta in a positive light.

    And you wonder why “law and Order”, American style, has a bad reputation in other countries!

    — Andy Heaton    Jan 11, 08:38 AM    #

22. I wonder if anyone would care if a grad student had been arrested.

    — Jaywalker 67    Jan 11, 11:48 PM    #

23. Amazing. Why do so many posters here feel it is their duty to question how the Altanta police devoted their resources that day? Look, I’m no advocate of police brutality, but the comment that one should not heed the cops – on an issue as nonthreatening as jaywalking – is what makes no sense. Go to the crosswalk and cross the street. It’s in every drivers manual I’ve ever read.

    — Historian on the run    Jan 12, 06:53 AM    #

24. The police in Atlanta were not concerned about the safety of these individuals they were only concerned with “bullying”. How can any rational individual look at this issue and not realize that throwing another human being to ground was excessive and inhumane; for jaywalking???. A clean case of abuse of power. At some point the policeman in the US will have be accountable for their brutality and most oftern murder of American citizens.

    The land of the free is only truly free to a select few and that does not include people of color…....

    And people wonder why this country is so hated by other countries…look at the violent history of this country and the violence we seem determined to spread throughout the world.

    — Mumbie    Jan 12, 09:29 AM    #

25. I too tried to walk directly from the Hilton door to the Marriott door. A cop yelled at me to cross at the crosswalk. Pain in the ass, I thought. But I walked down the street to the crosswalk. He had a right to tell me to do this. Now that I read the Atl. Const. article, it appears there’s more to this than meets the eye. We were all yelled at; we all went down the street to the crosswalk. Except one person.

    — habitual jaywalker    Jan 12, 12:39 PM    #

26. I’ve seen this kind of behavior before from British academics when challenged by authorities. Ask any experienced traveller to foriegn lands, and they will tell you to follow the local laws—even if they seem stupid.

    The historians on here knocking the police for doing their job—enforcing the law, no matter how silly—ought to be ashamed of themselves, especially since the AHA would happily yank its convention should the city and the police union have some fight and the union ask for all to stand with organized labor by withholding conventions.

    And as for all of the silly “we don’t have jaywalking laws in Britain” nonesense—of course you don’t. You have massive iron railings that make the center of every metropolis ugly and prevent all but the under-25s from leaping the barriers and plunging into the fronts of taxis and busses.

    — Suetonius    Jan 12, 03:02 PM    #

27. They ticket for jaywalking here in Milwaukee. And when people attack uniformed police officers, they arrest them as well. Sounds to me like the Atlanta police were guilty of doing their jobs.

    — Michael    Jan 12, 04:32 PM    #

28. To see this incident as it is reported abroad, see The Independent – a UK national newspaper – of 13 January

    — reader    Jan 13, 11:49 PM    #

29. “The professor HAD EVERY RIGHT to ask for and be shown the non-uniformed police officer’s identification.”

    sorry but in looking at the various photos posted on the HNN website. The Officer was IN UNIFORM. but then I don’t expect academics to deal with facts. Conjecture and speculation is so much more fun.

    I was in Long Beach California once for a conference. A colleague and I crossed a street against the light. A motorcycle officer rode up and asked for our identification. He was ready to write us a citation for jaywalking (they take it seriously in Long Beach), until he saw that we were from out of town. he informed us that jaywalking was illegal, we said we wouldn’t do it again and he let us go without a citation. Now the only difference between this situation and the professor’s is that we acted like adults.

    — peterk    Jan 14, 04:19 PM    #

30. “sorry but in looking at the various photos posted on the HNN website. The Officer was IN UNIFORM. but then I don’t expect academics to deal with facts. Conjecture and speculation is so much more fun.”

    so you can ask a non-uniformed officer for ID, but the guy dressed in an official looking uniform you cant?

    bollox. if a cop from any country approached me, i’d ask for ID. simply because anyone with a clue can play dress up. the historian was within his rights to ask for ID. he asn’t about to run away. he was standing there asking for the cops ID. throwing him to the ground upon asking for ID is gross misconduct.

    — ab    Jan 19, 10:33 PM    #

Previous: Indiana Man Draws Jail Term for Defrauding Colleges in Insurance Scam
Next: Impostor Is Said to Have Conned 3 Universities Into Admitting Her