Long story short: Atlanta police officer inadvertently runs over pedestrian, killing him. Family up in arms, accuses officer of speeding. Caveat: pedestrian was jaywalking when it occurred.
What we have here is a scenario where nobody wins. Pedestrian obviously loses, because he’s now dead. Family loses, because they can point their fingers all the way, but a police officer isn’t going to get more than a slap on the wrist because he ran over a guy that was breaking the law, regardless of how innocuous jaywalking seems. And frankly, the police officer himself is going to lose, because accidental or not, he’s got blood on his hands, and has to live with it for the rest of his life.
But the fact is, I’m most definitely pro-police in this debate. Jaywalking might seem harmless, and I’m not going to pretend like I don’t capitalize on a deserted road when I have them to cross, but on that same token, I’d be on the side of the driver that ran me over if I were run over while I was jaywalking. It’s still illegal and it’s still done at your own risk, with nobody but yourself to blame if you get hit while doing it.
Yes, it’s unfortunate that a life was lost in this whole debacle, but the fact of the matter is that the man was jaywalking, full stop and period. I’ve driven on Metropolitan Road, it’s one of the few alternate routes that runs parallel with 75/85 Connector and a convenient path to and from Turner Field. I know of the area in which this incident occurred. And when it’s not the morning, everyone speeds down this road. Hell, even when it is the morning and there are plenty of other cars on the road, there are still retards going 60 mph in the posted 35 zone.
I’m not condoning the act of excessive speeding, but much like jaywalking, everyone does it. Including the cops, and including the one that hit the victim. Two wrongs clearly do not make a right, here.
The bottom line is that the family can accuse the officer all they want, they’re not getting anything outside of verbal, and maybe some written condolences. Daddy was jaywalking (not to mention wearing dark clothing at night) and frankly chose a poor spot to jaywalk, as it was right after the crest of a hill, where there would be no chance for anyone much less an officer have time to see someone that shouldn’t be in the middle of the road.
Now this is the part where I hope stories like this really make the thousands of idiot Atlanta jaywalkers think twice before strolling out in the middle of traffic, but who are we kidding?
