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Perspectives
EDITOR IN CHIEF
Sarah Kickler
EDITORIAL EDITOR
Mike Schmierbach
NIGHT EDITOR
Holly Sanders
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Too many communities are
impinging on personal liberties
and chasing jaywalkers in the
vain hope of stopping petty crime
A great crime wave has struck this
nation. It has nothing to do with
drugs or gangs of juveniles. For
that matter, it is unrelated to the
rampant theft and environmental destruc
tion carried out by major corporations.
No, the greatest crime problem in Ameri
ca's cities is jaywalking.
Don’t take my word for it. Authorities
Mike
Schmierbach
throughout the nation
have announced they in
tend to crack down on this
dangerous activity.
In Portland, one of the
first announcements of the
former police chief was
that he was going to start
taking jaywalking serious
ly. After all, if you ticket
people for illegally cross
ing the street, you just
might scare them out of snatching a purse.
(Conversely, of course, you might empty
their pockets to the point where a little
petty theft seems warranted.)
The funny thing is, people don’t really
jaywalk in Portland. Up in the Rose City,
pedestrians calmly wait at lights and dri
vers politely wave as foot traffic makes its
way through the intersection. About the
only jaywalking I ever witnessed was run
ning cross country, when waves of mal
nourished stick figures would dart their
way about the Park Blocks.
1 suppose that may be why the proposed
crackdown never really amounted to any
thing. But while the plan died, the idea
didn’t go away. New York Mayor Rudolph
Giuliani is currently pushing to end jay
walking in New York.
Giuliani’s efforts — which not only in
clude commanding police to issue a $50
fine for illegally crossing the street but
also feature barriers placed throughout
midtown Manhattan — follow his cam
paign against subway turnstile jumpers.
Having recently stumbled into New
York, I’m inclined to think the mayor may
be onto an effective fund-raising tech
nique, if nothing else. Unlike Portland,
New York defines its character through its
flouting of traffic rules. Swarms of people
collide with fleets of taxis at every inter
section in a cacophony of horns and curs
es.
If New York cops were inclined to give
out a bunch of tickets, the city coffers
would probably burst in a hurry. As it
turns out, however, the police don’t seem
especially interested in chasing down jay
walkers. Elizabeth Kolbert, a columnist for
The New York Times, quoted one officer
as saying, “Even the cops don’t agree with
this nonsense."
Perhaps the officers don’t have the ener
gy to chase down jaywalkers after pursuing
turnstile hoppers through the subway sys
tem. At least the people underground stole
$1.50 from the New York transit system;
jaywalkers can only be accused of slowing
down a few cabs and possibly increasing
fares a notch.
Or perhaps the cops realize what Giu
liani and others haven’t been able to figure
out — ticketing jaywalkers and other petty
criminals isn't an effective way to use po
lice resources or stop crime.
The issue isn’t isolated to cities like New
York and Portland. Even in Eugene, where
one at times wonders if the police do have
anything better to do, a series of proposals
have upheld the mentality that the root of
social problems is petty crime.
Recently passed laws include the ban on
dogs and skateboards along 13th Avenue
and the closure of the park on 14th Av
enue. Both these laws were based on the
theory that any time young people gather,
they make trouble for local businesses.
There is no question these actions have
pleased many local companies. The police
state is always appealing to those it pro
tects.
The real question is whether proposals
to universally harass “undesirables” be
cause some of them might make trouble
protect the community as a whole. Crime
has declined on the subways under Giu
liani’s reign; drugs are undoubtedly a little
harder to purchase on 13th Avenue these
days. But the eventual effect of proposals
like these is problematic.
For one thing, such laws are often fol
lowed by even more draconian regula
tions. In New York, the merely comical
subway and jaywalking rules are accompa
nied by plans to install video monitors at
many public areas — such cameras are al
ready in place in Washington Square Park.
In Eugene, the newest plan is to start a
daytime curfew for Eugene students.
Both of these plans dramatically in
crease the ability of the city to control in
dividual behavior. An increasing number
of people will be caught in an ever larger
social net, while a smaller and smaller per
centage of actual criminals are caught.
An additional problem exists as well.
Such laws are not only troublesome be
cause they require massive restrictions on
social liberties to work, but because they
also have the potential to not work at all.
In New York, dozens of police officers
are being forced to man the midtown barri
cades and hand out tickets to jaywalkers.
Meanwhile, these officers are not investi
gating serious crimes or watching for more
significant offenses. A similar scenario
could occur if high numbers of police
hours in Eugene must be dedicated to
hunting down high schoolers who are busy
skipping trigonometry.
I suppose the real purpose of such laws
is to give the impression that city govern
ment is acting to protect the people while
in reality it busies itself looking out for the
chamber of commerce. Given that the com
panies are the major source of campaign
funding, I suppose we can look forward to
more laws strictly regulating jaywalking. If
that occurs, perhaps one day we’ll witness
the sight of a swarm of police officers chas
ing down a high school cross country
team.
Mike Schmierbach is the editorial editorfor the
Emerald His vieu's do not necessarily repre
sent those of the newspaper.
68$ TO THE iPITOHj
Protect rare species
Currently, the Fender’s blue
butterfly, Willamette daisy and
Kincaid’s lupine are in the
process of being listed as
“threatened" (encouraging ef
forts to prevent the species from
becoming endangered). This is a
small victory in the battle being
waged against endangered
species. Every year 50,000 are
lost. On the North American
continent, 480 species have be
come extinct since the Declara
tion of Independence.
In 1973, the Endangered
Species Act was enacted for the
purpose of protecting threatened
and endangered species. Cur
rently, there is an attack against
the act backed by millions of
dollars from agribusiness, log
ging and mining companies.
There are many restricted areas
that wealthy business corpora
tions would love to have access
to so they can continue to ex
ploit.
Now, grassroots groups like
OSPIRG are working hard to ed
ucate people about the impor
tance of strengthening the act.
The reality is, without the act
wealthy corporations would in
crease their right to access areas,
disregarding the various wildlife
and ecosystems they encounter.
For Valentine’s Day, the Uni
versity chapter of OSPIRG had
an event entitled "Have a Heart
for Endangered Species.” We
talked to people about the im
portance and urgency of the act
and let the public know how im
portant this issue is to so many
groups. I strongly urge everyone
to “Have a Heart” and support
the act that helps preserve thou
sands of species every year.
Henry Oldham
OSPIRG
Evaluate faculty
Feb. 16 marks an important
date for students and faculty.
This is the date that the profes
sor evaluations for spring term
1998 come out. The evaluations
bring together a coalition of both
students and professors, with
the intent of fostering cohesive
ness. Students are able to give
their instructors valuable feed
batik, while influencing and
shaping course curriculum. The
intent of the evaluations is not to
punish or instill fear among fac
ulty. The hope is that both stu
dents and instructors will come
together to produce a healthy
and harmonious classroom en
vironment.
Students have always ques
tioned professor evaluations.
How will this help? Do profes
sors even listen to what I have to
say? Does my one evaluation
even matter? These are the ques
tions that most often come up
from students. Our answer to
these questions is, yes, you do
matter. Every time a student
thoughtfully fills out an evalua
tion, the whole student body
benefits. This is the key theme
that needs recognition. The re
sult of such deliberate student
action produces thorough evalu
ations. Everyone should be
proud of these evaluations, for
it's an accomplishment that
everyone has taken part in.
Brian Fitzgerald
ASUO Federal Affairs