The Perils of Jaywalking for Los Angeles Visitors

I was recently in Los Angeles on a business trip to attend the Audio Engineering Society convention. My party and I had just checked into the hotel where we were staying which was located a few blocks from the Convention Center where the A.E.S. convention was being held.

We left the hotel a few minutes later to walk to the Convention Center and in the process, had to cross a few intersections. At each intersection we looked all ways and crossed carefully, so as not to endanger ourselves.

After crossing the last street to the Convention Center, we were approached by an L.A. city police car. Two uniformed officers got out and asked if we had noticed that we walked across with a green arrow instead of a full green light. We told them we looked both ways, saw no vehicles, and had seen the green arrow.

We then explained that we had only arrived in L.A. 10 minutes prior and were not accustomed to the laws but the officers proceeded to write each of us a summons. We feel that they could have been polite enough to explain to us in a friendly manner the street crossing laws of L.A. and then a “Have a nice day” would have been courteous.

Instead, my friends were harassed for not having drivers’ licenses, which is neither a requirement nor a necessity for most people who live in New York City.

We feel very strongly about this matter. Your city is trying to bring in revenue from conventions and yet your police force treats the visitors like dirt! City of Angeles!! Wouldn’t that mean compassion, forgiveness, friendship, brotherly love?

As for the future, maybe your police force should be told of common courtesy. Don’t let visitors leave L.A. with bad taste of your city. Maybe the A.E.S. will go somewhere else next year. Maybe all conventions will go somewhere else.

DAVID M. BELLANCA

Buffalo, N.Y.