Jerk Of The Year Award Goes To......

[Edwina's Secretary]

Welcome to the wacky world of California.....where the cult of the individualist is in constant conflict with the desire for the government to take care of everything.....

[lizbud]

Seems a whole lot of people felt like we did.


She Has World at Her Not-So-Fleet Feet
--------------------

The LAPD is under fire here and abroad for ticketing an elderly woman
when she failed to make it across a street before the signal turned.

By Amanda Covarrubias and Cynthia H. Cho
Times Staff Writers

April 14, 2006

First, 82-year-old Mayvis Coyle got fined. Then she got famous.

She got a $114 jaywalking ticket and now people the world over know her
story about why she thinks the motorcycle cop did her wrong.

Editorial writers from Sacramento to Scotland have rushed to Coyle's
defense. Strangers in distant lands are rising to support her. Camera
crews show up at her Sunland trailer unannounced, wanting Coyle to repeat
the story once again.

And she doesn't even have a phone.

As Coyle tells it, she was doing her best to shuffle across Foothill
Boulevard, with her cane in one hand, groceries in the other, when the
light changed from "Walk" to "Don't Walk".

Enter an LAPD motorcycle officer, who gave her the ticket, which she is
challenging in court.

Her case has become more than just a traffic dispute; to her
supporters, it's about the rights of senior citizens and pedestrians everywhere.

"STICK YOUR FINE," Scotland's Glasgow Daily Record said.

The San Fernando Police Department got so many calls and e-mails from
people angry about the ticket, it sent out a news release saying the Los
Angeles Police Department, not the San Fernando cops, gave Coyle the
citation.

Sitting outside her trailer Thursday, Coyle said she was stunned by the
turn of events.

"This is the first ticket I ever got in my life ... for trying to cross
the street," Coyle said. "I always try to obey the laws of the land."

Coyle lives alone in Sunland's Monte Vista Mobile Estates during the
winter and in her hometown of Sedalia, Colo., in the Rocky Mountains
during the summer. A retired hairdresser and onetime rancher, she's facing
the media in her trademark orange straw hat and Indian beads around her
neck.

Because her trailer lacks a phone, the park's office manager has been
taking scores of messages on her behalf over the last week and showing
TV news crews to Coyle's place.

An 80-year-old woman from Canada sent her a letter of support with a
$20 bill. A representative from Ellen DeGeneres' talk show called
Thursday, trying to book the great-great-grandmother on her TV show.

"I didn't want all this publicity," said Coyle. "But I'm not objecting
to being used if it gets the lights changed and gets respect for the
elderly.... I think people can see I'm being sincere," she continued.
"I'm speaking for all those seniors who can't get across the street."

It was Feb. 15 when Coyle was crossing Foothill Boulevard and Woodward
Avenue after a trip to the grocery store.

Coyle said she was crossing the intersection on a "Walk" signal, but
was only past mid-street when it changed.

That's when a motorcycle officer rode up and began repeatedly shouting
at her, "You're obstructing the flow of traffic!" she said.

"I don't like being talked to like I'm a 6-year-old," she added.

Coyle said she tried to explain to him that she couldn't make it across
in time because of her age, but he refused to listen.

"He should have gotten off his motorcycle and helped me cross when he
saw me struggling," Coyle said.

But the Los Angeles Police Department said the officer saw her begin to
cross the street after the "Don't Walk" sign began flashing, signaling
it was about to change.

"While many people may look at that and say the LAPD should have a
greater heart and should care more that this was an 82-year-old woman, our
desire is that this 82-year-old woman, and all citizens of L.A.,
conduct themselves in a manner that is safe," said Michel Moore, deputy chief
of operations at the department's Valley Bureau.

Moore noted that an elderly woman was struck and killed by a car in the
area just eight days earlier.

LAPD officials acknowledged that citing Coyle for jaywalking has not
been popular. The department has received a flood of cards and e-mails
from Alaska, Indiana, Texas, Tennessee and elsewhere.

Some protesters have mistakenly sent their missives to the San Fernando
Police Department, a smaller agency that patrols the nearby city.

San Fernando Police Chief Anthony Alba said the angry letters have come
from across the U.S. — mostly from seniors.

One senior from Rochester, N.Y., wrote that he was "disgusted" and
"astounded" by the citation.

A letter writer in the Los Angeles Daily News, which reported the story
earlier this week, questioned why Coyle was ticketed when many
immigrant rights protesters were not.

At Los Angeles City Hall, Councilwoman Wendy Greuel is calling on the
city Transportation Department to reexamine how long the agency sets
"Walk" signals.

John Fisher, assistant general manager for the Department of
Transportation, estimated that Coyle would have had about 27 seconds to cross
Foothill Boulevard before the signal began to flash. Some intersections —
such as those near senior centers — are modified to give pedestrians
more time to get across.

Fisher said his agency would study the intersection where Coyle was
ticketed next week.

Greuel believes a more sweeping study is needed.

"We've had calls from Canada and all kinds of places," she said. "I
think it's because everyone pictures their own mother, grandmother, aunt,
uncle trying to cross the street and they have a picture of that."

Coyle is fighting her ticket in court. If she loses, the owner of her
mobile home park gave her the money to cover it.

Friends at the mobile home park, however, hope she wins her case and
that the incident forces the city to help pedestrians more.

"I think [she] may stir things up enough to get things done," said
Darwin Benjamin, a retired stuntman who once doubled for Chuck Norris.
Copyright (c) 2006, The Los Angeles Times

[RICHARD]

I love this story.

This happened about 5 miles down the street from my house.

This cop was probably stationed here in Pacoima, the same station that brought you the Rodney King beating.

------------------------------------------


The funniest part about the story is that there is the town of San Fernando, a small unincoporated town to the north of me.....THEY ARE GETTING ALL THE BAD PRESS!

[Oggyflute]

The rotten sod should have got off his backside and helped her.

[smokey the elder]

This may turn out to be a catalytic event. This has been a problem in many communities, and will continue to be with the "graying" of America. One never knows when one's action sets off an unstoppable chain of events.

[Alysser]

What do these cops have nothing better to do then give an INNOCENT person a ticket? Idiot!