HNN: Historian's Arrest for Jaywalking

On Thursday January 4, 2007 historian Felipe Fernandez-Armesto was arrested by Atlanta police as he crossed the middle of the street between the Hilton and Hyatt hotels. After being thrown on the ground and handcuffed, the former Oxford don and now a professor at Tufts was formally arrested and thrown in jail. He remained incarcerated for eight hours until finally prosecutors let him go. He was in Atlanta to attend the annual meeting of the American Historical Association.

http://hnn.us/articles/33409.html#Day3

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News & Politics

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• aha
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• cops

[7514328]

That officer must have been hungry for a stat. I bet his performance appraisal was coming up.

[creten69]

No here in these united police states of whatever,you must kiss the laws ass as though they are kings.This is an imperialist,power hungry evil empire and if yall dont like it get the fuk out.We are all prepared to be shipped off and be beheaded, after we willfully surrender our weapons.We love living in ambiguity to everyting that is going on the world,we just dont care,we hate you,our neighbors and even our distranged and ourselfs.We Love ignorance,stupidity,mindlessne­ss and dogma.

[convictbreeder]

must read this. once u started there is no turnind back. a little 10 year old girl was raped and murdured in 1945. her body was not found until 1947. then a boy last week read this and did not copy and paste this message. the dead girl appeared in his room haunting him and killed hin. if ou do not copy and paste this onto 10 videos in 30 minutes the dead girl will appear in your room tonight and haunt you and kill you. well you better start to copy and paste if you want to be

[petemcgino]

why the hell is this guy speaking like this???? he typifies the stereotype of an englishman on family guy haha!!

[spect8or]

@rlga5

Not just that. They love to get the "great white defendant." (a) Satisfy the deluded modern prerogative of "proving" you're not racist; (b) Makes for a nice break from arresting real criminals who, statistics demonstrate beyond any serious kind of doubt, are overwhelmingly black and brown. Thanks Pee-Cee!

[Katantunoro]

I would suppose you get extra points for doing it on your hands backwards.

[Nihilanth1982]

what a seriously dumb law they have over there. here i am free to cross the road wherever i please. seriously, there are killers and rapists out there and police pick on this man who isn't even a native to their backward country. this is stupid. thank god i don't live there.

[rlga5]

The only reason they hand out jaywalking tickets is that everyone who commits a real crime like rape, murder or robbery is a flat-broke unemployed African American or Hispanic male. They do it to raise money.

[therusher8]

I'm afraid that this victim of police brutality is little more than a pompous twerp.

[04smallmj]

Only in America can you get a ticket for simply crossing the road... so maybe the UK is the land of the free?

[trcoxe]

he was asked numerous times to not cross as the officer directed traffic.after being asked the officer still continued to tell the subject to return to the sidwalk and wait to be advised to cross. this subject continued to cross in heavy traffic and refused to stop untill pulled to the side and out of traffic by the officer.

[mjwcritic]

This incident only confirms what the world already knows: that law enforcement, like most things, in America is run by thugs of lower-than-neanderthal intelligence.