Jaywalking enforcement may prove superfluous
Both the Tucson Police Department and the University of Arizona Police Department recently received grants to enforce bicycle traffic and jaywalking laws, according to a Sept. 3 report in the Arizona Daily Wildcat. Responses to the increased enforcement was decidedly mixed, and rightly so. While bicycle traffic in Tucson desperately needs more law enforcement — there were 19 cyclist fatalities in Arizona in 2008, accounting for 2 percent of total traffic fatalities — jaywalking may be another story, especially on campus. In fact, enforcing jaywalking laws on a campus teeming with disorganized pedestrian activity, badly designed signage and ill-kept crosswalks sounds about as possible as herding cats. And, carrying a hefty fine of $161, jaywalking tickets run the risk of becoming a tool for UAPD and TPD to generate funds and meet citation quotas rather than actually protect UA students and Tucsonans. For (jay)walking the fine line between increasingly vital enforcement and scamming hapless pedestrians, the two police forces get an incomplete.
Approval ratings don’t match state of the state
According to Rasmussen Reports’ most recent poll on the Arizona gubernatorial race, 65 percent of Arizona voters approve of Jan Brewer as governor, up dramatically from 41 percent in March.
What changed? Most notably, Brewer signed a controversial but domestically popular anti-illegal immigration bill into law. Sixty-five percent of Arizona voters approve of S.B. 1070 (perhaps the same 65 percent who approve of Brewer’s handling of the governorship), while only 27 percent oppose it.
But these numbers, rather than rationalize Brewer’s startlingly high approval rating, merely prove that she’s a one-trick pony. S.B. 1070 vaulted her to popularity and turned her into a national Republican darling, but before that action, Brewer was distrusted by her own party for her support of a band-aid sales tax increase to benefit education and other social services.
Under Brewer’s watchful eye, the Arizona economy hasn’t improved, nor has she been able to stave off a massive fiscal cliff facing the state in the coming years. Approving of a governor simply because she signed a single popular piece of legislation is irresponsible and shows poor judgment. No state in Arizona’s sorry position should have a governor that popular if any of its residents are thinking clearly and critically. For falling for this gubernatorial pony’s single trick, 65 percent of Arizona voters get a fail.
– Editorials are determined by the Daily Wilcat opinions board and written by one of its members. They can be reached at
letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.
