#WalkingWhileBlack And Getting Tickets Is A Thing In Jacksonville, FL. --NAACP Claps Back

Police in Jacksonville, Florida are trippin'.  According to a ProPublica report , more than 2,200 pedestrian tickets have been issued within a five year span, dating from 2015 to 2017. Yep, you guessed right...most of those tickets have been issued to Black citizens. 

Here are the facts: 55 percent of tickets went to Black people. Okay, so we know you're thinking "well that's half..seems fair." But wait, Black people only make up 29 percent of the population. In terms of ratios, Blacks are about 1/3 of the population but they're getting over 1/2 of the tickets. It also means police are paying extra 'attention'  to Black walkers *cough* profiling *cough.*

Unsurprisingly, Jacksonville is doing the most with their definitions of walking violations. They've taking jaywalking to the extreme with citing Black walkers with "failing to cross the road at a right angle or shortest route." #WTF????

 In 2015, 13-year-old, Brianna Nonord, was handcuffed and detained for walking away from an officer that wrote her a ticket because she “failed to cross in a crosswalk” on her way home from school.  Also, John Fitzgerald Kendrick, a truck driver, was ordered to the ground by an officer, who pointed a taser gun at him. He was arrested for “walking in the roadway where sidewalks are provided.” Clearly, things in Jacksonville are outta hand. 

The Jacksonville sheriff's offices say pedestrian tickets are a means to keep pedestrians safe, but the facts presented by ProPublica debunks this justification. There is no correlation between pedestrian deaths and the areas where tickets are issued. It seems Jacksonville is solving a non-existent problem. 

The local NAACP chapter in Jacksonville, along with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and the Northside Coalition advocacy group are taking action.  On December 5th, a statement was issued calling for the suspension of all pedestrian ticket writing on the grounds of racial bias. 

 Sheriff Mike Williams was scheduled to meet with the local activist groups, but canceled and says they do have plans to reschedule. Doesn't seem appropriate to raincheck on such an important issue. Something has to be done. What ya'll think?