4 posts tagged “downtown los angeles”
While walking around Downtown I saw a Parking Enforcement Officer across the street standing over a man who was lying in the street.
When I went over and began to photograph the man in the street a woman began to weep over my shoulder. She took out her cell phone and told the person on the other end that her father had just been struck by a car.
The woman was really shaken and had begun to weep really deeply so I put my camera down, and tried to calm her down. I took a newspaper out of my backpack and had her sit down on a nearby bench for a moment.
While I was trying to tell her to take deep breaths, a nurse came over and told the woman that she had witnessed the whole thing. I asked her if she knew CPR. She said she did but with a lot of shame in her eyes told me that she was afraid to administer it to the man in the street.
She gave her information to the crying woman and left. The crying woman having calmed down a bit got up when she saw that LAFD had showed up and the officers were asking her if she was related to the man on the floor.
I helped her over to the officers because she was elderly and I didn't want her to fall down due to the rain slicked concrete.
The officers and EMT's asked her again if she was related to the man in the street. Was he epileptic? Did he have a history of heart problems? The woman just wept and shook her head.
Then, she stopped for a second and shook her head. Then she said, "It's not him..it's not him...". She pulled out her cell phone and told someone on the other end that their father had not been struck by a car.
This still left the EMT with a man in the street. I walked over to the Parking Enforcement officer and gave him the nurses information and told him that she had claimed to see the whole thing.
At this point a man with a point and shoot digital camera in his right hand and a Styrofoam fast food soda cup in his left hand began photographing the event.
LAFD shot him a few dirty looks and then told him not to take anymore photographs.
He ignored them and stood on a bus stop bench and spilled a little soda on himself. Some of the onlookers began to give the guy dirty looks. But he didn't seem to notice.
The man was put into an ambulance and driven to LA County hospital.
At the time he left the EMT had yet to figure out what was wrong with him.
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So while wandering around Downtown LA looking for stuff to photograph, I met a couple of guys putting up wheat paste posters.
Here are a few photos that I shot.
A couple of months ago. I was crossing the street in downtown Los Angeles and was stopped when I reached the other side by a police officer. I was told that I was to be given a ticket for walking on a "Don't Walk" sign. While the officer was writing me my ticket, I looked around, and saw that on each corner mixed into the crowds were police officers writing tickets.
Now, If you don't know the downtown area, it isn't unlike most cities in that it has 4 lane streets - which are approximately 50 to 60 feet wide.
How much was the ticket for? $125.35. That's right, for crossing in a cross walk in heavy near bumper to bumper traffic on a green traffic light and for being in the traffic "well" for about 15 seconds. $125.35.
Now, I didn't pay it. I went to court. I plead not guilty. I went back to court and when the officer didn't show up, the case was dismissed and I got to walk away by not paying a dime.
But I know that the average pedestrian in downtown isn't going to go to all that trouble. So instead they probably will show up on their court date and plead guilty and then pay $50-75 dollars -depending on how the judge is feeling.
I did a little research online after that and the general consensus on the various blogs I read was that the LAPD was making an attempt to improve the "quality of life" of the downtown area for those who are fortunate to live there. I don't know if this is true or not but it sounds plausable.
The LA Times also wrote an article about a large number of homeless people receiving jay-walking tickets.
That was a couple of months ago.
Today I saw a couple of officers writing tickets again. The pictures above are all I could squeeze off before getting on a bus.
