"It's what we were taught" at school....

[Aethian]

You would lose that bet. Badly.

1. I don't know the area but I do have a feeling things have changed in that area since you went to highschool.

2. When driving Mom to a appointment in Lansing I counted four over the street pedestrian crosswalks that weren't there the last time I was in that area.

With those two deals I made a guess, so sorry I tried helping in posting a different idea.

[Jester]

Aethian, I appreciate your attempt at support, and don't want you to think otherwise. And yes, the area has changed, but on this narrow bit of detail, that of the crosswalks, it is virtually identical to the way it was in 1987-88, my senior year, the year I got that jaywalking ticket.

Hell, Nello's is now in the shopping center on the northeast corner, whereas in the late Eighties it was in the shopping center on the southwest corner. And they have an Outback at that intersection now! (Two minor changes I noticed while looking at the map.)

But yeah, I used that map because, as far as the jaywalking/intersections/crosswalks thing goes, it is pretty much just like I left it. So it was the perfect visual aid for my story. Make sense?

[HYHYBT]

If you think about it, rewarding a kid who stopped doing something illegal just because they realized they were going to get caught isn't the best plan of action, is it?

Not punishing someone for something they changed their mind about doing because they knew they'd get caught is not the same thing as rewarding them. And, if you think about it, a major purpose of punishment is to deter people from breaking the law. "If I get caught doing this, I'll be in trouble" is, in almost all contexts, a perfectly acceptable reason not only to decide not to do something, but not to punish someone who didn't do it, no matter how evident it is that they would have without that threat.

On the larger point, yes, it is unreasonable to charge people for jaywalking when there is no danger present, no matter where there's a crosswalk. Which is the point I was trying to make a few days ago... which got a reply which seems to directly contradict this story: that jaywalking is defined as crossing in a dangerous manner, rather than by specific rules about where and how you may cross. If that were true, then Jester would not have gotten a ticket.

[Jester]

And, if you think about it, a major purpose of punishment is to deter people from breaking the law. "If I get caught doing this, I'll be in trouble" is, in almost all contexts, a perfectly acceptable reason not only to decide not to do something, but not to punish someone who didn't do it, no matter how evident it is that they would have without that threat.

Precisely. The idea of going to jail is pretty much the main reason I haven't killed anywhere from 3 to 12 people in my life. (I am guessing at the higher end...I don't need to guess at the lower end, as I can very quickly and easily think of 3 people I would have killed in my life if prison were not a likely consequence of so doing.....)

[Greenday]

Bro, if you are going to over punish me for something I've done, I might as well go all out and go crazy.