Jonathan Hale and more than a dozen other activistss were halfway through painting a third crosswalk at an intersection in Westwood on Sunday, when two police cars pulled up.
Los Angeles Police Department officers told the group to stop painting and cuffed Hale, video footage posted to social media shows.
“Leave him alone, he’s not doing anything wrong,” a woman out of frame says.
“You’re vandalizing city property without a permit so [I’ll] ask y’all nicely. Ya’ll can record all you want, but back up or I will take everybody to jail,” the officer cuffing Hale said.
Hale was cited with a misdemeanor for vandalizing property. He has a court date for Jan. 5.
The arrest marks the latest clash between the City of Los Angeles and civilian traffic safety advocates who are frustrated by the delays in getting street intersections painted and are taking it upon themselves to do the work they say can’t wait. The tension comes as the city struggles to reduce pedestrian deaths.
The mayor’s office said in a Monday statement that it offered to collaborate with Hale, noting that it is “willing to work with any Angeleno who wants to make our streets safer” and that it hopes to “develop solutions to expedite the installation of crosswalks that meet legal and accessibility requirements.”
“Despite communication about City, State, and Federal laws and parameters, Jonathan has chosen to continue to pursue his own course of action,” the mayor’s office said. “Mayor Bass is determined to ensure the safety and accessibility of streets and sidewalks for Angelenos, no matter how they bike, roll, walk or ride.”
Hale said he met with representatives from the mayor’s office as well as from the Department of Transportation in September but there has been little follow-up. Since the meeting, however, he said he takes care to alert the mayor’s office when he is planning an action, which he sees as a way to “protest for safer streets and a more effective government.”
Hale’s group, dubbed the People’s Vision Zero, is a reference to the city’s 10-year-old “Vision Zero” planto eliminate traffic-related deaths by 2025. But a recent report found failures in the program.
Hale said he wrote to the mayor’s office Dec. 1, ahead of the Sunday action in Westwood, explaining that a pedestrian had been killed several years before at an intersection a block away. He posted fliers along the block and talked to neighbors to give them a heads-up.
Hale said he requested marked crosswalks on Midvale Avenue in early October but no improvements had been made. There were too many potholes at that intersection for his group to paint a crosswalk so it chose the nearby intersection of Wilkins and Kelton avenues for Sunday’s action instead.
When police reopened the road midday, allowing cars to pass through, some of the still-wet paint was tracked by vehicle tires. It was a big disappointment to Hale, who said he tried to explain to officers that in another 20 minutes the paint would dry.
“It was very frustrating. Our crosswalks are crisp. We take pride in sharp, well-defined corners,” Hale said. “People share their experiences or near-misses getting hit by cars while going on walks with their kids, or with their dogs. Those are the people we do this for.”
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