12 Jan The Pitfalls of Being a Visiting (and Foreign) Professor in Georgia
12.01.07
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President Bush’s surge strategy in Iraq may be the final ingloroious blow to Tony Blair’s legacy. But the “special relationship” appears to be further strained by the Atlanta police department’s overzealous enforcement of the Georgia jaywalking statute against a world-renowned British historian and self-described “ageing member of the bourgeoisie.” A friend at the FCO, aware that I am visiting at the University of Georgia this semester, cautions me to be sure the cops don’t confiscate my peppermints!
If only they’d pass a law against the non-ironic use of the term “raffish.”
Jaywalking as a crime seems curious to the British but Americans do indeed get arrested and/or fined for the offense. Some cities — such as Seattle where I am from — and Atlanta — the scene of Fernandez-Armesto’s rendezvous with U.S. law enforcement — do it more than others. When a person moves to Seattle, it’s not uncommon for friends giving pointers to include jaywalking among cultural no no’s. In that sense, it’s a little like being told not to drink bad coffee or listen to music by the B-52’s.
But I do wonder if there was some racial profiling involved in this case. In states with large immigrant and Latino populations U.S. authorities sometimes use jaywalking arrests as an excuse to shake down immigrant workers for identity papers and green cards. Since 9/11, Arab-Americans have complained of similar subterfuges employed to search and question them. While Fernandez-Armesto’s don-like bearing would not suggest such an outcome, it might be interesting to examine closely how he was treated once the police had established his identity as a foreign national with a distinctly Latino-sounding name.