Last Saturday, I walked out of an ice cream store. I needed to cross the street. It was a standard street, one lane of traffic in each direction. In the lane closest to me, was a funeral procession. The cars were marked with "funeral" stickers in the windshield.
I went to the crosswalk. In Illinois, these crosswalks are marked with signs: "State Law: Vehicles must yield to pedestrians in crosswalk."
The speed limit was 25 or 30 on this street and that's what the procession was traveling at, more or less.
I stood there, at the edge of the crosswalk, watching the procession go by. I waited. I waited some more. After about ten minutes of standing there, and with no end in sight, I grew impatient.
When I saw that traffic was backing up to the right and that there was a bit of a gap in front of a slower moving car, I ran across the street.
Someone in the car that I cut in front of, yelled out at me, approximately: "You racist ass nigger! I oughta stomp your ass!"
More or less.
I didn't think it crossing the street was a big deal because I didn't hold them up, they didn't have to brake for me.
I've subsequently tried Googling for answers to protocol, and Illinois doesn't say anything about pedestrians interacting with a procession.
I found this on the Delaware traffic rules site:
(a) Pedestrians and operators of vehicles not part of a funeral procession shall not drive between, obstruct, hinder or in any way interfere with the vehicles of a funeral procession being led by a funeral lead vehicle or funeral escort vehicle.
Surveying the internet it seems that most states have rules about not driving between a procession but don't mention crossing at a crosswalk.
It seems like this might fall under more of a social norm than a traffic rule. Any thoughts on whether I was a racist ass nigger for crossing the street?
i got stuck waiting to cross the street in a car for a funeral procession once. i was running a little late and i had to wait for what seemed forever. since when is the funeral procession sacred? what difference does it make if a pedestrian crosses or even a car?
ReplyDeletethat said, you are a racist ass nigger, but for different reasons and you should have your ass stomped
I think the rules for funeral processions are completely stupid. If they do have the right to run red lights and all that, they should need to be obviously marked, and the cars should not be staggered distances apart.
ReplyDeleteI've seen at least 2 instances and was myself involved in a third where a car was nearly hit because it wasn't apparent it was a funeral procession. In my case, it was at a traffic light where I was taking a left turn. Not all the cars had stickers, and they were small. The light going the other way turned red, and the next car was far behind the last one to go through the intersection, and it no marking on the front of it. So of course when I got the green arrow I proceeded into the intersection, but realized the other car was not stopping, so I stopped short. It went by and there was a tiny sticker on the side of the rear driver-side window. TERRIBLE.
Also it's hilarious that being impatient somehow makes you racist. The real question is, does that make the person that yelled the comment at you racist? Or just an idiot?
Oh, and the cars most definitely did not have their headlights and hazard lights on, which would also have been an indication that something was going on.
ReplyDeleteIn his defense, he thought I was racist because I was white and everyone in the procession was black.
ReplyDeleteWell, I figured that was the case. But I meant was it racist of the guy to assume you were crossing the street because you were racist (assuming this wasn't just his normal go-to insult), simply because they were black and you are white?
ReplyDelete