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04-14-2006, 03:25 PM #1
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She Has World at Her Not-So-Fleet Feet
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me ... -headlines
She Has World at Her Not-So-Fleet Feet
The LAPD is under fire here and abroad for ticketing an elderly woman when she failed to make it across a street before the signal turned.
By Amanda Covarrubias and Cynthia H. Cho, Times Staff Writers
April 14, 2006
First, 82-year-old Mayvis Coyle got fined. Then she got famous.
She got a $114 jaywalking ticket and now people the world over know her story about why she thinks the motorcycle cop did her wrong.
Editorial writers from Sacramento to Scotland have rushed to Coyle's defense. Strangers in distant lands are rising to support her. Camera crews show up at her Sunland trailer unannounced, wanting Coyle to repeat the story once again.
And she doesn't even have a phone.
As Coyle tells it, she was doing her best to shuffle across Foothill Boulevard, with her cane in one hand, groceries in the other, when the light changed from "Walk" to "Don't Walk".
Enter an LAPD motorcycle officer, who gave her the ticket, which she is challenging in court.
Her case has become more than just a traffic dispute; to her supporters, it's about the rights of senior citizens and pedestrians everywhere.
"STICK YOUR FINE," Scotland's Glasgow Daily Record said.
The San Fernando Police Department got so many calls and e-mails from people angry about the ticket, it sent out a news release saying the Los Angeles Police Department, not the San Fernando cops, gave Coyle the citation.
Sitting outside her trailer Thursday, Coyle said she was stunned by the turn of events.
"This is the first ticket I ever got in my life … for trying to cross the street," Coyle said. "I always try to obey the laws of the land."
Coyle lives alone in Sunland's Monte Vista Mobile Estates during the winter and in her hometown of Sedalia, Colo., in the Rocky Mountains during the summer. A retired hairdresser and onetime rancher, she's facing the media in her trademark orange straw hat and Indian beads around her neck.
Because her trailer lacks a phone, the park's office manager has been taking scores of messages on her behalf over the last week and showing TV news crews to Coyle's place.
An 80-year-old woman from Canada sent her a letter of support with a $20 bill. A representative from Ellen DeGeneres' talk show called Thursday, trying to book the great-great-grandmother on her TV show.
"I didn't want all this publicity," said Coyle. "But I'm not objecting to being used if it gets the lights changed and gets respect for the elderly…. I think people can see I'm being sincere," she continued. "I'm speaking for all those seniors who can't get across the street."
It was Feb. 15 when Coyle was crossing Foothill Boulevard and Woodward Avenue after a trip to the grocery store.
Coyle said she was crossing the intersection on a "Walk" signal, but was only past mid-street when it changed.
That's when a motorcycle officer rode up and began repeatedly shouting at her, "You're obstructing the flow of traffic!" she said.
"I don't like being talked to like I'm a 6-year-old," she added.
Coyle said she tried to explain to him that she couldn't make it across in time because of her age, but he refused to listen.Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)
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04-14-2006, 03:45 PM #2
- Join Date
- Feb 2006
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- was Georgia - now Arizona
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They would probably strip search her at LAX...
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04-14-2006, 04:24 PM #3
Is that the same city that has article 40?
I support enforcement and see its lack as bad for the 3rd World as well. Remittances are now mostly spent on consumption not production assets. Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)
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