Pfft! Hear that? Pfft! That’s the sound of justice!

Jaywalking is a crime that knows no boundaries. All over the globe people are strolling across roads at red lights or without using crosswalks as if they own the damn place. It is a scourge that must be eliminated if we are ever to become a truly enlightened society.

China has been at the forefront of jaywalking countermeasures recently. In various parts of the country, they have enacted face-scanning systems and cameras that project offenders onto large screens highlighting their shame… of walking in the middle of the road where everyone can see them anyway.

On 18 April, Huangshi City in Hubei Province unveiled a new crimefighting device in the form of a post equipped with an infrared sensor. The post is installed in a busy intersection, and then, when someone attempts to cross during a red light, the sensor picks them up and PFFT! The are puffed with a mist.

The following video shows the startling effect such a tool delivers to evildoers.

https://youtu.be/f7P_yLGi4LA

While spritzing with water is a tried-and-true method against pets, humans by and large tend to react differently to it. So it’s hard to tell if this tactic is effective in the long run.

Chinese netizens were less than optimistic:

“It will eventually become a de facto hand wash station.”
“That’s a good place to cool my dogs off when they’re barking.”
“Aren’t they worried old ladies will bring buckets and use it to collect water?”
“Great! Install equipment usually found on playgrounds at busy intersections.”
“I think it is a waste of water.”
“So jaywalking on rainy days isn’t a problem then?”
“That’s gonna knock out some frail elderly person.”
“So essentially they’re saying we can’t rely on the police for this problem?”

Okay, so there isn’t a lot of support for the misdemeanor-misting, but what have any of them done to combat jaywalking? Not much I’d wager.

Still, it’s fair to say this scheme has room for improvement. In the right weather conditions I might be compelled to jaywalk just to get a refreshing puff of cool moist air.

If they really want to make this a deterrent, then they should load those babies up with the mist that gets generated by the sea of people at the biannual Comiket convention. What’s worse than getting tagged with the condensed moisture of hundreds of thousands of otaku?

Source: Record China, Toychan
Top image: YouTube/The world video