On Friday, Newsom signed Assembly Bill 2147 by Assemblymember Phil Ting (D-San Francisco), which the author has dubbed "The Freedom to Walk Act."Ting said jaywalking laws, which were implemented in the 1930s due to the rise of automobiles, are arbitrarily enforced and tickets are disproportionately given to people of color and in low-income communities.His office cited a study of California Racial and Identity Profiling Act data showing Black residents are stopped 4.5 times more for jaywalking than their White counterparts.The assemblymember noted police encounters that have started as jaywalking stops have turned deadly, including the 2018 death of Chinedu Okobi, who died during an encounter with San Mateo County Sheriff's Deputies in Millbrae.For too long, our jaywalking laws were used as a pretext to stop and harass people, especially low-income people and people of color," said Zal Shroff of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay AreaA similar measure introduced by Ting last year passed the legislature and was vetoed by Newsom."