 The American people appear to be getting increasingly more unaware of their surroundings, and this is particularly evidenced in the number of pedestrians that are now getting injured or killed as a result of wandering into traffic. A CBS 2 New York report explains how one New Jersey town is actually now ticketing careless pedestrians who wander across streets and into traffic as a result of texting or talking on their cell phones. You have probably seen a few of them in your own town, those individuals who roam down sidewalks with their heads down as they peer at their smart phone screens. Many of these individuals approach intersections and crosswalks without even looking up, as they proceed to walk right out into traffic without so much as a glance upwards to see if a car or truck is approaching. 'They're not alert and they're not watching what they're doing,' said Thomas Ripoli, Chief of Police in Fort Lee, New Jersey, about the disturbing amount of people who are so engrossed in mobile phone life that they have no idea what is going on around them. His town has witnessed at least 23 pedestrian accidents just since January, three of which resulted in deaths. 'As of now, [police officers] are to give summonses to pedestrians who do not adhere to crosswalks and the lights.' When the people become too stupid to handle their own affairs, the state takes over Fort Lee is not the only place, of course, where careless pedestrians are causing problems -- all across America, an increasing dependance on mobile phones is changing the way people live, act, and behave in public. Common courtesy and reasonable awareness of one's surroundings have been sacrificed on the altar of convenience and technological dependency, which, naturally, is changing the way law enforcement treats citizens. You see, when stupidity takes over, chaos ensues. And when chaos becomes the norm, local law enforcement feel the need to step in and begin punishing people for their stupidity, which leads to increasing oppression and assumptions that individuals are guilty until proven innocent. And though this type of police abuse is never justified, societal degradation is one of the reasons why it continues to escalate. For freedom and liberty to persist, in other words, the People must step up and once again claim their God-given right to personal responsibility and 'self-policing.' When the People relinquish this responsibility, even with things as simple as walking down the street in a responsible way, the police state grows and becomes more oppressive. In the end, the People end up losing all their rights as a result of their own failure to live responsibly. 