Posted on 01/18/2022 5:33:38 AM PST by Red Badger
In this episode of “Just When You Thought It Couldn’t Get Any Sillier”…
“Racist” traffic signals. More precisely, racist traffic cameras.
“Guess what’s racist now? Yes, everything is racist, as we know, but specifically what new thing is racist? Traffic cameras.”
The Latest in Racism | Power Line https://t.co/Yfzc7LXeWn
— abk (@seriouslyabk) January 16, 2022
As reported by super-left ProPublica, a recent study found that traffic cameras in Chicago “disproportionately” ticket Black and Latino drivers. Just one problem. Even worse: “Racist,” or not, not only do Chicago city officials plan to stick with the ticketing system; other cities are likely to adopt them as well.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot herself in 2020, not dissimilar to a blind squirrel finding an acorn, lauded the (inherently racist?) ticketing traffic cameras as “about making sure that our communities are safe.”
About making communities safe or not, ProPublica instead focused on the “hundreds of cameras that dot the city,” generating “tens of millions of dollars a year for City Hall” that have “come at a steep cost for motorists” in the Windy City’s Black and Latino neighborhoods.
A ProPublica analysis of millions of citations found that households in majority Black and Hispanic ZIP codes received tickets at around twice the rate of those in white areas between 2015 and 2019.
Note what the above sentence does not say, which is cameras were placed in Black and Hispanic ZIP codes at twice the number of those placed in “white ZIP codes,” nor did it suggest that traffic cameras in “Black ZIP code” ticket Black drivers over any different set of infractions than white drivers.
The consequences have been especially punishing in Black neighborhoods, which have been hit with more than half a billion dollars in penalties over the last 15 years, contributing to thousands of vehicle impoundments, driver’s license suspensions and bankruptcies, according to ProPublica’s analysis.
Olatunji Oboi Reed, a longtime activist for racial equity in transportation in Chicago who has received a handful of camera tickets over the years, told ProPublica that one ticket can be a game-changer in the Black community.
We felt the brunt of it the way white people didn’t. Fortunately, I’ve always been in a situation where I can survive financially, unlike many Black and brown people in the city; one ticket is throwing their whole finances in a hurricane.
According to ProPublica, the pandemic widened the ticketing disparities for Blacks because Black workers have been far less likely than others to have jobs that allow them to work remotely, forcing them into their vehicles more often. In 2020, ProPublica said, the ticketing rate for households in majority-Black ZIP codes jumped to more than three times that of households in majority-white areas. For households in majority-Hispanic ZIP codes, there was an increase, but it was much smaller.
While some cities have eliminated the camera systems in recent years, support for the systems began gaining steam in others in the wake of George Floyd riots — “peaceful protests” — or, as ProPublica called the riots, “the nation’s racial reckoning.”
Call it what you will: Untold numbers of businesses and innocent people’s lives were destroyed by the mayhem and violence, night after night, week after week, month after month — regardless of skin color.
And finally, this:
Chicago city officials told ProPublica they are attempting to “mitigate the financial harm” caused by camera tickets. (No — caused by drivers and jaywalkers breaking the law). They pointed to a pilot program that halves the costs of fines and allows for some debt forgiveness for low-income residents.
“Almost” like cashless bail. Makes perfect “sense” in both cases.
No costs or consequences, no change in behavior.
Crosswalks are racist, too. And auto insurance.
And turn signals.................
Or is the camera merely synchronized with the light and triggers if there is a vehicle in the intersection illegally, regardless of the race/color/creed/gender/religion/sexual orientation of the driver?
It has devolved into calling inanimate objects racist. What's next, the Moon is racist? Pluto is racist? Maybe that's why it got demoted from planet? Or was the act of demoting Pluto racist? It is so hard to keep up.
One of the reasons I no longer want to move to Florida are all the red light cameras they have. Toll roads are another reason. And the bugs. And Alligators.
I don’t like toll roads either.
So I don’t use them.
Not ever county uses red light cameras. Ours doesn’t, and neither do the two counties either side of us. Small crooked towns, like in Dukes of Hazzard, are another matter. But they have those in every state.
As for bugs and gators, that’s just nature... everything gotta eat something..........................
‘And Alligators.;
alligators, if left alone as they should be, will pose almost zero threat to humans...
humans, on the other hand, pose tremendous threats to the alligators...
I’ve not been victimised yet by a red light camera. Or an alligator. I carry a small alligator in the back seat to use as a weapon. There aren’t many toll roads and a Sun Pass will keep the costs down. Bugs aren’t a big problem unless you hike in the mangroves, at which time mosquitos could drag you away to their lair.
Do mosquito’s even have lairs? Anyway…
I do worry about anacondas. Those suckers are scary. They’re even eating alligators now.
I am retired—and noticed that if I stay off the roads during rush hour I can avoid most of the crazy speeders.
They are usually stressed out commuters late for something.
I like the icon permitting Walking at the intersection.
A WHITE figure.
The solution is clear - index traffic fines according to the race and intersectionality index of offenders.
Transgender Black “women” would of course be exempted from any responsibility for their actions (as long as they remain ideologically supportive of Leftist politics).
Didn’t a black man imvent the stop light?
So ticket cars sitting in their garages or driveways. That will achieve your equity.
Hi.
I recommend that we sell Chicago to Canada. Same with Detroit.
And please, sell Puerto Rico back to Spain.
No downside.
5.56mm
Sell Puerto Rico back to Spain? They dumped it on us, on purpose. We couldn’t give it away................
Poop.
5.56mm
Puerto Rico could be the Gem of the Caribbean as a luxury resort and world class vacation spot.
All they have to do is get rid of their Democrat overseers..............
I was a stay at home dad and I did the same thing. I got our business done by 2.
Tickets are too expensive.
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