Posted on 09/24/2022 8:36:23 AM PDT by simpson96
Cook County Board president Republican candidate Bob Fioretti is calling out Democratic lawmakers over the latest indictment of a member of the majority party after state Sen. Emil Jones III (D-Chicago) was charged with accepting a bribe.
Jones allegedly accepted $5,000 from a firm operating a red light camera system.
"Red-light cameras are a plague on our communities, and a license to steal from our communities!” Fioretti said in a press release. “They are a hidden tax on Cook County residents created by shady, backroom deals and corruption by our so-called 'public servants.' A billion dollars in 'fines' and a plethora of indictments prove this!"
Fioretti said that Chicago, Cook County, and Illinois "already have an infamous reputation for corruption, crime, and gross incompetence by government officials."
"Why would we continue to allow this pay-to-play, cronyism, and political-grifting to continue?” he argued. "If we're going to utilize these awful devices, we must adopt a system like Virginia and invest in our crumbling infrastructure. We need to put these resources to work and use it as investment as opposed to just another tax or penalty on residents. Ultimately, it is politically connected insiders who profit and corrupt public officials who skim off of those profits.”
Fioretti said that Toni Preckwinkle, the 35th president of the Cook County Board of Commissioners, "leads a corrupt Democratic party."
Fioretti, who is an attorney at Roth Fioretti LLC where he practices complex law, has served two terms as alderman in Chicago’s 2nd Ward. He switched parties to run as a Republican.
"How many more indictments must be reported, and illegal schemes uncovered before ‘leaders’ like Toni Preckwinkle act and put an end to the nonstop corruption?" Fioretti said. "Cook County deserves far better than these constant failures.”
The Northern District of Illinois U.S. Attorney's Office disclosed the allegations on Tuesday. Jones is accused of accepting a $5,000 bribe to change a measure that would have done further research on red light cameras. According to the indictment, “Company A was a Chicago-area company that provided automated traffic enforcement systems, commonly known as red-light cameras, which enabled municipalities to enforce certain traffic violations and issue traffic violation tickets. Company A did not provide any automated traffic enforcement systems to the City of Chicago. Individual A had an ownership interest in Company A. Unbeknownst to JONES, Individual A was cooperating with law enforcement.”
Jones "corruptly solicited" the cash, according to the filing. and that “In or around 20L9, JONES agreed that, in exchange for benefits provided by Individual A to JONES and Individual B, JONES would oppose legislation that required the study of automated traffic enforcement systems located outside of Chicago, and would limit any legislation regarding IDOT's study of and recommendations concerning automated traffic law enforcement systems to those automated traffic enforcement systems utilized in Chicago, thereby excluding from study and recommendations automated traffic enforcement systems utilized in numerous other municipalities that Company A served,” the indictment reads, Chicago City Wire previously reported.
In June, Jones decried the criminal justice system. He is the sponsor of the SAFE-T Act which is opposed by 100 of the state’s 102 state’s attorneys, saying that “No one should be serving time for a crime they did not commit.” Jones also noted that “The criminal justice system at times proves to have no justice at all, especially for Black and Brown folks."
Because the cycle includes Yellow, which is meant to allow those with momentum and who have committed to the intersection, to get through without penalty.
Then they drastically shorten the Yellow light time.
An even better rendition...her in the Sistine Chapel
Last year, Chicago issued more speed camera tickets than its total city population (over 2.8 million tickets, 2,739,797 residents).
https://www.thecentersquare.com/illinois/report-chicago-issued-more-speed-camera-tickets-in-2021-than-there-are-city-residents/article_c24c8340-b4f8-11ec-afd2-f3f19ae69aa8.html
https://www.populationu.com/cities/chicago-population
Racism!
Holy frejole! That is a spitting image!
As long as there is one-party rule in a local area, that local area will decline. And that is regardless of the specific party.
I do a fair amount of driving in the area west of Chicago (family there). I’ve noticed that the timing on the red lights is pretty forgiving - EXCEPT for the ones with cameras. Whenever I approach a red light camera and the light turns yellow, I slam on my brakes as hard as I can. Don’t want to get a ticket, you know... 😎
Why do some folks find it so hard not to run red lights...?
Just curious.
Where I live, after one direction’s light turns red, it takes three seconds for the other direction to turn green. That works better than cameras. And neither is going to prevent the red light runners that simply don’t see the light and run it long after it turned red.
Because in Chicago, the red light cameras have been timed to turn red sooner than normal traffic lights.
Seems like Chicago could use more “identify the shooter” cameras instead......
The city had to cough up millions when they got caught reducing the yellow light times, which produced a lot more rear-end collisions at intersections. The only legal reason in Illinois for the cameras is public safety. Reducing it by shortening the yellow light times to generate more revenue was theft.
The city and county are constantly short of cash because of underfunded pensions, which has turned them into little more than institutions of criminal extortion.
Toss their asses out like we did in Arizona. It’s not rocket science.
Can’t these whining “progressives” ever stop complaining? How much lawlessness do they need in their communities?
My guess is that it's hard to open a beer and keep your eyes on the road at the same time.
To be fair stopping your car in certain areas of Chicago make you a sitting target.
I agree, they should remove all the traffic lights!
Here in the people’s republic of Connecticut, there are cameras at the intersections to improve the traffic flow. Once the last car is on its way, the light starts to change. Unfortunately, it turns yellow before the car is through, so the driver has a moment of panic before deciding to proceed. Would probably be easy to speed up the timing if the town was a little short that month.
Once got ticketed for running a red in NYC. Went back and timed it at 2.5 seconds, it’s supposed to be 5.0.
Told the judge my version. The officer said he checked the timing. Guilty, said the judge. On the plus side, I was in and out within 15 minutes. Most traffic courts are much slower.
I always hoped that judge and officer met at an intersection. That one hit the brakes and the other plowed right into him.
That day was one of my first clues that the cops are not always our friends
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.