The peasants are revolting as Big Brother increases its monitoring.
More in the article.
Posted on 04/15/2009 1:21:48 AM PDT by Zakeet
A Journal front-pager recently noted an Arizona man charged with attacking a freeway speed camera with a pick ax. Here's the rest of the story: He was fined $3,500, not given a parade.
But don't despair. We still live in a democracy. One Arizona sheriff recently proved you could get elected by opposing speed cameras. Meanwhile, the state legislature is considering bills to dismantle the system created by Gov. Janet Napolitano when she faced a gaping budget deficit, before she escaped to the Obama Department of Homeland Security. Petitioners in Arizona are also gathering signatures to put the question directly before voters -- speed cameras have never won when submitted to voters.
Even the Scottsdale City Council recently voted not to oppose the anti-camera bills in the state legislature.
Why is this important? Because Arizona, specifically Scottsdale, is home to the two biggest companies, American Traffic Solutions and Redflex Traffic Systems, in the incestuous world of promoting and operating traffic cameras for revenue-hungry governments.
Laid to rest long ago should have been the pretense that the goal is "safety," not chasing cash. New York State, sinking under budget shortfalls, last week authorized a batch of new red-light cameras around the state. A recent investigation by the Detroit News showed that even conventional ticket-writing is driven by revenue needs. Said one cop: "When you're being told how many tickets you need to write, to me that's a quota."
Consider: Red-light running and speeding, the two main uses of traffic cameras, are implicated in fewer than 8% of accidents. A far more prevalent cause of nondrunken accidents is driver inattention -- one study estimated, in a typical case the driver's eyes are diverted from the road for a full three seconds or more, fidgeting with a cellphone ... etc.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
The peasants are revolting as Big Brother increases its monitoring.
More in the article.
Wait until the government taxes you by the mile to fund those socialist programs.
Its going to happen.
“Britain has gone furthest in using cameras for comprehensive auto surveillance, and now says it’s capable of monitoring every car trip in the U.K. and keeping a record for five years. Most traffic cameras are “on” all the time, and capable of being networked with plate- and even face-recognition software. In Britain, the data yielded will be incorporated in a database of all kinds of personal information and camera observations to enable “data mining” to let the government know who’s doing what, when and where.
Never in America, you say? Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick is moving ahead with a plan for mandatory GPS devices in cars that would be read at gas pumps and automatically charge drivers for miles driven.
Your car already contains electronics that could report on, say, the quality of your emissions. How long before government knows not just where you went, but how fast and how much CO2 you vented in the process, and thanks to your email and phone records, whether you were visiting somebody or doing something that might warrant a further look?”
One of the best revenge stories I heard was a guy who got a digital photo of the mayor’s license plate, printed it out full size and taped it over his own plate.
Then ran four or five redlights where he knew it would get caught.
HooooHooooo!
The shortening of the yellow lights was going on in Georgia. Good think the legislation passed a bill that the state has to wait another second before the camera can come on.
It was obvious to any driver, that takes the same route to work everyday, the yellow lights were rushed in order to increase revenue. That in turn cause people to slam on their breaks or gun it through the intersection. In other words in made an intersection more dangerous instead of less.
Got to love government and their money seems.
Hey, I take dat personarry.
Same scenario played out in Arlington, VA a few years back. I personally witnessed an accident there that was caused by the cameras and the shortened yellow. A driver got caught in the yellow and then sped up and tried to make a right turn. He plowed into the car waiting at the intersection.
If after reading more and more stories like this, you do not believe our governments are out of control, you need help.
Vince
No, never was stationed there. I retired 12 years ago. Living in Alabama now.
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