Posted on 01/10/2010 7:03:30 PM PST by TigerLikesRooster
January 11, 2010
Arizona speed cameras may be flash in pan as $90m fines are ignored
Chris Ayres in Los Angeles
An attempt to introduce British-style speed cameras on the other side of the Atlantic has ended in a public revolt, with motorists binning speeding tickets worth $90 million (£60 million). The scheme in Arizona is now on the verge of bankruptcy and might be scrapped.
Its demise would mark an ignoble end to the first statewide effort to bring speed camera enforcement to the US, where many, including judges and elected officials, regard the devices as an unconstitutional taxcollection method.
“I see all the cameras in Arizona completely coming down,” said Shawn Dow, who is leading the public revolt via his chairmanship of Arizona Citizens Against Photo Radar. “The citizens of Arizona took away the cash cow of Arizona by refusing to pay.” He is now trying to gain support for a ballot measure banning the cameras in November’s elections.
Although about 700,000 tickets have been issued since Arizona’s 76-camera plan was rolled out last year, a mere $37 million of the $127 million in fines and surcharges has been collected. That is because Arizonans have realised that they can simply ignore tickets sent to them in the post, and the authorities cannot prove that they have received them. Unless the tickets are served in person — something Arizona cannot afford to do — they become void after three months.
Motorists have shown their opposition to the machines in other ways, too — such as placing large cardboard boxes over them, decorating them with sticky notes, attacking them with pickaxes and, in one case, setting off the cameras while standing in front wearing a monkey mask.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
Why are people so tolerant of red light cameras yet so revolted by speeding cameras?
I'm tired of being a serf.
This stuff is coming to DC with Obozocare. The people who pay taxes will start ignoring the tyrants. You can’t get water from rocks.
If they can be reached with a pickaxe, why doesn’t someone spray pain the lense? Way easier than a pickaxe.
You are exhibit 1 why SOCIALISM ALWAYS FAILS. God given freedom and the exercise thereof.
The State of Florida banned these but cities and counties are still putting them in.
Basically unenforceable but they are saying they will make a negative report on your credit if you don’t pay.
“If they can be reached with a pickaxe, why doesn’t someone spray pain the lense?”
They usually have extra cameras watching the cameras. Damaging them results in charges for fairly serious charges.
I know people living in Arizona....I’d say these intrusive cameras and their support poles, will eventually be sold for scrap, or modified, and become someones private security cameras.
I don’t think the local governments in this country understand...This aint the UK...
We have red light cameras here in Albuquerque and people are not very tolerant of them at all. It has been an issue raised repeatedly by voters when the recent mayoral election was held. The new mayor has a commission or something that is studying the situation and they’ll give him their recommendations soon.
The thing I hate about the AZ speed cameras is that oftentimes they’re placed right after the speed limit is reduced. I think that’s unfair.
That's easy, because we are willing to stop at red lights but not willing to crawl along at the speed limit, not to put too fine a point on it.
Actually the Limeys have done themselves proud on this one issue. I'm embarrassed to see that my own fellow Arizonans, supposedly among the most stubborn government haters in the country, can't hold a candle to what the Brits have done. Hundreds of their cameras have been torched, spray painted, run over, torn down, or otherwise sabotaged.
If they can be made to apply as much devil-may-care anti-government insolence to other aspects of British public life, they might just save their country.
Hey...all you government creeps who attended the seminar on speed cameras: STOP SPENDING! Leave our freedopms alone, you junior fascists.
Right....His commission is likely being paid the camera manufacturers.
I saw a couple cameras in Germany destroyed by my fellow GI’s while there. Germans are far too regimented to do such a thing.
Wear a disguise then.
OR you could just refuse to pay.
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