Posted on 01/02/2002 8:15:10 PM PST by Darth Sidious
Well, this should be an interesting thread, for the irony if nothing else…
About five months ago, on August 7th, a couple of your friendly neighborhood Freepers – namely, Rebelbase and yours truly – stood at the intersection of Battleground Avenue and Pisgah Church Road in Greensboro, NC, and protested the red-light cameras that have gone up all over the city. It’d take up too much time to go into the details of our Freep, and the full story is on the ”After-Action Report” thread. But for a quick recap: for over four hours under the hot August sun, we told motorists to “Smile: You’re On KOMRADE KAMERA”. We literally got hundreds of honks and thumbs-ups of support. Our friends in law enforcement said they supported us in our efforts against the red-light cameras. It was a lot of fun, and we met a lot of good people during our time at the intersection.
Well folks, that was Round One. Now comes the far more serious Round Two.
A few weeks ago I was driving down the same stretch of road, heading into Greensboro on some business. It was raining, there had been some fog but otherwise visibility was good.
As I approached the same intersection of Battleground Ave. and Pisgah Church Road, the light turned yellow. I began to slow down but saw the guy behind me not stopping, then putting on brakes and skidding on the rain-saturated asphalt. Now, I saw the light just turn red just as my car got to the line at the intersection. But if I came to a sudden stop, I would almost certainly have been rear-ended to the best of my judgment.
To make a long story short, I got caught by the camera. And I'm counting no less than 3, possibly 4 violations of the U.S. Constitution on the citation in front of me.
I could pay the $50 fine, and it would be a neat and tidy affair. I could also never tell my children, with any sincerity, about how much we believed these cameras were wrong, so much so that we braved 100-degree heat against them. And if I rolled over now, and let this go on, what kind of incremental damage would I be doing to my children's freedoms? The same freedoms that our forefathers paid a far greater price for, that we might enjoy these liberties?
God gave the stewardship of those liberties to we the people. Not to the state, not to any government, but to us. Folks, you will not believe how much I've seethed the past week or so at reading this citation, how much disregard that enough of the wrong kind of people have for the Constitution.
I could pay the fine, and be comfortable. Or I could contest, and justify my actions, that they avoided serious damage to my vehicle and more importantly, to myself. And quite frankly... my conscience simply cannot allow me to pay this fine. My heart is compelled with no other choice, but to fight. And to fight with every whit of my being.
There is a federal lawsuit against the city of High Point, NC, for their red-light cameras. That doesn't encompass Greensboro, however. And to the best of my ability there are no lawsuits against Greensboro regarding them. I'm ready, willing and able to go the distance, to pledge not to be worn down, to be persistent as all get out, however long it takes to prove what you and me already know: that the red-light cameras are a gross violation of the United States Constitution. I want... no, have to fight this... but I can't do it alone.
At this point, it has been advised that I post this to FreeRepublic.com's general forum, to fill everyone in on what's taken place, at the circumstances now before us and what we can make of it to contest the red-light cameras. And to ask for any advice and counsel that Free Republic's "legal eagles" might offer. Because when it comes to anything like filing a lawsuit, I'm a babe in the woods. I've the passion, just not the knowledge or experience. But I wanna give this all I can.
Who processes the tickets? In California, I believe, a private company paid for all the equipment for a share of the "cut." I believe a state judge through this arrangement out but maybe they are using it in your state.
Another argument might be that the traffic light was defective. It is not illegal to enter an intersection on a red light if it was defective but generally you have to come to stop first.
But guess what? They soon popped up all over town, at all hours- always in high-traffic (and high-revenue) areas.
We fought back on several fronts, and several of the suggestions made on this thread are good ones. BUT, the thing that really worked was massive civil disobedience. We just flat refused to pay the bogus tickets. (I still have mine- unpaid. I may frame it). A judge finally threw all of these tickets out- but I don't think the sheeple who paid them ever got their money back...
The lesson is that this is just another tax, and the ONLY way that taxes have ever been repealed in history has been through civil disobedience (too many folks refusing to pay for the government to handle), or war.
Take your pick.
Of course this requires some free time and don't get "too friendly" with your cellmates!
See my reply, above.
And the traffic camera fiasco almost certainly ended the political career of at least one Democrat up here, so it was worth the battle.
You are not ticketed because you are in the intersection when the red light comes on ... the ticket is given ONLY when you ENTER the intersection when a red light comes on. So you can enter on a yellow but never on a red. As an aside, I have one of these red light cameras by my office next to UCLA. It has cut down on red light runners considerably on one very bad intersection in particular.
One question...If you saw the light turn red that tells me that you also saw it turn yellow first. Why did you not prepare to stop when you saw it turn yellow?
You can live without FR that long, right??
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