The Tyranny Of Speed Cameras Incites Revolt
If there is any public manifestation of the state and its attempt to maintain its cruel grip on society, it is traffic cameras. This has little to do with maintaining an orderly society for the benefit of the public good (government) and completely to do with raising revenue for profligate politicians (the state).
I have had experiences with these things all over parts of Los Angeles County. In fact, I spent a fair amount of time investigating how to beat this scam when an acquaintance was tapped with a $450 fine in Gardena for being 0.3 seconds late running through a red light. (It's printed on the ticket mailed to you.) Needless to say, technicalities such as regular calibration seemed to be the only defense unless someone wanted to hire a constitutional attorney and take this to the Supreme Court. What I found at the time was that there are apparently anecdotal findings which present a case that these devices are often a cause of accidents. As an example, at intersection traffic would flow normally but with a camera installed people often hesitate, slam on the brakes or whatnot to avoid being cited. Given 0.3 seconds defined a ticket versus no ticket, I can understand how people would have a touchy foot. I actually change my travel routes to stay off of roads with these devices. It would be interesting if someone could actually compile statistics surrounding the safety of these devices. These serve no purpose for the public good. They are installed for one reason. To raise massive sums of revenue for cities. They pump out tickets to the tune of $30-50,000 a month in some cases. That's one device in one month. Fifty devices in Los Angeles county over a period of a year? Now I see them popping up in other states. $450 for running a stop light? You have got to be kidding me. If I have a job working 40 hours a week at Wal-mart with limited benefits and children, how am I supposed to pay a $450 traffic fine for being late by 0.3 seconds? This is no different than underprivileged people bailing out Goldman Sachs. It's tyranny through and through.
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