You’ve heard about the automated car.
How about automated policing?
Instead of government drones (that would be cops) picking our pockets at gunpoint, the “work” (and profit) is being turned over to private contractors, who do the same at camera-point, using debt collectors to force us to stand and deliver.
This is not new – but it is becoming more blatant.
If you ever had any doubt that the issuance of speeding tickets was little more than another form of tax collection, consider what’s going on in Youngstown, Ohio.
The city recently signed a three-year deal with one of those Mussolini-minded companies that uses government to line its pockets and calls it free enterprise (another example of this being the insurance mafia). The company is going to make a lot of money by peppering the city with automated radar guns that eliminate the need for a cop to actually pull someone over – or for the courts to waste their valuable time proving beyond a reasonable doubt that each and every “speeder” is guilty as charged.
Instead, the tickets – the fines – go out automatically.
And because they are no longer issued under the guise of law enforcement, you lose the right you’d otherwise have to confront the witnesses against you (i.e., a cop) and the formality, at least, that you are presumed innocent until adjudicated guilty (or not) in a court rather than presumed guilty by a privately run company that will ruin your credit score if you decline to pay – whether it was actually you behind the wheel or not that day.
Youngstown Police Chief Robin Lees says this overtly for-profit little deal (65 percent of the “revenue” collected goes to the city, 35 percent to the private company, Optotraffic of Lanham, Maryland ) is “efficient” and that not having to stop people and issue them tickets – or deal with the hassle of convicting them in court – is “great.”
Indeed.
The local paper (see here) reports that in just the first twelve days, Optotraffic (purveyor of “innovative traffic safety solutions,” according to the company web site) mailed out 1,000 tickets.. vs. 960 issued all of last year. That is a lot of payin’ paper. Six figures in less than a fortnight.
Imagine what they’ll take in over twelve months.
And that’s just one town.
This business is perhaps the ultimate perversion of free market economic theory. Private companies sign on as hired guns for the government. They’re so much more “efficient,” you see.
But the rub is it’s not free when guns – and coercion – are involved. Just as you are not a “customer” when you stand on line at the DMV.
Customers are free to leave. To decline the “services” offered, without penalty.
You are not.
Similarly, it’s twisted to speak of “privatizing” government operations. Every such utterance ought to be accompanied by 54-year-old Madonna singing like a virgin…. touched for the thirty-first time.
Privateer would be more apt.
From Webster’s:
“An armed ship owned and officered by private individuals holding a government commission and authorized for use in war, especially in the capture of enemy merchant shipping.”
This is what Optotraffic and Redlfex (one of the major contractors involved in the red light camera scam) are. They are private only insofar as a portion of the profit they take in goes into their pockets rather than the entirety going into the government’s pockets.
Some 430 years ago, Sir Francis Drake performed similar services for Elizabeth I. Royal commission in hand, he plied the seas, pillaging and plundering – a portion of the proceeds for him, the rest for the (cough) “virgin” queen.
Not surprisingly, Drake was also a slaver. Why not just go whole hog, after all?
Which, I expect, is where we are headed with regard to these modern-day privateers.
Why stop with speeders, I mean?
Cameras could also be used to enforce buckle-up (or else) seatbelt laws, prohibitions on texting while driving, out-of-date inspection and registration stickers … the possibilities are essentially limitless.
As are the potential profits.
It would, after all, be so much more efficient than having to pay a small army of human ticket-issuers. A camera can work a 24 hour shift, seven days a week – and doesn’t demand health care.
Just put the entire operation on autopilot.
At least Sir Francis had to do the dirty work himself. Nowadays, machines take care of everything – and latter-day Sir Walters merely pocket their slice.
That’s how far we’ve come in 430-something years.
If you value independent media, please support independent media. We depend on you to keep the wheels turning!
Our donate button is here.
 If you prefer to avoid PayPal, our mailing address is:
EPautos
721 Hummingbird Lane SE
Copper Hill, VA 24079
PS: EPautos stickers are free to those who sign up for a $5 or more monthly recurring donation to support EPautos, or for a one-time donation of $10 or more. (Please be sure to tell us you want a sticker – and also, provide an address, so we know where to mail the thing!)
 Â
You can actually just ignore a ticket sent in the mail – just act like you never received it. Many states do not allow these type of fines to be put on your credit rating. If they do put it on your credit rating it is easy to dispute because you claim that you have nothing to do with that charge because you never received anything and you have no idea what it is about – ask them to send proof.
I got a speeding ticket while moving along with traffic in a small city near here. For some reason I was picked out among 5 other cars around me. The city made a little money off me- but has lost a LOT of money in the process! This was after witnessing the motorcycle cop that gave the ticket, going 80 in a 60 on his way home.
I have a business and have stopped buying, trading and dealing in that city which has cost them thousands of dollars in revenue.
I now deal with another close by small city. Buying business vehicles, parts, supplies, dinner, breakfast, food, lumber, computers, building materials, gas, and so on. I even switched my insurance to a provider in that city.
People in Ohio can do the same! Take control in this manner! Do business in another town or city!!! Even move out if you can- show them their tyranny will not be tolerated!!!
A large chicago suburb turned off their RLCs when people stopped shopping there because of them. They were preying on right-on-red into the big shopping malls and shopping centers. On the city level it is the best way to deal with bogus tickets. Hit their tax revenue.
Northern Italy responded to the crises of the 14th century in a remarkable way — with further innovation. In short succession Genoa developed insurance, insurance pools secured by landed estates, and reinsurance. Exchanges sprang up for trading public debt, commodity futures, and other commercial paper.
Bankruptcy law and the settlement of international trade disputes reached new levels of sophistication. Accounting became widespread and double-entry bookkeeping was born. As a result of their cumulative breakthroughs in institutions and technology, Europeans became the first merchants to travel and trade around the entire globe.
The Birth of Insurance. Nick Szabo.
http://szabo.best.vwh.net/insurance.html
The insurance pool consists of many counterparties, each pledging his entire property as security. Often these were feudal lords with large landholdings, so the value that could be brought to bear to back these insurance contracts was vast.
This is how Lloyds Names still work today. Since several Names back a single contract (e.g. covering a single shipment of goods, as here), each Name puts only a tiny fraction of their estate at risk in that voyage.
An insurance exchange like Lloyds allows the agents of goods owners, shippers, and Names to meet and mass-produce these kinds of contracts. Such occurred, albeit in a more sporadic and awkward way, in 15th century Genoa. Here we see an early contract that is still structured legally as a loan, by the neat trick of simply making the initial loan a fictional payment.
This insurance contract was still, legally speaking, a loan. This had at least two interesting consequences on what we now call the insurance premium.
Firstly, the premium was treated as goods purchased by the insurer on credit. Secondly, even at this late date, contracts were coy about the actual value of such goods. Leaving the value of those goods unspecified made usury difficult to prove in this “loan”, and as usual the Genoese courts were happy to ignore usury as long as the merchants were being reasonably discrete about it. In the case of insurance, the Church was quick to recognize that what was being paid for here was a real risk, and therefore not usury.
Conceptually, insurance contracts were a big step in the abstraction of risk. Their similarity to gambling would become apparent. The first book on insurance, On Insurance and Merchant’s Bets, makes the connection. It was written by the Portuguese lawyer Pedro de Santarém, also known as Santerna, in 1488, at a time when the Portuguese, financed by Genoese investors, were starting to make many dangerous trading voyages down the west coast of Africa.
Santerna summarized the insurance contract as follows — “I undertake the peril, for your giving me money, as is the understanding of Baldus.”
Santerna argues that the good intentions of the contracting parties must be presumed, even though insurance and betting could be a cloak for usury. Since life is full of uncertain events, everybody by necessity makes bets.
A lawyer must for a variety of reasons be able to determine what the just price (the modern “fair value”) of an insurance contract is. For example, a lawyer must determine whether there was consideration in the contract (under the most common understanding and stemming from Roman law, consideration had to be at least half the just price). In computing damages, the value of the insurance contract is also often relevant.
Also from Santerna — “If someone charges 16 percent in circumstances for which 8 percent is usual, it may be inferred [as a rebuttable presumption] that the insurance was intended to cover a second voyage. If a ship’s master defers sailing until a more dangerous time of year, a price previously just may become unjust.”
By 1488 the Genoese already had a very sophisticated insurance industry, and the Portuguese were making use of it on risky trading voyages down the west coast of Africa.
Genoese investors and commercial practices played a leading role not only in the African trade, but in the colonization of the Atlantic Islands (Azores, Canaries, and Madeiras). The Genoese and Portuguese established sugar plantations and vineyards on these islands; by 1465 Madeieras sugar could be bought in London.
The Portuguese and Genoese would be putting European innovations to even more spectacular use. Their ships were financed by sophisticated investment and insurance schemes, brimmed with European cannon (mostly made in Germany, Hungary, and Northern Italy), used a compass new to Europe, measured velocity for dead reckoning with the help of the sand glass, and measured location with newly printed navigation tables and ephemerides.
In 1492 the Genoese navigator Christopher Columbus, seeking Asian spices by a westward route, discovered America. Columbus from early in his career was an agent for Genoese investors in the Madeira islands.
The Madeiras were an early Atlantic conquest of the Portuguese crown and Genoese investors. Columbus’ voyage to find a westward route to the Indies was backed by a consortium of Castilian and Genoese investors. The Genoese also plaid a substantial role in funding the subsequent Spanish colonization of the Americas by Columbus and his successors.
In 1498 the Portuguese Vasco Da Gama, following up on previous Portuguese exploration and trading voyages down the coast of Africa to the southern hemisphere, pioneered the sea route to the Orient from the Atlantic shores of Europe, via the Cape of Good Hope (South Africa).
There followed large numbers of commercial spice fleets, funded by Genoese, Venetian, and German merchants among others. The Portuguese royal fleet and privateers, both often financed by loans from these same investors, conquered or purchased Hormuz, Malacca (near modern Singapore), Goa, and Macau, gaining control of the vast wealth of the Southeast Asian sea trade, and trading spices and other Oriental wealth to Western Europe for silver, a commodity quite scarce in Southeast Asia but highly useful for oiling the transactions of Southeast Asian trade.
Chinese and Arabs, by contrast, despite having been more advanced than Europe in navigation and shipping for so many centuries, had not even come close to pioneering the route around Africa in the opposite direction or discovering for the world the unknown continents of North and South America.
The Portuguese’ cleverly capitalized and insured ships carried out silver from Europe and gold from West Africa, and returned a variety of goods such as spices that Europe craved. That such a small society could put so much money into such very risky enterprises — and reap vast profits in the process — was completely unprecedented.
The Portuguese, a century before just a tiny little country of sleepy fishing villages in an obscure corner of the world, in short order conquered the strategic points of Chinese, Indian, and Arab trading routes and became masters of the Oriental sea trade.
It was the most shocking development in world history to date, and pioneered the way for other Europeans to follow.
Nobody is more anti-state than I, but the solutions I have been reading the most will only be effective in the short term at best.
If you are going to shoot the camera’s; then a high powered BB gun is much preferable to the easy to hear .22 rifle unless you use shorts as the ammo. Additionally, .22 longs, long rifle, or magnums could damage other things or people if used on streets with tall buildings. Here is a video of someone using a long air gun to kill 55 chipmunks in one day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEwnqmlYCZ0 I would think that it has enough power and precision to break or badly mar a camera lense. I am not recommending any certain pellet or BB gun, but I will tell you that you need to do research before buying one because most of the ones available are not nearly as powerful or as accurate as the one being used in that video. The standard Daisey BB rifle that many boys used to be given are quite weak by comparison, and I have no idea whether or not they can break camera lenses from 30 to 100+ feet. I have no experience with paint ball rifles so I have no comments about them. I will state an obvious fact that could be overlooked by camera shooters of all types; the camera will record the exact second that its’ lense gets destroyed. Your cell phone or GPS will likewise record where you were at that exact time. Also, in urban area’s, other camera’s probably will see you doing it. You must use semi-clever tactics to pull something like this off safely.
Having said all of that: I do not believe that shooting cameras is an effective solution because the TICs (Tyrants In Charge) are already implementing solutions to remove that vulnerability from us via tiny high resolution camera’s mounted very high up, and the demand for drone purchases by coproach departments in the U.S.: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/08/drone-list-domestic-police-law-enforcement-surveillance_n_2647530.html . Once your local PD obtains the potentially armed survelliance drones and flies them over your community at low cost 24/7/365 days; then even refusing to pay for the tickets will be fruitless unless the nationally corrupt judicial system interferes. Coproaches do not care about legal technicalities unless the local black dress wearing judge orders them to do so.
So what is the solution? I do not know! My guess is that we have to somehow get a sizable percentage of the masses to actually like rational thinking rather than to avoid it like the plague! Since the state hires so many people; most people probably have friends, family members, or at least know of a person that they like who works for the state, or are dependent upon it’s social payments and they are unlikely to ever turn against them. I therefore believe that the most effective way is to get as many people as possible to get the habit of rational thought so that when the state collapses and their friends become untethered to it via job and benefit loss. We can’t just wait until that time because most people seem to change their thinking habits slowly over time and would likely vigorously support replacing a failed system with a nearly identical one. The definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again while expecting different results. The masses of people in nearly all if not all countries are clearly insane at the present time!
My solution is to bring about a wide variety of vastely different voluntary societies which have no coercive rulers. The control freaks who wish to remain our parasites will of course oppose such an idea, but the people who have come to realize that they are individuals who have full self-governing abilities would probably love it. All any community would need to do is to agree to the Non Aggression Principle. With the NAP in place: People who desired to be told what to do could live in a community of others just like themselves so long as they do not forcefully expand their area.
If anyone has a better solution than the one I have just presented: Then let’s hear it. I am always opedn-minded about pro-individual liberty solutions.
Cam painting drones? Swarms of them perhaps? Costs of the tech to do this is falling like a rock, just sayin…
Hell, once the location of a few robbery cams are known “missions” could take a few out at a time. launch these from hidden areas maybe with “disposable” drones eventually. They would have no idea where they came from. Tech enslaves as it frees us this all can cut both ways, up to the sharp to hold this line.
Have you ever been tboned by a red light runner? I have. I wish the intersection had cameras. The van took off left me upside down. Oh well. Perhaps the answer would be using the cameras for informational purposes only.
David Brin warned us about this decades ago in “The Transparent Society.”
Of course, we had to have the cameras so the Authoritarians among us could “solve crime” to “keep people safe.” That hasn’t happened – but we don’t have access to the cameras, either.
Those are about the only two options available, too:
1. Everyone can use the cameras, public access.
2. Only the “anointed” among us may use the cameras – meaning, police, which inevitably leads to abuse of power via fines and extortion (same diff.)
” The definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again while expecting different results.”
You mean like voting?
Since we are “licensed” to drive, speeding aught not even be a crime – but a regulatory violation. Nothing wrong with the cameras from that point of view. Besides, ANYTHING that reduces encounters with nazi search without warrants “law enforcement” brightens my day.
Yes it has been coming for years, It could probably been stopped but it wasn’t. Private roads would probably not have looters patrolling because they would likely exist from tolls. Insurance should be one’s choice not a government mandate, Perhaps you choose what you think you can afford and pay the rest from out of pocket when sued. Of course where there is a technology there is a hack and the market will surely the market will supply something undetectable to obfuscate the cameras ability to get a clear picture. dirt, dust , special clear paint or tag covers.
I heard that this website was blocked from Google Search Engine, which cut lots of ad revenue.
But today I searched “Eric Peters Auto” on google, this site came up first.
Does Google lift the block?
Sorry to ask ask this unrelated question. I told my friends this story, and concluded that Google is not an unbiased company. They said I was lying because they found this site very easily on google.
If you could, please send me some page links that points to the old news of “Eric being blocked by google”. Thanks! [email protected]
The “block” is in google adsense ratings, not search when specifically looking for this site. There might be some down rating in search results when looking for something covered here in general, if looking for reviews of some model or such.
Hi Allen,
The issue is Google Ads (Adsense). They blackslisted the site more than a year ago. Or rather, kicked us down into the basement.
As you may know, Google effectively controls Internet advertising. Most companies do not pay a web site directly for advertising space – the way it used to work. Instead, you let Google be the middleman and get paid not for the space the ads use but for “clicks” based on Google’s opaque criteria, which they do not divulge. This criteria is subject to alteration at their whim, no explanation given.
So, they can cripple a site at will by cutting ad revenue by 50-75 percent or more (as they did to us).
And there’s nothing one can do about it.
Thanks All for the info!
No victim no crime. Can you imagine our nation without “civil” infractions? I can and it would be a lot nicer place to live.
Lucky for me I live in a County that no longer has a single stop light, let alone these monstrosities.
Lucky you. where… Loving County, Texas ?
I’ve been predicting this for years. Once it becomes economical to have cameras on every street corner, they will do it. Motorists will get several tickets by mail every day. It will seem reasonable at first — only drivers going 20 mph over the speed limit will be ticketed, perhaps for $10 a pop. Then the limit will be lowered to 10, then 5, then 0 — while the fine increases. This is how Big Brother operates. We will then be much father along the road to being a nation of sheep.
Orwell was a prophet.
I do not have the answers but at some point the only way to resist will be with violence. There has to be a breaking point and my guess is it will be something that otherwise would be just a minor incident that produces the backlash.
Clovers just cannot understand just how much anger they are putting inside of people.
1). If you read the libertarian literature, roads would be privately owned and policed. So in the libertarian utopia you would probably have the same thing.
2) How do you recommend that roads be policed?
3) What should replace mandatory insurance?
I’d argue that there’s a difference with something you agree to be a part of (a contract) vs. something you’re forced to be a part of (government).
With the case of private roads, I’m willing to bet there’d be far allowance made for so-called “speeding” vs. what I see on government-built roads.
There is no requirement that roads be privately owned or there be no such thing as the public way. Roads get so much attention because statists resort to “what about the roads” when they cornered on countless other topics where property rights and voluntary society has the moral high ground. Many libertarians decided to take the bait and come up with answers. I don’t. I say reduce government to the point where it is no longer government but just the board of managers of the roads. This works better than arguing details of the roads.
Furthermore it is not like statists have ever come up with a complete package that works. They are constantly reforming, which is an admission they don’t have a complete answer so why should libertarians? Libertarianism admits that such complete solutions are unworkable because one size does not fit all, hence the idea of liberty.
I don’t believe roads need to be policed. Policing the roads has been a fleecing operation that developed with automobile. Before then best I can tell there wasn’t any of significance. The automobile was the new technology that government exploited for more power, control, and revenue. Largely the roads today are not policed anyway and when they are only certain things are chosen and then 99 times out of a 100 or more there isn’t any sort of issue caused by so-called violator.
I like to use this street scene from 1906:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLVBp8X8YTk
This morning as usually happens most times I drive, someone changed lanes in front of me forcing me to take action to avoid them. That’s the sort of thing “the law” has caused because that’s legal. Notice in 1906 people darting about but without causing others to take evasive action. Another thing these films are good for is the anti-car crowd who believe roads are wide for the automobile. Wide roads have been around since before the motor car and always will be unless such control freaks get their way to cripple the ability to go from a to b. In any case the past shows us that “the law” and its enforcers aren’t really required. What we need is civilized people and top down management has been a decivilzing force.
Hi George,
In principle, of course, the owner of any thing has the right to set “terms and conditions” of use, which we’re either free to accept or reject. But I agree with Brent and others that “policing” isn’t necessary. Or rather, punishing people for harms not caused isn’t justified.
Which brings me to insurance. It’s an example of punishing people for things they’ve not done (well, harm not caused). Instead of mandating that people pay out money for insurance, why not simply hold people responsible (accountable) for harm they cause? In other words, if I lose control of my vehicle and damage yours (or hurt you) then I am morally obligated to compensate you for the damage (and if my actions rise to the level of criminality rather than mistaken judgment, then perhaps punished, too).
But if I have not harmed you or your property, then I shouldn’t be treated as though I had. Mandatory insurance does exactly that. Presumption of harm caused; a form of “pre-crime,” if you think about it.
Yes, I know. It is possible I might cause harm. But that’s just as true of my fists as it is of my car. Should people be required to buy assault and battery insurance, too? How about chainsaw insurance? Insurance to possess a 5 gallon jug of gas? The possible “what ifs” are endless.
But “harm caused” is a clear, objective – and individual – standard. You’re not punished for things you might do – or which others might do. Only held responsible for what you’ve actually done (if it causes harm to others).
Seem reasonable?
mandating that people pay out money for insurance, why not simply hold people responsible (accountable) for harm they cause?
1). How do you hold people responsible who cannot pay a judgement? That is why people need insurance.
2) What you think is reasonable is irrelevant in the libertarian utopia as the roads will be privately owned and have their own rules. They might not require insurance but I think a privately would certainly demand proof of insurance to protect themselves.
chainsaw insurance? Ideally people would not be able to operate equipment they could not afford to operate. One cost of operating a chain saw is insurance. Most homeowners require contractors to have insurance to work on their property. Why can homeowners demand proof of insurance but not the government?
Hi George,
You presume that people cannot pay a judgment (that is, for harm they cause) and also that mandating insurance will eliminate the problem of deadbeats.
Has it?
And how much money would you have in the bank if you had not been forced to buy insurance? I did some quick math once and discovered that I’d have about $25,000 – excluding investment/interest income (and lost opportunity cost). That’s the base sum I’ve been forced to hand over to the car insurance mafia over 20 years. I’ve not so much as scratched anyone’s fender during that time. But my money is gone. If I still had it, I could pay out of pocket for all but a major wreck – which is not likely (see point about being accident-free for decades).
The moral point at issue remains: The fact that there are deadbeats and ne’er do wells (people who cause harm and “cannot pay judgments”) does not justify treating everyone as a presumptive deadbeat and ne’er do well. Your logic is the same logic used by the “gun control” crowd. A criminal shoots up a theater – treat people who had nothing to do with it as if they had (or probably will) shoot up a theater.
On your second point: Perhaps. But it would be non coercive. Unlike the system in place today. You’d have the option of not using such a road. Or using another road.
On chainsaw insurance. I don’t have any. It is not required to buy or to use a chainsaw. Some homeowners may not hire a contractor who isn’t insured… but that is not relevant to the point. See above.
Insurance pays for your legal costs too.
As far as I know insurers pay as they are required to.
I believe in some states you can post a bond inlieu of insurance but you would be I’ll advised to do so as legal costs are a big problem.
If highways were privately owned I would think they would require even more stringent standards for driving and insurance than the gov. You are on gov owned roads so they make the rules.
Is it possible you might screw up and cause $1 million of damage? Could you pay for the damage and legal defense? Then you need insurance. I suggest 5 million limits.
Taking personal responsibility means having a high limit policy. You are not perfect. You can get into an accident and cause serious injury.
Just like the self-service gas pump, check out, Travelocity, et cetera shifted the burden and expense of menial employees to forcing the customers to work for free, mandatory insurance shifted the burden of restitution from the offenders to their victims as paid in full policy holders. Insurance replaced bondage or debtor’s prison as a viable form of restitution.
“What should replace mandatory insurance?”
That will vary quite a bit with who owns the road. Roads in (and possibly leading to) HOA’s will generally be owned by the HOA. Membership in the HOA will likely be considered sufficient proof of assumption of liability for yourself and your guests.
Similarly, business associations would probably own the roads in or leading to shopping districts, and they would not want to make it onerous to go shopping.
You get the idea.
What some younger people forget, or perhaps just don’t realize, is that mandatory car insurance in the United States is a relatively recent phenomenon. New York state was the earliest in the mid-1950s. However most states did not follow suit until the 1970s. (I believe that New Hampshire may still not require insurance.)
So for decades car insurance was not a requirement for driving on the public roads. What this means is that if we discuss the topic of making insurance optional it is not some strange, radical new idea. It is the way things were.
One’s own insurance policy normally has a provision that covers damage caused by uninsured drivers. (Someone who was so damaged and also did not have a policy would of course be out of luck!)
Even driver’s licenses were not universally required in every state until the 1950s. (The last holdout was South Dakota, which did not require driver’s licenses until 1954. To be fair, most of the states did jump on the license bandwagon much earlier.)
For any of you whom are very well aware of the Private criminal Banking enterprise that has gripped this country for well over one hundred years, this so called Auto-Insurance is but a scam once again.
Auto Insurance is forced upon us under color of law. Like Eric’s case above, that is how Auto Insurance used to be. Today, it is FORCED-BANKING under color of law. You are forced to throw money away at the bankers so you can drive to work and raise a family or live your life in (cough) freedom.
Just the topic of Auto Insurance will take up our entire board here and I could fill volumes of how and why it’s a well hidden fraudulent scam perpetrated upon us under color of law to fleece us dry.
As for photo radar and tickets, since a postal clerk cannot serve you, and no uniformed “officer of the court” has served you, the first move is no-move-at-all. If you receive one of these tickets in the mail and you call them or logon, consider yourself Served! Read the mailed ticket carefully with a yellow highlighter and you will find the legal jargon to beat it if you wish. There are three branched of government: Executive, Legislative and Judicial. I assure you that everyone here is well aware of the Judicial branch, tickets, cops, courts, etc.
But a Photo ticket is issued by the Executive Branch! It’s like your Water Authority sending you a letter that you violated ABC123XYZ (an executive branch code) and you mail them the money! It’s extortion plain and simple. When you realize that the Judicial branch in your area has Nothing to do with that (cough) ticket….you are on your way to beating it. They make YOU make a court date, etc….and they also cannot make you testify against yourself by identifying…awww, never mind.
“Your honor, I was driving to work yesterday and my car told me he got a ticket. I responded back to him through one of my radio speakers “Get a Lawyer!”
Fight Back!
“DUTY OF THE ‘COMMON LAW’ GRAND JURY – If anyone’s unalienable rights have been violated, or removed,
without a legal sentence of their peers, from their lands, home, liberties or lawful right, we [the twenty-five] shall straightway restore them. And if a dispute shall arise concerning this matter it shall be settled according to the judgment of the twenty-five Grand Jurors, the sureties of the peace. MAGNA CARTA, JUNE 15, A.D. 1215, 52.”
I live in P.C.ville, an affluent college town that’s forever pleading poverty, where the meter people are ruthless, racing around to ticket vehicles moments before the time for issuing citations expires for the night. Eventually both the meters and the numbered parking spaces will be equipped with mini-camera chips to photo the plates of vehicles the instant their time expires. Likewise vehicles not clearing an intersection before the lite turns red and vehicles proceeding a mile or two over the speed limit.
The check on this abuse will be public protest. So the town will exempt important people in town, possibly the elderly and others whom it would look bad to take advantage of. Students — yum — will be fair game. In this “war on motorists,” local merchants could be enlisted as allies if the public refuses to come to town and spend their money, preferring the large shopping malls that offer free or inexpensive parking. A bit of poetic justice when this big-box-hating town sends its residents flocking to Wal Mart and Tar-jay. But I think the town won’t care.
I live in Scottsdale, AZ, and ride a Harley. What I hate about the red light cams are that they are conditioning people to slam on there brakes as soon as the light turns yellow. Bikes do not stop as quick as cars and it has happened more than once that someone in a cage in front of me slams on there brakes and comes to a complete stop before the light even turns red and I have to do everything I can to prevent myself from rear-ending them. And no, it’s not because I’m tailgating. It’s because people are scared to death of receiving a ticket in the mail.
” Bikes do not stop as quick as cars ” what kind of crap bike are you driving? I stop ten times faster than anything out there, and that is the problem. the cars BEHIND me!
That
Robin Lees is either a real prick or an idiot or both. I can say this since I live in Youngstown, Ohio. It is deindustrialized. The only real jobs go to a fortunate few, sometimes by luck of the draw, mostly, though, through knowing someone. Various recovery programs have certain individuals who will do some hiring of worthy individuals; that is about it.
This is how bad it is. The competition for scrap material is ferocious. Yet we apparently need our money drained away so our politicos can urinate it away.
Chief Lees (I had to capitalize “Chief”) said years ago after a big heroin bust, “We’ve broken the back of the H distribution network in this town”. This was right when The Taliban was being persecuted in Afghanistan. Since they eliminated 90 pc of the opium trade I wonder if that was the reason. Well now we have more od’s than ever.
At this time a cop has to hold the camera. I’m sure that will change. Maybe they’ll use the mulcted “traffic revenue” for “treatment centers” in the WAR ON DRUGS!!
Hi Michael!
Greetings & Salutations from Akron! You’re right, the recession has NOT left Ohio, that’s for sure. There’s all kinds of minimum wage jobs here, but that’s about it.
That was a pretty good take for Youngstown – $100,000. Even if they did have to give $35,000 of it to a private company. Yeah, they found a way to skirt the new law didn’t they? A cop has to be present when the ticket is issued. Remember that new law? http://www.wcpo.com/news/state/state-ohio/bill-expected-to-put-traffic-cameras-out-of-business-in-ohio
I don’t know about Youngstown, but here in Akron, it costs $100 to go to court to fight the automated tickets. So they get their money either way. Our cameras are in school zones during the school year. Akron just rebuilt all its schools, even moving many to new locations. They should put schools AWAY from main roads, but noooo, they have to put them where there is the most daily traffic. I go AROUND school zones.
We’ve been averaging 4-5 heroin deaths per week here in Summit County. First responders are now ASSUMING that if the call is for an unresponsive person it’s an O.D. Yes, they should take the money from “traffic revenue” and use it to fight this heroin epidemic. God help us!
Chicago’s speed camera law is “for the children” and they must be located within some radius of a park or school. Well that radius and the scattered little parks and schools all over the city means that they can put speed cameras pretty much everywhere. Irving park road goes through a large cemetery where the road widens. People speed up there. No issue in doing so. No history of collisions or problems. Two blocks north there is a tiny little dog/playlot park. Just a tiny strip of land between the cemetery and the railroad tracks. Guess where a speed camera was placed?
“For the children” – I cringe every time I hear that phrase. They love to use that double-edged sword. You’re considered a moral Leper if you go against anything that’s “for the children.” Whenever I hear that phrase I picture a criminal taunting you to shoot them while standing behind a group of children.
Dottie:
I was being scarcastic abort the treatment centers since the WAR ON DRUGS is phony. Research it.
Michael, what the “chief” said is just for PR. It’s preposterous on its face. During the Iraq war debacle of the shrub(second time around), the UN and US troops were tasked with protecting the poppy farmers. They never had it so good and their production went through the roof.
It was about this time the S. American drug cartels started into their own poppy business. Now, there is a ecologically damaging “war” going on in virtually every S. American country due to hundreds of thousands of acres of land being deforested and made into poppy fields. The world is virtually awash in heroin.
I’d suspect it’s gotten very cheap too although I have no way of knowing.
Weaponization of Social Media
http://forsvaret.dk/FAK/eng/publications/Documents/The%20Weaponization%20of%20Social%20Media.pdf
This sucker’s 124 pages, but I would recommend reading any individual page out of it even, if you don’t have time for the whole thing.
The nation-state is rapidly becoming a dinosaur these days. Other than the bottom of the barrel morons like our clover, people get their “info-tainment” from some kind of new media purveyor. Like epautos, voat, and liveleak in my case, for example.
Most people are plugged into Bill O’Reilly, New York Times, Yahoo News, or some other source of identity-sustaining spigot, and these have become more influential than the government itself I would say.
At what point do people say “enough”? Folks were/are less likely to take action when the issuer of the paying paper is a jackboot with a badge, but an electronic box?
A well-aimed .22 short will put one out of commission with minimal noise. The silly string is cute, but it doesn’t really solve the problem. They’ll only get the point when people act with some malice. of course, you don’t want to be the sap they make an example of, but this has got to stop.
It’s getting to the point where they are pushing some folks into a corner, and with little to nothing to lose, the unintendended consequences may get ugly. I moved to NYC early last year and gave up my car and only rent cars from time to time. We drove across the U.S. last month, getting as far as Wyoming. We are waiting for the mail right now, wondering what goodies await us once the paperwork tracks back to the renter (me). I’m sure I’ll be on the receiving end. I managed to get all 22 miles from Wyoming before we picked up our lone paying paper ($178) for exceeding the posted limit on an empty Nebraska road…….empty except for me, my wife and some pork. Which reminds me, I missed the deadline to pay…..that’s gonna cost me.
“enough” I think you will find a few cop killers in the black community that have already gotten there re: searches without warrants.
Kinda like “Psycho history” Escher?At some point this madness has to start breaking down,no wonder,so many young people opt out of car ownership now.
We used to have a run through a town on a major highway ,using underpowered,heavily laden trucks,you tried you best(there were over 30 stoplights(some photo enforced) to stop at the lights ,I’m really surprised that the Boss didnt recieve a truckload of tickets(or is there a selective process on whom,recieves tickets)?
“Silly Stringâ„¢” can be used to “blind” these cameras. Municipalities would have a hard time proving “vandalism” as the “Silly Stringâ„¢” can be wiped off without deleterious effect
What a great idea! Love it!
I prefer to EMP the things.
Used to be you could make a crude but effective EMP for about $20. No idea the range, but placed near the mechanism, doesn’t matter if it’ll reach 150 feet or half a mile.
Using a device like that with a crude timing mechanism, followed up with a retrieval run afterwards? Timer sets it off at midnight or so, you come by about 1 AM, retrieve if possible…. No evidence.
Put the device under a postal mail box or attach to a lamp post or hydrant or in a trash can… Even if it takes $1,000 for you to do it – how much would it cost the city? And even when they put in cameras for other purposes, you just rode your bike in the area, had to check something, and rode off again…. Nothing happened around the time of the malfunction.
thoughts?
JEAN, I have no expertise here so maybe someone who does can set me straight. But what about some type of magnet or other equipment in a car or van that is driven by the cameras causing them to malfunction? I am thinking along the lines of Breaking Bad where they erased the computers in the police evidence locker.
Possible?
In Europe destroying speed cameras seems to be a sport. They have many methods. Personally I think the tire filled with gasoline has the most flare.
Now if one is looking for a non-contact solution it’s more difficult. Many camera enforcement devices use (or used) expensive digital SLR cameras. Just like one would buy in the store, just wired up to the rest of the system. So inform the local Ne’er-do-well youth what treasure may await them in the steel camera boxes and let nature take its course.
In the red county seat near my town, the red light cameras were removed for safety reasons three years ago.
http://www.wbaltv.com/news/maryland/carroll-county/Red-light-cameras-deactivated-in-Westminster/15482952
None left here after courts ruled that an obscure state law required 90% of all revenue (not profit) from RLC tickets had to go to the local school system where the RLC was installed.
Here in Florida (Tampa area) one of the local news stations did an investigative report on these Red Light cameras and found that part of the “contract” with the private company that provides these “services” involved shortening the Yellow Light cycle to the bare minimum of about 3 seconds which makes it virtually impossible for anyone to stop in time and thereby “forcing” them to get a ticket!
Luckily this caught the eye of a few legislative rep’s that had enough pull to get the State to increase the yellow light timing cycle to closer to 5 seconds.
As one could logical predict – revenues have dropped drastically to the point that several local gov’ts have started to slow down installation of RL cameras and in some cases even start decommissioning them and not renew the contracts. (The City of Tampa is not one of them as they are addicted to the revenue)
Unfortunately I don’t remember the name of the company that promotes and profits from these cameras but I do remember they only go by 3initials and not their real incorporated name (I wonder why?) and they were based in …wanna guess? (CHITCAGO).
There are still too many damn cameras however – almost makes one wish for another Carrington Event or an EMP to put a stop to this shit!
There are no RLC companies based in Chicago. The City of Chicago previously contracted with Redflex of Australia. They were chosen because they paid the right people. Standard business practices for Redflex. I had red of their practices prior to them getting the Chicago contract. As usual I was called a tin foil hat conspiracy theorist when I said the program was crooked, was taking advantage of Chicago’s historically short yellows etc. I was told how all the research didn’t apply because it wasn’t done here, yadda yadda yadda. Years later various players are going to prison, redflex is out, there’s been a scandal with the new vendor (xerox traffic systems) and 2.9 second yellow signals, etc and so on.
Redflex is the company you are thinking of. I call them Redfucks. Private companies participating in scamming. Similar to the nigerians, but with gov’t approval. Redfucks stock is now sitting at $0.27 per share. 4 years ago Macquarie Bank in Australia offered redfucks shareholders $2.75 for each share. The criminal shareholders refused the offer. Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now their asses are grass. The cessation of business for redfucks cannot happen soon enough.
Thanks for the comment Brent – maybe I should clarify what I was trying to get at – the illegal “payment” for the RL Camera ticket I got a year or so ago was mailed to a CHITCAGO address – sorry for the confusion.
How much is SkyLabs willing to pay ME to not incapacitate all their ticket robots? Not enough to prevent it, methinks… Now where did I leave my paitball gun…?
You’ve got the right idea, Texas Chris, the inhabitants of very town cursed with these abominations should form a mob armed with cans of spray paint and paintball guns and go out and blind all of these revenue collectors. A 12 gauge would be even better but a bit too loud 🙂 . Then they’d have to put up cameras to watch the cameras, in an ever expanding Orwellian game of leapfrog. Don’t think they could afford to post an actual porker 24/7 to watch each location but the PTB won’t give up trying to find more efficient ways to milk us mundanes.
Another tactic would be for everyone to just refuse to pay; a “private” company’s only recourse then would be to take everyone to court, which considering the volume would gum up the works fairly quickly .
Since we’re both Locals, Mike –
The 12 gauge would be best used when applied to the ruler’s kneecaps. Liberally. Until they’re all in wheelchairs.
THEN we make the demand to remove the cameras….
We’re at the point where wetwork is the only solution, and most people know it – but aren’t up to the task.
That might include me, I’m not sure… 😛
With rapidly advancing AI technology combined with information harvesting from Google and the NSA, next stop is Pre-crime.
Happening in San Francisco already, they ran or are running the tests now.