Legendary talk show host Jay Leno views speed cameras as one of the reasons the UK no longer feels like a free country. Appearing Sunday on the top-rated BBC show Top Gear, Leno suggested that as a visitor, the number of cameras in England is overwhelming. He also suggested that US drivers have a much less tolerant attitude toward photo enforcement. “See in L.A., people would say, ‘why not just shoot them out?'” Leno said. “In L.A., a day doesn’t go by you don’t see a styrofoam cup stuck over the lens of the speed camera.” The line about shooting speed cameras drew both laughter and great applause from the crowd. Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson even appeared momentarily surprised at his counterpart’s suggestion of vigilantism.
The US public has become increasingly aggressive against the use of automated ticketing machines. A pair of Montgomery County, Maryland, photo radar units this week found themselves covered with spray paint. One unit had its lens covered with red paint and the second had black paint cover two lens squares and a straight line offering something of the look of a smiley face. The speed cameras were installed to issue tickets to the visitors of a nearby country club located on Seven Locks Road.
A similar incident was reported in the state of Arizona over the weekend. A member of Camerafraud.com snapped a photo of a speed camera on State Route 51 that had its lens covered in black spray paint (view photo).
UK vigilantes, however, have been far from inactive. This week a speed camera in Kent on the A21 just before the bridge near Tonbridge was set on fire and destroyed. Although Leno referred to speed cameras being defeated with styrofoam cups, he was actually referring to red light cameras. California law prohibits the use of cameras to issue speeding tickets. San Jose was the last city in the Golden State to give up on photo radar in 2007 after a court ruling chastised local officials for defying the law.
With the recent TTAC posts about recent court rulings… should I mention any of these things when I go to MY court date for a photo radar ticket in the District of Columbia?
When complacent citizens do nothing about un-just laws, they just keep writing more. These cameras are NOT supported by the majority of the community. They people trying to implement them are NOT serving their constituents. They should be run out of office and perhaps be fined/prosecuted.
OnStar can tell you how fast you are going maybe they should start auto-sending tickets and see how many pay without questioning.
Next step in totalitarianism – speed and red light cameras are “officers of the law”, and tampering with them rises above simple vandalism, or, in the case of things like Styrofoam cups, really nothing, to “assault on an officer”.
Things are completely going to hell in the UK:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1145581/Body-charge-UK-policing-policy-18m-year-brand-charging-public-70-60p-criminal-records-check.html
celebrity208:
No. You’re wasting a day if you go to court without a lawyer.
Find a local lawyer that used to work in the local DA’s office and have him fight it for you. He will most likely get it dismissed for you, but you won’t be establishing any precedent. At least you’ll be funding a local traffic defense attorney instead of an international surveillance company.
Jay Leno is a patriot.
Perhaps these camera destruction projects should get real funding from the very same groups who try to educate the populous about the lack of correlation between speed and accidents.
Or it could be funded by watchdogs for America’s freedom.
On the other hand it could set off a backlash. Perhaps this one is something better fought in the supreme court.
Bad news, Jay. The “used to have freedom now have fascism” pendulum just swung badly back the other way, towards what used to be the United States of America.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/031959.html
Your papers, please.
Jay is a legend and was very funny on TG. Rumours are also abounding that this could have been the last ever TG as JC was expounding the theory that the V12 Vantage was the best of the best and probably the last thing like it we will see….surely not !!
Need to get Leno back to Detroit for the DreamCruise.
Jay leno is the celebrity that I most admire. Gotta’ see his appearance on Top Gear after I get home from work.
Our local town, Tomball, TX has one set up so that if you roll into the pedestrian walk while the light is turning you get a ticket. Honestly, I stopped and didn’t run through the light making a right turn and I got the ticket anyway. This is bullshit! Revenue generation at the municipal level has become the primary objective of our public servants.
“When complacent citizens do nothing about un-just laws, they just keep writing more. These cameras are NOT supported by the majority of the community”
I guess people got tired of speeders speeding and killing people in accidents.
Don’t eve blame the politicians. The problem is a large number of citizens are stupid, greedy and unconsciencious.
The politicians didn’t just up and put speed cameras down – the people demanded it.
This is a war between citizens.
“just shoot them out”
Yeah – with an RPG.
Brits no longer have the means to shoot out much of anything. The numbskulls let themselves get suckered out of those years ago. At least the law abiding ones. The ones that do retain some shooting means, seem to prefer using them for personal revenue enhancement. The way their oppressors will undoubtedly use theirs, should some poor, hapless sap decide not to comply with robbery by camera alone.
Maybe, with a bit of luck, once robbery of the officially sanctioned kind reaches levels where it starts cutting into the earnings power of the non sanctioned one, the oppressed might see some action. Must be sad to be stuck on an island where your only hope of salvation from gang rape by the coruptocracy, is a gaggle of Albanian pimps and drug runners.
Flashpoint:
Actually towns wanted more revenue and surveillance companies like Redflex gave them a quick way to get it. The “safety” groups endorsing cameras are all really industry lobbying organizations.
But if one is gullible enough to think that this is about public safety then, well, he is the kind of citizen that the surveillance companies love.
The politicians didn’t just up and put speed cameras down – the people demanded it.
This is a war between citizens.
Bovine excrement. It’s a war between citizens and those who live off their taxes.
Can you cite a single referendum where voters have endorsed traffic control cameras?
No, this is entirely driven by politicians/bureaucrats looking for revenue and for businesses looking for sweetheart deals. Businesses are not ideological, they just want to turn a profit. If they can do so working with government a la cash for clunker or operating red light cameras, they’ll do so.
The trick is to hinder the cameras’ operation without exposing yourself to some kind of vandalism or destroying public property (though if the cameras are actually owned and operated by contractors, they technically are not public property). Disable the camera without permanently damaging it.
My guess is that silly string might work, or some kind of insect spray.
Of course those who live off of taxes will just make it a felony to hinder the operation of state surveillance operations.
Vigilantism, you say!
Here’s a gallery of very satisfying pictures of speed cameras in the UK in various states of…broken-ness.
http://www.speedcam.co.uk/gatso2.htm
I approve. Why not flatten them with a Hummer?
But I think Clarkson, at the sole mention of shooting the cameras might have thought: you bloody primitive cavemen americans…
I think Clarkson looked quite IMPRESSED with the idea of shooting them out. A bit envious even.
And it was nice to see at least one real American (Jay) suggesting that people could actually DO something other than just handing over their hard earned money to the “elected” criminals.
I’m not a big fan of speed cameras and agree they are mainly money collectors for in debt governments that can’t curtail their spending, but I wouldn’t mind seeing more red light cameras, when fairly utilized. I’m fed up with people running red lights and putting everyone else in danger just so they can save a minute.
I wouldn’t mind seeing more red light cameras, when fairly utilized.
Theoretically neither would I, but fairly utilized they’d never come close to paying for themselves.
Pfft. Replace the cameras with something that records, oh, twenty seconds of video on an endless loop. When a microphone detects a really loud sound (ie a crash) stop recording and store the previous twenty seconds of video, then go back to the loop. Give the police keys to get the video out.
That way you have a tool that serves the public (ie helps determine guilt in some intersection accidents *regardless* of which light was what when) without being a revenue stream.
Oh, wait, I forgot — the revenue’s the thing they’re trying to accomplish, not serving the public or helping the police. Nevermind.
In a roundabout way, you want to know who’s partially to blame for municipalities becoming “revenuers”? It’s the right wing. They’re the ones who whine the loudest when the government tells them that they need to increase taxes to pay the bills.
So, instead of asking taxpayers for more money, municipalities and states turn to greedheads like the ones who sell red light cameras, or the ones who build toll roads.
Case in point: here in Denver, they needed a “loop” highway and improvements on I-25 for decades, but when the state asked taxpayers for more money, the rightwingnuts cried bloody hell; you’d think they were asking for a gallon of blood from each of our firstborn children.
So, instead of widening I-25 with taxpzyer money, they did it with bonds, ensuring that we’ll be paying for it for decades to come. And the loop highway, E-470, was built by a private-public “partnership.” The result? If you want to go from the south suburbs to the airport to pick up Grandma, it’ll cost you $14 for a round trip.
Oh, and the tolls are now collected by video cameras, which record your license plate and send you a bill. They once sent me a bill for $90, even though I’d paid the $1.50 toll, and after months of arguments, successfully extorted the fine with the threat of suspending my license.
But, hey, our taxes didn’t go up a whopping $50 a year…thank God, right?
Seriously, folks…if you detest stuff like this, then next time the gummint comes around with its hand out, be a sport and pay up. Otherwise, this is what you get. That, or the firemen can start charging to come to your house. Your choice.
One words:
PaintBall.
Two words:
.50 BMG
Two thoughts about red light and speed cameras:
I agree that they are principally revenue generators. However, it isn’t hard to understand their attraction. People want lots of government services, but don’t want to pay for them with high taxes. A politician with the stones to tell them that they can have only what they are willing to pay for will have a short career.
Most people don’t drive with the exaggerated degree of caution advocated by the safety establishment. They get away with it because the judicial system doesn’t have the manpower to extensively enforce traffic laws. This has always been a source of great frustration for the safety establishment. Automated enforcement, which has the potential to punish everyone for every infraction, is the answer to their prayers.
In my humble burg, enforcement began on the edge of town in a parked van with the camera gear inside. Three days later it was put out of commission; all windows and equipment smashed, photo gear smashed, tires slashed, etc. Then cameras were installed in the town proper. Spray paint seems to show up every couple of weeks and last month it looked as if a magazine of small caliber ammo had been used. Each event must have lead to a truck roll or two, repair actions, police activity, etc.
It seems crazy that the county would continue to deploy a scheme that motivates people to take such extreme measures on a regular basis. It has proven both costly and potentially dangerous.
Just a thought,
How do you suppose the po-po (lack of capitalization, deliberate) would charge someone if the ultimate function of the camera was compromised without actually damaging it? Theoretically…
What is protocol if two strippers are walking down the street on a hot summer day (enthusiastically replenishing the other’s sun amplifying baby oil glaze with water guns) and a few drops were to ricochet off an unnaturally firm F cup, inadvertently smearing the lens?
Public obfuscation?
Just saying.
You don’t need heavy artillery to get rid of a speed camera. The enterprising British have been getting rid of them with a tire, some diesel fuel and a match.
Flashpoint: I guess people got tired of speeders speeding and killing people in accidents.
Somebody still believes the “speed kills” baloney, I see…
Agreed!
I think inattentive, unsure, distracted, and/or slowpoke drivers are responsible for far more accidents and deaths on the roads.
I vote for stricter road-testing. For drivers and cars.
And don’t give me any nay-nay’s about testing cars. Dashboard instruments, seat belts, headlights, turn signals, brake lights (and brakes!) should all be in functioning order before a tag is issued or renewed.
DasFast :
What is protocol if two strippers are walking down the street on a hot summer day (enthusiastically replenishing the other’s sun amplifying baby oil glaze with water guns) and a few drops were to ricochet off an unnaturally firm F cup, inadvertently smearing the lens?
Public obfuscation?
Haha! Honestly, I don’t think there’s any “protocol” for such a situation, although my first inclination would be to smile and compliment them on their lack of tan lines. No obfuscation there!