Red Light Cameras and Politicians. . . a Nightmare for Citizens
Recently in the news, there was an article that made me want to scream. If this doesn't prove that these politicians will use any excuse in the book to cram red light cameras down our throats in the name of public safety, (even though we all know it's all about revenue) than nothing will.
It was about a city of Parkland Commissioner, Jared Moskowitz, who was on his way to a Miami Heat game and whose car was struck by a man who had just STOLEN a car. Now, that's a bad story and I don't wish that on anyone. But it's what happened next that's the crazy part.
As a reader of this blog, you well know that we constantly bring up the hypocrisy of these politicians when it comes to traffic tickets, specifically red light cameras and how they are about revenue and not safety.
Well, after this incident happened to Commissioner Moskowitz, what do you think he decided to do? Increase police presence to cut down on crime and perhaps reduce the number of stolen vehicles? No, don't be silly. He's demanding red light cameras be installed throughout Parkland. The real evil here, according to the commissioner, is that there was not a red light camera at the intersection. For, as his logic allows, if there was, the man who had just committed a felony and shown a complete disregard of the law by stealing a car, clearly would have stopped at the light instead of running it and thus avoided the collision with Mr. Moskowitz.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
To even insinuate that a meaningless fine is going to affect the judgment of an individual who clearly has no regard for the laws of our society and the fear of going to jail, by stating that a red light camera might have prevented all this is truly comical. The problem is, it's hard to laugh when these are actually the reasons given for more red light cameras.
At the end of the article, he continued by saying that if there were a camera, perhaps it might have provided a picture of the person that hit him and presumably this would help curb or solve crime. Again, what's so pathetic about that statement is that these cameras don't take a picture of the person driving! The commissioner would know that if he read this blog, as I've been writing about these cameras for years and how one of the problems is that the state is only concerned with issueing tickets to owners of vehicles, not drivers who commit violations.
All I can say is it's our fault for electing these people. We need to become more involved in choosing our elected officials so that we can have laws in place that reflect the will of the people and not the will of the lobbyists.
Related Articles:
Why I Hate Red Light Cameras
Beating Red Light Camera Tickets
Red Light Cameras. . . it's the Economy Stupid