Click Here to Read John Whitehead's Commentary
Mr. Whitehead,
Your commentary in the holiday issue of the River City Reader is well written and timely. Maybe it will alter the course and cause some positive actions.
During 2005-2008 I was living in UK and experienced the 24/7 surveillance in Britian. I had penned a letter in response to an IEEE article on the London Ring-Of-Steel that tries to debunk some of the propaganda associated with this type of money making scheme. I submit it for your information. It was considered by the IEEE staff, and I was contacted, but it was eventually not published.
Respectfully,
Kenneth K
Dear Mr. Whitehead,
Thank you for your well-researched and well-reasoned piece in today’s daily progress. I was a bit of a fence-sitter on this issue until I read your column today. Now, I’m steamed, and will contact our officials, referencing your article.
Appreciatively,
Malcolm H.
While I agree that more round the clock surveillance on all aspects of our life is a common goal...After having dealt with the bureaucracy in Irving, TX (large suburb of Dallas) and reading the information on the red light cameras in Austin I am thoroughly convinced that the all might dollar is the number one motivating factor in these cities. My personal experience was spending lots of time and money defending against two of these tickets I received months after I had sold the car that they were received in....They wanted money....They were not overly concerned with who, what or where I was. And the fact that most of these are privatized in Phoenix, AZ makes it even worse. You can't deal with local officials....Instead you get some faceless voice in a call center that is only interested in soaking you for every dime they can get. That is what happens when you make public services a for profit business enterprise. The cost goes up and the service goes down. Austin even projected the amount they were going to make and then almost panicked when people stopped running those red lights and revenue was about a third what they projected.....Money was the first and foremost consideration for having the cameras.
And I am sure you probably don't want to hear it but because of the movement to pay no taxes and privatize everything then cities are doing anything and everything they can to pay the added costs of privatization and keep our infrastructure at a level that is conducive to people and commerce.
Larry P.
Mr. Whitehead:
I really enjoyed your column today at the LewRockwell.com site: "Red Light Cameras: Safety Devices or One More Step Toward a Surveillance State?" I think one way to fight this dangerous, tyrannical money-grab by the municipal governments is for personal injury lawyers to start sending copies of those studies you mentioned conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Texas Transportation Institute, and others, to the municipalities to put them on actual notice of the dangers involved and the safer alternative (lengthening the time of the yellow lights). This way, when auto accidents occur as a result of the red light cameras and unlengthened yellow lights, personal injury attorneys can circumvent governmental immunity laws (given the wanton, willful, gross negligence) and begin suing the municipalities—in effect, disgorging the wrongfully extracted “profits” from the municipalities for the benefit of those injured. Your column should be published in the American Trial Lawyers Association magazine or others frequently read by the plaintiffs’ bar!
Thanks again for the great column!
Sincerely,
Steve A.
Dear Mr. Whitehead,
Although I agree with you on most issues of individual liberty, I am not sure about red light cameras. I live part of the year in Germany where there are cameras and the fine is large for running a red light. I feel so much safer knowing that lights will not be run! You can almost always count on that. When I am in the US or Canada, I literally look both ways when the light turns green to make sure no one is running a red light the other way.
So I see a safety benefit when drivers believe it is inadvisable to run a red light. Maybe some jurisdictions use cameras as a money making machine, but I still feel much safer in a country where people do not normally run red lights.
Joan H.
Hello,
I recently got a traffic camera ticket and I am so angry that I immediately called all my council members and told them that it is unconsitutional.
$532 plus lost wages to go to court, plus higher long term insurance premiums for many years thereafter plus the cost of traffic school is OUTRAGEOUS cruel and unusual punishment for stopping and turning right which my pictures show I did, but not the video. Plus, it doesn't even look remotely like me driving the car. To be very direct, the traffic
cameras make me get into a state of extreme anxiety that something will go wrong in the intersection (like someone stopping and making me stuck in the middle) that I speed through them and darn near hit the back of the car in front of me. Of course this hasn't happened, but this is my fear. I hate the cameras now. Who can afford such tickets?
I would like to have the CEO of the camera company put to death along with all the elite who think that this is an appropriate fine for a middle class or poor person. I don't even care if people think I'm going insane....I am getting tired of it. Our Constitution is being trampled on. Do they have a right to even videotape me? I thought movie stars get PAID!
How would they a child to have their arm cut off for running and not walking to recess? Consequences should be appropriate for the situation. The situation is that politicians need money, but they shouldn't take it out on the citizens they serve. I could see a scale of $100 for the first, $200 for the 2nd ticket and so on...that would be more appropriate. Having such SEVERE fees in an economy where most citizens except the politicians and the elite (whose companies are making billions having their traffic cams installed around the globe) is a CLEAR form of discrimination against the middle and poor classes whose lives are seriously impacted long term by what is a minor infraction.
It angers me even more when I think of the criminal company who I paid $5,000 to install cabinets in my home who walked away with the money. I sued. I won. ....but I never got a dime from them and the court doesn't punish these people! NO JUST NICE PEOPLE LIKE ME THEY WISH TO PUNISH.
I am going to organize a campaign to vote out all my council members who say, "the state determines the fees" as a response to my argument. I say, did you ask the public whether or not we WANT traffic cameras? Also, if the STATE mandates such unconstituational fees, then just say no to the state and tell them that you will
install cameras when the fees are appropriate for the American people.
Anyhow, I appreciate you fighting this fight. It is nice to know that there is at least ONE caring person left in the USA WHO ISN"T A WHORE TO THE CORPORATIONS.
I am looking forward to the day when the bankers get their AUSTERITY payback and I hope the gangsters and violent people take out as many as possible. Looking forward to the coming collapse and Amercian Revolution against the banking criminals who caused our city governments to start raping the public for every last dime they have.
Have a great day!
Erin
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