Enforcement cameras are coming to town, and it’s time we stand up and say, NO!
In our society an innocent person does not have to fear the intrusion of government into their lives. They won’t be followed by dark men with dark intentions unless of course they commit a crime. Automated enforcement cameras will change our free society to one where everyone is constantly watched, a potential criminal.
We all feel a guilty pleasure when we see someone who proceeds through a signaled intersection while we stop, getting pulled over for a ticket. There is even a term for it… Schadenfreude: Happiness at the misfortune of others. While it might feel good, these cameras come at a cost: your money, your civil rights, and your civil liberties.
The first cameras have not yet been installed, however, city officials hungry for easy revenue have announced that they already plan to expand their camera programs. They have already authorized red-light cameras, and are now considering installing mobile and fixed speed cameras, and stop sign cameras. These cameras don’t stop accidents; they simply allow the city to profit from technical violations the vast majority of which, do not result in accidents. The sad thing is these cameras have a rather nasty side affect, they increase accidents, damage, injuries, and fatalities. Don’t take my word for it, go and read the studies for yourself!
Why stop there when enforcment cameras can be used for many other purposes?
Current speed cameras measure your speed at a fixed point. Newer speed cameras can track you between cameras and measure your speed over time. If they decide you momentarily exceeded the speed limit, they can ticket you. They can check the depth of your tire treads, and ticket you if your tires don’t meet their criteria. I imagine that it will not be too long until they figure out how to check to see if your car’s window tint is a touch too dark.
Cameras can read your license plate as you drive by and charge you a fee for driving when big brother doesn’t want you to.
Cameras exist to detect gun shots, loud arguments, party noise, or that TV that momentarily goes a bit too loud when obnoxious advertisers crank the volume level up during a commercial break.
Cameras can be used to allow the police to track potential criminals, or a crooked politician can use them to track their political opponents every move, all without even leaving their desk. These traffic enforcement cameras can recognize your face and automatically track and record your every move and association, even if you are happen to be in another state, or clear across the country.
Cameras can monitor your behavior and if its algorithms thinks that you are acting in a suspicious manner it can then notify the police. I guess we all better start practicing how to be normal!
Cameras can be placed on residential streets to peer through your windows into your living room or bedroom. Heck cameras can even peer through your walls, or clothing.
Check out this video and you will see where this can end up, if we idly stand by and do nothing.
[googlevideo]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4839556520925774502[/googlevideo]
The sad thing is all this can be done without a judge issuing a single warrant.
We have all seen movies like Demolition Man where fleeting moments of profanity are instantly issued fines. Or Tom Cruise’s movie Minority Report where intrusive surveillance is constant and police robots are allowed to enter your home at any time without any repercussions.
This is the future we face people, however we stand at a pivotal point in time where we still can say no.
Take Action
Call your City Council members, the Mayor, your State Legislators, and your Congressmen and tell them all over and over again that we don’t want our hard earned liberty giving way to a constant surveillance society! It’s time to ban automated enforcement cameras before they get entrenched.
Absolutely correct. People would be shocked to know how inneffective and flawed the cameras are, and where the technology is headed. http://PhotoRadarScam.com
I run a Maryland based website that opposes photo enforcement cameras. I regularly get emails from people who haven’t gotten a ticket in 20 years and then suddenly get 3 speed camera tickets in the span of a few days. Some towns in Maryland have been handing out red-light camera tickets to people who come to a full stop just over the white line. The overwhelming majority of those red-light tickets do NOT go to straight-through-the-light violations which people normally consider red-light running but rather to accidental technical violations which no police officer would waste his time on. Of course it *is* worth it to send out camera tickets, because the legal rights of drivers (that means YOUR legal rights) have been reduced, and the government does not need to pay to send an actual witness or a sworn police officer to appear in court. They can freely send out more tickets than the court system is physically capable of providing justice for and assume most won’t waste the time to challenge them.
Once it gets started it just keeps creeping along. Maryland is about to get speed cameras in freeway work zones — with no workers required of course. Don’t let your state go down this path.
I disagree with you on this one. I drivre 41A every day to and from work at FT. Campbell. Gate 3 is a death trap. people in this town do not know how to obay stop lights. At least once every week there is a crash at gate 3 or tinytown because people keep turning long after the light has changed. I say put up the carmras rase the fine to $200.00 If people are obaying the trafic laws they have nothing to worry about. The first week they were up I was at the US Bank at gate 3 useing the ATM I was there for only a few min. and saw the camra go off 4 times at leat once every cycle of the lights. Bottom line obey the speed and trafic laws and the cameras wont be a factor