Non-Compliance Topples Arizona Traffic-Cam Program

Non-Compliance Topples Arizona Traffic-Cam Program

www.associatedcontent.com

In January of this year Arizona began considering the shut-down a state-wide traffic cam program. This is because there was wide-spread non-compliance. Many, many citizens of Arizona simply refused to pay their tickets. Beautiful!

And now the verdict is in. They shut it down. The citizens won -- not by fighting the state, but by ignoring the state.

(visit the link for the full news article)

An entire government program was shut down through peaceful, non-aggressive means. I dig that.

After all, America's founders stopped paying taxes as step #1 in resisting tyranny.

While the US and British governments were staring down the Soviet army, the regular citizens moved their economic activity into the black market -- effectively de-funding and destabilizing the Soviet Empire, leading to its ruin.

It stands to reason -- if I don't like something, I shouldn't pay for it. Government isn't immune to market forces.

www.associatedcontent.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

A little googling shows that it isnt just as simple as non-compliance.

There has been some organized resistance for several years, and there may even be a favorable law that allows Arizonans to be able to legally resist this way. Something about due process, and needing to be served, and Arizona not having the funds to actually serve everyone who has a ticket.

I cant find that in more than comments in other articles though, I cant find an article about it, but I think it bears more scrutiny before everyone just starts to not do stuff.

Not that I am not for protest, and even more for peaceful non compliance as a form of protest, but it worked for them because of some organization. And they were informed about their laws. If you just refuse to comply on your own, it is less likely to go well for you. Power and safety in numbers.

We had these cameras in Jefferson Parish. (parish is our term for county here in Louisiana)

They were horrible, people hated them. Here we have a law that says when being given a ticket a cop must be present. Many people got tickets in the mail and of course never saw a cop.

These cameras were also proven to be faulty many times and caused people to have to pay for tickets that they then later could not recoup money on because of the faulty cameras.

Now the cameras are being taken down and a new law has been passed making it illegal to have any traffic cameras in the Parish. For once justice triumphs in this corrupt town.

But in other parts of the country things are not so good.. I just read an ATS story about a law passed someplace ( I don't have the link or remember where this was) that says a cop can give you a ticket based on his experiences estimate of how fast you were driving. No radar detector needed. This is surly a bad thing. I am glad i don't live there.

[edit on 22-7-2010 by JohnPhoenix]

I travel on the Interstate 10 between Phoenix and L.A. on a regular basis for business.

TWICE I was sent a picture of me in my car, ALLEGEDLY motoring "Faster than the Posted Limit" - along with a bill for $250. No indication of HOW much faster I was supposedly going, no recourse (other than to make a trip back to Arizona to fight the stupid thing in court), and the most egregious, blatant disregard for rights I have ever seen.

In both cases, I wrote back to the morons that sent me the picture of me in my car and said that I believe the automated camera system to be a travesty of justice, completely arbitrary, unfair, and possibly illegal - but that I was NOT going to fight them in court and further, that I refuse to pay the ticket(s).

I also stated that part of my job was to arrange for meeting and convention space in Arizona for non-profit organizations in California and that from that point forward I would do EVERYTHING in my power to discourage ANY an ALL further meetings, trade shows, or conferences to be arranged in their state. I stated that I simply did not want the many thousands of attendees I represent to risk driving on their highways and potentially suffering the same "Big Brother" draconian, sneaky, humiliating, insidiousness of their traffic-cam ticket program.

This program was purely a revenue-generating scheme and nothing else. It made the traffic-cam contractor a huge bundle of money, and the state skimmed off a healthy chunk for themselves as well. Completely automated, with automated "capture", automated billing, and automated largess, all at the plight of hapless , but otherwise law-abiding, honest citizens, driving, what, ONE MILE over the speed limit (maybe)?

I finished by telling them that if they pressed the issue and forced the $250 out of me, it was going to cost their state many thousands of times that amount in lost hotel, restaurant, and convention business as I will direct ALL of my conventioneers to Las Vegas instead. After all, Nevada could use my money as much as Arizona - and they have no ludicrous speed-trap cameras on the highway.

I never heard from them again. Idiots.

:bash:


[edit on 7/22/2010 by Outrageo]

reply to post by mother1138


" tell the political class to piss off. The Founders refused to comply with political thuggery, and they revolted against the insolence" . My favorite quote of the article. Great post! S &F! This is how it is done! No confrontation, just ignore them! I wonder how this strategy could be used in other ways...hmmm..