Video Ticketing

Have you been told that video ticketing...you know, the tickets you get in the mail for when you blow through a stop light doing 80 miles an hour in a school zone without your seat belt on without properly signaling to drive your car NW into the river without the proper license to do so while your DL is suspended...is legal, even though it can't be accurately pinned on you or your driving record?  I've heard that these cameras, which only take photos of your license plate by the way, or of your car (from behind, where you can't really make out who's driving it), are not the property of the city, they're more than likely the property of some camera making company that has contracted for the city to make them and put them where you can see them.  The city then hopes that the combination of their presence, as well as the photos sent to you in the mail by the company that produces them, will not only deter you from breaking the law, they will also serve to generate some revenue for the city.  I imagine that the added bonus here will be the fact that they can be used to spy on you, although they wouldn't say that, what they would say instead is that they are for the intended added bonus of being there for when a real crime occurs as an extra "witness" to said crime.

Here's what I have found about about the letters that you receive in the mail, stating that you have done the unthinkable...you have sinned against the city, and here's a snapshot of your driver's license plate as proof. What you probably read almost immediately, is that you need to remove the portion below the dotted line, sign it, and send in your payment for the infraction without delay, or further non-wanted actions may occur. This is, of course, only marginally true, thanks to the "No bench warrants" portion of Iowa law.  All this can possibly mean is pretty much the same thing it means on an actual speeding ticket...which, by the way, you do NOT have to sign either.  By signing anything like this, what you're saying is "Hi, my name is Chris Bruce, and I'm guilty of what you've said I am, and I will be no longer able to fight this...I have already admitted it, and even if I do go to court for it, the judge WILL find me guilty, because I signed the line that says I am, and that I freely agreed that I did wrong, right in front of an enforcer of the law."  Oh, when the officer says you'll be arrested if you don't sign on the dotted line on that ticket?  Bullshit.  Not gonna happen.  You are the victim of law enforcement bullying there.

These driving enforcement camera pictures are said to be collected by the state.  Well here's what really happens.  First you're issued the ticket.  Then if you don't sign it, you're considered to be a plea of not guilty, and it gives you a court date to appear by.  Then if you don't appear, it's sent to a city collections agency.  Also if it's not paid (and I'm sorry, but I think this is as unconstitutional as it can possibly get) the money is then taken out of your Iowa tax return money.  And you wanna know why?  Because we let it happen...AGAIN!!  The government goes there, and we roll over, just like always.  Remember when the seat belt law first came out?  I do, because I was one of the unlucky people out driving the night they started dishing them out.  They were what, $21?  Now they're like $100.  Why?  Because we Americans, like the trained rats we are, just roll over, pay it, then it becomes a standard and later a law.  STAND UP FOR YOURSELVES!!!  Ask that the damn things come down.  They are, have been, and will be even more so, an INVASION OF YOUR PRIVACY!!!  Write your state reps and senators.  Get the damn things banned.  It's not right America, you're being held responsible for what some crook that stole your plates did, or for your son's/daughter's actions, or for your friend or relative who borrowed your car did while he had it...etc.  And if you sign it and pay it, it goes on YOUR driving record!!, and your insurance rates go up!  Pretty soon each family member will be forced to have their own cars, and the smog and ecology problems will skyrocket...sounds just like a Direct TV commercial doesn't it?  SO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!!  Stop this camera crap soon, or you'll have no more "expectation of privacy" either someday.

NOTE:  Since the writing of this article, I refer you to this link:

http://www.copblock.org/33390/how-to-beat-a-photo-enforced-speeding-ticket-or-red-light-ticket/

Here you'll find some interesting articles relating to our law enforcement's occasional abuse of power (See?  Here's where I could have used that "dripping sarcasm" effect on the word "occasional" in that last sentence.  I really need to look up the patent on that one.), including a very interesting article about a man who received a video ticket in Washington D.C., and what he did to beat it.