UPDATE: sulphur, louisiana citizens drive out the australian redflex scam
repost: originally posted 26 march 2009
pay no attention to the donut snatcher in the above video. have you ever noticed how the police who are supposed to be obeying, enforcing and operating under the constitution are the first ones to toss it aside when its expedient for them to do so?
for instance, assistant chief glenn berry, stresses how having the redflex van costs the citizenry "nothing," meaning monetarily, chief berry says that the rumor that "taxes are gonna be raised" is untrue.
however, he makes no mention of what it's costing the citizens in the loss of their constitutional rights. namely, the right to due process and the right to face your accuser. as american citizens, our birthright are the rights afforded to us by the constitution. can anyone put a price on the loss or diminishment of those rights?
this country and this state wouldnt be in the sorry shape that they are currently in, if only the people jealously guarded our constitution and demanded the same from our elected officials.
chief berry goes on to say how "this vehicle is paid for by redflex corporation, the equipment inside is paid for by redflex, the driver is trained and paid by redflex, it costs the city absolutely nothing." no one seems to stop and think about where is all the data that redflex, an australian company, is collecting going. who are they then selling or trading it to etc. in this life, no one gets something for nothing. especially when dealing with a for profit corporation.
one way to interpret what assistant chief berry is actually saying is that the sulphur police are so incompetent in enforcing the traffic laws that they have to hire an australian company to do it for them. if thats the case then the citizens of sulphur should be demanding better police management and better police officers.
via thenewspaper.com
excerpt:Voters in Sulphur, Louisiana will decide next week whether to boot speed cameras from the city. A petition drive led by City Councilman Mike Koonce succeeded in calling the special election to put the question before voters on Saturday, April 4.
"Shall Ordinance No. 873, M-C Series adopting automated speed enforcement for the City of Sulphur, Louisiana, be repealed?" the ballot measure states.
If a majority of voters say yes, then the Ford Escape speed camera SUV operated by Redflex Traffic Systems will be sent packing. Last September, the city council had voted 3-2 to hire Redflex to issue speeding tickets on local roads to drivers accused of exceeding the limit by as little as 4 MPH. Redflex mails the owner of any photographed vehicle a fine that can cost as much as $350. Redflex keeps up to $32.75 for every ticket the company is able to issue.
Koonce spoke out at every city council meeting in opposition to the mayor's effort to outsource traffic enforcement to the Australian ticketing firm. ~ read more
