The Ways and Means Committee of the St. Louis Board of Aldermen has postponed a vote on a controversial measure to spread the wealth from the already scandalous red light cameras that are popping up all over the region.
Alderman Freeman Bosley, Sr., who introduced the bill, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that he thinks aldermen should get a piece of all the money that is being generated with these $100 tickets.
PubDef columnist Ed Martin recently wrote on his blog about how these tickets are paid mostly by poor people without attorneys.
Last week, I spent an hour in a St. Louis City courtroom (number 3) in an effort to fight the red light camera ticket that has been issued to me during the summer. It was a depressing scene in courtroom 3 and what transpired there has convinced me that red light camera tickets are not only a money-making scam used by politicians to make money for themselves (politically) and for-profit corporations but also that the whole red light camera scheme is also a full-blown conspiracy to take the money especially from the poor and unconnected.
The judge in courtroom 3, a friendly looking lady, addressed me and my eighteen fellow red light camera ticket recipients nicely enough. The judge first offered each of us the chance to rat out our friend or family member. That is, each of us was offered the chance to sign a sworn statement telling the court who was driving the car when it got the red light camera ticket and the court would track them down. A few of the folks there did rat out the drivers. (For my part, I toyed with writing the name and address of my brother – just for fun – but resisted due to the prospect of perjury!)
What happened next should be a huge scandal: the prosecutor in courtroom 3 called me out of the courtroom and offered to “get rid” of my ticket for no other reason than because, when asked, I admitted I was a lawyer. I said “thanks but no thanks as I planned to fight the ticket.” After court, I made some calls and did some asking around; it turns out that the City courts routinely “get rid” of red light camera tickets issued to lawyers or for defendants who get lawyers. The impression – among lawyers and others – is that the Court and the City wants no “fights” over red light camera tickets and would rather dismiss the tickets of anyone who might fight. (The message is clear: pay up and make no noise.) This is because no one is sure if red light camera tickets are constitutional – and the powers-that-be know that they are a scam.
Read the rest of Ed’s story here.
And read more about the fight against these red light cameras here.
Also read:
ed martin needs to get a job, and a life!if people obey the law and dont run red lights then they have nothing to worry about. keep in mind, that this isnt about a car being in the middle of the intersection and then the light turns red. people getting these tix are ones who enter the interesection when the light is red, therefore, putting everyone else in dangerEDITOR’S RESPONSE: We can do without the personal jabs. Ed Martin is not the only one who has a problem with these red light cameras. They stand on very shaky legal ground as it is and if Ed’s observation holds true — that anyone who might have the means to pull the curtain back on the sham is being allowed to disregard the tickets — then the situation calls for an immediate investigation.
–Antonio French
Posted by insider | 01. Oct, 2008, 2:28 PMEd,
If you want to get rid of red light cameras, just spread a rumor there’s copper inside. Problem solved.
Posted by flyover | 01. Oct, 2008, 4:31 PM