« Why I Download Music Illegally | Main | Use It or Lose It »
September 18, 2006
Cheese
I had intended to write this post bemoaning a ticket I got from one of those dastardly machines for running a red light. The case was clear; my car was going 24 mph in the middle of an intersection with a red light. Now, I do resent being presented with this fine as a fait acompli, but I obviously did run the red light.
The first version of this post was rambling and aimless and I won't subject the reader to it but the argument generally went, automated law enforcement + ill formed law = big brother state. But there is a big problem with this argument; automated law enforcement is neither a
necessary nor a sufficient precondition for a big brother state. The truth is citizens are clever, clever enough to slow down before common speed traps and not run the same red light twice after an automated ticket, and that's precisely the problem.
When we can escape ill-conceived laws with relative ease we won't bother to change them. I can vouch for this personally; the speed limit on my drive (as I noticed painfully this morning with a cop behind me) is 35 mph on a three lane highway. Having a cop behind me I drove 45 mph; without a cop nearby it would have landed me in the slow lane, either that or in the hospital. That's the real problem, not the ease with which an automated radar gun gives a ticket, it's the laws it gives tickets for so easily. Speeding is the easiest example; some speeding laws are obviously in place to act as a defacto toll on drivers, this is the case in Washington DC as it is in rural Colorado (unfortunately I have first hand experience with both). Any reasonable law can be enforced in a variety of ways without inspiring resentment, for example, do we see objections to cameras in public places that prevent vandalism? (Ok, we do but not on the same scale) I don't so much resent that as I do traffic cameras. Probably because it isn't part of my and probably tens of thousands of other people's commute to break the law by vandalizing public property, it is that we break the speed limit. The obvious retort here is, "well then just don't speed" and in many cases that's valid one but this morning, cop on my tail, I realized just how slow the speed limit is on New York Avenue; it isn't just an annoyance, it would be borderline dangerous to drive that speed in the morning, so much so that this morning it was all I could do to drive only ten miles an hour over the speed limit. Which put the cop in the position of enforcing the law not at all or capriciously, lucky for me he opted for the latter. 
But that sort of acceptance of the state of affairs cannot continue to exist when there’s a machine place that can enforce a ill conceived or outdated law like the speed limit on New York Avenue (and have the greed of politicians to insure that these laws will be enforced). When everybody is paying a fine, those of us that are residents will cease to be complacent, and the much more nefarious situation of occasional, willy nilly enforcement that has lulled the citizenry into complacency will pass and city, driven by it's own avarice, will be forced to become more accountable and to make better laws.
So, I've decided, I will pay my ticket, eat ramen for a week, and smile for the camera next time.
Posted by conryf at September 18, 2006 02:10 PM
Comments
Posted by: Anonymous at September 18, 2006 02:10 PM
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)