Rearranging the Deck Chairs

Monday night the Albuquerque City Council convened to do what it so often does when faced with a controversial issue... nothing. Yep, our intrepid councilors couldn't figure a way to fix the red light camera problem even though the "fixes" amount to rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

As a result, the bucks continue to roll in and the council fiddles while Rome burns. (Yes, we're trying to use as many cliches as possible to sound as silly as the council often acts). KRQE Channel 13 is reporting that the city's take in 18 months is equal to over $3 MILLION. A Couple of months ago the city had collected a gross amount of over $6 MILLION. That's our money folks and here's the truth... not a single criminal was caught.

To make matters worse, those knuckleheads don't even care where the money is going! The only red light camera legislation to actually get to a vote was Councilor Harris' audit proposal and it was defeated 5-4 (ABQ Tribune) with Councilors Mayer, Sanchez, Benton, Winter, and Loy voting against passage.

What the council doesn't seem to get is that the public generally does not like the Almighty's Money Makers. As Councilor Winter said in his town hall announcement, "people have the right to determine how they are going to be policed." Not to mention the fact that the city has found a way to dispense with common concepts like proof beyond a reasonable doubt, innocent until proven guilty, due process, and making the punishment fit the crime - concepts that most reasonable people find appealing. Ah... What the heck? Who cares? The program is paying for itself!

Now Chief Schultz is counting on apathy and fatalism to make us accept being fleeced by the city (ABQ Tribune). Seems that after about 3 years we'll all get used to the red light toll system and even become fond of forking over our hard earned cash. He may even be right, after all when people are held captive against their will they eventually come to view their captors with affection. It's called the Stockholm Syndrome.

Stockholm syndrome is a psychological response sometimes seen in an abducted hostage, in which the hostage shows signs of loyalty to the hostage-taker, regardless of the danger (or at least risk) in which the hostage has been placed. Stockholm syndrome is also sometimes discussed in reference to other situations with similar tensions, such as battered person syndrome, rape cases, child abuse cases, and bride kidnapping. - from wikipedia.org

(Sidebar)
Bride kidnapping? Now that's funny! Now we understand what that APD recruiting poster is all about.
(End Sidebar)

Back to the deck chairs... Councilor Loy (who we almost wish was running so that we could hang these "photo enforced" intersections around his political neck) maintains "reduc[ing] these fines - that's outrageous" (ABQ Journal - Subscription Required). What's "outrageous" is that he was ever elected. Wait a second... he wasn't. Four years ago he was the default choice of District 8 and has never run against an opponent. (Splains a lot don't it?)

Marty doesn't get it, the council doesn't get it, and Chief Schultz certainly doesn't get it. MOST PEOPLE DON'T WANT THIS SYSTEM! Even police officers are generally against it unless they are required by the 5th floor to attend meetings to support the red light scam-era program.

You can lower the fines. You can give an option of community service. You can even try to wait until we all suffer from a collective abducted bride syndrome. But you can't change the fact that the system is wrong and that it has struck the iceberg of public opinion.

Rising Tide

Last month Chief Schultz told the Tribune that it generally takes "three years" for the furor over the red light scam-era system to die down. We have likened that eventual acceptance to the Stockholm Syndrome, the phenomenon where captives eventually come to accept their captivity and even love their captors.

The first cameras were installed in 2004, so this year marks the third year that the program has been in operation. If yesterday was any indication, the public is not only rejecting the scam-era system and its inherent injustices, there's growing anger and resentment towards the program. In political and media circles, this story could be identified as one that has got "legs."

Yesterday, the Tribune led with a front page article entitled "Plate-Cover Crackdown." In it, the Tribune reporter Michael Gisick asked the question "are the devices really illegal?" The answer from city attorney Greg Wheeler was "we don't know... it hasn't been tested."

The Trib article seemed to trigger KKOB AM's afternoon drive time talk-show host Jim Villanucci. He spent the majority of his show talking about the plate cover enforcement and the underlying scam-era system noting that (among other things) traffic light timing is more effective at preventing intersection accidents than the photo enforcement scam-eras. In addition Mr. Villanucci read statistics that came from APD that showed an increase in overall accidents at photo enforced intersections in their first full year of operation.

Richard Edes, Villanuci's on-air sidekick and show producer, pointed out something that we've been saying for months... police officer's almost universally are opposed to the scam-eras. After 3 hours, the general consensus of both callers and hosts was that the system was about money and not safety.

Further underscoring Mr. Villanucci's argument that the scam-eras are about money and that yellow light timing has an impact on both accidents and revenue, theNewspaper.com is reporting (hat tip NewMexiKen):

Mesa [Arizona] has struggled with earning a significant profit from its program since November 2000 when the city increased the duration of the yellow warning signals at left-turn intersections from 3.0 to 4.0 seconds -- in violation of a Lockheed Martin IMS contract stipulation that mandated no timing improvements be made. As a result, red light violations dropped 72 percent at those intersections and never returned. The cameras lost significant amounts of money.

-theNewspaper.com

Today the Tribune is back at it again with a story about a class action lawsuit that aims to put an end to the scam-eras and force the city to refund all of the money collected from scam-era victims.

The lawsuit argues that the camera program conflicts with established state traffic law and sets up an illegitimate, quasi-legal hearing process for people who challenge their tickets.

"They've essentially set up a parallel court that has no legal standing," Sandoval said.

-Albuquerque Tribune

All of this activity in just a 24 hour period. How long will it take for the council and the Almighty Marty to get the point that for a whole host of reasons people don't like the scam-era system? Just in case you've forgotten the system's short comings, here's a partial list:

• Due Process (nonexistent)
• Accuracy (KOAT Employee Gary Williams pointed out the system's flaws.)
• Scam-eras collect money - not about public safety
• Revenue based enforcement (500 citations for plate-covers that aren't even illegal!)
• Most police officers hate the system
  

To us this story and the issue that created it is not going away. In fact, it looks like supporters of the system (Mayor Chavez, Chief Schultz) are facing a rising tide of public opposition.

----- Eye Alert -----
Our Eyes are telling us that 770KKOB AM is promoting Bob Clark's morning show for Wednesday morning. Apparently, Mr. Clark's topic will be the red light scam-eras.