Politico
(Redflex) Canton Ohio Traffic Enforcement Cameras: Frequently Asked Questions part 4: Why
Money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, MONEY! That’s why!
The research you “conducted” wasn’t very thorough. I’d say it went so far as listening to the sales pitch of Mr. Rosenberg from Redflex, and completely ignored all the real safety concerns with these systems. Then you got hundreds of calls from angry constituents in your Wards, and did some actual research and reading on the subject and found out, hey, these things are bad, and the company that sells them is full of really bad people!
Every day, those hundreds of motorists run those red lights and speed, and for the most part, no one gets hurt! Shock! Horror! Nooooooooo…
If everybody else had a lobotomy, would you get one too? The only thing these traffic cameras “work” at is stealing money from motorist and putting them in increased danger of getting rear-ended.
We don’t have $1.6 million to purchase 20 cameras (they cost $80,000 each, or up to $120,000 per camera for the advanced ones), nor do we have the funds to operate the system. Plus they are of dubious legality, and we can’t afford the lawsuits. So we’ve hired these thugs to do it for us! See, everyone benefits, except those pesky motorists.
Small portion? Up to half of a $125-150 fine is not a small portion of anything, it’s unmitigated GREED.
Expensive system, more fines, bigger system or adjusted light times to cause more violations if revenues decrease. $20 million projected earnings depending on the city in the first year, yeah, it’s about safety and just recouping costs of operating and maintaining these cameras.
Onward we go, keep up, we’re almost there!
(Redflex) Canton Ohio Traffic Enforcement Cameras: Frequently Asked Questions Part 5: How
Sure, they claim the signs will be posted, but according to our friend Quarterwave in Chillicothe, “They also have refused to erect the proper signage.” Yeah, I think there should be a little bit of skepticism by now.
Here is a Haiku:
No signage present.
Redflex makes many more crash
People sad and hurt.
Anyone who wants to get out of a fine, legitimate violation or no, has two options.
Reassigning Violations to minor children with driver’s licenses, and telling them not to pay it, or just not paying anything to the company and City of Canton. They can’t DO anything to you except make one black mark on your credit report, or eventually try to come after you to garnish your wages.
Administrative Hearing in our Kangaroo Court. You can protest all you want, but you are guilty until proven innocent with these photos being supposed proof that you definitely were behind the wheel of your car. I’ve read (I’ll track down a link eventually) that a certain jurisdiction was allowed to tack on an extra $65-75 on top of the fine just for the hassle of actually having to try you in court! I think I read somewhere else (I’ll track it down if I’m able) that in one court, you had to PAY the violation BEFORE you were allowed to fight/contest it! Talk about a racket!!!
Anyway, when a petition is successful to get the issue on the ballot to kick the photo enforcement villains out of town, the people who refused to pay the civil fines generally are not responsible for them anymore, but the people who knuckled under to these thugs don’t get their moneys back. How fair is that?
Actually, all they have on their website is the same information in this pamphlet and the same questions. The most telling part of this is the legalese at the bottom. But if it were honest it should read “This brochure was created FOR the City of Canton with lies and manipulated statistics from Redflex Traffic Systems, Inc.
And I think that a public brochure can be reproduced for informative purposes. They were handing these out free at the meetings, so hopefully there should be no issue with my reposting the content here. Proper attribution was given, and really, I could claim that I’ve used the content for parody purposes, so the copyright can’t really be enforced against me.
Now don’t you feel safer already?
Redflex, Canton Ohio, and Red Light Camera Studies
Red light camera studies abound. In the final informational meeting for Canton Ohio’s proposed red light and speed camera ticketing system, Aaron Rosenberg, the Redflex Executive Vice President brought his “A” game. This presentation was much more involved, cited more statistics and studies, and was thoroughly debunkable.
In starting the meeting, he gave a backhanded compliment to me. He gestured towards me mentioning that “I have my figures and this gentleman has his…” in regards to whether or not accidents are reduced at intersections with ticketing cameras.
But what is the truth? The Truth About Cars has a nice article about how gaping chasms of lies, half-truths, and skewed results seem to be in every study commissioned by those with a financial stake in these cameras. The Newspaper, whose excellent English coverage of all things traffic camera related is a godsend, has a handy roundup . Plenty of quotable quotes in there, including a couple of studies from researchers in Australia its self, where Redflex is based.
During the last meeting Rosenberg quoted a North Carolina study, attributing it to “a college” and he continued that “you know they are impartial because they have no financial stake in the red light cameras.” This study may or may not be it.
He also referenced the Oxnard, CA study saying that “Fully 80% of residents were pleased with the Red Light Camera Systems and their performance. They called and interviewed 1006 people. I don’t know the population of Oxnard, CA, but I do know that this study has been used for years to sell cities on installing Redflex’s systems. One fairly glaring problem: The study is complete hogwash. Actual independent analysis concluded that: “The Oxnard red light camera study violates many basic principles of sound statistical public health research and lacks internal and external validity,” Florida researchers concluded. “All red light camera investigations should be scrutinized for adherence to applied research methods since studies with greater adherence to quasi-experimental research designs have concluded red light cameras are associated with large increases in crashes and since special interest groups with a financial stake in red light camera use are actively working to influence public opinion and policy.” (quoted from The Newspaper article linked from “Oxnard, CA” above). Which means they paid for the studies, and got the results they were asking for.
Anyway, also read this admonishion from Topix user quarterwave details the plethora of problems that Chillicothe is having with Redflex and their crooked cameras.
Quite damning, isn’t it?
An increase in crashes means an increase in injuries, something that Redflex and the cities partnered with them want you to ignore. This blatant disregard for citizens’ and visiting motorists’ safety is disgusting. All the cities with these crash inducing systems are exposing themselves to ENORMOUS liability. There will be lawsuits when people get spinal or whiplash injuries, especially those that can barely be treated, or leave them paralyzed for life.
Well, we’ve only started our journey into the dark and devious world where Redflex stalks every driver, tickets many of them maliciously and erroneously, and steals as much as it can grab. Follow me down the rabbit hole, and let’s expose these villains for what they are. See you next crime.
-Nicholas Cincinat
Cold and fuming, Navarre – Feb 11th, 2009
Redflex, Canton Ohio, and red light cameras uncensored
Warning! Graphic accident footage. Not for the squeamish, may be NSFW!
The above video was taken at the last informational meeting for the city of Canton, OH’s proposed Redflex Camera Initiative. The pedestrian, which was crossing on a don’t walk signal, was pronounced dead at the scene, but was later revived, so there were no fatalities in this accident.
I attended the first meeting of the four they held in Canton, as well as the last, where I filmed that clip. I had called ahead to make sure I would be allowed to attend the first meeting, especially as I am not a city resident. They are probably regretting allowing me to attend and ask questions by now.
A few things I want to make clear. I acted, probably more than a bit, like an ass at that first meeting. I’d like to sincerely apologize here, and I had already half-apologized to Mayor Healy, and Mr. Rosenberg, the Redflex salesman in the comments from the newspaper article I was quoted in.
Secondly, I do not have any children of my own, the ones I was quoted as being worried about were my brother’s three beautiful kids, that love to hang out with their “Uncle Nick,” and also enjoy riding in the ‘way-back’ jumper seats in my station wagon(s). I will admit that I became more than a little emotional, and I increased my volume to try not to let my voice crack when I yelled that ‘any increased accidents and injuries would be their fault.’
Thirdly, I was utterly negligent in accusing the Redflex representative of his company and employees committing various crimes such as deleting ticket violations for the CEO or other executives. Never happened. The article I read basically stated that ‘Redflex and ACS ticketing systems have the ability to make sure their employees are not issued violations.’ I will be linking these, and many more articles in this blog soon.
I would like to point out that I did attend the final informational meeting at the North Branch of the Stark County Library. At no point did I interrupt the meeting. I didn’t make any speeches, or try to get myself on WEWS Channel 5 News, which was there covering the meeting. I was not permitted to speak, as there were plenty of extremely concerned residents attending, and I fully understand their reluctance to let me do any more damage to their cause, ESPECIALLY since I had thrown around such unfounded allegations before. I may have made some snide comments directed towards the ears of the persons seated around me, but I’m sorry, it’s hard for me to hold my tongue in the face of outright deception.
Well, since then, I’ve done the research I should have completed before the meetings on these systems, and I have no excuses to offer other than laziness, and procrastination, for my previous mistaken allegations. I have found concrete, verifiable problems though, and proof that Redflex blatantly violated State and Federal laws. As any company would be severely remiss not to send Cease & Desist letters to any website or newspaper that reported anything untrue about them, lest their image be irreversibly tarnished, I believe the sources I’ll be using are completely trustworthy, and reporting the full truth of the matters of Red Light Camera Systems.
Now, at the conclusion of this editorial I wrote for TTAC, I stated that I’m starting a petition to put the red light camera issue before the voters. It is due by August 20th of this year (2009), but I hope to file the signatures much earlier than that.
I will be dissecting the arguments made by Canton, and Redflex in this, my personal blog, as well as updating the status on the efforts to get a petition filed so that the voters can decide whether or not they need these types of systems in Canton, OH.
There is also another Canton Red Light Camera Blog. I do not know the gentleman who is currently running that website, but I am glad that others are now giving the issues some of the attentions they deserve.
In the interests of full disclosure, I am going to confess that I, Nicholas Cincinat, have had red light and stop sign “violations” in the past. Each and every one of these was paid for, by me, and while I may have groused about them a little at the time, I admitted my mistakes, and owned up to them. A couple of the violations I have perfectly reasonable excuses for why I absolutely HAD to ‘run the red light,’ and for the rest, I have nothing but explanations. The city of Canton, OH, Redflex, or some pro-camera citizens group may try to use these against me in a smear campaign to try to paint me as a “dangerous driver” or “scofflaw,” so I wanted to get this out there now, for everyone to see that I have nothing to hide. I have only ever been in one accident in the past, which I was not at fault for. Also, even Mr. Rosenberg admitted to having red light or speeding violations in the past so let’s keep things on the real issues which are the Company and the Cameras.
Anyway, I hope that the citizens of Canton Ohio will be permitted to decide this issue, based on the facts, for themselves. Thanks to both of the people who got lost and ended up here for reading this.
How To Stop Chain Emails and Chain Letters
Okay, this is your all purpose nullifier. This will stop dead any curse chain letter that you may ever recieve. You read this, and if you feel like it, then post it in your blog or journal, and you are forever protected. Nothing can ever harm you again unless you are weak minded enough to believe it. Even if a letter or list CLAIMS to supercede THIS statement, it will not. Seriously people, there is no point in messing with my voodoo unless you want an infinite duration of pain.
That being said, this statement also gives you free rein to turn a curse back on the person who was enough of an asshole to post one of those chain letters in your comments, or to send you the email, letter, etc. To do this, you must send the idiot who sent you the original chain letter, the precise number of copies of the email or comment or chain letter you were meant to distribute (or more). Any retaliation on their part will have no effect, as you are protected by this nullification statement. Besides, if you send them 10-15 emails or notes that state they have to send out an additional 10-15 MORE emails or comments per every copy you’ve sent them and they’ll bug the fuck out. I had some girl I had talked to back in the AOL days literally break down in tears, well, I got an email from her begging me to stop sending her the chain letters, the email was desperate/weepy.
Anywho, please do not distribute this without giving credit to me, but feel free to post it to your own blog, website, or comments wherever, that’s how the immunity works. Refer people to the original post here, or to read the post in your blog or journal. There is no sense in having a protective nullification statement if you’re just going to turn it into another fucking chain spam email.
So there we go:
Thank you for your time. -SexCpotatoes
P.S. and those goddamn question lists give you cancer, stop it or your genitals will most certainly fall off, then come back to life, and screw you until you bleed from all of your orifices. Good day.
Massillon Cable TV Digital Douchebaggery
I feel a little stupid for not realizing this before, but it just hit me this morning. Among the myriad of problems we will be facing with Digital TV, is the neutering of all home-built DVRs.
I spent a lot of money building up my refurbished Media Center computer to be able to record television shows while I am at work.
NOW, my local cable company is shifting to ALL DIGITAL, using the broadcast changeover to justify their decision to screw everyone. I’ve seen their digital feed, and pixellating images are the order of the day with their sub-par service. The picture freezes, fits, and starts are not welcome here. They also have raised the price!
I almost have to have their crappy digital cable because I need internet access. There is AT&T DSL available, but I canceled my phone service through them because of their bullshit opposition of net neutrality, and didn’t regret it in the slightest when I heard about all the warrantless wiretapping. I refuse to give them any money when they actively seek to censor the internet, and spy on American citizens.
The cable company too, is now skating the edge of losing their funding with my hard earned dollars. If you want to have internet access, without paying the $55 a month for ‘basic’ cable tv, you are assessed a $10/month “line accesss charge,” which is complete bullshit. The only way around it is to pay $21.75/month for “welfare/ghetto” cable (you know, just channels 2-22, the major networks plus local access, and c-span, and the spanish channel. Only about 5 of those are decent channels and that includes the PBS). The only funny thing is that you can add HD and Internet packages onto the Ghetto Cable service, thus keeping your bill somewhat reasonably priced.
I think I’m stuck getting one of their stupid converter box things, then leaving the box on all the time, and switching it to the channel I want to record on, before I head off to work. Then, even though I’ve got a DUAL-TUNER PC card, I would almost bet 1 trillion dollars that the f-digital converter box only does one f-channel at a f-time!
I’m just a little bit pissed, can’t you tell?
Fuck you, Massillon Cable TV.
Edit: Now that I did a little bit more research, I’ve found that they do make dual tuner digital PCI cards, so I’m going to Massillon Cable in the very near future and requesting a service credit of over $100 so that I can buy a new TV tuner card that decodes digital signals. Wish me luck.
Sarah Palin and Bobby’s World
Bobby’s World, wow, who knew Sarah Palin played Martha, Bobby’s mom!? You have a lot to answer for Howie Mandell…
Less than Zero
You cannot produce any product with ever-increasing quality and durability, and make sales gains year upon year forever. Not unless your customer pool is increasing almost exponentially. Therein lies the dilemma of each and every automobile manufacturer, domestic AND imported in the U.S. market today. They’ve all but manufactured themselves out of business. Their cars are already piling up on our shores, as well as in the middle of our country (buy a beach front parking space NOW if you can!). My humble prediction is that if the Detroit 3 go under, so do Toyandissan as well, within the next year after the first domestic company files (unless President-elect Obama rides in and fixes the Waggoner).
Why will they have to file? Whether it’s jingoistic backlash (laughable), an employee reVOLT (i.e. massive strikes and T-workers finally hopping into bed with that ‘dirty’ UAW), or other unforeseen complications, it is going to happen. Or did we forget the memo that was leaked from Toyota that basically stated “We need to drop our American workers’ wages down to a more palatable rate, say $8.25 per hour.” You don’t talk about cutting wages by $300M unless that is exactly what you want to do. Toyota has wisely looked at executive compensation cuts to make up some of this budget target, but it still will not save them unless they can start selling cars, immediate like.
When everyone and their brother-in-law started buying these brand new cars, it had the effect of creating a staggering glut of perfectly serviceable used cars that even now hang out in dealer lots, visit the auctions without selling, and even languish in private sellers’ hands, sitting for weeks or months (hey, AutoTrader ads will run until it sells!) until they eventually lower the price or accept a lowball offer that meets the eviscerated resale values.
There are so many new and used cars and trucks out there that if every auto manufacturer were to shut down tomorrow, they could easily be maintained for decades, if not centuries. Especially with all the newly freed up parts manufacturing capacity we are going to have. For proof of this, you need only look to Havana, Cuba, where old Detroit iron has soldiered on for decades without the support of the manufacturer (which may be similar to what we’re going to see in this country if any or all of Our Boys go Chapter 7).
The most glaring place where all the automobile companies went wrong is in the selling of far too many trucks to way too many people who were willing to beg too darned much from the banks to get them. All financing follies aside, Trucks, and by extension SUVs survive much longer than cars in most uses. Even when they are driven harder, longer, and rougher than mere passenger cars, they are much more durable, and will soldier on that much longer (if they are just properly maintained). So what happens when you give them to soccer moms who don’t abuse them or even use them for actual heavy duty work ? They will last practically forever, except those that rust out, or get the old insurance roast, and meanwhile no one except the hard-core workmen will need more trucks. But why buy new when there are so many lightly-used, pristine, potential work-horses available out there? You can buy a new truck for $30,000+ or you can buy 3 2008 F-250 repos for about $33,000 (one example multiplied by three, @ $10,500 ea. plus a reasonable $500 ea. purchasing fee for New Car Consultant Stephen Lang ).
It’s like the story (my goo-search turned up nothing) of the company that made a better light bulb (CFLs?) and priced them the same as a regular incandescent, then promptly went out of business(or so the story goes) because people weren’t buying any replacement light bulbs. Well, people are no longer buying replacement cars, either because they don’t need them, or because they can’t get them financed, or both.
You hear anecdotes about people running a Camry for 80,000 miles without an oil change, and Top Gear can’t kill the Toyota Hi-Lux, you’re creating an entire race of ‘zombie cars’ that refuse to die.
While I appreciate the increasing quality, and durability in products, and I’m also a big fan of reasonable prices, I recognize the sheer orgy of volume sales is done. This recession/depression is assuredly not what any of us wants, and while it damages everyone, be it Honda, Toyota, or Ford, (and the rest), this entire market was due for a correction, just as the oil futures bubble burst, so has the new car sales bubble. No matter how many sales get traded amongst the car companies, the market is now shrinking and this is a Less Than Zero Sum Game.
On Executive Compensation
No one deserves $28 million (or more) per year to run a company.
You can read hundreds of thousands of blog posts detailing how we got into this mess as a country comprised of companies that do not pay taxes, executives that game the system to receive enormous bonuses, and constantly increase CEO pay for all the boards of directors they serve on, so that their salaries will thus increase, basically raping that old hoary chestnut “we get paid what the market will bear.” No, this post isn’t about that despicable rich boys club that is destroying companies left, right, and middle America, this post is about how to fix it.
Tying executive compensation to performance is a sticky subject, one that executives would never agree to, because there are very few executives that truly excel in their work. They’ve become addicted to ever-increasing rewards for mediocre work, golden parachutes that guarantee obscene bonuses for what amounts to running a company into the ground (i.e. being paid to leave, see Nardelli for a good example).
The plan I’ve formulated is simple. The absolute top executive may not, in any case, receive compensation in excess of 100 x/hour of any American, domestically based worker, including contract employees, temporary employees, subsidiary employees, franchise employees or key supplier employees (because this method would encourage companies to spin off parts of the companies into separate entities, to dodge these requirements). Or, they would be limited in pay to 1000 x/hour of ANY foreign worker employed by their company, suppliers, or subsidiaries. Whichever of these is less. Flat U.S. Dollar, NOT adjusted for exchange rates and purchasing power. Again, any spin offs or dodges should be punished severely.
Let’s look at a hypothetical company that pays workers $10.00 per hour. The CEO would be permitted to pull down, maximum $1000 per hour. $40,000 per week, $2,080,000.00 per year. Of course this is calculated on a 40 hour work week, these CEOs are salaried workers.
Now if this same company pays $1 per day to workers in a foreign country, then it gets wickedly ironic, and fast. Based on an 8 hour work day, $1 works out to $0.125/hour. Twelve and a half cents. Now, the maximum the CEO is allowed in compensation stands at $125 per hour, $5,000 per week, and $260,000 per year. This sounds absolutely fair to me.
Constraining executive compensation in this manner would instantly turn almost every company in this country obscenely profitable overnight. Because remember, these are maximum amounts, most CEOs would be paid far, far less.
As far as bonuses are concerned, they should be rare, never for retention, and on completion of highly radical company rescue attempts, or truly innovative ideas and brilliance. These bonuses should not exceed the amount of one full year of the executive’s pay, should be paid in stock, should not be paid unless the executive is employed for five years further from the date of the bonus in the same or higher position in the company, and cannot be cashed out (except in family/health hardship cases) before one year after they have left the company. These monies should be able to be recouped as well, in case any impropriety is found during or after employment.
This course of action would have two more immediate benefits, as CEOs scrambled to bring every job they could back into this country, they would simultaneously raise all workers’ pay (and lest we forget, the more people spending money you have, the larger your economy grows). Of course inflation would run rampant unless certain steps were taken to control the transition to this type of a pay scale, but I’ll leave that to others smarter than I to work out.
In addition to these benefits, you could legislate that a certain percentage of the vast sure-to-be leftover profits must be reinvested in company infrastructure, employee education, health care, etc. This would solve the health care crisis, many new jobs would be created and old jobs saved. Also, maybe we could turn internet access, and speeds into less of a joke in this country. All the cable companies, and telecommunications companies are handily overcharging for the service they provide, NOT upgrading their networks, and then trying to institute completely draconian Bandwidth Caps! So that as we transition to more and more video content and heavy internet use, more and more regular users will get snared in the trap of predatory overage fees, just like the vile ones the cell phone companies charge for voice, text, and data (and international roaming and data).
Any other leftover moneys should be further reinvested into the business (such as extra R & D), placed in safer types of investments as a rainy day fund, or paid to the government in a beginning of a repayment plan for taxes owed. Let’s be reasonable, if a company wants almost all the rights of a private entity or citizen, then they deserve to live up to the responsibilities a citizen is held to (paying their damned taxes, not dodging them).
This plan would be an excellent (and FAIR) solution to many of the problems facing our country and its companies today. It would immediately free-up untold billions of funds that would be used to raise worker compensation both here in the states, and abroad, bring hundreds of millions of jobs back into this country, and create an inestimable number of new jobs as these companies used excess funds to invest in more R & D, company infrastructure, health care, and would also get our government back on its feet by almost wiping out unemployment (no need to pay benefits if everyone is working), and fully funding it with taxes that always should have been paid. Perhaps we could begin paying down the national debt as well.
The market has been corrupted, and this corruption needs to be beaten to death with the reasonable stick.
This post is extrapolated from a comment I left on this news article over at TTAC.
Basically, Colorado officials want gamble with their future by trying to double Photo Enforcement revenues and authorizing even more surveillance across the entire state.
I can’t wait for the backlash that’s coming against these Redflex speeding and Red Light Camera Progrommes. It will be fun to watch what happens in Colorado, even from distance of Ohio. Red light camera ticketing schemes are guaranteed political suicide. But the elected (and appointed) officials think they are completely untouchable. So tax revenues go down a bit, you need to tighten up your belts and reduce spending, just like we plebeians private citizens when we lose part or all of our income. The closest analogy I can think of is a man getting his hours reduced at work. This seedy character approaches him on the way to his van as he’s sullenly headed home for the day and says, “psst– Hey buddy, need some cash?” He then follows this crook’s advice and goes out and rents a camera. He records someone breaking a traffic law from his van with his rented camera. He mails a copy of the photo to the person who owns the vehicle, as well as a picture drawing of a gun, but the icing on the cake is the stern letter he sends that implies ’something’s gonna happen to you if you don’t pay up.’
People merely want to feel safe in their homes and property. Extortion campaigns such as this milk owners of vehicles dry when we live in one of the safest times in recent history. Accidents are down, fatalities are down, murders are down (I think). Yet we are absorbed in a news cycle of fear, trained to fear and hate our fellow man. Some industrious fellows in Colorado will band together with political and community groups to stop these crooks just like they did in Cincinnati. It may take a few years if people are convinced they can’t do anything to change it, or if they don’t have direct ballot initiative access like we do in Ohio… but they will either directly change it, or elect those who will rescind the contracts. Just look at the current situation in Arizona, as they are in open revolt against these systems. I feel that the best argument against photo enforcement is actually having it. The greedy bastards have gone too far, just wait for the backlash you political gobshites, it’s coming…