Speed cameras are like kudzu – they have to be beaten back every so often.
If, that is, the public has any idea they are about to get mulcted by them.
With almost no notice and even less media coverage, Virginia is on the verge of erecting these automated revenue collectors on its highways. Two companion bills (509 and 917) have already passed the General Assembly and now await the signature of Governor “Coonman” Northam.
Virtually no one seems to be aware of it.
The main instigator behind the pending legislation is a former in-person revenue collector by the name of Bill Carrico, who is a state senator now but was formerly an armed government worker.
Amazon.com $50 Gift Ca...
Buy New $50.00
(as of 11:50 UTC - Details)
That is to say, a guy who spent his days hiding in roadside cutouts pointing a radar gun at passing cars, then chasing them down to issue extortion notes at gunpoint called “tickets” – ostensibly as punishment for the victimless crime of driving faster than an arbitrarily decreed maximum velocity.
The fact that nearly every car on every road is “speeding” at any given time – including cars driven by armed government workers current and former, such as Carrico – is pretty persuasive evidence that these arbitrary velocity limits are absurd – except insofar as the pretext they provide for . . . revenue collection.
Well, to collect revenue from us.
Armed government workers such as Carrico are exempted as a practical matter, in the same manner that a group of crocodiles lurking around a watering hole awaiting a thirsty – and unwary – antelope – generally refrain from snapping at one another.
At any rate, Carrico and co. have pushed through legislation to authorize the automation of revenue collecting.
As well as its privatizing.
