Angry Populace Burning British Surveillance Cameras

[babylonsister]

Angry Populace Burning British Surveillance Cameras
By Bruce Sterling EmailDecember 22, 2007 | 9:22:25 AM



(((Woah. This looks like a sport with a bright future.)))
http://www.speedcam.co.uk/gatso2.htm Link: Speed Cameras.

"This page is probably the highlight of the entire site. To my knowledge this is the largest collection of wrecked Gatsos on the internet, and its growing rapidly. So long as these cameras are robbing motorists of their cash they will continue to be destroyed.

"Five Gatsos have just gone up in Nuneaton. One of them was completely destroyed before it had even gone live. The workmen hadn't even finished installing it...."



(((And check out the chest-pounding vigilante manifesto here... my goodness me.)))
http://www.speedcam.co.uk/index2.htm

"A Summer of MADness?

"Motorists Against Detection, the vigilante anti-speed camera group have announced a summer of MADness which will see them target for destruction all speed cameras in the UK. It’s now going to be a period of zero tolerance against all speed cameras, said their campaigns director Capt Gatso. (((A remote descendant of General Ludd, I reckon.)))

"The group claims speed cameras are just money-making machines and they have given the authorities long enough to prove their worth. The first camera to fall in the summer campaign is in south east London on the A2 at the Sun in the Sands roundabout on-slip heading northbound towards the Blackwall Tunnel.

"Capt Gatso, the group's campaigns director, (((he's a multitalented guy))) said: "We have completely pulled it out of the ground, it is now lying flat. You can see some of our handiwork posted on www.speedcam.co.uk.

"He added: In many areas the cameras have not saved one life - the statistics for road deaths haven't gone down. In some areas they have actually gone up - in Essex, for instance, which has a high density of cameras there are more people being killed. We are now planning to target any and all cameras until the Government sees sense and rethinks its road safety policy. Before we had speed cameras we had the safest roads in Europe - since their introduction this is no longer true."

more...

http://blog.wired.com/sterling/2007/12/burning-british.html

[BridgeTheGap]

1. Soon to come: cameras to watch the cameras

count on it!

[Uncle Joe]

3. Or camouflaged cameras. n/t

[ThomWV]

2. Bless them. There are cameras on every traffic light in the closest town

They can capture your face I am told, they can certainly read your license plate.

[MadHound]

4. An inspiration for those of us here in the US

Not just red light cameras and such, but cameras all over. Hell, you can hardly step foot outside without being on film anymore. One of the more depressing, and infuriating trends that I've seen during my lifetime.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

14. Yup, it was really great...

...when one of the neighborhood junkie assholes spraypainted over the lenses of our CCTV cameras the day before some other lunatic set fire to the rubbish bins next to the house across from our office and nearly burned the damned house down.

[High Plains]

5. Hear, hear! Direct action against the surveillance state. Cool.

[K Gardner]

6. ROFL ! It'll replace shooting out streetlights ! Those Europeans are SO way ahead

of us on so many levels.

Thanks Babylon Sister, for your continued posting of FINE articles. I count on you for my daily quota, it is much appreciated :-)

[Lars39]

7. Remember, remember...

V

[IntravenousDemilo]

8. I'm of two minds on this.

One hemisphere objects to the privacy intrusion, on ordinary people walking around and going about their business, that is posed by constant camera surveillance.

But the other hemisphere has no objection to, and even welcomes, photo-radar for motorists in order to curb their excess of speed. It was working just fine in Ontario until Mike Harris's neocon government got rid of it, claiming it was just a money-grab.

[bonito]

10. It's got to have checks and balances

So those in power can't abuse it for personal, political or unconstitutional gain.

[MedleyMisty]

13. I feel the same way

but we should put our flame suits on - a lot of people get really offended when anyone mentions driving safely.

Eh - I think a better solution is more funds for the police department so they can have more officers watching traffic.

[Kingshakabobo]

15. If you think politicians are putting these up for safety,

....I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.

Maybe I'm biased because I live under the rule of Chicago's Mayor Daley. He makes no bones about the revenue enhancement piece of these gadgets. A year or two ago, they did a test run on one of our major thoroughfares and racked up hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines in the first months - you could practically see the dollar signs spinning in his eyeballs when they announced the fine amounts (these were stoplight cameras). Subsequent to that, Chicago passed a city ordinance to enter private property to enforce city sticker fines - I think that one, much to Da Mayor's delight, racked up 600k in fines in the first weeks. They have even gone on record to say they want to hire more code enforcement officers - not because there is some outbreak of food poisonings - but because they need the money in fine revenue.

I'm all for municipalities having enough money to run the show but I would rather they did it above board with taxes - not with badges, guns and court appearances. Of course, this is a point to be made to our conservative friends when they bragg about their $300 dollar tax cut they received from bush without realizing federal funding to cities has a direct effect on their daily lives..

[aikoaiko]

22. In Savannah, it costs 3000 dollars to run the red light cams at each intersection

The one at Georgetown and Rt 204 wasn't making enough money so they turned them off.

3K before they break even. geesh.

[LanternWaste]

23. As far as I know...

As far as I know, these cameras are in public areas in which no person has any reasonable expectations of privacy.

If the cameras were pointed into the back yard of a private citizen, that's a different story; but as things stand now, I simply can't see a precise and relevant moral difference between a beat-cop working an intersection and a camera doing the exact same thing.

Also, I'm not sure why we decry the use of this by local municipalities to curb crime while at the same time, we rejoice when individuals do the very same thing, then sell the footage to the local news station which will then air it on the Ten O'Clock News for all to see-- to me, that's the real intrusion of privacy.

The camera installed at the intersection just across from my apartment has seems to have reduced traffic accidents-- when once I could expect three to five accidents a week, it's now reduced to a mere handful per month.

Just thinking aloud is all... :hi:

[Heywood J]

24. That caused accidents in

Ontario - people jammed on the brakes when they saw the radar sign or the unit itself, and then chained everyone right behind them. That's not working just fine. Red light cameras, however, were a better idea.

[Downtown Hound]

9. Jolly good job chaps!

Them bugger cameras need to be destroyed, then maybe those in power will get a clue that maybe not all of us like being under constant watch.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

11. In the Netherlands the farmers shoot them. n/t

[Alexander]

12. Good. They should do that here in Phoenix.

Of course, a lot of people here are fascists and want MORE cameras.

Go figure. :eyes:

[Orwellian_Ghost]

16. Adios

panopticon.

K&R

[earth mom]

17. Power to the people! This spying shit has got to stop! They're asking for V for Vendetta...

Though, no doubt TPTB will just install cameras to watch the cameras and cameras to watch the cameras that are watching the cameras... :argh:

[Perry Logan]

18. If the fires start to go out, they can just throw in some books. Or Dixie Chicks CDs.

[pinniped]

19. The surveillance dirigibles will have to be employed now.

These will be much harder to take down.

[madokie]

20. shooting a little left and a tad low

and that in itself is easy to compensate for. other than that it looks good '-)

[tuckessee]

25. They mainly use petrol filled tyres.

Necklaces for cameras.

[aikoaiko]

21. little brother fights back.