California City Looks To Evade Laws On Redlight Cameras
from the but-look-who-benefits dept
The city of Corona, CA is apparently looking to change the way it deals with redlight camera violations in an effort to avoid having to cough up some of the money it gains from redlight fines to the state and the county. They claim that this is to lower the fines that those caught by the cameras have to pay, and are positioning it as such, but it seems that residents aren't buying it. Beyond trying to evade California laws on redlight camera violations, it actually means the city would get more cash from such violations, and has some other nefarious effects. As Jeff Nolan notes, it's also of questionable constitutionality:The problem here is that Corona is shredding the Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, the right to a trial by jury. By reclassifying a moving violation (a traffic offense governed by the vehicle code) to an administrative violation (governed by the appropriately named government code) Corona is doing something really nefarious. In order to appeal an administrative citation you have to admit guilt, pay the full fine, and then apply for a hearing in front of an administrative official, not a judge in a court. The city could simply deny all hearings for administrative violations or schedule them far out in advance knowing full well that they have your money, which you had to pay before you could appeal.The original article also notes that the majority of such fines are not on people running redlights directly, but people doing rolling stops before doing a right turn on red -- an action that very rarely leads to an accident. But it sure does dump lots of money in city coffers.
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Filed Under: california, corona, redlight cameras
Companies: redflex
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Louisiana
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But, if you do a rolling right on red, you are probably the same type of idiot who creeps up on the red light, but sits there when it turns green.
And it absolutely should be a ticket-able offense.
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Re:
You missed the point entirely, moron.
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Title Change
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Re: Title Change
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illinois
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(Repitition)
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Cuts both ways
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Re: Cuts both ways
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Re:
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Confused me too...
In response to the article though...sounds like it's about time to take a trip down to Corona with a truck and a sawzall
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Californians are already on to it.
I think LoL
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Californians are already on to it.
Quote from the site:
"A tiny change in the length of the yellow can have a huge effect on the quantity of violations. The economic effect is so significant that some recent red light camera contracts - those in Roseville, Citrus Heights, Corona, and Bell Gardens - appear to provide for a monetary penalty against the city if city traffic engineers lengthen the yellows."
I think this whole traffic tickets thing have morfed into a business a long time ago.
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Not about safety
Traffic accidents go up with red light cameras, people get rear-ended more often.
They should just be honest and simply put up tollbooths. or something like the eZpass.
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In your states where you have "administrative" offences, its because YOU let it happen. Presumably YOU won't do anything about it either but just complain, upon deaf ears who will give you a snow job if you're loud enough, which you WILL buy, because you're unable to recognize a snow job when it's right in front of your face.
America is quickly becoming a terrible place to be because for whatever excuses, its citizens won't DO anything to maintain or restore real American values which are thus converted into administrative "values" to pay administrators salaries...
V
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Criminal Offense?
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Re: Criminal Offense?
See you in court!
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Re: Criminal Offense?
There's no *criminal* court involved. That doesn't keep them from getting a judgment against you in *civil* court.
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Corona...
Apparently also miles away from ethical.
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I agree that these redlight tickets are nothing more than ANOTHER scam on society and imo, ALL disputed tickets should not have to be payed in advance to dispute them.
Just remember, once you physically enter the court building, you are now agreeing with their rules and under their overall authority.
Unfortunately, unless you have 'professional' pics and drawings and are able to concisely explain why you are not at fault, without making a single error in the process, the judge will always side with the cop or camera as it were.
I, for one, am perfectly willing to tell any court in the country what they can do with the driver's license in question. "Please go ahead and shove my license up your collective asses"
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HOW LONG WILL WE DO NOTHING ??
I mean, someone benefits and gets this money. It ends up somewhere. That means someone is planning this sort of thing. Someone is intentionally dealing to get any law or mandate that helps enrich their cause passed. That means that not only is the red light law bad, but so are the countless other laws that were made to get to the red light law with the intention of deepening someone or something's pockets.
WILL YOU JUST SIT THERE IDLY BY AND LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU OVER AND OVER AGAIN UNTIL THE END OF TIME?
HOW LONG WILL AMERICANS TAKE THIS ABUSE?
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Do it for SAFETY, not PROFIT
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Re: Do it for SAFETY, not PROFIT
My wife and I take a walk every evening and at least 2-3 times a week we're almost squashed by people turning right on a red light.
These people are making "California Stops" (slowing down, but not coming to a complete stop) when they do this, but the problem is they only look left for oncoming traffic. They rarely or never look right for pedestrians. We often have to jump out of the way of one of these cretins who seldom, if ever, even notice us as they speed by.
It got so bad at one intersection in my town that the road department installed a "No Turn on Red" sign that lights up when a pedestrian pushes the walk button. The sign as been there now for almost a year, but from observation, only about 20% of drivers obey it--the others continue to make their rolling California stops without looking right for pedestrians (usually while holding a cell phone to their ear, which is also illegal in California).
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Re: Re: Do it for SAFETY, not PROFIT
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Here's another California secret
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Better solution
Get a picture of their license plate.
Rent a car like the mayor's.
Tape a print out of their license over the rental's plate.
Zip through a bunch of lights near the mayor's house.
Repeat with the rest of the city council.
Suddenly, a jury trial will seem like a good idea.
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Re: Better solution
V
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Question
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Also, EVERYONE in California does "California stops" -- it's perfectly normal there, and quite safe as long as you're not an idiot.
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RED LIGHT CAMERA
one: red light camera's are in violation of the 6th Amendment
two: Anyone showing up on behalf of the ticket is hearsay. An Sworn officer has to be present to witness the violation.
three: if you do go to court request the following information, Digital time stamp of the camera's recordings to the time of the violation, if it is off by 1 second they can't fine you. This means request the server logs for the NTP (Nation Time Protocol) records. (This is just to cause them grief)
since I am a 20 year vet of computer network security I can run circles round how these camera's are not recording correctly, which they are not in all cases the time stamp does not match the actual time of violation. But that is all mute from what I said above.
Constitutional Law trump’s State and city ordnances.
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