3026 No one's looking! Let's steal something!

Friday, July 16, 2010

"The beauty and intricacy of a person's mind
has little or nothing to do with outward appearances."

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Two years after installing them, Arizona has decided to discontinue use of automated cameras on Arizona freeways aimed at catching speeders. According to the New York Times article, Arizona is "bowing to the wishes of a vocal band of conservative activists who complained that photo enforcement intruded on privacy and was mainly designed to raise money."

I don't understand.

The comments on the Times story and the Wall Street Journal blog entry didn't enlighten me, either.

Apparently it's ok to invade the privacy of other people that "we" don't like (ok to hassle anyone who looks vaguely Hispanic, or ok to burst into the bedrooms of possible gays), but not ok to intrude on "our" privacy? Hey, if you don't want your wife to know you were on a certain street when you were supposed to be at work, then don't speed on that street, then you don't have to worry about her seeing the mailed ticket and photo.

Besides, if nobody breaks any laws, then nobody pays any fines, so what's the "designed to raise money" objection? That doesn't make any sense.

I was surprised at the number of commenters who had the attitude that if the police didn't see them breaking the law, then it's ok to break the law (and endanger others). One commenter said, "If the referee doesn’t call a foul, it’s not a foul." Please tell me that isn't a tenet of that "sportsmanship" thing I hear is so valuable to teach our youth.

Sorry. As far as I'm concerned, whether anyone sees the foul or not, even if the person you fouled against isn't aware, it was still a foul, and you should be ashamed. Even if a police officer did not see you speed or run the light, you still broke the law and should suffer the consequences.

Following the twisted logic of those commenters, if no one sees you shoplift, then it's ok to shoplift. It's apparently not a crime to break the law, the only crime is getting caught. And these idiots want to make the catchers follow their rules, even if the miscreants themselves don't have to follow any rules.

These people make me sick.

I wonder if they'd be happier if Arizona raised taxes to quintuple the law enforcement budget, pulled police officers out of neighborhood beats so none could come to 911 calls, hired more officers, and put a cop with a radar gun every quarter mile on the highways. I have a feeling they still wouldn't be happy --- because it's not the cameras they object to, it's the getting caught.
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