CAUGHT IN THE MACHINE

Today was a day of Bad Mojo.  Start to finish.  I woke up to Mrs. and 
Little Bronx fighting loudly -- always a pleasant way to start the day.  
And then Mrs. Bronx had misread her work schedule and it turned out she 
was supposed to be in for 09:00am instead of noon.  We found this out 
at 10:30am, when her job called to find out if she was alive.

Later on in the day, it looked like our cat, who's an indoor guy with 
mad escape artist skills, had gone missing again (as it turned out, he 
was sleeping all day in an indoor hiding place we have yet to actually 
locate, so that was a good bit of news at that point, nerve-jangling as 
it was before).  But the peace of resistance came in the mail: a 
traffic ticket for Yours Truly.

Now, understand, I've been driving for almost thirty-two years now, and 
in all that time I have never ONCE gotten a ticket.  But this wasn't a 
human thing, no.  See, about two years ago, the town of Show Low, 
Arizona, decided to put in traffic cameras at all the major 
intersections.  That's right, in this land of wide-open vistas, and 
cowboy culture; of gun enthusiasts and self-described patriots; in this 
place where Freedom is often spoken verbally with that capital "F" in 
plain evidence, the community has become an active and willing member 
of the surveillance society.

I blew through a red light.  You know, it was one of those, "Can I make 
the yellow?" type of things.  I don't remember doing it, but they have 
a link online where I can go and watch the video.  It's me.  They have 
photos too.  Totally me.  It's all very plain and simple.  They have me 
dead to rights.

Now, I can confess my sins and pay 220 USD, and get points on my 
license (which would end up raising my insurance rates, and, 
ultimately, cost much, much more over the course of time); or, I can 
try and beat it in court (I've read about ways to do that, but, even at 
the best of times, it's no sure thing); or I can take an online 
"Defensive Driving Class".  If I go this route, the total cost is 180 
USD, and no points go on my record.  Hmmm...I wonder which choice MOST 
people make?

A bill of goods.  Show Low, Arizona, got sold this whole package, like 
many other towns in this state, and across the country.  The corporate 
hucksters say, "Buy our automated cameras, and there'll be no need to 
pay a police officer or any real human operators; oh, sure, they cost 
millions of dollars, but the town MAKES money from them."  Then, on the 
next level, they get the traffic laws amended, such that it's legal to 
offer this cheaper alternative (a "Defensive Driving Class") to minor 
traffic tickets.  Then, you make these corporate-run online courses 
available for any and all to access, and the city, state, and 
corporations all get a cut of the cash.

It's a machine.  From one end to the other, the entire operation is a 
revenue-generating endeavor.  The corporations who build and sell these 
cameras make money; the corporations who offer the online courses (and 
I'll bet many of them are one-in-the-same) get their cuts of the fines; 
the state gets its cut, and the city gets its cut.

Now, if a police officer had been there when I went through the light, 
it's entirely possible he or she would have done nothing at all -- I've 
seen it before, many times.  Or, if I DID get pulled over, a quick look 
at my record might have garnered a simple verbal warning.  That happens 
too.  But neither of those things generate revenue, so we have machines 
instead.  The machines make the judgments, the machines grind through 
the protocols, and the machines issue the citations.  It's a racket, 
pure and simple.  Certainly there's nothing to be learned from an 
online course that my over thirty years of driving with a perfect 
(fucking PERFECT, mind you) record hasn't already taught me, but 
getting caught in the machine WILL act as a deterrence.  I don't want 
to go through this again, naturally, so from now on, I'll treat yellow 
lights like reds, and (in theory) be a better driver.

I could go on and on at this point about how the political leaders and 
captains of industry in this country destroyed our mass transit systems 
in favor of Detroit's favorite product and the ancillary industries 
that support it -- a decision that has seen us become utterly dependent 
upon non-renewable resources from foreign powers who are not at all 
friendly to us (only to our money).  I could further propound how the 
economic bennies from said industries have largely fled to foreign 
lands, leaving us, now, utterly dependent upon foreign-made machines 
burning those non-renewable foreign fuels.  I believe these things, but 
they are academic in this context, since I live in a rural area that 
NEVER had mass transit to speak of.  It went from the horse to the 
truck, with nothing much in between -- though, even here, the trains 
ran between towns once.  Once.

All of it, a scam.  

All of it, a way to buffer private, public, and company coffers at the 
expense of everyday people.  No, I won't try to defend my violation of 
the law.  I saw the pics, I saw the video.  I did it.  I'm guilty as 
charged.  I'd just rather have a person tell me so, than a machine.

Monday, August 29, 2011
(c) 2011 lostnbronx
CC BY-SA 3.0
lostnbronxATgmailDOTcom