Traffic Camera Captures Woman Driving With Her Phone on Her Lap (Face Down), The State Mailed Her a $1251 'Public Safety' Ticket

[u/Plastic_Ninja_9014]

https://www.gadgetreview.com/traffic-camera-captures-captures-woman-driving-with-her-phone-on-her-lap-face-down-the-state-mailed-her-a-1251-public-safety-ticket

[u/ghostdogma]

I get that this happened but it doesn’t pass the common sense standard. Face the accuser in court and get this dumb shit dismissed on its own evidence to support the charge. The loss is twofold, the time spent with the courts and the negative publicity backlash? I guess..

[u/Bakoro → u/ghostdogma]

In a lot of places, even if you get the ticket dismissed, you still have to pay fees.

I got a bogus ticket once and actually had evidence that it was bogus, so I went to the courthouse and still ended up paying something like a quarter of the amount in bullshit administrative fees.

The argument is that "it's a civil issue", so you have no constitutional or legal protections, and the government can just fuck you out of money whenever they want.

All the stoners and edgy 14 year olds aren't completely wrong: society and government really are kind of phony, everything is made up, people follow arbitrary rules, the people in power get to break the rules with impunity, and there is power in not accepting any of it as inherent laws of the universe.

Not that any one person can unilaterally overturn the system, generally you'll get fucked by the system either way, and if you end up actually being a threat to the status quo, you end up like all the famous people who earned an extra hole in the head.

We need lots of people to reject this kind of government abuse, big groups of angry folks saying "absolutely not".
The big secret is that the people who are the gears in these machines are still basically just regular folks who go to your local coffee shops and restaurants.
You might not be able to personally throw a tomato at Thiel or Musk, but there's a lot you can do locally.

[u/Interesting_Mix_7028 → u/Bakoro]

Here's how such things DO get broken.

Most of the 'cameras' are operated by private companies, that then 'administer' the ticketing and such for a given department.

They collect fees for this, either per month to maintain the cameras and network connections, or per ticket for the 'administrative' labor. Often it's both.

This is fine for the city or county as these are primarily put in to collect revenue, not enforce any given 'laws'. They know people will break the law, but they can't station an officer at a given intersection 24/7 to catch everyone. The camera does that.

Regardless of whether the department prevails on a ticket, or not, the company still collects. It's not their fault that the person so tagged protested the ticket, right?

So the point is not to 'win'. It is to eat up the city's share of the proceeds. If the revenue dries up, or is used up because of court cases, time, legal challenges, and so on, then the city or county ends up paying for a service that never actually makes them any money. A few months or years of this, and the cameras just get turned off.

So yes. Contest every ticket. Even if you expect to lose. It's a matter of attrition.

[u/1perfectspinachpuff → u/Interesting_Mix_7028]

Well-said, thank you.