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