Smile! You’re on (red light) camera!

Originally posted July 18, 2008

Smile! You’re on (red light) camera!

Caught by the camera

Boston.com is reporting on the next-to-be-implemented phase in The Road System: Red Light Cameras.  In the article Globe staffer Lisa Kocian states that “Until legislation passes, however, no community can install the cameras without running up against state law.”  That may be the case, but there are already plenty of cameras in place.  For example, at the intersection of Route 13 and 2a in Lunenburg at the entrance to the Wal*Mart Plaza there are already cameras mounted on the traffic lights.  On the newly installed traffic lights on Route 12 in Leominster there are cameras mounted as well.  At many intersections around the Commonwealth these systems have already been installed.  They may not be being used for the kind of revenue generation traffic enforcement discussed in the article, yet, but you can count on them being used for that very purpose – just as soon as Central Planink Komitty on Beacon Hill authorizes it.

We the People used to live in a land of Liberty and Justice for All.  Sadly for us, and more so for future generations, we now live in a land of surveillance and ever increasing government monitoring of every aspect of our daily lives.  That we have allowed things to go as far as they have would shock the men who penned these words:

“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”

You may recognize that.  The full text was posted on Independence Day – just two weeks ago.  These days we celebrate Independence Day only once a year.  And many have seemingly forgotten its meaning, calling it instead ‘The Fourth of July.’  It is not about picnics and Pops concerts and fireworks displays.  It is about reminding our Nation of its origin and of the fight – with bullets and bayonets – that our forefathers went through to secure these fragile Liberties for us!  For a Free People EVERY DAY is Independence Day!  We must not let our government forget that fact!

UPDATE 08-18-08:  What I had thought were miniaturized cameras at the lights on Route 13 apparently aren’t.  My apologies for this inaccuracy.  I have seen cameras around, I’m sure somewhere in Marxistchusetts, I just can’t now recall where they are.  There are a full rack of cameras at the lights on Route 101a in Milford just west of the ramp to Route 101.  But that is in New Hampshire and doesn’t fall within the parameters of this post.  Still, the surveillance mentality exhibited by the presence of those cameras is disturbing.

UPDATE 01-03-11:  They are all over the place now.  At Littleton Common, all the new lights on Route 110 in Westford, the new lights on Route 12 in Leominster, just to name a few.