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Using Speed Cameras To Send Tickets To Your Enemies
High school students in Maryland are using speed cameras to get back at their perceived enemies, and even teachers. The students duplicate the victim's license plate on glossy paper using a laser printer, tape it over their own plate, then speed past a newly installed speed camera. The victim gets a $40 ticket in the mail days later, without any humans ever having been involved in the ticketing process. A blog dedicated to driving and politics adds that a similar, if darker, practice has taken hold in England, where bad guys cruise the streets looking for a car similar to their own. They then duplicate its plates in a more durable form, and thereafter drive around with little fear of trouble from the police.
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Ahh yes, USA's little wannabe buddy.
This isn't some sort of minor thing like ringing someone's doorbell and running off, or spraying their car with silly string(though that can have long term consequences too). It's not even something like when people cause accidents because they steal traffic signs(which is also stupid and criminal, but you can argue that the consequences were not intended).
This is deliberately impersonating someone with the intent of getting that individual into trouble with law enforcement. Traffic tickets have real consequences, not just $40, at the very least you're going to be out serious amounts of time and potentially money fighting the ticket(if you can fight it at all), but you're looking at a potential loss of someone's license and all the costs associated with that depending on how often it was done or if the victim had previous fines.
This is a fairly serious offense, akin to calling the police and accusing someone of a crime. People who do this kind of shit, even if they're stupid teenagers should face jail time. If the judge decides to be lenient and let them off with community service that's lucky for them, it might not even be an unreasonable outcome, but kids need to learn the consequences of their actions and giving them a slap on the wrist and saying "oh it was just a prank" won't teach them that.
Circumstances and intent have to be taken into account in all crimes, but so do consequences, and saying the consequences don't matter, especially when the perpetrators intended them(even if they didn't think it through) is a worse perversion of justice than excessive punishment.
I'm quite militant about anything that FORCES people to be morally responsible when they drive
I couldn't agree more. Irresponsible drivers are a menace on the roads.
I won't mention here why this subject grabs me so hard, but suffice to say I drive professionally.
I don't think speed kills. I believe that not paying attention is the problem. Running red lights is inexcusable. Being incapacitated because of drugs (legal or otherwise) should be punished much more harshly.
The fact is that people who are underconfident behind the wheel need to take stricter tests so that they won't go out when they can't cope, and those who are overconfident should be shown what can go wrong when the machine they are operating doesn't react the way they expect it to, or exceeds their ability to handle.
Too many people shouldn't be on the road, but are. There are a lot of people like myself who just want to get from A to B without getting behind and idiot going too slow, or having an idiot behind them who doesn't drive to the conditions of the road and/or has a car incapable of performing safely at the speeds they are travelling at.
Traffic police and speed cameras take nothing into account, they are both taxation devices aimed at motorists. One because it is an unfeeling, unreasonable, non-caring machine that doles out penalties to anyone unlucky enough to be moving down a road with no houses anywhere near, no matter what time of day or night it is, road conditions not taken into account, driving record of the person in charge of the vehicle notwithstanding; the other is a camera on a pole.
I hate traffic cops. Park in a pub car park and stop the drunken twats getting in their cars after a skin full of ale. Pull people over for driving erratically, ignoring road markings, being a hazard to other road users (including pedestrians); but leave me and those like me alone. Speeding is not a reason to deprive someone of their licence, unless they have too much speed and not enough ability, restraint or control.
note: If you get caught 30mph over the speed limit in the UK you could get an instant ban from driving. If you are doing 1 to 29mph over the posted limit you get 3 'points' and a £60 fine. If you get 12 points your licence is invalid until you drop to 11 or less. Points take 4 years to be removed from your licence. There have been cases of people getting 4 tickets in one journey.
Do not meddle in the affairs of geeks for they are subtle and quick to anger