Slashdot Mirror
Yellow Vests Knock Out 60 Percent of All Speed Cameras In France (bbc.com)
Thelasko shares a report from the BBC: Members of the "yellow vests" protest movement have vandalized almost 60% of France's entire speed camera network, the interior minister has said. Christophe Castaner said the willful damage was a threat to road safety and put lives in danger. The protest movement began over fuel tax increases, and saw motorists block roads and motorway toll booths. Some protesters feel speed cameras are solely a revenue-generating measure which takes money from the poor. The BBC's Hugh Schofield, in Paris, said evidence of the vandalism is visible to anyone driving around France, with radar cameras covered in paint or black tape to stop them working.
The French need to decide what kind of country they want to be. Issues like these should be resolved democratically, not through vandalism. Yet France has a long history of caving in to violent demonstrators, which has made street demonstrations more and more popular, and made any sort of sensible economic reforms impossible.
The latest polls show that a majority of the French support the vandals and rioters.
It doesn't have to be that way. They should look at Italy as a country that manages to be economically dysfunctional without political violence. France could do the same.
Americans used similar tactics to move the needles on civil rights, the Vietnam war
The most influential protests in these movements were non-violent. The protests that were violent were likely counterproductive.
... and the shitty police force in Baltimore.
The shittiness of the Baltimore PD has not changed. They have repeatedly been caught planting and falsifying evidence, with no more than administrative action against the criminal cops.
Here in BC, a couple of years ago the government increased the speed limit on some highways, from 100-110 to 130 km/h IIRC. This year they decreased over half back down due to the increase in number of accidents. These were mostly limited access highways.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
Such a large-scale action is not done without some central organization.
You'd be surprised how like minded people will copy good ideas from each other. Central organisation would be proven if it all happened at once. The yellow vests however have been best described as copycats at every stage of their protest.
Oooh look 10 people in Paris occupied a toll booth! A day later you hear about gilets jaunes occupying toll booths over the country. It's very much a monkey see monkey do kind of a movement.