While doing the mandatory posting of my articles to all the social networking websites I dugg up this nugget of fear. From thenewspaper.com quote:
Arlington, Virginia has taken the next step in automated camera enforcement. Next month, it will expand its use of “BootFinder,” a camera device that scans license plates of parked cars and compares it against a database of unpaid fines. If the car’s owner is listed as delinquent, the car can be towed — and if the owner doesn’t pay within 10 days the car is auctioned.
Currently Arlington’s program focuses on unpaid car and property taxes, and the city’s one camera has collected $90,000. In March, however, any unpaid fine is fair game, “anything from late park and recreation fees to overdue library books.”
New Haven, Connecticut has towed 1,800 cars and collected $1,000,000 with its BootFinder. Bridgeport is ready to get on board as well.
The system uses a $25,000 camera mounted in a laptop-equipped minivan and is capable of taking a thousand photos every minute. Arlington County Treasurer Frank O’Leary told the Washington Times, “We’re just always looking for new ways to skin the cat.”
Update: New Haven, Connecticut used Bootfinder to tow a woman’s car out of her driveway for $85 in unpaid parking tickets.
You can find the referenced article at Forbes.com
I like my tinfoil hat. It fits firmly and snugly and protects me from all the mind beams seeking to brainwash me into the latest fad and government thought experiment. But it doesn’t take a tinfoil hat mentality to see that greed is the real motivating factor behind much of the ubiquitous video all around us.
There are products out to obscure our license plates from overhead traffic cams but now it appears that the police car or meter maid can just cruise down the street and whatever falls into its view is scrutinized for whatever petty crime it can find. And not for the common welfare or the protection of the innocent.
For the ever increasing love of taking your money.
By fees. By taxes. By licenses. By hook. By crook. Laws are supposed to be there to outline what is acceptable behavior in a civilized society NOT to provide a revenue stream for the bloated liberal nanny-state. Now, have a library book overdue like I did? If my license plate were captured by the BootFinder (well now call it the FeeCam) I would likely have had to pay the entire $675.00 overdue book fee AND the towing and impound fees.
We can all learn from these other folks. Don’t let government get any bigger. And don’t hold on to those library books.
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on Tuesday, February 13th, 2007 at 11:48 am and is filed under Blogging, Humanity, Political.
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