Red Light Cameras - Revisited

A judge has upheld a red light camera ticket against a driver in California despite its direct confliction with state law.

http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/26/2699.asp

"Appellate court in Los Angeles, California rules that red light cameras tickets can be issued by companies with illegal contract arrangements.

"The defendant in the case argued that this ticket was invalid because it had been issued by a private company and the city of Lancaster who were operating together under an arrangement specifically forbidden by the state's red light camera statute. The law requires that camera contractors be compensated on a flat-rate basis to remove the financial incentive for the company to issue more tickets. Lancaster is one of dozens of California cities ignoring this mandate by using a "cost neutral" formula that adjusts the rate paid based on whether the number of tickets issued falls within a certain range."

I wonder what would turn up if this judge's financial records were audited. Do you think a connection would be found with the private red light camera company?

Government Corruption

As someone who peruses a wide variety of news publications, I see a decent dose of sporadic cases of government corruption peppering the headlines. This morning was no different. In fact, the leading stories on both CNN.com and the online St. Louis Post Dispatch detailed two cases of government corruption from two different branches of the government. These cases you’ll notice are becoming more frequent as the government machine continues to gain size and momentum.

Two Pennsylvania judges have pleaded guilty to fraud charges after receiving more than $2.6 million in kickbacks from youth detention centers.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/02/23/pennsylvania.corrupt.judges/index.html

Two St. Louis police officers have been arrested for obstruction of justice (among other charges and one of the officers has pleaded guilty) after stealing money from drug dealers; planting money, drugs, and a gun; and then covering it up.
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/C9E54DC45609800A8625756600055DFF?OpenDocument

If these offenses are so egregious as to require fellow members of this same body of racketeers (The State) to prosecute and to further bring into question the legitimacy of their operation, one must wonder how many of these cases get swept under the rug and never make it to the light of day. And one must further wonder how the mainstream media, the consummate whipping boy and compliant shill for The State, allowed this information to be published.