TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) – A group of Santa impersonators are on the naughty list of Arizona law enforcement officials.
A YouTube video posted Monday shows four people dressed as Kris Kringle, white beards and red hats included, covering three speed and red light enforcement cameras in Tempe.
Two are covered with boxes – one decorated with Christmas wrap – and the third is blocked with what appears to be a red sheet. The Jackson 5′s “Santa Claus is coming to town” plays during the more than two-minute video.
At the end is a message that reads: “Ho Ho Ho! Death to the surveillance state! Free movement for all people!”
The group that posted the video also wrote “lumps of coal to all of those who make it their business to watch and control.”
Thank you Santa.
Mr. Fusion
About faking the plates. I could do it. I’m pretty sure anyone could do it with a digital cameria, a computer and a color printer. I don’t think the cameras being used to take the pictures for the cops are super high def which is what you’d need to notice any difference at a distance.
If you want to catch them you might try walking around parking lots. That is how the locals check to see if you pay your wheel tax.
However what the kids were reported as doing would have been putting on the fake tags, speeding where they knew they’d get caught by a camera, then quickly ditching the fake tag. The cops still might get some clues from the car modal but the odds are the kids wouldn’t be caught unless their face was in a picture.
I guess how hard this would be to pull off would depend on exactly what all was in the picture. I only have to have a rear tag and if they take a picture of the back of my car with the wrong tag number they don’t have much.
As for the rest I agree.
These are not “Speed” cameras at all. Only red light cameras. Running red lights causes extremely deadly accidents.
Well, if the local/state governments are to be believed then right after this happened those intersections immediately became more dangerous and the death toll of children continues to climb.
Or, more likely, their revenues saw dip that day until they got crews out there to remove the boxes/wrapping.
I remember back in the early 1990s right before they decided to remove the national speed limit of 55MPH. The authorities were predicting that our streets would run red with blood as people would be driving at 65MPH! Crazy unsafe, they told us. Accidents/deaths went down, though…
@22 – mentro972
>>These are not “Speed” cameras at all. Only
>>red light cameras.
No. They’re speedcameras. Just like the headline says. Good idea to know what you’re talking about BEFORE you talk, hm?
http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/21/2180.asp
I firmly believe the bot cameras are set up to gather revenue, not increase traffic safety. I’ve been driving for 25 years and have witnseed exactly one person run a red light and cause an accident, and I’m certain that person was DUI. If this was such a godawful problem wouldn’t I see it more often?
God bless those Santas- with one caveat: The cameras taken from elsewhere in America should be redeployed along the border to catch the Mexican illegals.
They are only speed cameras. The only thing they do is take a picture of your car if it goes over the sensors too fast. The cops are ridiculous here in Phoenix. Instead of actually catching drunks driving they just take pictures.
Plus, people who live here in Phoenix have eventually figured out where these cameras are so it’s usually dumb people getting tickets or people who are new to town.
Either way it’s just a way for the cops too make some cash in this economy.
#25, Rich,
Congratulations on driving for 25 yrs now and having only seen ONE incident. I’ve been driving for almost 40 years and I can tell you I’ve seen at least 100 dangerous Red Light problems and at least 10 where the person just ran the light. Either you don’t drive much or the people in your area are good drivers.
Seeding IS associated and directly correlated with the causation and severity of accidents along with several other crimes. Yes, it would be better that there were enough police to patrol the streets and catch all the drunks and dangerous drivers, but not too many people want to pay the taxes to accomplish that.
If you get a ticket than you were either speeding or the cop is in error. You do have the option of fighting the ticket. But if you don’t, you are accepting that you did indeed break the law. Calling any traffic infraction a money grab is just an excuse to ignore the law with impunity.
It’s interesting that in many cities the accident rate has gone up after cameras were installed. It seems that rear-ending is increased. If this were really about safety, you would think they would take these down after findings like that. Instead, they just shorten the yellow light times.
Also, I have been wrongfully ticketed by a camera on the 101 in Scottsdale. It misread somebody else’s license plate and sent me the ticket even though I was driving the wrong type of car. I know about the algorithms behind these systems. I’ve written similar letter-detection software. It isn’t perfect technology. There is nobody looking at these tickets (they claim 4 people do, I asked). It’s a real hassle to have to deal with an accusation by a computer in order to avoid a default judgement against you. What happened to my right to confront my accuser?
Holy Crap People! If you dont like the cameras, quite running the lights! Simple as that! and NO a yellow light does NOT mean speed up before it turns red!