Sometimes I really enjoy heading back home to Long Island to see some of the lunacy of the Confiscatory Republic of New York. In today’s Newsday, there’s a story about Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island yearning for red light cameras. For those that don’t know, I despise red light cameras for a number of reasons. First, they’re just obviously used as revenue generators, as the article points out. Nassau County hopes to raise $3 million for 2009, then $12 million the following year. I, however, hope to continually bang my head about this whole thing. In the article, “safety” is mentioned a full six paragraphs in, while opponents of cameras are relegated to a summary in the last paragraph. Actually, if you read there you’ll see some areas weren’t concerned with safety since they took the cameras away after officials figured out they weren’t profitable.



The first argument, of course, made by people is: “well, just don’t run the light!” Duh. Obviously that’s the goal here. I hate these things, yet am probably the most defensive driver I know. Not to tout my record, but I had 1 speeding ticket in my life, and it was dismissed at trial. Once, I totally rolled through a stop sign and got a warning, and another time my headlight was out. Those are my only run-ins with the law. Instead, I want to take a more philosophical disagreement with these things.



To begin, why do you support any sort of government cameras in public? Why are people these days so willing to give up this sort of liberty so easily? I prefer to live anonymously in public. Sadly, I know that I have to surrender that in order to go in stores and such, but those are my decisions and those are on private property. If I searched long and hard I could find some place that doesn’t have such surveillance and shop there. In the public square, I’d rather not be spied on.



Also, these cameras reveal how government sees its citizens: revenue generators. Police cruisers cannot be everywhere at once, so we’ll have technology monitor you. Then, we’ll change the timings of lights to guarantee drivers have tougher decisions to make. Then we’ll take pictures of just license plates. Don’t worry, there’s nothing sinister about our plan. In fact, we’re not going to take pictures of every license plate to see if there’s something else you’ve done wrong.



Finally, we’re going to make it nearly impossible to fight. Let’s not think about those pesky 6th Amendment rights to confronting witnesses against. Seriously, how do you put a camera on the witness stand? What if you weren’t driving the car? A policeman could figure that one out at a traffic stop, but a camera can’t.



Bottom line, though it doesn’t seem like much, it is these areas where government incrementally erodes personal freedom for, as they claim, the greater good of everyone. I can live with a little more risk then. I hope New York can take a longer look at this plan. Perhaps they could come up with sensible ways to curb spending as a way to close gaps instead of seeking ways to extort it from taxpayers. I can dream, right?