Help put stop to camera explosion
Under false pretenses. Fleecing of the taxpayer. Self-serving politicians. Shameless greed. Stripping of due process. Another deterrent to local business. All words that come to mind with the onslaught of red light cameras invading Northeast Illinois.
I've never been ticketed by one of these money sponges, but I know a politician's self-serving lie when I hear one and how such a lie compromises people's wallets, the economic community, people's rights and good government.
I've witnessed RLC's repeatedly flash and presumably fine in hefty fashion motorists for "offenses" that would never be pursued by even the most overzealous, below-quota police officer. RLC's have inconsistent parameters (ex. stop time required), are contrary to what good cops normally enforce, do not take into account the myriad other circumstances happening when a camera's unique-perspective-snapshot is taken, are a detriment to the local economy and are big brother epitomized.
RLC's sprouting up along Route 12 are now a part of bad government promoting itself. In the '70s taxpayers paid for a Route 12 bypass around inadequately planned towns like Lake Zurich. What is now Old Rand Road on the east side of the lake was replaced with new Route 12 on the west side, with taxpayers paying top dollar for the needed bypass for unimpeded flow in western Lake County.
Slowly but surely, fueled by an insatiable thirst for revenue to fund their agendas, local officials annexed west to the Route 12 bypass. Deals were cut with retail developers, bringing more stifling stop lights, and like one blogger wrote: "Somalian pirates" added red light cameras to plunder some more. In just years certain local officials have again sold out the unimpeded flow on Route 12.
And it's getting worse. A whopping seven RLC's are reportedly to soon be in financially strapped Lake Zurich alone.
Route 12 is not any village's road. It's the taxpayers.'
If you believe it's time for citizens to stand up to abuse by local government and the fleecing of the taxpayers, please write ASAP to your state senator, state representative and Senate President John Cullerton requesting them to SUPPORT SB2466 (sponsored by Sen. Dan Duffy) designed to repeal RLC's.
Kirk Denz
Ingleside