Libertarians Work to Stop Red Light Cameras in Cincinnati
On May 5, the We Demand a Vote.com Coalition announced that it was organizing a petition drive to prohibit the use of red light cameras from coming to Cincinnati. Every major city in Ohio has put up the cameras to ticket motorists from running red lights. The coalition hopes that Cincinnati will be the first major Ohio city to ban them. Long time Libertarian Party member and activist Josh Weitzman is co-chair of the petition drive.
In an attempt to balance the budget, not for safety reasons, Cincinnati city council budgeted $1,000,000 from revenue from these cameras. In fact, many other cities have used this as a hidden tax on motorists, rather than as a way to increase traffic safety. Despite studies that have linked red light cameras to significant increases in accidents, more and more cities use them to raise money.
To force the issue to the ballot, 8,500 signatures of registered Cincinnati voters must be collected.
If you can help out, you can contact LPO member Josh Weitzman at joshweitzman@yahoo.com. If you live in the city of Cincinnati, you can sign and circulate a petition. If you live in Ohio you may collect signatures. And anybody may help out with a donation so the coalition can hire paid petitioners. Since this is not on the ballot yet, it is not considered a political issue, yet. That means there is no limit to how much anybody can donate, and donations made before the issue is on the ballot are not reportable.
Donations can be made to:
WeDemandaVote. com
c/o Chris Finney
Finney-Stagnaro, Saba, Patterson., Co.
2623 Erie Avenue,
Cincinnati, Ohio 45208
This will also be the first time a major metropolitan city in the US has put Red Light cameras to a vote. In November 2006, the voters of Steubenville Ohio rejected Red Light cameras by a 72%-28% margin. If a major city has a similar result, then that will send a loud and clear message to not only neighboring cities, but across the state, people don't want these.
Visit http://www.WeDemandaVote.com
And to see how dangerous red light cameras are, visit
http://www.thenewspaper.com/rlc/docs/2008/fl-orban.pdf
In an attempt to balance the budget, not for safety reasons, Cincinnati city council budgeted $1,000,000 from revenue from these cameras. In fact, many other cities have used this as a hidden tax on motorists, rather than as a way to increase traffic safety. Despite studies that have linked red light cameras to significant increases in accidents, more and more cities use them to raise money.
To force the issue to the ballot, 8,500 signatures of registered Cincinnati voters must be collected.
If you can help out, you can contact LPO member Josh Weitzman at joshweitzman@yahoo.com. If you live in the city of Cincinnati, you can sign and circulate a petition. If you live in Ohio you may collect signatures. And anybody may help out with a donation so the coalition can hire paid petitioners. Since this is not on the ballot yet, it is not considered a political issue, yet. That means there is no limit to how much anybody can donate, and donations made before the issue is on the ballot are not reportable.
Donations can be made to:
WeDemandaVote. com
c/o Chris Finney
Finney-Stagnaro, Saba, Patterson., Co.
2623 Erie Avenue,
Cincinnati, Ohio 45208
This will also be the first time a major metropolitan city in the US has put Red Light cameras to a vote. In November 2006, the voters of Steubenville Ohio rejected Red Light cameras by a 72%-28% margin. If a major city has a similar result, then that will send a loud and clear message to not only neighboring cities, but across the state, people don't want these.
Visit http://www.WeDemandaVote.com
And to see how dangerous red light cameras are, visit
http://www.thenewspaper.com/rlc/docs/2008/fl-orban.pdf
posted by CincinnatiLibertarian at 11:40 AM
1 Comments:
The problem with Red Light cameras is at least two-fold: the cameras do away with the requirement of a witness to a violation, in fact municipalities are not required to supple even basic expert testimony about camera reliability and accuracy; secondly, the camera laws eliminate due process rights as non-lawyers "hear" contested tickets, at least, here in Cleveland. Outrageous deprivation of everyday constitutional rights.
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