I'm in favor of cameras being installed to red light runners and I personally hope that Len Biernat will reintroduce his bill allowing their installation, though I know it would face tough sledding in the House.
Although I have heard the personal freedom argument, I don't think it should outweigh the positive impacts that would come from having the cameras. Most people would drive more safely. The yahoos that don't will hopefully get taken off the road when they either run up enough violations that their license is suspended or they reach a point where no insurance company will touch them with a ten foot pole. Either way, Minneapolis becomes a safer place for pedestrians and that's a good enough outcome for me to justify the cameras. It would certainly be nice to have more traffic cops, but I don't think there's any way to argue that would be more efficient than cameras. We could operate cameras 24 hours a day at any stoplight we wish with no worries about paying overtime or competing priorities with other crimes. I don't even think dummy cameras would be needed since the real things are pretty cheap to begin with. For those worried about the "slippery slope" - I do think that's a little bit paranoid. As one of those people who occasionally partakes in such things as protest marches, I don't think I'd lose much sleep over worrying if there was footage of me. If anything, I would hope if cameras did turn up at protests, it might have a chilling effect on those yahoos that might show up just to try and cause trouble as well as a chilling effect on any police officers that might otherwise get a little overzealous. Mark Snyder Windom Park _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
