Who would have thought lawbreakers would have an effective lobby and among Republicans at that! What’s more, it’s not the expected Wall Street miscreants; it’s mean street miscreants. Red–light runners now boast renewed influence in the Virginia General Assembly; starting with my own county’s Del. Scott Lingamfelter who just introduced a bill that halts the installation of new “photo red” traffic enforcement cameras.
You may be asking yourself how a normally solid, reliable, conservative Republican — regardless of the area where he’s elected — can be induced to make it easier for scofflaws to endanger the rest of our lives.
It’s a legitimate question and the answer demonstrates yet again how leftist and “progressive” thought so permeates the culture that even conservatives can be fooled.
Del. Lingamfelter has two reasons for introducing his bill. The first is an out–of–date study that showed an increase in rear–end collisions at intersections as drivers, who would normally run the red light without a second thought, slam on the brakes when there is a chance the violation might cost them $50.00.
In law enforcement terms this is called deterrence. Until recently I was under the impression crime deterrence was a good thing. The knuckle–head in question is then rear–ended by the fool behind him, who’s goal was to be an accomplice in the red–light running scheme, but became aware of the change of plans too late to avoid the collision.
Where, exactly, is the party for whom we are supposed to feel sympathy? The situation looks to me like a win–win for the law–abiding population coming to a gradual stop anyway.
It makes sense not to follow an idiot through an intersection when the light is amber and when a law enforcement initiative is beginning to show signs of success; it’s not time to pull the plug.
Besides, Lingamfelter’s data has been superseded by a study released Tuesday that found the traffic fatalities dropped by 26 percent over five years at District of Columbia intersections with red light cameras, which was a bit more than the average decline in the other 13 cities studied.
The new report also reveals that even where rear–end collisions increase, the injury potential of a rear–end crash is much less than that of being hit broadside. The fact that 64 percent of the fatalities in T–bone crashes were not the inconsiderate lout that ran the light, but the person he hit, is a stronger endorsement for more red–light cameras.
But the use of obsolete crash data is not the big problem I have with Lingamfelter and Republicans around the nation who consistently oppose the technology. It’s the second reason: as Lingamfelter puts it: cameras “infringe on civil rights by invading the privacy of drivers.”
This is where pervasive leftist kultursmog enters the picture. There is no “right to privacy” in the Constitution. The word “privacy” does not appear in the document. As Constitutional scholar Robert Bork has written, if you embrace the fictitious “right to privacy” then you also embrace the flawed legal reasoning behind Roe v Wade. They are conjioned twins.
This privacy fantasy has so permeated modern culture that even the esteemed Virginia–based Rutherford Institute — defender of conservatives and Christians — has fallen for this “privacy” propaganda.
Justice Harry Blackmun invented the “right to privacy” then grafted the concept onto a “living Constitution.” Blackmun’s new Constitution became a death warrant for 40 million and counting unborn babies.
You can’t be a little bit private any more than you can be a little bit pregnant. The concept is part and parcel of the left’s assault on the family, Christian values and the unborn. Which is why “privacy” is the last argument that conservatives should ever use to justify passing or repealing a law.
Red–light cameras are actually a step up from the TSA’s Underwear Police who take photos of the innocent and guilty alike for their later viewing pleasure. Red–light cameras only photograph the guilty, leaving the innocent as private as you please.
It would be better for Republicans in the General Assembly who oppose the cameras to do so because they claim having your car’s picture taken steals it’s mojo or interferes with the on–board computer; than to rely on any of Harry Blackmun’s “reasoning.”
If conservatives truly believe red–light cameras in Virginia or elsewhere endanger privacy then they need to pass legislation addressing that issue and stop relying on the reasoning of the author of abortion on demand.
Then lawbreakers can quit bothering respectable Republicans and conservatives and return to their natural lobbyists the ACLU.
Michael R. Shannon (The Whole Shebang (mostly)) is a Virginia-based public relations and media consultant with MANDATE: Message, Media & Public Relations who has worked in over 75 elections on three continents and a handful of islands.
