Speed cameras are a hot topic right now because it’s been discovered that Baltimore City has been issuing faulty tickets, but Governor Martin O’Malley wants you to pay no attention to that, because you have the right to go to court and prove your innocence and therefore are not being robbed your due process and everything will work out. Let’s ignore the idea that you are asked to plead guilty first and pay the fine, which many do because of the cost of going to court, and strictly focus on the idea that you still have due process.
First, Luke Broadwater in the Baltimore Sun reported that while you can go to court, Baltimore County, Howard County and the State Highway Administration do not provide you with enough evidence to verify your guilt or innocence based on the photos you are provided. Baltimore City might be issuing you faulty tickets, but you can determine that based on studying the photos, Martin O’Malley’s own State Highway Administration doesn’t even give you the evidence to prove that you are guilty. Anybody that receives a ticket in these jurisdictions can easily contest the ticket and argue that since the timing indicated in the photo varies by almost 20 miles per hour, the State is not proving beyond a reasonable doubt that you were going the 12 miles per hour over the speed limit that is required to charge the $40 citation.
But beyond the fact that they aren’t proving your guilt, or giving you the evidence required to prove your innocence and give you due process as Martin O’Malley is claiming, the State Court of Appeals (which has been under immense fire this past year due to their complete incompetence) ruled that you don’t have the right to due process when it comes to speed camera legislation, despite what Governor Martin O’Malley has claimed. See, a large group of residents of Montgomery County sued the state regarding the “bounty system” that is used by just about every jurisdiction utilizing speed cameras, and the Court of Appeals ruled that the legislature didn’t give them permission to challenge the county for violating the actual law.
Martin O’Malley has stated that if the counties would just follow the law, everything would be ok with speed cameras, but this lawsuit was brought in 2008, and here were are 4 years later and he hasn’t done anything to make the counties follow the law, and despite what he says, the Court has ruled that there is no due process to make the counties follow the law. We are at the behest of the government to help reign in the government, and Governor O’Malley hopes to distract you with a few more fibs.
On a side note, Governor O’Malley’s Economic Development head is leaving. Since jobs are the most important factor for politicians these days, it only makes sense that O’Malley would replace him with a talented and skilled person in Dominick Murray. Unfortunately for the unemployed, the talent that Mr. Murray possesses is in singing for an Irish Rock band, rather than having any business acumen.
They have kept the fine ($40) just low enough that people will not take time away from their jobs to fight the ticket. It’s just another insidious example of the way this “system” was designed. It enriches both the issuer and the city/county, because there is no accountability. The people you really have to feel sorry for are those public employees and police officials that have to constantly go before the TV cameras and insist it is all about safety, and not revenue. The jurisdictions are so addicted to the money now, that they will deny anything to keep the flow coming. No business could operate this way and stay in business.
Well, there’s your problem right there, Mr. White! This isn’t a business, it’s the government!
Government for the people. by the people, what a joke!..what a pathetic joke and the joke is on all you who believe in the good ol’ usa. Our government is more like a parasite sucking the life blood out of its host. A parasite who’s only purpose is to inrich itself at any cost. First their going to make you believe they;re taking what you worked your ass off for…for your own good!!!everybody knows,they’re better at spending your money then you are…then when they have it all, they’ll persicute and put you in jail for not having enough?…when will you see our gov is run by a buch of low life millionaires who will do ANYTHING to keep the cash cow flowing..this is just one of the many ways our sanctimonious saints in washington ” The SS ” are killing us….those assholes wont wake up until china is comin up the bay with an IOU and a AK….great nations are not destroyed from without, they suck the life out of the many for the extravegent living of a previledged few…what ever happened to the country i once loved?…oh excuse me! ..i 4got, obomba will save us, instead of bowing, he’ll crawl on the floor to the feet of the prince this time…now i know why we are called “The Obomination”. Our government is not only hated by the nations of the world, its hated by its own people these days…. The Constiution, The Bill of Rights…lol with disgust…what a joke, whats that?