should i file a law suit against the city for a red light violation? (Chicago: credit, luxury)

[NYrules]

Originally Posted by williepotatoes

Maybe nobody goes to court, because they know they are guilty. The same way everybody just pays a speeding fine when caught on radar. If you did the crime, you pay the fine. The radar gun never made a mistake on me. Everytime I've ever been tagged by one, I was speeding and got what I had coming.

Not me. Palos Hills gave me some woman's ticket who passed me up on 111th Street at 8400W. She passes me up in the right hand lane, my radar detector goes off (same time)(instant on), I look at my speed-o-meter (at the time had heads up display) I was doing 42. Speed limit is 40. Cop pulls out flips his lights on and I thought, "Oh she's gonna get it" and comes up behind me. Pulls me over and says, "you were speeding" I said, "Sir I was passed up by that woman" Cops says, "she was doing 42, you were going 55" Needless to say, I got her ticket.

[smartalx]

Originally Posted by williepotatoes

Maybe nobody goes to court, because they know they are guilty. The same way everybody just pays a speeding fine when caught on radar. If you did the crime, you pay the fine.

Why are so few people willing to fight for their rights!!!!! Your attitude is what the oppressive tyrannical government is counting on. If you feel that way, why don't you just turn yourself in when you accidentally run a stop sign or find yourself rolling through a stop light?

Look. It's about the government trampling on our rights. It is better to set 100 criminals free than see one innocent man rot in jail. If the police bust down your door on a random inspection, not because they have a search warrant, if they find illegal drugs in your apartment do you raise your hands and say, "ah you sneaky little cads, you got me. I give up." Well, you shouldn't. You might still be guilty but that doesn't make it okay for them to go about breaking rules that are designed to protect the innocent. You being guilty or innocent doesn't make their method of law enforcement ok because this method stomps on the freedoms of law abiding citizens.

Similar to this are the traffic cameras. They are unconstitutional. Period. They infringe upon the rights of the innocent, as witnessed repeatedly in this discussion.

The radar gun never made a mistake on me. Everytime I've ever been tagged by one, I was speeding and got what I had coming.

A truth is all the truer when it is sometimes false. You are the exception that proves the rule.

Not everyone who is "caught" speeding was in fact breaking the law. And besides, we aren't talking about speed guns operated by a police officer. We are talking about indiscriminate red light cameras, which are completely faulty, especially when you have to break the letter of the law to uphold the spirit of the law.

Red lights are out there to prevent accidents. That is the spirit of the law. You have to stop at all red lights. That is the letter of the law. So if obeying the letter of the law causes an accident, then the law itself violates its own spirit. If you are stopped at a light at 3am and someone comes barreling down the exit ramp at 60 mph flashing their high beams at you and it looks like they can't stop (like their brakes are out), you had BETTER run that frikkin light!!! If you don't YOU COULD get a ticket because you didn't prevent the inevitable accident. Much worse than that. You could kill someone, all because you were too legalistic in your thinking.

[smartalx]

Originally Posted by NYrules

Not me. Palos Hills gave me some woman's ticket who passed me up on 111th Street at 8400W. She passes me up in the right hand lane, my radar detector goes off (same time)(instant on), I look at my speed-o-meter (at the time had heads up display) I was doing 42. Speed limit is 40. Cop pulls out flips his lights on and I thought, "Oh she's gonna get it" and comes up behind me. Pulls me over and says, "you were speeding" I said, "Sir I was passed up by that woman" Cops says, "she was doing 42, you were going 55" Needless to say, I got her ticket.

Oh that is WRONG!!! Take that cop to court and get the video tape from his cruiser. The video won't lie. You'll need a lawyer.

MAN! I hate that this country doesn't follow the "loser pays" rule that says the loser in a court case has to pay the costs when going to court.

[williepotatoes]

Originally Posted by smartalx

It's about the government trampling on our rights.

Nope, it's about violating a traffic regulation.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by williepotatoes

Nope, it's about violating a traffic regulation.

Such a facile analysis might be applicable in the suburbs where they actually put some thought into traffic engineering and time their lights accordingly. Meanwhile here in the city the yellow lights are so ridiculously short that sometimes your only options are to either slam on your brakes and hope you don't get rear-ended, or goose the gas and pray you make it through before the dreaded flash goes off. Approximately 5% of the city's light-controlled intersections have cameras. From those alone the city generates 50 million dollars in revenue per year. To me that's a clear indication that this is much more of a traffic engineering problem than a driving behavior problem. It's also a clear indication that, yes, it really is more about revenue than safety. If it weren't, then punitive measures would be the last resort rather than the first.

[urza216]

I got two of these tickets in Chicago Heights on the corner of Halsted and Vollmer road. It was one week and then the next week.. I didn't even know I couldn't turn on red there. I would have learned my lesson but it was weeks later when I recieved both my tickets. It really sucked cuz I had such a short about of time to pay them.. I suppose it's a trampling of our rights.

But what about all those CCTV cameras that got for "crime fighting" on the East Side and in Beacon Hill? And up there in the city of Chicago, you guys got those CCTV cameras hooked up all over the place - Watching everyone in the city for the good of the city. I saw two of them on the corner of Clark and Belmont, for instance. Cops can see the activity on thier labtop and zoom in and out. Where's the outcry for this violation of privacy? I read somewhere that Chicago is the most video surveilled city in the country. And yet before these red light tickets, there was never any signigicany outcry...

[Drover]

For there to be a violation of privacy, there needs to be an expectation of privacy, which there isn't on a public street. Also, nobody has ever complained that the red light cameras are a violation of privacy, but that 1) they are a rigid and often unfair means of enforcing the law, and 2) their purported purpose (increased safety) can be addressed by means other than punitive enforcement, such as improved engineering.

[Pretzelogik]

I'd Glock the red light.

[hxcobd]

I've got 3 traffic/parking tickets that i got a month or two ago when i first moved here that i still havent paid. Since i dont drive anymore, i havent decided if i care enough to pay them yet.

[Drover]

If you don't have a car, I wouldn't worry about it. But if you have a car, they'll boot it after two unpaid tickets.