Las Cruces Threatens to Cut Off Utilities for Residents with Unpaid Red-Light Camera Tickets
May 8th, 2012How long until this is linked to other databases? Unpaid property taxes, unlicensed pets, overdue library books, or who knows what else???
—Britain: CCTV at Petrol Stations Will Prevent Uninsured Cars from Being Fueled
Via: ABC News:
Residents of Las Cruces, New Mexico with outstanding red-light-camera traffic tickets are in danger of having their utilities shut off.
The program, placing cameras at intersections, is just over three years old, and in that time violators have run up $2 million in unpaid fines.
“Over time we were looking at various options, various ways to recoup that money,” Udell Vigil, the communications director for the City of Las Cruces, told ABC News.com.
The fines are broken up between the city, the state of New Mexico and the camera company. The city is owed $600 thousand in unpaid tickets.
“We can’t go through the courts; it’s not that type of citation,” said Vigil. “We don’t have legal enforcement authority.”
When the city explored options, officials came across Section 28-10 of the Las Cruces Municipal Code, which says, “The city may decline, fail or cease to furnish utility service to any person who may be in debt to the city for any reason, except ad valorem taxes and special assessments,” according to the city website.
Letters are being sent out to violators. Once the resident receives the letter, there is a deadline for the ticket to be paid in full, or for reasonable payment arrangements to be made. If a resident refuses to pay, the city could shut off their water, sewage and gas. Electricity is not provided by the city.
Research Credit: anchoviesmegma
I’ve always felt Ken Kesey’s metaphor from _One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest_, The Combine, was a better dystopic metaphor than Big Brother, because I think it is more accurate: it captures the distributed, “many-headed” nature of authority in today’s world. From Wikipedia:
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The novel constantly refers to different authorities that control individuals through subtle and coercive methods. The novel’s narrator, the Chief, combines these authorities in his mind, calling them “The Combine” in reference to the mechanistic way they manipulate and process individuals.
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In my more charitable/less cynical moments, so much of the changes we see unfolding in our world seem more tragic than purely sinister. In a post-9/11 world, our (understandable) desire to be safe leads to us want to control, and to control we must have knowledge… On some level, our intent is to prevent terrorism (or make deadbeat dads help support their kids, or collect enough funds to maintain social infrastructure, etc.) but the effect of our actions is to strip people of any privacy or personal sovereignty. We create a world in which it is no longer possible to be the least bit “uncooperative” or “non-compliant” with state authority. We create a world where if you owe on parking tickets, the State turns off your heat.
But consider an alternative view. I recently read the biography of a La Eme (Mexican Mafia) leader, Rene Enriquez. Eventually, he became disillusioned with gang life, and decided to leave La Eme and provide evidence to the state.
At the outset of that process, Enriquez told police authorities, you people are doing this all wrong. If you want to stop us, if you want to stop the drugs from coming into California, you have to go after our money. And to do that, you have to go after our families, because that’s where we hide our money. Because we are all still making money through our operations, even while we are in here, and our money is being hidden in the bank accounts of our mothers, wives, girlfriends… you’re only going after us mafiosos, and that’s part of the reason you’re losing this war. You have to look at the bank accounts of our entire family, and freeze the drug money they are hiding for us…
So here’s a drug lord saying, you’re too respectful of our rights.
Here’s a recent 3-minute interview clip with Enriquez, for those who are interested:
http://vimeo.com/24692515
I imagine a lot of people, especially Crypton readers, consider the Drug War a joke or a conspiracy or a pretense to create a police state, etc., but my point is simply that authority is like technology: its power is not inherently good or evil, it all depends on how it is (ab)used. Using IT to stop a guy from sneaking a plane on a bomb? We all agree that’s a good thing. Using IT to turn off the heat in the home of a family whose father or mother has too many unpaid parking tickets? I think most people would consider that stepping over a line…
Water, sewage, and gas? And what does the city do when the hospital ER’s fill up with people suffering from dehydration? How about when people start dumping human feces and urine into the streets? And burning rubbish out on the lawns to provide heat for cooking? Another failed idea for a city that thought it found a new revenue source. Curses on the State of New Mexico, City of Las Cruces, and the camera provider for its use of yet another means of screwing the public.