Criminal Charges Against Speed Trap Tweeter 253
martinlp writes "A Twitter account named Pigspotter is making big news in South Africa. The traffic authorities in Johannesburg are taking legal action against Pigspotter, an individual who is tweeting up-to-the-minute information about speed traps in and around the city. He has recently stopped, stating that his Blackberry is going in for repairs, but it may be out of fear of getting prosecuted. The police claim he must be getting inside information and suspect that disgruntled traffic officers may be involved. There is also speculation that it is more than one individual that is tweeting."
Re:Racism? For real? (Score:5, Informative)
Dude, its Africa. I've lived in Africa all my life, and people crying "racism" is very normal here. Its just another way of saying, "We don't like what you're doing and the easiest way to get you to go away is to call you a racist and then everyone will hate you."
It's all very childish. But that's African Politics for you. It is also sad that it distracts from the real racism that nobody ever notices...
Re:Racism? For real? (Score:5, Informative)
The ruling majority (ANC) are incapable of: (1) Handling any criticism (2) Arguing/debating in a rational manner
Thanks to our recent history (apartheid) they are left with a large uneducated mass of people who remember only one thing (how bad "racism" is) and will believe what they are told without question. So anytime someone attempts to criticize or make a suggestion on how to do things in a sane way they are simply labeled as a racist and ignored. Due to the unquestioning stupidity of the masses this works every single time leaving little incentive for our utterly useless government to ever improve.
"Racist" here is the equivalent of accusing someone of being a "pedophile" in America, except on sterioids.
Re:But how precise is it? (Score:5, Informative)
My second point, is that individual police officers and the police force typically does not get any direct financial benefit for traffic fines. The collected fines generally goes into general government revenue. (In Australia, it is state or territory revenue.) So unless there is a quota system in place, the typically police have no particular incentive to act as revenue raisers.
My third point is that while traffic fines do raise revenue, appropriate use of speed traps, red light cameras and so on does reduce traffic accidents.
Finally, a long time ago (when speed cameras were new), I worked in the IT department of an Australian state police force. One of the systems that we ran for the police was a radar trap location planner. One of the inputs into that system was localized road accident statistics from the State's department of main roads.
Re:oh that's what I need (Score:5, Informative)
I'm not disagreeing with you, but if you're in the fast lane and someone is going faster than you, the right thing to do is to move over if you can and let them pass. The other guy's an asshole, yes, but by not moving out of his way you can only make it worse, and that makes you an asshole too.
Laws vary by location, but generally it's considered that the "fast lane" isn't the lane you use when you're going over the speed limit, it's the lane you use for passing. Assuming we're not talking heavy traffic (or southern California), you should never just be cruising along in the fast/passing lane... if you're not actively passing someone, stick to one of the "slow" lanes.
The other guy could pass you on the right, but that's usually illegal and a much more dangerous situation. Moving out of the way is as much a safety thing as a not-being-an-asshole thing.
Re:Racism? For real? (Score:5, Informative)
It is a South Africanism, in that everything here gets turned into a race issue whether it has anything to do with race or not. Despite the fall of apartheid and having a democratically elected government, the new 'leadership' still has a vested interest in creating the perception that whites are still out to get blacks - it's a nice diversion to distract their voters away from the government's corruption and hypocrisy. Everything the ANC seems to do these days creates the impression that they deliberately keep their own supporters beaten down in order to retain their support, blaming the supporters misfortune on racism and 'the legacy of apartheid'. I get the impression that we'll still be blaming apartheid in another 50 years time... that is assuming that the ANC doesn't finally give up all pretenses and just publicly turn the country into another Zimbabwe, rather than trying to do it behind the scenes.
An unfortunate side-effect of the continuous cry of racism is that a (hopefully small and insignificant) number of the youth of today are growing up indoctrinated with the belief that everything is still a race issue. A key example of this is the leader of the ANC youth league, Julius Malema. While he's generally ridiculed universally for his stupid utterances and ridiculous beliefs, the sad reality is that he actually believes in what the rest of us consider to be drivel. And he is poised to rise into the leadership of the ANC and therefore the country within the next decade or two.
Every time you read a report of something being connected to racism in South Africa, take it with a grain of salt. Yes, there is still a lot of racism going on, but it's the same sort that you experience anywhere else... nowhere near what we used to have. It's sad to see the ANC that fought so hard to end apartheid is now working so hard to ensure that it prevails.
Re:But how precise is it? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Do people still flash lights in the US? (Score:5, Informative)
I think most have given up. There was a recent case in PA where the judiciary made it specifically legal to do in the daylight, but at night, you can be cited for wrongful use of high beams.
I still do it, but nobody else does. When I was a kid, everyone still did it, but by the time I got my license, nobody did (I'm 24).
Re:But how precise is it? (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.villagevoice.com/2010-05-04/news/the-nypd-tapes-inside-bed-stuy-s-81st-precinct/
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/414/right-to-remain-silent
Just because you and a bunch of other people deny it, doesn't mean it can't happen easily.
Re:But how precise is it? (Score:3, Informative)
Sounds like a quota to me.
As for the efficacy of red light cameras, please cite your references. AFIK, quite the opposite is true.
Re:But how precise is it? (Score:1, Informative)
Look at "This American Life" The right to remain silent.. The second story as about an honest cop who tried to do the right thing and bring change to the NYPD. What did he get for his effort--harassed, fired, declared mentally unstable, and committed. Only because he took extreme measures does he get to see the light of day now. There is your evidence.