Lately, nothing gets my blood boiling more than “photocop.”
Yes, I’m one of the many thousands that have been ticketed, and my photo ticket was for $200 (I scrambled out of parting with real hard cash, more on that later) in excess of the amounts The Mirror reported March 6. My ticket was for going 30 mph in a school zone, at a time during the day when there were no school children present because it was school class time. I doubt if there is ever a real cop that patrols areas during hours when children are apt to not be walking the streets. For one simple reason: There is no danger and their police work is more valuable elsewhere. Makes sense to me.
But oh no! Money grubbing politicians who never met a tax they didn’t like authorize cameras be put up at no cost to the city and, voila, smackeroo, 200 clams for city coffers. If politicians like it so damn much, why didn’t they lobby municipalities to invest in the equipment instead of having to share 50 percent of the theft? Makes sense to me.
And politicians shouldn’t insult us by saying “it’s for safety.” That is so much pure balderdash, codswallop and another common word for feces. It’s for the money and nothing else.
Good ending to this lamentable tale: I never paid a cent for my photo ticket. After going to the Web site of XXX city and clicking through page after page, I learned that I could trade community service for the fine. Hot diggity! If I’d have found the Sierra Madre and its hordes of reported gold, I wouldn’t have been more satisfied. Damn I was happy! I did the community service work and that’s that. Good for the community, but why was it buried? Is it right to think maybe they didn’t want me to see the “fine print” like unscrupulous advertisers that disclose to be legal but ever so small?
And another thing: If photocop is such a safety gizmo, then why haven’t they been installed in the Tacoma tide flats industrial area? I travel it most every day at odd hours and have learned to be doubly cautious because hardly a day goes by that I don’t see some big semi run a red light. Granted, it takes a bunch to stop one of those big daddies, but maybe they should be looking ahead for traffic lights or not going so fast they can’t stop when they see yellow. Only yesterday, I was almost rear-ended because I stopped on the yellow and the truck behind me slid to a stop. Is there a cozy relationship here? Makes me wonder.
Photocop is causing bad feelings toward municipalities that will be reflected in negative votes on bond issues for libraries, schools, police and others, politicians for sure. Policeman are ambassadors, and photocop is a sneaky terrorist. Shame on those who are responsible for this underhanded scheme to extort money from the citizenry.
Robert E. Morgan, Federal Way
