All of our lives would be emptier without Big Bill Saletan. Today, he links to this NY Times article about a movement in the UK to, get this, destroy roadside cameras tasked with catching speeding motorists.
Here's the best bit from the article:
In a recent case, 28-year-old Craig Moore, an engineer from South Yorkshire, ran into trouble when, in the words of a spokesman for the Greater Manchester Police, “instead of just accepting that he had been caught traveling above the speed limit, Moore decided to blow the camera apart.”
Using thermite, a pyrotechnic substance often used in underwater welding, Mr. Moore succeeded in wrecking the camera, but its hard drive survived — along with videotape of his van driving toward it and then driving away, as the picture dissolved in a cloud of fiery sparks. He was sentenced to four months in jail.
Mostly I'm just amused by the whole thing, but it does raise some interesting questions about our relationship to technology. I guess it's fairly obvious why people would be more likely to act out against a camera than a cop, but why is it that being policed by a machine sparks such anger? All I know for sure is that I'm infinitely more likely to kick a soda machine that rips me off than a counterperson who gives me the wrong change.
I suppose that the answer has something to do with the fact that a machine won't listen to reason. The thing is, it hasn't been my experience that cops listen to reason. Maybe it's just that cops look like the sorts of things that listen to reason.
Anyway, for more pics of broken speed cameras, and advice on how to destroy offending cams, check out this site. And don't forget to play their camera spotting game.
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