Las Cruces Threatens to Cut Off Utilities for Residents with Unpaid Red-Light Camera Tickets

May 8th, 2012

How 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.

Is there not an orange-coloured warning light that warns that red is coming up? What reason is there to go through a red light. Sounds a bit foolhardy to me! Even moreso now that it could put your own comfort at risk.

Every time you approach a street light, it's a gamble.

Do you slow down for a green in anticipation of a yellow, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy?

Do you speed through a yellow and hope it stays long enough?

Do you hit the brakes when light turns yellow and hope the guy tailgating you stops in time?

Thanks for putting up this article, thus do we see the unveiling of the modern panopticon. This is the only reason that they gave the people the computer & the internet, so that everything could be connected together by means of electronic databases & used as a control mechanism. Later they'll do away with the paper tokens we've been using, & set up a completely cashless society. That way someone who is considered to have committed a sufficiently serious thought crime will simply have his "smart card" or whatever term they'll come up with, turned off & he'll no longer be allowed to buy food or anything else. As for growing it for one's self, they'll probably make that illegal using the pretext that it's "unsafe" or some such nonsense. Most of the television-watchers won't care until it's their turn, at which point it will of course be too late. This sort of thing is the prelude to the mark of the beast.

I had a friend in the 80's who was an officer for Bank of America, and he told me at the time that soon after the year 2000 they were planning on eliminating all cash. He said that by 2010 we could expect to have a cashless society.

So this kind of talk has been circulating for decades, such that as time goes by, we are gradually becoming less concerned about the availability of cash and the need to use plastic debit or credit cards.

The IRS likes this too, because all your purchasing habits are recorded this way, and they can keep track of your money use for their purposes. Plus, if they want to punish you they can shut down your bank account by seizing its balance, and you won't be able to buy or sell.

You say "most of the television-watchers won't care until it's their turn" -- if they're on cable, it could be their turn when the cable gets shut off. Or when their Internet connection gets disconnected.

A lot of electric meters are being changed out to "smart meters," which don't need to have any man standing next to them to read them or to turn them on or off. It's all done by remote control. An electric company truck parks within a quarter mile of your meter and tunes in using radio waves, which your meter broadcasts constantly (some people claim to have ill effects from the microwave radiation of these signals). From that vantage point, he can read how much electricity you have used, and he can shut off your home electrical power, without ever setting foot on your property.