Over here in Oz, our state governments build their budgets around revenue raised from whatever legalised theft they think they can get away with, and one of the most unpopular "Taxes" here in Victoria is speeding fines from fixed speed cameras.
These things are mounted on bridges, freeway overpasses, poles, Gantry's, you name it, and are notoriously inaccurate. Every few months they do an investigation into the thousands of complaints received, and admit that the speed cameras aren't working properly, and shut em down, and are forced to refund the thousands (and possibly millions) of dollars that they've collected by way of "dodgy" fines.
Earlier this year I received a 150 buck fine for doing 5 KPH (3 MPH) over the posted speed limit. Fcukers. I decided that rather than just bending over and grabbing my ankles, I'd have my day in court. I arrived at the court house at the appointed time of 9.30am, yesterday and the lady at the counter asked me if I intended to plead "guilty" or "not guilty". I said that I'd be telling them that I'm not guilty.
She sent me downstairs to have a meeting with the prosecutor. I sat outside his office and waited, and waited, and waited some more. Two fcuking hours later, I got to talk to the prosecutor. He's a police sergeant, and a nice bloke, but I felt sorry for him, he's probably the hardest working cop I ever met. We had a good chat, but he advised me to plead guilty. I said "No way" and he said "Fair enough, but you'll be found guilty and you'll still have to pay the fine". I said "How come?" and he said, "If you're found not guilty then they'll have to shut down those cameras and refund thousands of dollars in fines to all the other folks who've been fined, and the government doesn't want to give that money back".
I said, "But that's just fcuking crooked" and he agreed and said, yes it is, but the magistrate will take the "evidence" from the speed camera over your word, so you're stuffed". I told him I was pissed off, but I was gonna have my day in court. He was a nice bloke, and wished me well, but due to me pleading not guilty, they had to adjourn the case until December 20th. I'll be on Christmas vacation on December the 20th, so apart from the fact that I'm gonna get bent over and raped by a crooked justice system, I'm gonna be doing it in my own time! Man, that pisses me off!
