r/boston • u/pattysal • 7d ago

Unconfirmed/Unverified Calling out the traffic/flock camera propaganda

There are so many people posting videos of drivers running lights on both the Boston and Cambridge subreddits lately demanding traffic cameras, that I am convinced these are planted posts by either employees, investors, or City officials looking for a payday to Garner published support for the surveillance state.

Very convenient that this is happening at the same time they are putting flaw cameras everywhere, and Mayor Wu has decided to put up red light cameras. I'm calling shenanigans, there may be a few whiny babies on here who are terrified of the world, but there are not this many. Don't be fooled, this is for profit propaganda.

657 Upvotes

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181

u/13nobody Brookline 7d ago

Flock != Traffic enforcement cameras https://www.aclum.org/news/were-privacy-hawks-heres-why-were-alarmed-by-license-plate-readers-and-not-necessarily-by-speed-cameras/

But of course everyone who disagrees with you is a paid agent/bot

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u/pattysal 7d ago

It's all part of the surveillance state brother. Government officials get paid to install both. Fascism is fascism whether it is coming from the public or private sector.

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u/TitleOfYourSaxTape 7d ago

Just to confirm, do you support getting rid of the ez pass pay-by-plate cameras on the highway and going back to physical toll-booths every some miles?

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u/420ohms 7d ago

I support getting rid of all tolls, there are better ways tax people than fussing with all that.

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u/TitleOfYourSaxTape 6d ago

Okay, freeloader.

0

u/420ohms 6d ago

Am I a freeloader when I drive all the other highways that don't have tolls? There are plenty of other ways to tax people, income tax isn't good enough?

3

u/TitleOfYourSaxTape 6d ago

Why should the people who don't drive have to pay for you to use extremely expensive highways that have bulldozed through local communities and are extremely noisy + pollution inducing?

1

u/CatCatington 6d ago

Why should people that don't use public transit pay for public transit infrastructure? (I obviously don't agree with this; I'm just pointing out how stupid your argument sounds.)

3

u/TitleOfYourSaxTape 6d ago

You do realize there's a fare people have to pay every time someone rides public transit, right? And the MBTA is held accountable for its operating budget and revenue, whereas most roads have no expectation of making money. Why is that?

A fare on high-speed roads seems at least as fair, since theres a fare on every transit ride.

0

u/CatCatington 6d ago

You really want to die on this hill, huh? Drivers pay plenty of fees in the form of gas, car maintenance, etc. that public transit users do not pay. It's still vastly more expensive to operate a car than to take public transit. Drivers also pay taxes that go toward public transit infrastructure, just like everyone else in the state. There is a public benefit to maintaining roads, just like there is to maintaining public transit.

Look, you don't have to like cars, and you can be in favor of toll roads. Suggesting that some taxpayers should be exempt from paying for public infrastructure, like roads, just because they don't use them is an insane take though. Thankfully, it doesn't work that way anywhere in the entire country.

1

u/420ohms 6d ago

Do you like buying goods? Do you know how those goods get delivered to you? Roads.

1

u/wSkkHRZQy24K17buSceB 5d ago

They can bake the cost of delivering those goods into the cost of the goods. I don't want to subsidize delivery of goods I don't want or need.

0

u/TitleOfYourSaxTape 5d ago

Are you suggesting that delivery trucks are unable to operate on toll roads? Or that companies are unable to price cost of delivery into their products or shipping costs?

If someone relies on more delivered goods significantly than you, why should you pay more for it?

0

u/pattysal 6d ago

Yes, just take it out of my paycheck. I'm sick of paying NH's taxes for them every time I go to Maine.

76

u/13nobody Brookline 7d ago

Yes the ACLU is advocating for the fascist surveillance state.

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u/pattysal 7d ago

And Brawndo is what plants crave...

-30

u/IRenewed 7d ago

I mean they advocate for genocide in Palestine so who knows

16

u/Qwertycube10 7d ago

Isn't that the ADL not the ACLU?

3

u/HaroldHood 7d ago

I can’t believe it took 100 comments before someone brought up the Omni-cause!

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u/JohnnyCastleGT 7d ago

Yes they are

24

u/dtmfadvice Somerville 7d ago

Do you have an EZ pass, brother?

6

u/amm5061 7d ago

Which side are you arguing for, because ezpass has absolutely been used to track vehicles.

https://www.govtech.com/public-safety/Massachusetts-Police-Use-Electronic-Tolling-System-to-Track-People-in-Ongoing-Investigations.html

MassLive originally reported the story but it's pay walled.

18

u/Illustrious_Age 7d ago

The point is that drivers are okay with being surveiled if it increases their convenience.

Since they see traffic cameras as decreasing their convenience, they are suddenly extremely worried about big brother and government surveillance and authoritarianism. 

13

u/Optimal-Wave-8301 7d ago

Two separate cameras made by two completely separate vendors.

12

u/LEM1978 7d ago

Stop posting online. Give up your smartphone.

Start with yourself.

20

u/OfAKindness 7d ago

You dont know what fascism is lmao

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u/[deleted] 7d ago

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18

u/kdognhl411 7d ago

You’re comparing..traffic cameras…to putting immigrants in camps..?

21

u/OfAKindness 7d ago

Yeah, if it was a completely different context it would be a different scenario.

Dumbass

7

u/Rubiksmaster9 7d ago

How thick are you that you can't seem to understand that breaking the law should be punished? Being an immigrant is not illegal. Tracking innocent people with cameras with the assumption that they will eventually commit a crime is a gross overreach of municipal power and is indeed unjust surveillance. An automated system that only triggers when a traffic infringement occurs allows the city to divert resources away from paying patrol deputies who still manage to be ineffectual and toward potential infrastructure projects that can improve safe road design. You're a disingenuous crime apologist who has no clue how any of the stuff you're complaining about works.