over The EDGE page 6 Wednesday, Oct 25, 1995

Poison Pen

It was once thought that the governments using high technology to spy on and control the masses was a construct of fiction writers such as George Orwell. Sadly, we can no lorger say that this is true. Yes, photo radar has come to British Columbia and with ‘it all the injustice and oppression that such a technological terror creates.

The government has taken away more of our privacy and individual rights in the name of safety. The government is using the name of safety as a smoke screen to hide its attempts to milk yet more money out of an increasingly tax weary population. Speed is a factor in many accidents, however this speed is usually excessive and/or too fast for the road conditions. When we look at the statistics we also see that the experience level of the driver is a much better indicator of a likely acci- dent than the speed traveled.

The government is not concerned with safety here. If they were con- cerned with safety a much better way to spend the money would have been to hire a few more graders for the Yellow Head Highway. So that I wouldn’t have to slog through eight inches of powder every winter

just to get home. What the government is concerned with is the ex- pected millions that photo radar is promising to bring to government coffers. The problem is that if the government were run by sane indi- viduals they might just have noticed that photo radar was recently scrapped in Ontario not only because of mass public protest but be- cause the promised revenue just didn’t materialize. Why didn’t the money roll in? This can be easily traced to the good people of Ontario who showed their government that they would pay what amounts to a very expensive highway toll. What did they do? It is really simple, any ticket you are given via photo radar you take to court. When the gov- ernment realizes that for every $75 ticket it hands out that they will have to pay $150 in court costs... well let’s just say that the cash cow stops giving milk. Even if you lose your case you have still beaten the government.

Photo radar is an infringement on my privacy and my rights. What’s next, random drug testing for university students? If the government

wants to catch me breaking one of its foolish laws let them hire a cop! Fines are an unfair way to enforce the law at any rate. The rich and well off speed at will, paying off the fines as if they were simply another bill while a starving university student may not eat for a week in order to pay the government for his (or her) slight transgression. But then again it is the rich that make the laws, so can we really be surpassed that the system favors them?

Well I am a little off topic, so to get back to the matter at hand... photo radar is an attempt by the government to use technology to spy on you and coerce you into doing as they say. Photo radar is only the beginning. As technology grows other restrictive measures will fol- low. Since up to 80% of the population feels the speed limit is too low I can only infer that a majority of British Colombians don’t support this technology and threats to force obedience on its citizens.

The following are some ideas that brought about the end of photo radar in Ontario. Please note that some of the following are considered illegal by the Canadian government and could lead to imprisonment by the same government.

Non compliance - Go to court! Make the government work to:collect your money. Stand up and tell the bureaucracy that you believe that this law unjust on all moral and legal grounds. You will most likely lose your case, but you have done your part to fuck the system. This robs the government of any profit they would have made from you.

Subterfuge - These photo radar systems cost over 4 million dollars each. Even if just one is destroyed it will cancel the governments prof- its for thousands of tickets. This could be accomplished by something as simple as a Motlov cocktail or as complicated as a homemade bomb. However, if that is a little extreme for you simply try spraying the cam- era lens with shaving creme. This will cause problems for a short time.

The government has no right to spy on us and we must do everything in our power to fight these Orwellian speed police. If the government is really that keen on electronic surveillance maybe we could put a camera in every MP’s office (see how many votes that gets in the House of Commons). Think of all the money we could save catching these “Mulroney Types” making secret deals and immortal contracts with powerful elites. Remember if they are doing it for you, they will prob- ably be doing it to you. :

by ian lorenz

Seeing the truth about Small town Crime

To the editor:

I am writing in response to the letter from Gerogina Nelson, about her ignorant opinions on the Prince Rupert Police and the vio- lence going on there. I myself am from Rupert, born and raised there. Anyone who doesn’t think vio- lence happens a lot in our town is blind or stupid, probably both. Either that or they’re living in a cocoon of blissful myopicity. I used to think the way she does when I was younger, but now that P’ve “grown up”, I can see that I was wrong. This summer espe- cially opened my eyes, as I was forced into being a witness to the brutal slaying of Trygue Magnusson. I knew the “boys” involved extremely well, and there’s lots more like them, steal- ing, killing beating, just being little drunken goofs who are going to grow up into big drunken goofs, and if it takes stiff jail sentences, too bad, it’s gotta stop somewhere.

As for Prince Rupert’s Finest, if they’re doing such a good job, why is it that why the largest police force per capita in North others

America, vandalism, robbery, break and enters, car-thefts and HEROIN SMUGGLING rates are all going up way faster than any- where else in BC I worked with a lady this summer who had to shield her childrens’ eyes from a group of kids shooting up heroin on the front steps of the Moby Dick, IN BROAD DAYLIGHT, and there were no cops. They were probably sleeping in their car in the back-alley, sleeping off trading sex-for-rides to the young girls leaving the Surf Club all drunked up. And don’t say that doesn’t happen there either, because my friend was forced into it!!! My parents live the next street over from the police station, and they had to wait over an hour for a cruiser when they made a call be- cause of a brawl going on in the street in front of their house. Al- most every day we hear stories from the fisherman on one side, and the townies on the other, and about the terrible fights that hap- pen, and the police only show up when it’s too late. One of the main reasons that city-council there is fighting for a curfew is because they know THE POLICE CAN’T HANDLE IT! That’s why I, all my family members, and everyone else we know signed the petition calling for it, ‘cause we know it too. People like Trygue Magnusson, Scott Bishop, and all

visiting our town shouldn’t have to be scared to walk home at night because people like you refuse to recognize the problem, and are too chicken-shit to do anything about it.

Take off your Rose-col- ored glasses, Gerogina, and see the town of Prince Rupert for what it really is, a few decent people - and a lot of DRUNKEN GOOFS.

From Robyn, Prince Rupert BC

Politically Correct?

You have GOT to be kidding me. Why does it seem that everywhere I turn, there is something to remind me that I can get punished for treat- ing people as if they exist. The only way you can possibly avoid not of- fending anyone is to completely sever contact with the rest of hu- manity.

To exist is to have an opinion. And to have an opinion is to of- fend someone. Believe me, I know. It seems that I’ve offended more than a few people in my lifetime.

Go figure. When you say some- thing, it is more than likely an opinion. Thus, it will offend some- one. You never know who it will offend, though; that’s the fun sur- prise at the bottom of the box of Cracker Jacks of life. Even if what you say is not an opinion, and is a fact, it can still be taken the wrong way and can still offend someone.

I find that people get too sensi- tive about anything that pertains to them in any possible way. Some especially spastic people will ana- lyze a statement or action to look for a way that it can be considered insulting. Thus, they will find po- litical incorrectness where it doesn’t exist.

An example of this happened to a friend of mine last year. A girl at this university tried to have a sexual harassment suit filed against my friend. I’m not sure what exactly he did, but then again, I don’t think that he even knows what exactly he did. The interest- ing part is that my friend is gay. Quite gay. Suffice it to say, the suit didn’t quite work, and he got off. So how is it that a gay guy managed to do something that

could be considered sexual harass- ment, even by the university’s stan-

dards?

yong sor

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