Tt post july 2, 2017

"Write all you want about the real purpose of speed cameras (safety vs. revenue)."

I will continue to write about the real purposes. Thanks for granting us the permission to express an opinion.

When I see this happy horseshit in today's Blade, then I start to have less respect for Toledo police.

Toledo police Lt. Jeff Sulewski said officers use the speed cameras to create a safer driving environment.

Lead-foot drivers are filling Toledo’s coffers faster than officials had projected.

Part of that money has already been spent. Toledo City Council last week approved the mayor’s plan to spend $250,000 more to hire new police officers a month earlier this year, from August to July.

Safer driving environment. Good one. For their next comedy act, law enforcement will claim that the should-be-illegal search checkpoints are meant to reduce drunk driving.

Toledo DOES NOT NEED more police officers. We don't need to maintain the current number of officers.

Toledo needs fewer police officers to match the continual decline in Toledo's population.

If city officials claim that Toledo's crime rate is higher now than at any time in the city's history, relative to the population, then I can understand the need for more officers.

Otherwise, all of this is nothing more than the usual, demented political theater. Holy hell, the rubes should be able to grasp this concept by now.

The police union endorses local political candidates who do favors for the police.

"All actions have consequences ..."

That's false.

For weeks, troglodytes have been detonating illegal bombs in West Toledo, and, of course, it has grown horribly worse over the past two weeks. The 4th of July holiday in Toledo begins in February.

Police hassle highway drivers on a sunny day in the name of safety. But when rockets are repeatedly red glaring after 1:00 a.m. during weekdays, that's no big deal. That's simply knuckle-draggers being knuckle-draggers.

"... simply obey the law and save the cost of a ticket and any avoidance mechanism that may/may not work."

Obey the law. Wow. What a concept. But once again, that master of the obvious suggestion misses the point of the cameras.

# - The city's needs this revenue for the general fund, ironically, to help pay the salaries of police officers.

Money collected from traffic enforcement cameras is listed in the budget as revenue. The city expects a minimum amount of money from these cameras to keep the budget balanced. It's not bonus money for the rainy day fund.

Since it's expected revenue in the budget, then it's obviously a money grab. If nobody drove dangerously, then we would have a multi-million dollar budget hole that would have to be made up somewhere.

# - If people drive legally, then the city will be deprived of $6 million. The city wants that money, and it will get it somehow.

# - When speeding rackets and an illegal tax become significant revenue streams, then things are still a bit unhealthy in Toledo.

# - Driving the speed limit does not resolve the long-term financial incompetence of city government.

I will believe that the cameras are about safety when the camera revenue is not listed in Toledo's budget.

Making this camera discussion about safety is a clever distraction technique to take the focus away from Toledo government's irresponsible spending of taxpayer money.

Think about how stupid this sounds. Obey the driving laws, and Toledo government suddenly becomes intelligent.