We all know traffic cameras are terrible. They suck. The beauty is that in America, you won’t go to jail for flipping a camera off. And you won’t go to jail for nearly a year for having a radar jammer. For one British man, he learned the hard way. Believe it or not, he’s now serving eight months in jail for that offense (via North Yorkshire PD):
Timothy Hill, 67, threw the device in a river behind his home in Grassington when he found out that officers had launched an investigation.
But today he was jailed for eight months at Teesside Crown Court and banned from driving for a year for perverting the course of justice.
Hill drove past North Yorkshire Police’s mobile safety camera vans on the A19 near Easingwold, Thirsk and Crathorne on three occasions in December.
On all three occasions, he was photographed gesturing at the camera with his middle finger. Police also detected a laser jammer on his white Range Rover.
Officers began an investigation and Hill initially lied about where the vehicle was and tried to destroy the jammer.
Top tip: If you want to stay out of trouble, don't do what this driver did and swear at our mobile safety cameras while driving past in a car fitted with a laser jammer. Today he's beginning 8 months in jail for perverting the course of justice. https://t.co/Y5jpeOlt96 pic.twitter.com/rKQRVgNkB1
— North Yorkshire Police (@NYorksPolice) April 23, 2018
Seriously, a man gets almost a year in jail for a radar detector and giving the camera the bird. While that’s a rather obvious way to vent one’s frustration about the traffic laws, in the U.S.; some people straight up knock those traffic cameras over. One such event occurred in the Washington D.C. area in February, where a man—apparently sick of traffic cameras—simply knocked it over (via USA Today):
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A hooded figure emerges from a crossover SUV in the video, topples a Washington, D.C., traffic camera before hurling a piece of it across the street.
Now, D.C. police are looking for the suspect, who officers believe may have vandalized 10 other city-operated cameras meant to catch drivers speeding or running red lights. They're hoping the public will help with tips, though some hail the camera smasher as a hero.
D.C. cameras resulted in 994,163 tickets issued in 2016, which drew about $99 million in revenue, according to AAA figures noted by the Washingtonian, causing the city to appear as "a bit of a speed trap."
"Some of the state's property serves to oppress," Sonny Bunch, editor of the Washington Free Beacon, said in a tribute to the vandal. "Sometimes you need a hero."
You got that right, Mr. Bunch.
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