Sometimes it takes a criminal act to set us free from the Panopticonic Eye of our government watchers.
They allegedly drove around town in a pickup truck with a cherry-picker to dismantle 22 of the high-end Nikons from their street poles. The devices are used to identify red-light-running drivers, who then are issued tickets by mail.
The suspects peddled an estimated $88,000 worth of goods to a camera resale shop for $300 each to feed their heroin habits, law-enforcement sources said yesterday.
It doesn't matter that the Nikon cameras used in the NYC Red Light Camera systems were stolen for their value -- and not to intentionally blind the government from watching us to fine us -- because, in the end, the result is the same: The One-Eyed Beast has been blinded and a little lawlessness is our the dividend we spend to gather back the bits of our anonymous freedom.
Wow. I'm amazed that there wasn't more security for the cameras themselves - some sort of alarm on the locks, even. That was quite clever of the thieves.
It was quite a scam, Gordon! The genius criminal mind at work is truly amazing. I agree those expensive Nikon cameras need to be secured in a much more robust manner. Why make the temptation so easy to get a fix?