Tuesday, December 23, 2008

An Awful New Game

It seems like the kids at a high school in Maryland have invented an awful new game called Speed Camera Pimping.

As a prank, students from local high schools have been taking advantage of the county's Speed Camera Program in order to exact revenge on people who they believe have wronged them in the past, including other students and even teachers.

Students from Richard Montgomery High School dubbed the prank the Speed Camera "Pimping" game, according to a parent of a student enrolled at one of the high schools.

Originating from Wootton High School, the parent said, students duplicate the license plates by printing plate numbers on glossy photo paper, using fonts from certain websites that "mimic" those on Maryland license plates. They tape the duplicate plate over the existing plate on the back of their car and purposefully speed through a speed camera, the parent said. The victim then receives a citation in the mail days later.

Students are even obtaining vehicles from their friends that are similar or identical to the make and model of the car owned by the targeted victim, according to the parent.

"This game is very disturbing," the parent said. "Especially since unsuspecting parents will also be victimized through receipt of unwarranted photo speed tickets.

The parent said that "our civil rights are exploited," and the entire premise behind the Speed Camera Program is called into question as a result of the growing this fad among students.
Calling such robo cops into question would be terrible. Think of all the misery it would cause. A municipality would be paying for one of these devices and then their ability to generate revenue would be in doubt. The consequences could be serious. For the city budget.
Montgomery County Council President Phil Andrews said that the issue is troubling in several respects. "I am concerned that someone could get hurt, first of all, because they are speeding in areas where they know speeding is a problem," he said.

Andrews also said that this could hurt the integrity of the Speed Camera Program. "It will cause potential problems for the Speed Camera Program in terms of the confidence in it," he said.
Robo cop integrity? Called into question? I hope so.

H/T National Review

Cross Posted at Classical Values

4 comments:

azurevirus said...

giv it to the kids for imagination anyway..I sure would not have thought of that.

B7 said...

Don't they have to verify that the owner of the car is driving to convict them?

Nick said...

George, the answer that is no. I've been representing people against the IL tollway for similar stuff. They claim that they can hold someone liable if they "own" the license plate. That means, you don't have to own the car, be driving the car, or anything else.

I have a client that got fined 5 grand for a car she doesn't own. That's going to be a fun hearing tomorrow.

Personally, I think these kids are my heros. Anything that makes these lazy ass governments work harder to steal our money is golden in my book.

LarryD said...

If I were inclined to engage in an illegal campaign against speed cameras, I would take the kids "game" and target selected city officials.

Just saying.