Angry Populace Burning British Surveillance Cameras

By Bruce Sterling December 22, 2007

http://www.speedcam.co.uk/gatso2.htm Link: Speed Cameras.

"This page is probably the highlight of the entire site. To my knowledge this is the largest collection of wrecked Gatsos on the internet, and its growing rapidly. So long as these cameras are robbing motorists of their cash they will continue to be destroyed.

"Five Gatsos have just gone up in Nuneaton. One of them was completely destroyed before it had even gone live. The workmen hadn't even finished installing it...."

G142

(((And check out the chest-pounding vigilante manifesto here... my goodness me.)))

http://www.speedcam.co.uk/index2.htm

"A Summer of MADness?

"Motorists Against Detection, the vigilante anti-speed camera group have announced a summer of MADness which will see them target for destruction all speed cameras in the UK. It’s now going to be a period of zero tolerance against all speed cameras, said their campaigns director Capt Gatso. (((A remote descendant of General Ludd, I reckon.)))

"The group claims speed cameras are just money-making machines and they have given the authorities long enough to prove their worth. The first camera to fall in the summer campaign is in south east London on the A2 at the Sun in the Sands roundabout on-slip heading northbound towards the Blackwall Tunnel.

"Capt Gatso, the group's campaigns director, (((he's a multitalented guy))) said: "We have completely pulled it out of the ground, it is now lying flat. You can see some of our handiwork posted on www.speedcam.co.uk.

"He added: In many areas the cameras have not saved one life - the statistics for road deaths haven't gone down. In some areas they have actually gone up - in Essex, for instance, which has a high density of cameras there are more people being killed. We are now planning to target any and all cameras until the Government sees sense and rethinks its road safety policy. Before we had speed cameras we had the safest roads in Europe - since their introduction this is no longer true."

The announcement will surprise many in road safety circles since the group has publicly declared it would not attack cameras outside schools or on high streets. But Capt Gatso said: We need to focus attention on what the cameras are about. We’ve said we wouldn’t attack the ones in built up and urban areas but that’s not where most of the cameras are. There are a lot of frustrated people among our members who have seen the number of cameras increase while road safety levels have fallen. Indeed, the only thing the cameras have done successfully is to reduce the number of traffic officers patrolling our roads and lose a lot of decent people their driving licences and their livelihoods. (((Giving them lots of spare time to wander around with big jugs of petrol and huge flammable tires to be flung round the necks of videocams.)))

"MAD is the UK’s only direct action anti-speed camera group and it’s been going since summer 2000. (((!))) In that time they have taken out just over 1,000 cameras. (((Can such things be?))) Their membership who are normally law-abiding people - vary in numbers but there is a hard core of around 200 (((I'd be guessing this figure means "20," but wow, for a saboteur gang, that's a lot))) people throughout the UK who use Internet chat forums, encrypted email and pay as you go phones to keep in touch and plan campaigns.

"The group says it has perfected a new and quick way of destroying speed cameras which will enable them to destroy a roadside camera in just a few seconds...".