"MEMBERS OF THE YELLOW vest movement in France have reportedly vandalized and destroyed more than half of the country's speed cameras. A spokesman for the French Ministry of the Interior told CNN that 60 percent of France's speed cameras, about 3,200 in total, have been vandalized since November, threatening road safety and putting people's lives at risk." https://www.usnews.com/news/politic...s-destroy-60-percent-of-frances-speed-cameras Now that hits home, the government wallet! Sounds more effective than simply rioting.
It's still rioting. Smashing stuff up to try to blackmail someone in to doing what you want. It could even be called economic terrorism. Just because you don't like the thing they're smashing up doesn't make it OK. Or maybe I should just keep breaking things of yours until you agree with me.
Part of the problem might be that the speed limit was reduced from 90kph to 80 on 2 lane roads last year, which was deeply unpopular and widely seen as a revenue-raising measure rather than for road safety.
When one lives in a society in which the ability to change intolerable actions by government is nearly impossible, well, to misquote mark Steyn “If the political culture forbids citizens from raising certain topics, holding politicians and bureaucrats accountable, then the electorate will turn to illegal acts” The governments of our western societies need to open their ears and listen to what the public is saying. If they don't they will find a lot more than traffic extortion devices being destroyed. Another consideration, when the law is ignored with impunity or (in the USA) get applied selectively, not only is respect for the law undermined, but formerly law abiding folk begin to behave exactly like their betters in government.
Well for a start, nobody knows what (if any) concrete demands are linked to this vandalism so that doesn't really help. You also seem to be supporting the idea of more serious acts of terrorism by anyone who doesn't like what the government is doing, which is exactly the problem with this kind of action. So if someone else does something bad, it's OK for me to do it too? So it would be OK for me to smash up your stuff (and worse?) until you agree with me?
You, and I are not the government. I have no power to force you to do anything, to take your resources, or to deprive you in any serious way BUT, government, unaccountable government, bloated, bureaucrat full government DOES have all those powers (largely granted to itself by itself). The population of many European countries has said pretty clearly they are tired of having their pockets picked and their communities invaded with aliens who do not speak the language, often do not work and almost always do not assimilate. That is the problem...the symptoms are the specific issues they march about, the ever increasing taxes, the foreign invasion, the reduced speed limit, etc. What the governments need do is not treat each complaint as a separate issue but instead make it very, very clear that the big stuff WILL be dealt with. There will be no new taxes, the reduced speed limits and the other schemes to grab more money from the citizens will stop. The bureaucrats and politicians will be employees of the voters, not government itself. As to smashing other folks stuff...I'm an American. People do that at their own peril.
Only idiots and morons destroy public property which TAXPAYERS will have to pay for to replace.Same applies to those who destroy automobiles causing EVERYONES insurance rates to skyrocket.
No we haven't. A subsection of the European population say things like that (though often subtly different things from each other) but they've tried and failed to elect politicians who support their positions, implying that they remain a minority. Their reasons don't really matter anyway. Whether the positions they're arguing for are meaningful, constructive and positive or not, rioting, violence and terrorism remain totally unjustifiable tactics in these circumstances. And it's still possible that the people who smashed up the speed cameras actually don't care about politics and just jumped on the bandwagon for their own entertainment (like a lot of rioters do). And you're standing on the sidelines cheering them all on.
a revolution isn't terrorism, these people are standing up against tyranny, they aren't killing people... misuse of terminology is exactly what the tyrants want so they can impune those that stand up for their human rights...
you hit on one of societies other issues... my insurance goes up just because you made a claim. insurance itself is a scam, which is immune from discrimination laws... i should be assessed according to my own driving history without being cast into categories of age, marital status, credit ratings (which have sqwat to do with driving)... this is mentioned as part of the topic of revolting against one's government, which is how i perceive the op...
I don't see the squishy left marching in support of higher taxes and more invaders...The people with fire in their bellies are the folk against invasion and higher taxes.
That ole 55 MPH was so detached from The West where people must drive miles while made into law by Yankees who drive nearly half or a quarter of that mileage. The Greatest State of California was able to circumvent that law on the "within the Greatest State", Highway 99 North / South. Isn't It Time to Contain The Federals Within the Constitution? Start with the Federal's Occupation of Rocky Mountain and Pacific States! The Federals were only suppose to manage the District of Columbia and territories until they were organized into States. What happened? Creeping Federalism creeping Centralism, not Federal. Batman. Moi Restore The 10th Amendment, promise! A Promise to limit the Central Gov't in our "Bill of Rights". Ooops What Is The Thread Topic. Support La France. Viva FraExit
Maybe they don't want higher taxes and more "invaders"? Maybe they're largely content with the actual policies of the majority-elected governments? Maybe they don't think rioting on the streets and smashing up speed cameras is a constructive way to achieve anything positive? Maybe you're wrong?
All possible but what is the down side to my error? If I am right then the entire system propped up by vote buying and lethargy could come crashing down... No matter how I look at the situation, I see entrenched bureaucrats with their fingers in their ears pretend the cranks on the streets are the same as the union thugs of yesteryear....
Most of these cameras belong to private companies which only work on behalf of government. This is the main reason why these cameras stopped serving the road safety and have become the means of collecting people's money.
People really should think their way through this. Of all the results of the yellow jacket insurgence, this is the one that has the longest lasting effect on the ability of government to pick ones pocket. There is real money being lost, money that entirely goes to government AND the action itself is non violent. No burned cars or riots but a direct hit on the governments ability to loot. I wonder if there are other ways to starve the beast without violence?
So the devices that allow government abuse are special and cannot be touched? Convenient idea if one likes serfdom.
In the U.S., government installs red light cameras. Upon installation, they shorten the yellow cycle by a half second in order to increase revenue.
