Article from: www.thenewspaper.com/news/34/3438.asp

3/27/2011

Maryland, Belgium, France, UK: Speed Cameras Burned, Painted, Protested
Several speed cameras around the world are disabled with paint and fire.

Vigilantes in Laurel, Maryland earlier this month disabled a speed camera by spraypainting the lens. The device located on 7th Street between Main and Montgomery is no longer able to issue tickets, the Laurel Connections blog reported. In Los Alamitos, California a photo enforcement sign blew off a pole and crashed into a parked car on Sunday last week, according to the Contra Costa Times.

In Buckinghamshire, England, vigilantes torched a speed camera on Wednesday at 4:30am, The Bucks Herald reported. In the West Midlands, 19 speed cameras were attacked last year, doing up to £76,000 (US $121,000) in damage, according to the Express and Star.

The Flemish Minister of Public Works Hilde Crevits announced that there were 20 cameras attacked last year in Belgium's Flemish Region. From 2005 to 2010, 47 cameras were spraypainted, 47 were pried open with a crowbar and 43 were burned, according to HLN.

In Jayat, France vigilantes last week covered the lens of a speed camera on the RD 975 with blue paint, Le Progres reported. The same automated ticketing machine had been painted green just months earlier. On Saturday last week, a speed camera in Luxeuil was destroyed with burning tires.

In Chloet, France a man who received several speed camera tickets for offenses committed in a car he sold three years ago decided to go on hunger strike to protest the government's actions, Ouest France reported.