A few weeks ago, the city where I was born and lived until age 9, Los Angeles, made a great big hairy deal about boycotting the state where I live now, Arizona, over its passage of SB1070, which requires police to enforce laws on illegal immigration identical to those in both California and federal law. The boycott meant the city of L.A. refused to do business with Arizona, its cities and businesses based in the state.
But that's not important now. At least when it comes to the city's red-light cameras, supplied and operated by American Traffic Solutions of....Scottsdale, Arizona.
Standing by the boycott would have meant shutting down the cameras. And if that had happened, and someone had been killed at an intersection with a formerly working red light camera, city councilman Richard Alarcon said "the media would have a field day".
So, the council voted 13-0 to temporarily exempt the red-light camera program from the boycott.
Full story with a fascinating insight (no matter which side you take on the immigration enforcement issue) into politicians unanimously voting to sustain a program that loses the city money and is of dubious success in terms of accident reduction from The Los Angeles Times.
