Montgomery Advertiser

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For those who know about this paper and read this paper on a regualr basis,know that the paper has really been disappointing over the last couple of years.

I will say some of the sports writers are really good. I especially like Tom Ensey.

But, when it comes to news and politics, which way do you think the paper leans?

CONSERVATIVE,LIBERAL OR INDY

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http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/NEWSV5...5REDMAIN06W.htm

Can Alvin Holmes get any worse?

Concerned that automated camera enforcement of red-light violations could lead to masked attempts to commit racial profiling, state Rep. Alvin Holmes, DMontgomery, said he will ask the Legislative Black Caucus to help him kill the measure.

"We're not going to give law enforcement in the state of Alabama more tools to harass and intimidate black people," Holmes said. "When they put it on the calendar, we're going to filibuster and we're going to lock down the Legislature."

State Sen. Phil Poole, D-Moundville, introduced the Red Light Safety Act of 2005 in the Senate on Thursday, and state Rep. David Grimes, R-Montgomery, has near-identical legislation he plans to introduce in the House later this week.

The twin bills would give municipalities the option of using camera or video systems to record the license plate of a vehicle running a red light and issuing the owner a ticket of up to $250 by mail. Violations would not become part of a driver's history, no points would be assessed against a driver's license and insurance companies could not raise rates based on the infractions.

A recent survey of lawmakers conducted by the Montgomery Advertiser shows most of the House members who responded are undecided on how they will vote. But those who favor the legislation outnumber opponents nearly 2-1.

In the upper chamber, meanwhile, nearly half of the senators responding favor the bill, outnumbering opponents by more than 3-1.

Aside from Holmes' opposition, the most common concerns voiced by lawmakers are invasion of privacy and Big Brother fears; whether the bill is simply a revenue generator for cash-starved cities; and who will ensure the equipment is not tampered with to generate more ticket-paying violations.

Both Poole and Grimes reject the notion that the proposed legislation has racial motivations.

"This is not racial profiling," Grimes said. "The only color I'm concerned about is red."

Poole also scoffed at the idea that there was a racial element in the debate.

"I don't think these will be in any area that can be identified as a white-black area," he said of the cameras. "They will be in major intersections that everyone uses."

The angles from which the cameras record also make it extremely difficult to single out drivers of any particular demographic group for tickets, he said.

"You really can't see anything inside the vehicle. I really don't see how they could use it for racial profiling," Poole said.

Dan Foglton, vice president of sales for Nestor Traffic Systems, an East Providence, R.I., vendor of video systems for red-light enforcement, said he is unaware of any racial profiling problems in the District of Columbia or the 18 states where automated enforcement has been approved.

"I don't think that's even in the decision process," said Foglton, whose company has its equipment at 235 intersections and just won a contract to set up its system for the city of Los Angeles.

"Each agency knows which are the most dangerous intersections," Foglton said. "That's where the systems go. It has nothing to do with rich or poor, white or black."

Profiling feared

But Holmes is convinced there could be sinister applications of the camera law.

"I opposed the seat belt law on the same angle," he said. "I've never seen anybody setting up seat belt checks over in Halcyon and Wynlakes and Arrowhead," he said, referring to affluent, mostly white neighborhoods in east Montgomery.

"You go down to municipal court, 99.9 percent of the people down there are black," Holmes said. "There's nobody been given tickets for seat belts but poor people," and checks for valid driver's licenses and proof of insurance are not enforced equally as well, he said.

He will call for the filibuster -- the use of extended debate to prevent a vote from taking place -- unless his demands for several amendments to the bills are met, Holmes said.

One amendment would be to share a report every 90 days with the Legislature to show how many tickets were issued "in these rich, silk-stocking, country club neighborhoods," Holmes said.

"The (Legislative) Black Caucus itself hasn't taken a position on it yet," Holmes said. "But the concept of the bill in most of my conversations with black representatives and senators is we'll be against it."

"Anytime that people have a bill that they just don't like, they threaten to filibuster it," said state Rep. Ken Guin of Carbon Hill, the Democratic House floor leader. "But there are a lot more times that a filibuster is threatened and it doesn't occur than when it actually does occur."

He cautioned, though, "If anybody can filibuster, Alvin can do it."

Some black lawmakers are in favor of the legislation.

"My position would be that I would support that. I think we do need some active surveillance of the city and people running red lights," said Rep. Bryant Melton, D-Tuscaloosa.

"I think it's certainly worth exploring" said Linda Coleman, D-Birmingham.

Joseph Mitchell, D-Mobile, said he would vote for the bill.

Thomas Jackson, D-Thomasville; Oliver Robinson, D-Birmingham; and Eric Major, D-Fairfield, all said they remain undecided but indicated there are parts of the bill they like.

In the Montgomery Advertiser poll, 68 percent of House members and 63 percent of senators responded. The responses crossed party lines in both chambers.

Of those who responded in the House, 64 percent were undecided on how they would vote, 23 percent said they are in favor of the bill and 13 percent were opposed.

Of the senators responding, 45 percent said they favored the legislation, 41 percent were undecided and 14 percent were against the bill.

Spies on poles

"I'm not too much for government spies up on telephone poles or wherever to catch people running lights," said Sen. Tommy Ed Roberts, D-Hartselle. "That would just be a revenue raiser."

Sen. Curt Lee, R-Jasper, voiced similar concerns.

"I'm totally opposed to that. I think it's too much like Big Brother," he said. "I just think the police officers should be patrolling the streets and not cameras."

Rep. Marcel Black, D-Tuscumbia, is leaning against the photo enforcement.

"However, I would be open to look at the bill and the reliability of the camera technology as used in such enforcement," he said.

That is the same concern expressed by Rep. Steve Clouse, R-Ozark.

"I would have to be opposed right now ... until I would see some evidence of the reliability of the technology," Clouse said.

But Rep. J.T. "Jabo" Waggoner, R-Birmingham, favors the bill to help keep crime in check.

"I think the law enforcement needs all the help they can get. There's not enough policemen and troopers to go around, and I think it would be another tool to discourage people if they knew they were on camera," Waggoner said.

"It's time we aired out this issue," said Rep. Alan Boothe, D-Troy, a supporter of the bill. "It's been successful in other countries."

Boothe also is concerned about the human toll that red-light crashes take in Alabama each year. According to the Alabama Department of Transportation, from 2001 to 2003 there were 14,763 red-light crashes statewide, resulting in 54 deaths and 7,658 injuries.

Costs are staggering

Red-light crashes had a colossal dollar drain on Alabama during those three years. Property damage totaled $33,954,900. There was $482,454,000 in injury-related expenses, and $162 million in fatal accident costs. Those numbers are derived from Federal Highway Administration crash-cost formulas and state Transportation Department accident numbers.

The costs could be driven down if camera enforcement were approved because it would be a deterrent to the temptation to run red lights, Boothe said.

"When people pull up to a red light and think 'somebody might be watching me,' it could have an effect," he said.

He thinks about that every time he drives to Montgomery and sees the handmade cross at Vaughn and Taylor roads, he said. That is where 22-year-old Montgomery resident Christine Gregory died last summer when her car was crushed by a vehicle driven by Michael D. Busby of Montgomery. Busby ran the red light there, according to police reports.

"That's very important to the parents of that young lady" to pass the camera enforcement legislation, Boothe said.

"I read about it and I think it's good," Alice Gregory of Montgomery said of the Poole-Grimes legislation, though she's disheartened to hear that some lawmakers are stridently opposed to the measure.

"They better be thinking that their wife or child's going to die from it. Believe me, I know," she said.

Christine Gregory was her only child.

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Alvin Holmes wants every State Trooper and other police officers in the state to be investigated for racial profiling practices.

Alvin today claims of racial profiling in a black man getting a ticket. It was a speeding ticket. The man was clocked going 78 in a 55. On the ticket the police officer put in the paper work that the man's race was white. Now Holmes thinks there was racial profiling.

This man needs to be shut up. He hurts more than helps.

He has called Bobby Bright a "racist"

When Montgomery Mall managers asked the police to do something about the increase in criminal behavior, the police set up a checkpoint. Several tickets were written for no car insurance, no liscence, and some people were arrested for warrents.

Good job by the police right? Wrong. Alvin Holmes called it racial profiling. So what if people were committing violations, the police was descriminating.

Was able to get imminity for driving drunk because he's in the legisature. But when the story broke about this, he felt it was racial profiling. Guess what, a black officer pulled him over.

And as you know he's against cameras to catch people running red lights because apparently "it would be another tool for police to racial profile".

Yet nobody in his district will run against him. In the last election , he ran uncontested.

On the other hand government officials are scared to tell him off becuase they will be labled a racist or be accussed of descrimination.

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Alvin Holmes is offering a cash reward if anyone can show him where it says in the Bible that marriage is between just a man and a woman.