9/23/2024
Residents Fight Photo Radar In Guadeloupe, France and GermanyVigilantes last week torched a half-dozen speed cameras in the Caribbean and Europe.
By Richard Diamond/Staff Reports
Officials in Guadeloupe, an archipelago in the Caribbean, recently decided to bring back photo radar devices, but residents had other ideas last week. The move became one of several complaints during protests that kicked off on Thursday. Four of the freshly reinstalled automated ticketing machines were set on fire in Les Abymes, Versailles, Trois Rivieres and on the RN1. The camera in Petit-Bourg was ripped from its mounting on Saturday.
In Vermand, France, vigilantes on Sunday torched the speed camera on the RD1029. The device had been installed by officials as a "temporary" measure in February. In Brantome, opponents of automated ticketing ensured the device on the RD939 would not issue any more citations by flipping it upside down, spraypainting it and rolling it into a ditch on Saturday. In Abbeville, red spraypaint disabled the speed camera on the RD925 on Monday, September 16.
In Hamminkeln, Germany, vigilantes on Saturday blinded the speed camera on Venninghauser Strasse with spraypaint, according to local police reports.