Former Redflex Executive: We Bribed Politicians in 13 States

WarOnDriving.com

For a calendar year, revelations about Redflex’s shady and illegal business practices have been fed to the public through a steady diet of damning admissions. Journalist David Kidwell of the Chicago Tribune has written about the subject comprehensively.[link to archives]

During the period since the first blockbuster article by Kidwell in March of 2013, Redflex has been hemorrhaging contracts and money, but curiously not in Arizona, which houses the Australian-based camera vendor’s U.S. headquarters.

Paradise Valley, AZ could not have turned a more blind eye to the corruption as they not only renewed with Redflex in 2013 for a whopping 5 years, but agreed to double the size of their contract and hardly even considered using a different vendor, such as American Traffic Solutions (ATS), who also operates nearby in Scottsdale.

Phoenix, AZ also renewed their contract with Redflex without even putting the issue up for public debate, which they later admitted was improper (code language for “illegal”).

Now that Redflex and their designated scapegoat, Aaron Rosenberg, have exchanged lawsuits it’s starting to become clearer that bribery wasn’t just an issue in Chicago, but “Standard Operating Procedure” for the camera vendor.

The former EVP, Rosenberg has not taken too kindly to the remaining brass at Redflex blaming all their transgressions on him and him alone. He’s firing back, not by proclaiming his innocence, but by presenting evidence that he was just a cog in Redflex’s bribery machine.

It’s getting ugly, real ugly.

With just a few pages released by Rosenberg’s attorneys, we now have black and white evidence that shows illegal campaign contributions and gifts being used to sway politicians and party officials in Florida and Arizona. More info will be released from Rosenberg’s side, but probably not until summer of 2014. [Lawsuit]

Here’s what we know so far:

Arizona – Illegal campaign contributions to both the Arizona Democrat and Republican Parties by Mr. Rosenberg that was reimbursed by Redflex and signed off on by then-CEO Karen Finley.

Florida – Two dozen state legislators and their wives were invited to an expensive dinner at Morton’s Steakhouse, which was paid for by the company and not reported. Internal emails and expense reports show the dinner cost over $3,200.00.

And this is just the beginning. Rosenberg is alleging bribery was all part of the standard ops in 13 states.

The latest from the Chicago Tribune foreshadows what’s to come:

In his counterclaim against Redflex, Rosenberg said he was simply “carrying out orders” and that other company executives also participated in a “pattern and practice” of wooing potential clients with perquisites including meals, golf outings, professional football and baseball games — all covered under a liberal company policy for “entertainment” expenses.

“A budget for these items was approved, and there was never a distinction between these types of entertainments and expenses that are considered gratuities and bribes,” Rosenberg alleged in the filing.

Rosenberg said that during his tenure Redflex “bestowed gifts and bribes on company officials in dozens of municipalities within, but not limited to the following states: California, Washington, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Colorado, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Florida, New Jersey, Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia.”

Arizona and Florida seem to be a main focus of Rosenberg and his attorneys and for good reason. Arizona is the hub, where the executives are housed and will almost certainly be where most of the bodies are buried. After all, Redflex “won” the competition with ATS for the statewide freeway photo radar contract from 2008-2010 and it certainly took more than just a convincing slide show to woo Janet Napolitano and the state legislature, who looked the other way while she jammed this massive program into a byline on the state’s budget.

Of course, Arizona Legislators in 2008 were way too ethical to accept bribes, right? Well actually, they would beg to differ with that – [Fiesta Bowl bribery scandal]

Forget Speed Cams, Former Gov Wants Citizen Spies

Domestic extremists protest Chairwoman Napolitano during her reign as Arizona Governor.

“Napolitano lays out a sweeping surveillance agenda that includes citizen spies who have a mission of “shared responsibility” to thwart “Core” al-Qaeda, foreign groups “inspired by” al-Qaeda, as well as domestic “extremist” groups, which apparently include an increasing number of plots by U.S. citizens. She added that “there is no single portrait” of today’s potential terrorist, citing recruiting tactics “including Hip Hop videos, if you can imagine that.” And, naturally, cyberspace.”

Read more: http://lewrockwell.com/spl3/need-for-citizen-spies.html

 

TSA: “Nationwide Security Network”

DHS Witch and Former Failed Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano, pictured left during a recent zombie media non-event.

Janet’s TSA admits its role as an internal, nationwide “security” and “intelligence” network.

“It is critical that TSA retains its ability to operate as a flexible nationwide security network,” a TSA spokesperson wrote. “TSA’s capacity to push out intelligence information to our frontline workforce and quickly change procedures based on threat and intelligence is paramount to effective security.

From: http://dailycaller.com/2011/06/14/tsa-blocks-private-airport-screeners/#ixzz1PJh0XW3i

Feeling safer, yet?

Janet Napolitano Launches New Wave of Paranoia

Has anyone noticed that Ol’ Nappy (Janet Napolitano) has become even less coherent as Secretary of Homeland Security than she was as our spy-camera and Redflex Lobbyist loving governor?

The latest round of non-sense coming out of her mouth has to do with a new system for terror alerts. Does anyone have a use for these scare tactics?

When the old color coded system was in place, could you remember those days when you were asked to be extra vigilant? How did you behave? Were bridges and large stadiums on your list of things to avoid? It seems that those in charge of “security” at the Federal level are really just in the business of cooking up new ways to make us all fear everyone and everything around us.

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Houston Texas, The Surveillance Zone

The epicenter of spy camera funny business in the United States is officially Houston, TX. Even if you never get behind the wheel, you are being watched in the down town area by a newly installed network of over 250 cameras. Guess who picked up the tab? If you said Big Sis Napolitano and The Dept of Homeland Security, you’d be right!

DHS and the city of Houston must have never investigated the CCTV (closed circuit television) system in London which has been nothing but a huge money pit and an absolute failure to stop crime. Then again, who cares about safety records when there’s money to be made from selling and buying expensive equipment? Just ask Michael Chertoff how that little scheme works.

It’s hard to ignore the fact that Houston has been fighting tooth and nail to keep their red light cameras in place at the very same time. (Un) American Traffic Solutions has their dog and pony lawyer show out in full force, suing the city of Houston for allowing the citizens to vote on a citizens initiative. Their arguments, as usual, are so repugnant that they’re not even worth mentioning here.

The problem is that the city clearly wants to lose to ATS so that the cameras stay up and the money keeps flowing in. To make matters worse, the federal judge hearing the case, Lynn Hughes, is not allowing anyone to represent the people of Houston. In effect he is an unelected judge attempting to legislate from the bench. In the end ATS and the city of Houston will fail in their attempt to work over the people, but in the process will waste a lot of money and time.

There will be much more to come next week when the court proceedings begin.

Wal-Mart Napolitano

Sometimes Big Sis just makes things too easy for us. When faced with a PR nightmare, what’s always the first plan of action? You guessed it, team up with everyone’s favorite purveyor of cheap Chinese merchandise!

Asking people to report possible “suspicious activity” to a Wal-Mart manager is about as compelling as the TSA’s attempt to make us safer by touching and/or looking at photos of our naughty bits.

In what appears to be a poor excuse for an SNL skit, Janet Napolitano asks every American “If You See Something, Say Something.”

Once again, on behalf of all Arizonans, we apologize to the entire country for letting Big Sis out of our sight.

Do You NOT Miss Me Yet?

Let’s be honest, Arizona owes an apology to the rest of the country. We knew how ugly things get when Janet is in charge, but quietly letting her leave AZ for DC without a stern warning was a big mistake. Now it’s too late for that, but there’s still time to remind everyone just how poor of a track record this “public servant” has.

During what was an obvious bubble in the Arizona economy due to real estate prices skyrocketing, then Governor Napolitano decided it would be a great idea to spend every single dime possible and put Arizona on the hook for years to come with terrible budgeting. When it was time to pay the tab, she put spy cameras all over our freeways, in an attempt to “make $90 Million” in her own words, not ours. That program was a complete and utter failure, but Janet didn’t care because she had left the nightmare she created behind.

Unfortunately, now the entire country is reaping the whirlwind of this woman who makes decisions on a whim and covers up obvious failures with laughable lines like “the system worked” – when referring to last year’s attempted “underwear bombing.” The man with the bomb in his pants was only foiled by an alert passenger after easily passing through security. What exactly worked there Janet?

Maybe she was referring to things working out quite nicely for Michael Chertoff, then head of the Transportation Security Administration, now commonly called TSA, who used the underwear bomber as an excuse to order the very expensive so-called backscatter x-ray machines which show very graphic images of the genitalia and body composition of every person passing through them. Chertoff is now sitting pretty as the head of the company whose main client, Rapiscan, manufactures the machines and is making a fortune.

What has ensued since the main stream media grabbed  a hold of this story has been nothing less than a complete embarrassment, the likes of which a Federal Agency may have never seen before. Images mocking the TSA for being perverted are long in supply all over the internet and growing in numbers. The catalyst for the story moving so quickly in to center focus was the accompanying controversy over the new and highly invasive pat downs, in which a TSA agent is trained to grope innocent airline passengers, feeling once off limit body parts like breasts and genitalia.

Even Congressman Ron Paul, who visited Arizona this month, described a situation in which a TSA agent touched his privates while mocking him for being subject to the search in the first place. This is really a sick situation and frankly, Americans have had enough. The Drudge Report picked up the TSA body scanner/groping story first from a mainly online radio show hosted by Alex Jones of Austin, TX. Jones had been warning for months that the new procedures were coming to an airport near you.

Because of Drudge repeatedly pushing this story and creating so many hits on related search terms, it went “mega viral” and could not be ignored by the likes of CNN, Fox News and MSNBC along with every other legacy media conglomerate.

What has Napolitano, now frequently referred to as “Big Sis” had to say about all this? She continues to act as if there is nothing wrong with naked images and groping. That’s fine for a producer of pornographic films, but Big Sis is supposed to be a serious leader who is in charge of The United States Department of Homeland Security which presides over the TSA. She seems to think the 4th Amendment of the United States Constitution is forfeited with the purchase of an airline ticket. It’s tough to say it about someone in such a high post, but she comes across as completely clueless.

Maybe we Arizonans should have fought to keep her from going to D.C. but it was just too tempting to wave goodbye and hope for the best. Calls  for her resignation are once again surfacing, just as they had after her ridiculous comments about the system working on the underwear bomber.

The TSA has quickly fallen out of favor with millions of Americans and several airports may seek alternatives. Some airports in California are being patrolled by Police who are looking for TSA agents that commit what is being called sexual assault during the groping pat downs. They have been ordered to arrest these agents if their conduct is inappropriate. The notion that the TSA keeps us safe is a false premise if they need Police officers constantly watching them.

Just as we in Arizona had to do with the photo radar spy cameras littering our freeways, Americans are learning to stand up against ridiculous “safety measures” that are only designed to use fear to sell expensive equipment and make money for a private company on the backs of taxpayers and travelers.

The parallels are unmistakable and the next move is clear. Send Janet packing.

Redflex Failures Aplenty

It’s easy for us to understand just how incompetent Redflex Traffic Systems because we watched the 3 ring circus that was their contract with Arizona and DPS, signed by Big Sis aka Janet Napolitano. The end of the statewide contract did not mean Redflex’s exit from Arizona, nor did it conclude their seemingly endless stream of bad press.

With all the victories against (Un)American Traffic Solutions at the ballot box this month, Redflex has been missing from our posts for a few weeks.

That hasn’t stopped them from tallying more embarrassments and failures across the United States:

Lousiana – Redflex had been under investigation in Jefferson Parish by the FBI for more than a year over an alleged arrangement that put cash in the pocket of a Judge’s wife and a lobbyist every time their scameras popped a motorist with an extortion ticket. Now another city, Zachary, LA, just north of Baton Rouge wants out of their contract with the Australian operation. Redflex has repeatedly breached their contract with the city, according to city council. In a desperate attempt to prove their little speed trailers were worth the investment, they were deployed against the wishes of the city. The Advocate in Baton Rouge has the full story.

New Mexico – While accident rates are dropping nationwide, cities using Redflex surveillance ticketing are seeing an increase in collisions where it has been deployed. New Mexico Dept of Transportation studies have shown this to be true. That hasn’t stopped inept city councils from continuing the program to the detriment of their own people. TheNewspaper.com has more details.

Then and Now: The Surveillance Playbook

Recent implementations of surveillance systems have followed a predictable playbook.

Politicians, government agencies, and corporations are pitting their collective agendas against us, and the rights of the individual are suffering.

Before heading up the Department of Homeland Security, then-Governor Janet Napolitano spearheaded the creation of a widespread surveillance system in Arizona. This article aims to show that while the names of the players change (Then DPS, now TSA; Then Redflex, Now RapiScan; etc), the game stays the same.

Creating the Problem

Then: As Governor, Napolitano urgently forces into place a statewide “photo enforcement” scheme on Arizona highways. A private contractor (Redflex) benefits and provides the surveillance equipment.

Now: As DHS Director, Napolitano rolls out “advanced imaging” scanners at airports nationwide while urging (threatening) other countries to follow suit. A private contractor (RapiScan) benefits and provides the surveillance equipment.

Mission Creep

Then: Redflex’s roadside ticketing cameras are found to record and transmit video 24 hours a day, despite denials by company lobbyists. Politicians feign outrage.

Now: RapiScan’s virtual strip machines are discovered to be capable of storing and transmitting images of travelers. Politicians feign outrage.

Alphabet Soup Agencies and Technological Snake Oil

Then: The Arizona Department of Public Safety (DPS) is charged with running the statewide surveillance network and vehemently defends its use. Phony statistics are used by the department to “prove” effectiveness, causing even supporting organizations such as AAA to question the official stats.

Now: Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents utilize body scanners across the United States and agency officials vehemently defend their use, despite a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report which stated that such measures would not have stopped the so-called (attempted) “underwear bomber,” the exact incident which prompted the accelerated rollout of such scanners.

Unequal Protection Under the Law and Lacking Common Sense

Then: Under RedflexDPS’ automated ticketing and surveillance scheme, no two drivers are protected equally under the law. A driver with his true home address on file is much more likely to be served in-person with a ticket, while a ticket may not even be mailed if the vehicle is registered to a corporation.

Now: For the most part,  TSA randomly selects who is to submit to a naked body scan, creating a clear standard of unequal protection. One can only hope that a true terrorist doesn’t slip through security because agents are too busy subjecting Grandma to “additional screening” for her carry-on pies.

Make it Clear Who’s Boss

Then: After outsourcing their responsibilities to Redflex, DPS created a unit to target and harass those who openly taunted their surveillance network. Detectives in the so-called “frequent flyer” division addressed the pressing threat of masked drivers and possible political opponents. When a horrible act of violence claimed the life of a photo radar company employee, DPS seized the opportunity to blame their opponents for being too “vocal.”

Now: TSA agents use the threat of “enhanced patdowns” —up and to the point of physical agent contact with travelers’ genitals (groping)— to prompt “compliance” with naked body scans. Those who “opt out” of naked body scans are publicly singled out, with widespread reports of TSA agents screaming “We have an Opt Out!” when confronted with a dissenter.

Conclusion

These parallel stories (ticketing cameras vs. naked body scanners) follow the same plot: The false promise of increased transportation safety via intrusive government surveillance.

Meanwhile, the inherent human right of freedom of movement is so severely crippled that obedient “compliance” is not only expected, but required.

Government regulations create a de facto monopoly over both roadways and airways regarding what hoops you will be required to jump through in order to proceed to your destination. Have the wrong papers or cross the wrong government agent, and you may find yourself detained, arrested, or even killed.

Welcome to the new United States: Land of the Fees, and Home of the Slaves. 

Attack of the Naked Body Cameras

FRAUD: Naked body scanners are repugnant in a supposedly free society and may harm health.

Why does Janet Napolitano hate privacy?

First she surveilled Arizona’s highways with intrusive, accident-increasing ticket cameras courtesy of Redflex Traffic Systems. The program ended in spectacular failure, leaving only local cities (and not the State of Arizona) operating similar schemes.

Now, the head of “homeland security” is actively pushing more technological quackery in the form of  “backscatter imagers,” —also known as naked body scanners— in airports around the United States.

Fool me once, shame on you…

We’d like to ask the question: Just what part of this nation’s founding documents are so utterly unclear regarding the inherent right of an individual to travel freely—unmolested by agents of government bureaucracy– unless on probable cause or reasonable suspicion of a crime being committed?

The scanners create an image viewable to federal agents of a traveler’s body, acting as a “camera” of sorts… and perhaps what better activism group than CameraFRAUD to challenge the spread of Janet’s newest mechanical plague?

The first step is to get informed!

What do you think? Comment below!