Liars Caught Lying Should Stop Digging Holes

This is getting absurd now.

The Mayor of Macon, Georgia, where I live, has been very defensive about the speed cameras he has set up in his county. First, he insisted he had no choice. When I pointed out the cameras are opt-in, his constituents called him out. Now he is doubling down on absurdity.

The worst part is the mendacity to think his constituents are stupid.

He now claims his county had no choice because the legislature passed the law and the county is “established by the legislature.” In other words, the county has to do what the law says and the law says the cameras must be erected, not that it actually does say that.

But wait, just a few words later he claims his county “opted in a few years ago and are under contract.” How could it be an opt-in if it was mandatory because the county was “established by the legislature”?

But wait, there’s more. Let’s look at the actual statute for the speed cameras.

Here is O.C.G.A. § 40-14-18 (2024):

There is no mandate from the state. Schools must affirmatively apply and secure a permit from the state. There was no mandate.

But more troubling, in Bibb County, Georgia, several private Christian schools have these cameras in front of the schools. Those schools did not apply for the cameras. The local government applied for the cameras. The actual statute that the Mayor of Macon, Georgia claims he is bound to and requires the cameras actually states plainly that, “Prior to the placement of a device within a school zone, each school within whose school zone such automated traffic enforcement safety device is to be placed shall first apply for and secure a permit.”

If this is true and if the private schools did not actually apply for those permits, those cameras are illegally placed in violation of the very Georgia law the Mayor of Macon says he has no choice but to comply with.

That would also render all tickets from those cameras illegal.

That would be one hell of a lawsuit against the local government and the corporations involved for placing cameras in front of private schools without those schools having applied for the cameras themselves.

After all, if the county is established by the legislature and must follow that law, that law says the school, not the local government, must request the cameras.