Oregon Man Fined $500 for Criticizing Red-light Cameras

By Institute For Justice

Running red lights can get you a ticket. But in Oregon, you can be fined just for talking about it.

Mats Järlström learned this first-hand last year when the state of Oregon fined him $500 for publicly suggesting that yellow lights should last for slightly longer to accommodate cars making right turns.

Mats is a tinkerer. In the great tradition of American inventors and scientists who got their start working in their garage or basement, Mats saw a problem and set out to fix it—that is, until the Oregon State Board of Examiners for Engineering and Land Surveying brought everything to a screeching halt.

Full story here


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28 Comments on "Oregon Man Fined $500 for Criticizing Red-light Cameras"

  1. The heavy handed response from perceived authority is not surprising.
    1) They can’t allow anyone to question and undermine their authority. (This is how paranoid control freaks act)
    2) His suggestion would eliminate revenue they were extorting from drivers/taxpayers.

    We have all the wrong people in positions of power. For all those who capitulate and grovel in an attempt to go along to get along, this sets a precedence, and also sends a signal, that you are okay with the misuse of power. These incidents may not affect you yet. but you are enabling the control freaks to take more measures later and soon you will be boxed in by your own cowardice.

    I don’t know if these so called officials are voted in or appointed but at some point the American people need to take a stand for what is right or forever be subjugated.

    Much like a thief, they never wake up one day and say, “I was wrong in what I did, and will now turn over a new leaf”. They always continue in their wrong doing until caught.

    • Grace by Faith on yt | April 25, 2017 at 7:49 pm |

      Great comment, and you’re right, in their corporate law, which is not real law but corporate policy operating under “color of law” (having the appearance of law, but without real authority), silence is consent and oftentimes deadly. Our common law which only addresses private property rights (you can’t hurt anyone or anyone’s stuff) was replaced by corporate policy maritime martial statutes and codes (and it’s foreign), and when they trick us into this fraudulent jurisdiction because let’s face it, none of us would consent to it, we magically *poof* into the “individual fictitious entities” that we don’t even own! Thing is, considering our government is dissolved since 1933 and resurrected as this corporation, and corporations may only interact legally with other corporations, if they can’t trick us into identifying as our corporate fictions, they can’t touch us, take our stuff or put us in cages. I know I post this a lot, but it’s a tough one to swallow and it sends people down one of the deepest and most nefarious rabbit holes imaginable. But that’s just it, once you jump down, you realize quickly their authority is all illusion, imagined, fictitious, not real, artificial, and if that doesn’t give you the warm and fuzzies, nothing will. 😉

  2. Grace by Faith on yt | April 25, 2017 at 3:22 pm |

    The article states this Board had no interest in hearing about his ideas and then said he engaged in the unlicensed practice of engineering. ROFL Say what?? Since when is the act of engineering illegal? So I can’t sit at my kitchen table and engineer a, I don’t know, new doorbell or something? This is absurd and an excellent example of what I’ve been trying to show everyone here, that EVERYTHING is illegal without first getting permission from the government – the government, I might add, that doesn’t even exist anymore, not since 1933.

    This pretty much proves we’re all slaves because slaves have no rights only privileges for which we must first contract (license, registration, certification) then pay, and if we don’t do it their way, we can’t do it at all; but we can pay their stiff fines and penalties is to correct our criminal behavior. Ridiculous.

    This is insanity, not just for the reason above, but this man has an engineering degree! But remember, they lie about business licenses, even law licenses, they are ALL wholly voluntary (their system of law operates by consent only), and they have converted inherent rights into privileges and charged for them which is way more unlawful. They made us all believe lawyers must be licensed by the state, but nothing is farther from the truth they are ONLY registered with their trade union, which is the Bar Association, a foreign organization. The truth is, we’re all supposed to practice law as a common law right and obligation. For the legal citations to prove the veracity of what I wrote here, please, see the discussion tab on my yt channel’s home page and go to “Why do we have to ask permission from the government to do stuff that is perfectly legal?”. Peruse it all, it’s long, but the information is vital to the truth being exposed. I would post it here, but they won’t approve it.

  3. Disqus-helpsGOVTbreaklaws&kill | April 25, 2017 at 5:04 pm |

    revenue generations = hidden taxes and fees .
    corrupt unaccountable taxpayer funded public employee labor union over bloated salary & pensions
    are not going to fund themselves

  4. Disqus-helpsGOVTbreaklaws&kill | April 25, 2017 at 5:07 pm |

    shadow party…name soros gave to his public employee labor union rioters

  5. This is an old law, as I remember a case of its use over twenty years ago. A man from my town in Oregon had sketched out some drawings of what he thought should be built for a new public building — not blueprints or anything pretending to be shovel-ready plans, just sketches — for the purpose of discussion at a public hearing. And for that he was charged with practicing engineering without a license. I don’t know where Oregon got the reputation for being progressive when it’s really a fascist police state just like all the rest. The best thing I can say about Oregon is, it isn’t as bad as California. Can I say that? Did I just hear my door being smashed in?

    • I find no Law. He appears to be charged under an administrative code. If you follow the link to more info you see the header of the charging document is from an agency, NOT a court. These administrative bureaucrats often call their codes law (not be confused with state Statutes or Revised Codes that apply to all “citizens”). Admin. Codes only apply to people who have contracted with the particular agency through a license, certificate or permit. Periodically these tyrants will flex for themselves and each other by issuing an order to someone they have no control over…just to see if it will stick. I sure hope this guy knows better.

      • Sin ce when does a governmental agency have the authority to levy fines? I would have totally ignored the agency and have my thoughts published in the local newspaper.

        • Here in my home county of Stevens Washington I was issued an order by the Health Department under threat of criminal charges being brought against me to: “apply for a septic permit and pay the fee.” We have no waste to put in a septic system and have no need for one. State law says you have to get a permit to put one in not that you have to put in the system. I wrote back that this demand to contract and pay a fee was extortion plain and simple and if they bothered me again I would take them to federal court for harassment and attempted extortion. Not another word out of them. It’s been 3 years.

          • Some years back a Swedish study compared three plots of cabbage: one fertilized with a common commercial product, one with human urine fermented for six months, and one with nothing as a control plot. The outcome was that human urine was as good or better than the commercial fertilizer. I’ve proven this myself with direct application on favored locations around my property 😉

      • Grace by Faith on yt | April 26, 2017 at 9:06 pm |

        Awesome comment and very well stated! You’re so right about them issuing orders to see if they’ll stick, this is exactly how they do it to trick us into creating legal joinder with them which automatically slaps us smack-dab into their de facto corporate jurisdiction. Because without us giving them “consent” to rule over us they bleeding well can’t touch us. We actually give them the self-incriminating evidence they require to charge us with anything by doing things as seemingly harmless as handing over our IDs, which as you say, they usually order us to do. And when we do that, we identify ourselves as one of their “US citizens” or possessions/slaves and pretty much ask them to have their way with us. As Justin Thought wrote above, it’s extremely heartening that so many are starting to catch on to this fraud that has destroyed us, our families, our faith, our health, our homes, our wealth, our birthrights, our nation and our common, natural laws, and I thank God for that.

  6. May I go off-topic for just a moment? I’m reviewing today’s travesties (aka REAL news), and I have to say that I am GREATLY heartened to see many of the comments on this and various news articles. A larger and larger number of people are starting to awake to the tyranny that is being perpetrated on us.

    Okay. Thanks for your forbearance. Practicing engineering without a license? Seems you need a license to do just about anything these days, from cutting hair to conducting brain surgery. —Except to become a politician and make decisions that affect the lives of many people. All you need for that is to win a popularity contest.

    It seems we have our priorities a little mixed up.

  7. Humm.. you American people have less & less democracy ??
    Do you know why ??
    Because you bloody keep exporting it !

  8. not much different here in Arizona, where you must expect overt and underhanded retaliation when the local newspaper prints your letters detailing the crimes of local law enforcement and/or the feds.

  9. yeah its oregon need i say more
    move to a free state if you can find one

  10. I didn’t even bother to click the rest of the story before adding my two cents here lol.

    WE’RE TALKING OF THE OREGON, WASHINGTON, CALIFORNIA TRIFECTA OF LIBERAL SANCTUARY INSANITY, WHERE WE HAVE A COUPLE WHO CANNOT BUILD A HOME ON THEIR
    (LARGE) PRIVATELY OWNED PROPERTY BECAUSE OF A ‘RARE’ (BUT THE GOVERNMENT CAN’T SAY ‘HOW RARE’), GOPHER (THEY WOULD NEED MILLIONS MORE TO ‘STUDY’ JUST HOW RARE),

    WHERE DECADES LONG COMMUNITY HELD PARADES ARE CANCELED BECAUSE OF LIBBIE ACTIVIST/TERRORIST GROUPS EMAILING IN TO VOW BLOOD AND VIOLENCE SHOULD THEY BE HELD BECAUSE THEY ‘DON’T AGREE’ WITH ONE OF THE GROUPS WHO WERE (ALLEGEDLY) GOING TO ATTEND,

    WHERE FARMING, RANCHING, LOGGING AND FISHING IS CONSTANTLY UNDER ATTACK OR ALREADY DEAD BECAUSE OF GOVERNMENT INTERFERENCE OR ECO-TERRORISM BY LIBBIE FUNDAMENTALISTS,

    WHERE ENDANGERED SALMON ARE BEING SLAUGHTERED BY CALIFORNIA SEA LIONS THAT HAVE MIGRATED UP INTO THE COLUMBIA RIVER (FAR FAR AWAY FROM THEIR NORMAL HABITAT), BUT OF COURSE THE SEA LIONS THEMSELVES ARE ‘PROTECTED’ SO MY MY MY WHAT’S A LIBBIE TO DO ABOUT THAT CONUNDRUM.

    WHERE IF YOU SIMPLY WANT TO COLLECT RAINWATER OFF OF YOUR OWN ROOF, YOU WILL HAVE TO APPLY FOR PERMITS AND FOLLOW A TWO PAGE LONG CODE OF REQUIREMENTS (READ, SPEND MONEY) BEFORE YOU CAN LEGALLY STORE AND USE THAT WATER.

    WELCOME TO LIBERAL HELL.

    • dude you are bias … and well this is WELCOME TO MURICA’.. when all you clowns fall for the divide and rule insanity! I mean you are all the same and deserve each other, meaning both the masses that make up the two party system.. You vote for insanity.. I can bring you down to the south where there is nothing but poverty and so much insanity there. to think that this is about PARTIES is ridiculous this is about EXTREMES and both do not work. Its up to individuals to find a sense of balance where that is never going to happen here because that DIVIDE AND RULE PLAYBOOK has worked to PERFECTION….. Conservatives are probably more insane in the fact they have people fooled that CREATING A BIG WAR MACHINE on senseless wars killing innocent PEOPLE is so patriotic! NOT…. so see you talk about INSANITY at its finest? LOL yeah okay… you keep voting for a corrupt system that is what you are voting for Democrat or Republican….

      • I think you meant “biased”. No, I’m informed and happen to live in this Liberal Hell. Fine and dandy you live in the South etc etc etc but come live in a Sanctuary city/state for a while. You’ll lay the blame squarely where it belongs – on elected Liberals and their turd spawn. E veja bem, eu sei de tuuuuuuuudo quando o assunto e a pobreza, injustica, a luta pra sobreviver. Chamar outros de palhaco quando voce tem sua propria bunda brotando chamas …bom… tal vez voce merece viver na sua propria muqueca de merda, falando mal dos outros sem ter nem um pingo de experiencia vivendo nos eua so mostra a sua ignorancia. Seja bem vindo aos eua.

  11. For complete anti-Constitutional dictatorial control of everything, vote dimmercrap, like stupid Oregonians have.

  12. The state doesn`t want him interfering with their revenue stealing scam operation.

  13. Go get ’em, Mr. Jarlstrom! These petty tyrants need to be “brought to heel,” to re-use a controversial phrase.

  14. This email went to that Board.

    To All the OSBEELS Executives:

    The Oregon State Board of Examiners for Engineering and Land Surveying is desperately trying to protect the ability of their engineers to deliberately set too-short of yellow intervals on traffic lights so the cities that employ those engineers can rob safe drivers with red light cameras fines that are very profitable. If Mr. Jarlstrom can get a discussion of why the yellows are often set too short into the official records, then the money grab racketeering with too-short of yellow intervals might have to shut down in Oregon.

    In reality, any engineer who sets too-short of yellow intervals on the lights at camera intersections should lose their license to practice.

    Putting camera revenue above safety is criminally wrong.

    James C. Walker, National Motorists Association

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