Turns out, I'm in violation, of something....I think.

Got an interesting item in the mail yesterday.
A ticket from one of those automated photo-enforcement dealies.

It listed the aprox. address, showed a picture of my car stopped at a red light, and gave reason for ticket simply as "red light violation".

Uh....

So I'm looking at this thing.
First thing I notice is that it's not on letterhead identifying it as being from Chicago PD, or Chicago dept. of Traffic Enforcement.

The letterhead ID's the sender as " REVENUE".

No shit, really? At least they're being honest about it.

So I'm looking at the picture of my car, stopped at a red light, looks like I'm going to turn right.
Then a picture of NO car at the intersection.
Then I look for an explanation of my infraction.
What law did I break?
And..... it doesn't say.

Nowhere on the ticket does it say that I failed to yield, didn't come to a complete stop before turning, my front tire was one inch past the white line, I jaywalked, spat on the sidewalk, removed the tag from my mattress, chewed gum in class.....

So I'm confused. "red light violation" doesn't really explain it, does it? I know I didn't run a red light, as I DONT RUN RED LIGHTS!!!
Especially not in bad weather, on sloppy roads, with a baby in the back seat.
So we'll see what happens when I argue this, via the mail.

I'm bothered by the notion that a random camera that the city leases from a 3rd party company; a company who in turn promises a minimum # of tickets per camera to get the contract, and gets a piece of the proceeds from the tickets; determined me to be guilty until proven innocent, of some inadequately explained breaking of a law.

The internet is full of stories of these cameras being vandalized, and a growing movement to get them banned in various states and locales, and I GET IT.

On the plus side of life, my daughter gave me a kiss goodnight last night. All on her own accord. I asked for a hug before handing her off to her mom to be put to bed, and she gave me one, then puckered up and gave me a smooch. She's 17 months old, this was a first.
She melts my heart, every time.