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start with the low level stuff - parking violations, traffic infractions, littering . . .
BEIJING — Imagine what might happen if civilians were given the power to issue tickets for minor traffic violations and other quality-of-life infractions — and keep 80 percent of the fines.
This month, the city fathers of Shaoyang, a financially struggling city in Hunan Province, decided to boldly embrace such an approach, spurring a rash of profit-driven vigilantism that appears to have had too much of the desired effect.
Residents say a climate of apprehension has gripped the city of 600,000 since the local government gave roughly 1,000 neighborhood watch committee members the authority to ticket citizens who litter, spit in public or park illegally.
A convenience store clerk reached by phone described how the newly empowered urban management officials have been pouncing on motorcyclists stopped at red lights, summons books at the ready. “Many of us depend on motorcycles to get around, but they’re now giving us tickets for not wearing a helmet, for not having insurance, or for not carrying our licenses,” complained the clerk, who would give only her surname, Li. “None of us dare drive our motorcycles anymore — it’s just too risky.”
The effort, announced on Aug. 1, is intended to rid Shaoyang of its budgetary and quality-of-life problems in one fell swoop. Wang Dasong, head of the Shaoyang urban management bureau, said the city was short one-third of the 300 paid workers needed to keep the streets free of illegal peddlers, jaywalkers and other scofflaws. “We were trying to improve the urban traffic situation without expending too many of the city’s resources,” he said in an interview.
Mr. Wang insists the initiative is an unbridled success.
Shaoyang residents say the financial incentive has turned many of them into veritable ticketing machines. One driver told a local newspaper that he was surrounded by four zealous inspectors in flip-flops two weeks ago when he stopped his car at a crosswalk, the nose of his car protruding slightly over the painted line.
Zhang Yue, a downtown shop owner, acknowledged that city streets have become increasingly chaotic but suggested that the government reconsider its experiment. “People in this city have no respect for the law, making the traffic situation really terrifying,” he said, “but this crackdown is going very far, perhaps too far, in the other direction.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/31/wo...?_r=1&ref=asia
here in the States picture an army of pissed off retirees, wearing armbands (yellow seems appropriate) and holding ubiquitous ticket books, pitched against younger minor scofflaws. A beautiful thing. Divide and Conquer, baby . . . Wait until Mitt and Barack hear about this
BEIJING — Imagine what might happen if civilians were given the power to issue tickets for minor traffic violations and other quality-of-life infractions — and keep 80 percent of the fines.
This month, the city fathers of Shaoyang, a financially struggling city in Hunan Province, decided to boldly embrace such an approach, spurring a rash of profit-driven vigilantism that appears to have had too much of the desired effect.
Residents say a climate of apprehension has gripped the city of 600,000 since the local government gave roughly 1,000 neighborhood watch committee members the authority to ticket citizens who litter, spit in public or park illegally.
A convenience store clerk reached by phone described how the newly empowered urban management officials have been pouncing on motorcyclists stopped at red lights, summons books at the ready. “Many of us depend on motorcycles to get around, but they’re now giving us tickets for not wearing a helmet, for not having insurance, or for not carrying our licenses,” complained the clerk, who would give only her surname, Li. “None of us dare drive our motorcycles anymore — it’s just too risky.”
The effort, announced on Aug. 1, is intended to rid Shaoyang of its budgetary and quality-of-life problems in one fell swoop. Wang Dasong, head of the Shaoyang urban management bureau, said the city was short one-third of the 300 paid workers needed to keep the streets free of illegal peddlers, jaywalkers and other scofflaws. “We were trying to improve the urban traffic situation without expending too many of the city’s resources,” he said in an interview.
Mr. Wang insists the initiative is an unbridled success.
Shaoyang residents say the financial incentive has turned many of them into veritable ticketing machines. One driver told a local newspaper that he was surrounded by four zealous inspectors in flip-flops two weeks ago when he stopped his car at a crosswalk, the nose of his car protruding slightly over the painted line.
Zhang Yue, a downtown shop owner, acknowledged that city streets have become increasingly chaotic but suggested that the government reconsider its experiment. “People in this city have no respect for the law, making the traffic situation really terrifying,” he said, “but this crackdown is going very far, perhaps too far, in the other direction.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/31/wo...?_r=1&ref=asia
here in the States picture an army of pissed off retirees, wearing armbands (yellow seems appropriate) and holding ubiquitous ticket books, pitched against younger minor scofflaws. A beautiful thing. Divide and Conquer, baby . . . Wait until Mitt and Barack hear about this
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