Article from: www.thenewspaper.com/news/66/6618.asp

12/31/2018

French Protesters Running Out Of Speed Cameras To Burn
Yellow vest attacks on speed cameras continue over holiday week in France. A camera in Germany is decorated for Christmas.

In the seventh week of the yellow vest protest movement in France, attacks on speed cameras continued unabated while other forms of demonstrations have lost steam. The relentless attacks on the automated ticketing machines have been so successful that protesters in a handful of areas have run into a novel difficulty. In the Vaucluse department, for instance, there are no working, fixed speed cameras left, and only three mobile units were functioning as of Saturday. Likewise, 46 of the 49 speed cameras in Lot-et-Garonne were out of order as of Sunday morning. Yellow vest demonstrations continued with fewer participants and less chaos. In Valence, protesters secured a permit to hold a peaceful march against the government's anti-motorist policies.

Damaged cameras
On Christmas Day, vigilantes in Domalain covered a speed camera with a blue gift box. On Wednesday, the speed camera on the D928 in Renty was spraypainted green, the tenth time this year activists have blinded the device. On the previous weekend, the speed camera on the RN66 in Le Thillot was also blinded by a splash of green paint.

Burned cameras
On Sunday, the speed camera in Bourget-du-Lac was destroyed by fire, leaving the Savoie department without a working photo radar unit. On Saturday, the speed camera on the RD1044 in Fourdrain was torched. The same fate befell a pair of photo radar devices in Sauveterre on the RD612 and on the RD85 in Soreze. On Friday, a pair of speed cameras on the RD906 near La Rochepot were set ablaze. So too was the automated ticketing machine on the RN12 in Landivisiau. On Thursday, the automated ticketing machine in Monbalen was set on fire. Around the same time, cameras on the RN165 in Pluneret, Ploeren and Theix-Noyalo were torched. Speed cameras on the RN7 and D907 in Sorgues were set on fire along with cameras in L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, on the the RD3 in Avignon, on the Avenue Pierre-Semard and two cameras on the Charles-de-Gaulle ring road. The camera in Ouilly-le-Vicomte was also scorched on Thursday. On Wednesday, tires were used to fuel the blaze that scorched the camera near Blois. On Christmas Day, burning tires eliminated the cameras on the N10 in Vivonne and the D741 in La Villedieu-du-Clain. The speed camera in Les Mazures was also part of a holiday bonfire. On Christmas Eve, nine speed cameras in Vaucluse and Gard were torched, including on the Avenue Pierre-Semard and the RN580 in Avignon as well as on the D900 in Caumont-sur-Durance.

On Christmas Eve in Saarbrucken, Germany, anti-camera activists turned speed cameras into giant candy canes unable to issue tickets.