For immediate release
Raul Montes, Jr. (activist)
773-290-4603Our campaign against Red-light cameras and SafeSpeed, LLC continues in Chicago amid “road robbery“ and perpetual corruption! Want SafeSpeed , LLC to leave Chicago and the public will dump their tickets in front of their headquarters. Want the FBI to intervene and conduct an investigation too.
What: Press conference and protest
When: Sunday, May 1st, 2022
Where: Safe Speed , LLC
150 N Upper Wacker Dr, Chicago, IL 60606
Time: 11:45 a.m
Chicago, The residents in the City of Chicago, drivers and tourists are tired of the red light cameras installed throughout the City of Chicago, Cook County and the State of Illinois. People are tired of complaining and receiving tickets for red light cameras in speed cameras that continue to drain their pockets and ruin their lives on a daily basis. We have exhausted all our known remedies with public officials and judges like U.S district federal judge Robert M. Dow, Jr. who ruled in favor of Red-light camera vendor safe speed after a class action racketeering lawsuit seeking refunds of more than $100 million in fines generated from the network of red-light cameras in Chicago South suburbs.
A former police officer turned to be mayor of Oak Brook, Illinois is the recent suburban politician to be indicted as charges as he accepted cash to allow red light cameras to find into his town. Two years after resigning from office amid revelations of the federal investigation, Anthony “Tony” Ragucci was charged with wire and tax fraud and a case that made public two weeks ago. Prosecutors accused Ragucci of accepting thousands of dollars after the state in 2017 that is summer, Oakbrook Terrace, put a red light cameras at a busy but arguably but safe corner intersection outside the West suburban mall.
According to federal prosecutors he was part of the scheme in which the really camera firm paid 14% commission and revenue generated on the cameras one of the firm and it hired as a sales consultant to get village business that consulting firm’s officials then paid a portion of the commission to Ragucci, first $3,500 a month, then an amount based on how much cash the cameras generated, prosecutors alleged. He also accepted $12,500 cash from an official of the red-light camera firm as contracts were renewed, unaware that the official was secretly working with federal investigators on a wide-ranging corruption probe, prosecutors alleged.
Oak Brook officials fought the cameras, saying the corner didn’t need them, and the Illinois Department of Transportation had the final call because the cameras would be put on a state route. IDOT had previously deemed the corner too safe for cameras, then there were even fewer crashes, yet somehow IDOT reversed course to allow the cameras. The reversal came after several politicians intervened on SafeSpeeds, LLC behalf’. The charges against Ragucci came the same month that federal prosecutors pushed for a two year sentence for former Crestwood Mayor Lou Presta, who admitted to taking a cash-stuffed envelope from Maani in exchange for Presta’s support of lucrative SafeSpeed cameras.
The City of Chicago issued more than $2.8 million worth of speeding tickets last year according to the Illinois policy Institute that’s more tickets than there are residents in the City of Chicago. Speeding tickets also brought $89 million in fines. Community activist Raul Montes, Jr. states the following “these red light and speed cameras are installed not so much for safety tools but to generate revenue and is blatant road robbery and ruining people’s lives everyday”.
On Sunday morning, community activists will stage a press conference with placards demanding that SafeSpeed, LLC leave Chicago permanenty and that red-light and speed cameras be abolished in the City of Chicago, suburbs, Cook County and throughout the State of Illinois with efforts to stop corruption and road robbery. We are inviting people through social media to come and dump the red light and speed camera tickets in front of their headquarters in Chicago. We will ask the FBI to investigate and close this company due to the RICO ACT.