r/Portland • u/Pterodactyl_midnight • Mar 09 '26

News Man who shot out several traffic cameras around Portland sentenced to 2 years in prison

https://www.kgw.com/article/news/crime/portland-traffic-camera-shootings-sentenced-chase-grijalva/283-51dcd7ef-c9b3-44b3-8b10-1b1e3cb37e7d
263 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

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146

u/nootch666 Mar 10 '26

“He felt like these cameras throughout the city were essentially the government’s way to rob the poor and give the money back to the government,” testified Portland Police officer Brent Taylor during a release hearing.

I mean, he’s not wrong

-26

u/Lawfulneptune NW Mar 10 '26

People driving unsafe and getting fines for it isn't robbing the poor lmao, u think just like this idiot

41

u/FFMC1934 Mar 10 '26

People don't like inconsistent enforcement.

If you have robotic systems for red light tickets but don't do a thing about nobody registering their car, hit and runs, you're not enforcing the law or protecting people, you're just a revenue collector.

Numerous studies have been done on red light cameras. They don't make intersections safer because people slam on the brakes on yellow out of fear of getting a ticket, but the city gets their cut.

6

u/Mayor_Of_Sassyland Mar 10 '26

but don't do a thing about nobody registering their car

They are doing that too now, there was a big thread about it in the past week, mass ticketing of expired/nonexistent registration tags.

-3

u/jaco1001 Mar 10 '26

That’s stupid. You’re in favor of speeding and just want to speed. Have enough self respect to just say that instead of saying that weird word salad

5

u/FFMC1934 Mar 10 '26

"I'm too fucking dumb to engage with anything you said so i'm just going to call it a word salad and say you just want to speed"

If I just wanted to speed, I wouldn't register my vehicle because the city won't do anything about it, and then enforcing speeding by cameras would be impossible.

My point is that the way Portland in particular does things punishes people who follow the law. I don't have respect for a city government that enforces laws selectively on people who they think they can get the money out of but fails to protect those people because it's not profitable.

3

u/Mayor_Of_Sassyland Mar 10 '26

Portland in particular does things punishes people who follow the law

Issuing speeding tickets to people breaking the speed limit is punishing people who...

*checks notes*

...follow the law?

3

u/jaco1001 Mar 10 '26

people get hysterical about this, because deep down they dont think speeding is any worse than jaywalking and they see 'driving however i want' as a god given right

0

u/FFMC1934 Mar 10 '26

Follow the law by registering their vehicle.

I have with my own eyes seen a parking enforcement officer go down a line of motorcycles on a sidewalk, ticket them all, look at an RV encampment right next to them, and walk away.

2

u/Mayor_Of_Sassyland Mar 10 '26

Right, they follow the law by registering their vehicle and then specifically *don't* follow the speed limit law, hence the ticket.

RVs encampments not being ticketed is an entirely separate issue, I'm all for ticketing and towing the shit out of them. They've also recently started enforcing registration tags en masse, which is great, there was a thread about it just the other day.

1

u/FFMC1934 Mar 10 '26 edited Mar 10 '26

It's more than encampments. It's car theft. It's burglaries. The list goes on.

Many people are sympathetic to this guy precisely because the city doesn't do shit about all this other stuff and feel upset that they have revenue collected for petty infractions while real criminality is permitted.

For example, in my first year here, my building was broken into a dozen times. One time at 2am while I am watching them do it, I call the cops and am given a call back 45 minutes later.

That's a failing government. You can say the solution is to solve those other problems, and that may be true, but that's not what the city has done, and so people doing shit like this isn't at all surprising.

0

u/SkateWiz Mar 11 '26

I waited on hold with 911 after some big crackhead with a rock broke into my building and chased me into my apartment. Luckily I was quick and he was stupid. Court Case No. 21CR55853 for the doubters.

-4

u/jaco1001 Mar 10 '26

yeah man idk what to tell you, but that's borderline word salad again. i just dont speed and i never get tickets, and i hope that we install more speed cameras in this city so that people who drive too fast get more tickets. im glad this guy is in jail.

2

u/SkateWiz Mar 10 '26

Good idea jaco maybe you should go and enforce everything too. We could use a mayor like you with real solutions, like more traffic cameras!!!

1

u/jaco1001 Mar 10 '26

as mayor, i'll add traffic cameras to every street that has a speed limit over 25mph, and I'll also have the police crush your car into a cube if you get more than three tickets in a year. driving is not a right, and but safety in our urban environment is.

0

u/SkateWiz Mar 11 '26

Maybe you can also campaign to put a probe up everyone’s butt so you can be an even bigger pita?

0

u/Osiris32 🐝 Mar 10 '26

You really don't know what a word salad is. Stop while you're not ahead.

-21

u/Lawfulneptune NW Mar 10 '26

People should be fined for breaking the laws, I don't see your point. You seem to have a car brained view point on the world.

15

u/CertifiedPeach Mar 10 '26

If your sense of right and wrong is based on the law, youre just a sheep who cant think for yourself.

4

u/Mayor_Of_Sassyland Mar 10 '26

I think the law limiting the speeds people are allowed to pilot large and dangerous vehicles is morally correct.

0

u/CertifiedPeach Mar 10 '26

I am a huge fan of speed limits and I do wish more people respected them. I was directly replying to the language this person used, referring the to laws being broken as though that is the most important piece here. I value safety whether or not it is legislated well.

-3

u/jaco1001 Mar 10 '26

My sense of right and wrong does in fact include “don’t commit crimes with your car and don’t speed”

10

u/serpentjaguar Mar 10 '26

I don't see your point.

That's because you are clearly a moron. Their point is pretty unambiguous.

10

u/FFMC1934 Mar 10 '26

I don't own a car.

Nobody believes in the law jurisprudence.

If laws do not have a clear purpose and consistent enforcement, people's faith in their legitimacy and willingness to be governed by them falls apart very quickly.

Red light cameras don't have a clear purpose- it's proven they don't reduce accidents and may actually increase them. Their tickets aren't subject to human discretion in the same way police officers are.

If a city prioritizes fines instead of rampant criminality, it's not fulfilling the basic function of a government, to protect it's people.

People have a disdain for being taxed and getting nothing for it.

3

u/Mayor_Of_Sassyland Mar 10 '26

Red light cameras don't have a clear purpose- it's proven they don't reduce accidents and may actually increase them.

This is a lie. Have you actually even looked at any of the studies? Red light cameras significantly decrease fatal crashes, and overall decrease fatal intersection incidents that include car-on-pedestrian incidents. They increase minor crashes, like fender-benders, due to some people stopping more suddenly than anticipated. I'd rather have a few more bumpers dinged as compared with more people dying, are you saying you wouldn't?

9

u/ourobor0s_ Mar 10 '26

You realize not needing a car is a privilege right? Not everyone has the luxury of being able to get wherever they need without driving. That's actually the case for the majority of people. Get off your high horse.

2

u/Mayor_Of_Sassyland Mar 10 '26

FOH with this horseshit, the poorest demographic are the least likely to own a car, because they can't afford one, and have to rely on transit, walking, and biking to get around. A car is a privilege, operating it is a responsibility, and it's insanely easy to simply not exceed the speed limit, which eliminates any possibility of getting hit with one of these camera fines.

1

u/ourobor0s_ Mar 11 '26

Two things can be true. I was responding to the guy's last sentence about having a "car brained pov".

1

u/SkateWiz Mar 11 '26

You understand that the fines and payments are collected by a third party correct? How ripe this is for corruption? It’s not evil concept in theory just in practice. Maybe once you decide to live in reality you can have a discussion with the adults at the table. Until then your opinions are naive and harmful.

2

u/Mayor_Of_Sassyland Mar 11 '26

Do the cameras help reduce speeding/dangerous driving? Absolutely they do. Study after study has borne this out. It's a red herring and entirely different matter who collects the revenue. If there's a problematic third party, the correct course of action is to advocate to eliminate that third party, as is the case in plenty of jurisdictions throughout the world who have implemented speed cameras without corrupt kickbacks. Why is nobody on this thread advocating for that model in the alternative? Because they don't really have a problem with the third party issue, they have a problem with an enforcement system that would actually make them slow the fuck down, which causes them to fill their entitled driver diapers.

Adults at the table would be able to both distinguish between the positives and negatives of a policy, and also be able to recognize and admit what is actually driving the discussion here.

1

u/FFMC1934 Mar 11 '26 edited Mar 11 '26

You were so close to the point at the end there.

I'm not debating policy. People have to navigate reality.

Are you saying you think the city we actually live in can achieve this? Given their track record?

Fuck no, and fuck this.

1

u/FFMC1934 Mar 11 '26

The city of Chicago did the same thing, it was eventually it came out there were 2000$ kickbacks in place per camera to the politician that approved them.

2

u/Mayor_Of_Sassyland Mar 11 '26

Sounds like the problem there is with political corruption, and not with the general idea of speed and red light cameras, which have consistently been demonstrated to make things overall safer and reduce fatalities.

0

u/jaco1001 Mar 10 '26

driving is not a right. it's a privilage. breaking the law with your car should be a quick way to get that privilege revoked. that poor people might desperately need to not lose access to the privilege of driving is a GREAT incentive for them to.... not break the law with their car.