(Lead Photo: Fox 10 Phoenix) If you find yourself in the high-end Phoenix suburb of Paradise Valley, Arizona, be careful: The hills may or may not have eyes, but the cactus sure does. In fact, about two dozen fake saguaro cactus features have been added to the city, and in what looks to be a bird nest hole in the side resides a license plate scanner. Because just putting a reader on a pole wasn’t bad enough, right?
Fox 10 Phoenix asked Paradise City Hall officials as to why the city was installing the plate readers in the first place, let alone making fake plants to stuff them into, and representatives for the city pretty much danced around the issue. Officially, the city isn’t willing to comment on them at this time, and they are being hidden to make them “aesthetically pleasing”. Paradise Valley is the wealthiest suburb of Phoenix and is one of the most exclusive neighborhoods in the Southwest area, so that wouldn’t be too out of place, but some residents are concerned about City Hall’s unwillingness to talk about the system.
License plate recognition software and cameras have been under constant criticism for being more about covering every vehicle within line of sight than they are tracking vehicles that may be stolen, Amber Alert vehicles, et cetera. A lack of forthright information, a refusal to openly discuss what is going on, and a deliberate act of hiding the cameras is not helping Paradise Valley citizens at all. But maybe karma will pay out: the cameras are receded into the tube of the “cactus”, so maybe the cameras will only see a ton of owl tail feathers as birds start to build up nests.
Image: KPHO
This is why fire was invented
Are they cacti or “cact-eyes”? Heh, I kill myself.
This is just wrong!
That’s no moon.
A little black paint goes a long way.
My thought exactly. A quick zip of Rustoleum and the problem is solved!
Paintball guns.
“But maybe karma will pay out: the cameras are receded into the tube of the ‘cactus’, so maybe the cameras will only see a ton of owl tail feathers as birds start to build up nests.” What are the odds of the owl building a nest in there being a plastic owl?
My mother was a straight-laced middle class woman of high morals.
My favourite poster in my room was a glass eye inserted into – shall we say an intimate part of a woman’s body.
The caption read – “It’s OK, Harry – you can come out now – she’s gone!”
Then she went to a record store to buy me Electric Ladyland for my birthday!
Boy – was she pissed – but she never sussed the poster – or did she…..
By the way – the cactus is at a well known lesbian dogging site!
Or so I’ve been told…..
There is no spoon.