What It Took to Save the Speed Cameras
This summer, for a short while, speeding on New York City streets was practically legal. In July, the New York City’s Department of Transportation was forced to shutter all 140 speed cameras in operation on city streets. The shutdown came after the Republican-led State Senate ran the clock out on a speed camera renewal bill, despite the existence of enough bipartisan votes for the bill to pass. Because of a few senators’ intransigence, the state authorization that allowed the city to run the lifesaving program expired overnight.
Protests exploded across the five boroughs in response to the speed camera shutdown. One of the people at the forefront of those protests was also one of the newest members of Families for Safe Streets, Raul Ampuero. Raul joined the organization just a few days after a driver ran over and killed his nine-year-old son Giovanni in a crosswalk on Northern Boulevard.
As the cameras were switched off around the city, Transportation Alternatives and Families for Safe Streets began eight weeks of nearly non-stop protest. Members of Families for Safe Streets kept a 24-hour vigil outside the offices of Senator Marty Golden, walked a full marathon around his office block, delivered 400 boxes of pudding to his office in a play-on-words press stunt, trekked out to Long Island multiple times to protest outside the home of Senate Leader John Flanagan, hosted two dozen rallies and press conferences, and committed acts of civil disobedience — putting their very bodies on the line to draw attention to the new danger on the street. Raul, along with 13 others, was arrested for blocking traffic during those weeks of protest.
As union organizers like to say, direct action gets the goods. In late August, in a nearly unprecedented act of political collaboration, Governor Andrew Cuomo, City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, and Mayor Bill de Blasio worked together on a tandem city law and state executive order that would allow New York City to switch its 140 speed cameras back on, and to add as many more as it wished.
At a small gathering to celebrate the successful fight to save New York City’s speed cameras — the night before all 14 arrestees were granted adjournments on their disorderly conduct charges — Raul explained how Families for Safe Streets founding member Amy Cohen, whose son Sammy was killed in 2013, encouraged him to join the organization, and why the fight to save New York City’s speed cameras is just the beginning.
“For many of you who don’t know me, my name is Raul Alejandro Ampuero. I lost my son Giovanni four months ago. He was hit by a car on April 28th.
After my son passed away I couldn’t even leave my house. I stayed home for a week. It was very difficult, and it is still very difficult today. But three days after Giovanni was killed, I got a phone call from Amy Cohen. She gave me all the support that I needed in that moment. Amy is my inspiration. She is an extraordinary person. She has fought hard, and her words got into me very deeply.
With Families for Safe Streets, I’ve learned many things — things that I already knew deep inside my heart. One of those things is that if you want to achieve anything in life, you have to have persistence. That’s what brought us this victory. Our persistence in this fight touched Governor Cuomo, Mr. de Blasio, and the Speaker Mr. Johnson. We gathered them all together and they came out with a law for something that had to be done. It should have been done a long time ago, and it wasn’t done, so we got together and made it happen, and I am so happy for all of us.
Many of you here tonight know — you get so lonely once you’ve lost someone. But on your faces tonight I see smiles, I see such great attitudes, and that really is something that helps me, because every day, I cry. I cry and I cry, sometimes I sit in my car and I don’t want to go home. I miss Giovanni so much.
It has been be very difficult for me to stand here in front of you guys, in front of rallies, on TV and in press conferences. But I have to do this. Why? Because I don’t want any more kids to die. It’s inexcusable for a parent to bury his own son. Some of you know. It’s unacceptable. That’s the reason I joined Families for Safe Streets. I promise you, I will do whatever is necessary to do what’s best for our children. I know that after I die, I will be with my son, and that knowledge gives me the relief I need to fight. Not only for this — there are more things we have to do to make New York City safer, and that’s what we’re here to do.”
