This guyâs an actual American hero, using his white privilege for good.Â
Please read his story and I know yâall donât click links so:
A New York man known as the Red Light Robin Hood was arrested again this
 month after cutting wires to red light cameras where yellow light duration
 times were shortened by the city in order to generate more citations andÂ
The shortened durations at the traffic lights generate $32 million for SuffolkÂ
County, which is why the county allows the practice to continue despite their
 own study showing they lead to an increase in accidents with injuries.
PINACâs Theresa Richard reported about Stephen Ruth back in February
 after seeing videos he posted on Facebook that prove the lights near theÂ
cameras trick drivers into citations.
At that point, Ruth had already been arrested in August for using a painterâs
 extension rod to point the cameras towards the sky.
On April 11, he went a little further and cut wires to 18 cameras.
âI cut the cable wires, making it useless. Iâve made it
 dysfunctional, just like the whole red-light cameraÂ
program,â said Ruth during a local interview. âI did it inÂ
And after he cut the wires, he called the news to cover his act of civilÂ
disobedience, which resulted in his arrest after police received pressure from
 politicians. Ruth said police and sheriff deputies support him, becauseÂ
theyâre aware of the shortened yellow lights.
Some may even testify on his behalf if his case goes to trial. When he was in
 jail for his most recent arrest, a sheriffâs deputy even offered to bail him out.
But after receiving attention from local residents and media, Ruth discoveredÂ
a government entity mounted a camera outside of his home on a telephoneÂ
pole just like the one LaVoy Finicum took down during the standoff with the
 government at a National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon.
But Ruth doesnât know exactly where it came from.
âThe only reason the government is so concerned about me is because IÂ
proved that they shortened the yellow lights to generate revenue and killed a
 lot of innocent people,â said Stephen Ruth just before he painted over theÂ
camera with a painterâs extension pole.
Ruth currently faces 22 years in prison for tampering of public property and
 obstructing government administration, but relies on his faith and stated heâs
 on a mission from God to save lives.
Ruth said that a car tried to hit him head-on and narrowly missed his vehicle.Â
Upon talking to neighbors, they described a similar vehicle with similarÂ
occupants staking out his house and lurking around his neighborhood.
He said someone could be trying to kill him, although he said he could beÂ
âThe only way they can keep this from gaining national attention is to get rid of me,â he said.
If you think Ruth may be paranoid, consider the case of John Lang, a traffic-
light scam whistleblower in Fresno, California who posted on Facebook thatÂ
police were trying to kill him just days before he was found stabbed to deathÂ
in his burned down house.
Police ruled his death a suicide.
If Suffolk Countyâs contract with Xerox is any indication of what other citiesâÂ
contracts with Xerox look like, the problem extends much farther than SuffolkÂ
County. So Ruthâs âparanoiaâ might not be paranoia at all.
In Suffolk County, yellow lights at 50 intersections with cameras were shortenedÂ
in 2011 after state legislators approved the cameras to be installed in 2010. InÂ
2012, 50 more cameras were installed at intersections, which increased revenueÂ
The video below, shot by Ruth, shows the duration of a yellow light at anÂ
intersection with no cameras to be five seconds compared to the duration of aÂ
yellow light at an intersection with a camera to be three seconds.
That two-second reduction has netted millions of extra dollars for the countyÂ
and Xerox, the publicly-owned company that contracts the cameras.
Ruth pointed out some cameras that were put up have been taken down afterÂ
they fell short of daily contract-quota with Xerox to produce 25 citations, perÂ
camera, between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., which costs Suffolk County $2,132 perÂ
day, according to the Xerox contract with the county.
Xerox collects $13 from Suffolk County for each ticket, which increases to $33Â
per ticket when a camera generates more than 90 tickets in a month.
Ruth pointed out that the vast majority of cameras were placed in lower toÂ
middle class neighborhoods.
âIâm on 25A and Setauket and you can see that thereâs no
 cameras to be found. Lower class neighborhoods are
 loaded with cameras. But if you drive through Setauket,Â
you wonât see any cameras. Why are they all over the lowerÂ
and middle class neighborhoods? Thatâs what we want toÂ
know,â he stated in a video seen below.
Another vexing problem for Ruth is the coverage the issue has gotten from local
 news, specifically News12, which is owned by CableVision who provides theÂ
internet service to the cameras at the lights.
When victims of the lights went to News12 about the deaths of their familyÂ
members due to the shortened lights, News12 interviewed them, but never ranÂ
the story. And while other local media outlets report from Ruthâs point of viewÂ
and most of the publicâs, News12 has painted Ruth a criminal.
When the news failed to investigate some of the deaths at intersections withÂ
shortened lights, Ruth took his own camera to document the light-durationÂ
times at the scene of the deaths. When he arrived, he recorded a light-duration
 of three seconds at an intersection where it was previously five seconds.
âI saw the crosses and thought I was in the right place.â
However, when he determined he was actually at the wrong location, he went toÂ
the correct location the following day and found the same thing, again â a lightÂ
shortened from five seconds to three where a person was killed.
Ruthâs energy and persistence on social media and news media have gained the
 yellow light issue local support and heâs spoken on behalf of victimâs families toÂ
representatives urging them to discontinue the program. His supporters consist
 of a variety of groups from judges to cops to just about everyone in SuffolkÂ
Meanwhile, Ruthâs support seems to be growing everywhere but the U.S., where
 it has remained mostly specific to Suffolk County.  He posted a screen shot onÂ
his Facebook page of folks from England calling him a âheroâ and saying theyÂ
âIâm even getting messages from Australia,â Ruth toldÂ
PINAC. When asked if he was afraid of the possibility of jailÂ
he said, âIâm willing to go to jail for doing whatâs right.â
Ruth said one of his heroâs is MLK, who he shares a birthday with on January 15.
âYou gotta love a guy like that. He was willing to go to jail to do whatâs right.â
âIâm just trying to save lives. I spend Christmases delivering flowers to theÂ
cemetery, because nobody wants to work on Christmas. I get orders from allÂ
around the world from people ordering flowers to put on graves. I take my sonÂ
and tell him to note the ages of the people who died fighting for our country.Â
And they come back to this?â
So we asked what heâd like to see come from risking his own life and freedom to
 save the lives of others and expose the traffic light scandal.
âI want people to go to jail.â
Ironically, at this point in time, Stephen Ruth is the only person facing jail timeÂ
for âcrimesâ related to the Suffolk County yellow light scandal.