There’s enforcing the law — and then there’s building a system that treats every driver like a suspect the moment they turn the key. Colorado isn’t flirting with that line anymore. It’s driving straight past it.

For years, speed cameras were a minor annoyance. You knew where they were, your navigation app warned you, and if you were paying attention, you adjusted. It wasn’t perfect, but at least it was transparent. Colorado has now scrapped that model in favor of something far more aggressive — and far less accountable.

Meanwhile, the state continues issuing tickets at scale, backed by a system that never sleeps, never questions itself, and never exercises judgment.

The state’s new Automated Vehicle Identification Systems don’t just clock your speed at a single point. They track your vehicle across multiple cameras, calculate your average speed over distance, and automatically issue a ticket if you’re 10 miles per hour or more over the limit. No warning. No discretion. No human judgment. Just a system quietly watching, calculating, and penalizing.

Let’s call this what it is: not smarter enforcement, but broader surveillance.

Highway robbery

The rollout followed a 2023 change in state law, and what started as warnings has quickly turned into active ticketing. One of the newest stretches under this system is Interstate 25 north of Denver, where drivers moving through construction zones are now monitored continuously. The state says it’s about safety. That’s the headline. But the fine print tells a different story.

The penalty is $75 and carries zero points on your license. That’s not an accident. If this were truly about cracking down on dangerous driving, there would be meaningful consequences tied to your driving record. Instead, this looks like a volume business model — low enough fines to keep people from fighting, high enough frequency to generate serious revenue.

And then there’s the part that should concern every driver in America: The ticket goes to the registered owner of the vehicle, not necessarily the person who was driving.

That’s where this stops being about traffic enforcement and starts colliding with the Constitution.

RELATED: Illinois wants to track every mile its drivers drive — is your state next?

Horacio Villalobos/Getty Images

Blank check

The burden of proof in this country is supposed to be on the state. That’s not optional. That’s foundational. Yet Colorado’s system leans on the assumption that if your name is on the registration, you’re responsible — unless you can prove otherwise. That flips due process on its head.

Colorado Revised Statute 42-4-110.5 does not give the state a blank check to assign liability to vehicle owners in every situation. In fact, it explicitly acknowledges that the owner may not have been the driver. And long-standing legal precedent — at both the federal and state level — makes it clear that the government must prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt.

Relying on a license plate and a database isn’t proof. It’s a shortcut.

And let’s be honest: The system counts on the fact that most people won’t push back. They’ll see the fine, weigh the hassle of fighting it, and just pay up. That’s not justice. That’s compliance by inconvenience.

Legal maze

If you do challenge it, you’re stepping into a legal maze that most drivers aren’t equipped to navigate. Meanwhile, the state continues issuing tickets at scale, backed by a system that never sleeps, never questions itself, and never exercises judgment.

This is what happens when enforcement becomes automated: Accountability disappears.

A police officer can assess a situation. A camera cannot. It doesn’t care if traffic flow made it safer to keep pace. It doesn’t account for conditions. It doesn’t apply discretion. It simply records, calculates, and penalizes. That might be efficient, but it’s not fair — and it’s certainly not nuanced.

Mile-high spies

Then there’s the bigger picture, the one few officials seem eager to talk about.

These systems don’t just measure speed. They track movement. They log where your vehicle enters a zone, where it exits, and how it behaves in between. Expand that across highways, cities, and eventually entire states, and you’re looking at a real-time network that monitors how Americans move.

And if you think it stops at speeding, you haven’t been paying attention to how quickly technology evolves.

Today, it’s average speed enforcement. Tomorrow, it could be automated citations for rolling stops, lane usage, or anything else that can be digitized. Add artificial intelligence into the mix, and the potential scope grows exponentially. This isn’t science fiction — it’s the natural progression of a system that’s already in place.

Colorado isn’t just testing a traffic tool. It’s piloting a framework.

Stealer’s wheel

Supporters will argue this is about protecting construction workers, and that’s a legitimate concern. No one is arguing against safety. But safety cannot become the catch-all justification for systems that erode fundamental legal protections. You don’t preserve public safety by undermining due process.

And let’s not ignore the tone coming from officials who promote these programs. There’s an almost casual acceptance — sometimes even pride — in the idea of constant monitoring. As if a 24/7 enforcement net is something drivers should simply accept as the cost of modern transportation.

That’s not how this is supposed to work.

Government answers to the people, not the other way around. Policies like this deserve scrutiny, debate, and — when necessary — pushback. Because once a system like this is normalized, it doesn’t get scaled back. It expands. Quietly. Incrementally. Permanently.

Colorado may frame this as innovation. But from behind the wheel, it looks a lot more like overreach.

And if other states decide to follow this blueprint — and they will — drivers across the country may soon find themselves in the same position: tracked, ticketed, and told to prove their innocence after the fact.

That’s not better enforcement.

That’s a fundamental shift in how the rules are applied — and who they’re really serving.

​Law enforcement system, Speed cameras, Surveillance state, Lifestyle, Colorado, State laws, Big tech, Align cars 

A recent study from UC Irvine psychologists speaks volumes about the state of America today, as over a third of Americans have reported that they have lost relationships with friends, family, romantic partners, and co-workers over political differences.

“That’s really sad,” Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck comments.

37% of Americans have reported having a political breakup, and of those, 62% had a falling-out with a friend, 40% with a family member, 29% with a co-worker, and 10% with a romantic partner.

While a whopping 47% of Democrats have experienced political breakups, only 29% of Republicans have, and 66% of Democrats claim to be the ones who ended the relationship. Only 27% of Republicans claimed to do the same.

“I’ve lost familial relationships. I have lost friends. We’ve all gone through this,” Glenn says.

“I love my family for many more reasons than who they voted for. And I don’t know why I am such a horrible person if I support Donald Trump. And if I support the one you like, then I’m a really great person. And I can be a great person overnight. Not by changing anything other than saying, ‘I don’t like Donald Trump,’” he continues.

“And then, all of a sudden, I’m a hero,” he adds.

Glenn also points out that people who think differently are not inherently bad and are actually more interesting to him.

“I like learning things from people who think differently than I do,” he says. “I learn so much, and that’s what we should do.”

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To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

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A man from Georgia was arrested for allegedly making graphic threats against Kristi Noem, the former head of the Dept. of Homeland Security, and Pam Bondi, former U.S. Attorney General.

Elliott Owen Schroer of Toccoa made the threats on the X social media platform in early April, according to federal prosecutors.

Schroer was ordered to wear an electronic tracking device while out on bond and was banned from using any social media account.

Schroer allegedly said he would kill Bondi, but his threats to Noem were far more graphic:

“I will stab your eyes out with a dull knife.””I will blow your esophagus out the back of your neck with a 12 gauge slug.””We will put your head on a stake.”

The man was arraigned in federal court and released on a $10,000 bond.

Schroer was ordered to wear an electronic tracking device while out on bond and was banned from using any social media account.

He also cannot possess a firearm, drink alcohol, or contact either Bondi or Noem.

President Donald Trump fired Bondi in early April, and Noem was fired from DHS in March. The latter was named the Special Envoy for the Shield of the Americas by the president.

The allegations against Schroer are especially alarming as President Donald Trump was allegedly targeted for another assassination attempt during the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

RELATED: Man arrested for posting TikTok murder-for-hire threat against Pam Bondi, FBI says

The White House was also briefly placed on lockdown after an armed man fired at Secret Service agents after they spotted him carrying a firearm at the National Mall.

Schroer is scheduled for a pretrial on May 29.

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​Death threats trump cabinet, Pam bondi death threat, Kristi noem death threat, Left-wing death threats, Politics 

Earlier this week, BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales blasted a Muslim-only event for taking over a water park in Grand Prairie, Texas — and Governor Greg Abbott (R) swiftly threatened to pull funding from the city and shut it down.

What initially caught Gonzales’ eye was the event flyer, which said “Muslims only” twice. The flyer was later updated to say “modest dress only” once it became a topic of controversy.

“I want to just set the record straight, because I know there’s been a lot of confusion. You did have the ‘Muslims only’ on the original flyer, and then you changed it and updated it on the site to read ‘modest dress only,’ correct?” Gonzales asks the organizer of the event, Dr. Aminah Knight.

“Absolutely, absolutely,” Knight responds.

Knight explains that in years past, the flyer has only been circulated privately and never caused any issues until now.

“A few days ago, the New York Post contacted me, and they said, ‘Hey, did you know that your flyer in this event is going viral?’ And I’m like, ‘What are you talking about?’” Knight tells Gonzales.

“And then my husband also let me know, ‘Hey, there’s this guy who, he’s kind of historic for having Islamaphobic rhetoric, to be honest. He got ahold of the flyer, and he is saying, “Oh my gosh, the Muslims are doing this event. They’re trying to exclude people” and X, Y, and Z,'” she continues.

“And so I quickly changed the flyer,” she adds.

“It does read like you were trying to exclude non-Muslims, and I just wonder, you know, I know that you feel like you were wronged in this, but I just wonder if you feel like it would be fair for, say, a private group to rent out a publicly funded water park and put on, you know, their posters, ‘This is for whites only,’” Gonzales argues.

Knight responds that unlike white people, marginalized groups like the black and Muslim communities “oftentimes need to take a moment to gather, fortify each other and then go back out into the world.”

She also tells Gonzales that at the heart of the event are young Muslim girls, whom she wants to inspire to dress modestly in a society where the “standard of beauty that they see around them has to do with how sexy they are and how much of their skin they can show.”

“My question actually was how is this any different than … a whites-only, you know, KKK party at a publicly funded water park?” Gonzales says, pointing out that there are discrimination laws under which you cannot have private events that exclude people based on religion.

“So how do you think that that’s OK?” she asks.

“Muslims uphold a modest dress code, and we’re celebrating our EID events. … I didn’t think anything was wrong with that,” Knight responds, later telling Gonzales that she did not expect Gonzales to “be so aggressive.”

“By asking if it would be OK if we could do a whites-only event as well and how that was different?” Gonzales asks.

“It’s just your tone,” Knight says.

Want more from Sara Gonzales?

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​Black community, Blaze media, Blaze news, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Blaze podcast network, Blaze podcasts, Blazetv, Blazetv host, Discrimination laws, Dr amina knight, Eid events, Event flyer, Governor abbott, Grand prairie texas, Islamaphobic rhetoric, Kkk party, Marginalized groups, Modest dress, Modest dress code, Muslim community, Muslim only event, New york post, Nonmuslims, Private group, Religion, Sara gonzales, Sara gonzales unfiltered, The blaze, Water park, Young muslim girls 

An elderly man has died after the suspect in his killing — who was in police custody just hours earlier — shoved him down subway entrance steps in New York City on Thursday night, police told WCBS-TV.

The attack against the 76-year-old man occurred just before 9:30 p.m. in the city’s Chelsea neighborhood at West 18th Street and 7th Avenue, the station said.

‘Disgusting.’

Responding officers found Ross Falzone on the subway stairs with head injuries, WCBS said, adding that he was rushed to Bellevue Hospital in critical condition and later died.

The station said police believe they know who carried out the crime since the suspect was taken into custody earlier Thursday.

Police told WCBS that officers around 3:30 p.m. Thursday encountered the suspect behaving erratically outside the NYPD’s 17th Precinct.

The male was taken into custody, the station said, and officers brought him to Bellevue Hospital. WCBS said he was taken to the psychiatric emergency room for evaluation — and released an hour later.

RELATED: Thug who’s been deported 4 times faces upgraded charges after elderly man he’s accused of shoving onto NYC subway tracks dies

Surveillance video around 9:30 p.m. Thursday recorded Falzone approaching the subway — and the same male who had been taken into custody earlier in the day was seen walking quickly behind him and then shoving the elderly victim down the steps, police told WCBS.

Falzone struck his head about halfway down the steps, the station added.

Emergency responders were called, WCBS said, adding that Falzone was rushed to Bellevue Hospital but died just before 3 a.m. Friday.

Police are searching for the suspect, the station said, adding that the NYPD hasn’t released his name or description.

Observers commenting under the WCBS video report about the elderly man’s death are beyond done. Some examples:

“This is what you vote for in blue city NY,” one commenter said.”Disgusting,” another user stated.”There will be no justice,” another commenter lamented.”The powers that be do this because they’re not scared of being dragged out and held accountable,” another user declared.

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​Elderly man killed, New york city, Suspect was in police custody, Chelsea, Nypd, Police, Suspect at large, Physical attack, Crime