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Less than a week later, an ongoing crime wave in ɫɫ�� crested: 16 speed cameras were cut down in one night, the latest in a string of high-profile incidents of vandalism that have been making our streets more dangerous.

Asked about it last week, Ford suggested that the perpetrator (or perpetrators) had provided a public service — and that he’d soon join them in taking down even more speed cameras. Municipal governments “should take out those cameras, all of them,” he said. If they don’t, he warned, “I’m going to help them get rid of them very shortly.”

Given that a small child was killed and several others injured when a driver crashed his car through the window of a daycare in Richmond Hill last week, most of us know how high the stakes are when it comes to traffic safety. So what’s up with Ford insisting our streets become less safe and cheering on the vandals who are making them more deadly?

The charitable interpretation is that he doesn’t understand that speed cameras work. There’s a ���ڰ��dz���, as well as , that shows they do: by helping to prevent speeding, they help to prevent collisions and injuries and deaths, too.

But there’s every reason to believe that Ford already knows this and simply doesn’t care, just as he’s shown he doesn’t care that bike lanes save lives. When he talks about these things, he doesn’t even mention safety in passing. He just wants cars to move faster.

Presumably, that’s because he wants to do what voters will like — that’s his whole thing, right? Folksy populism? Well, maybe there’s something else Ford should understand about speed cameras: people like them. A lot of people. From what I can tell, most people.

 this summer shows that 76 per cent of Ontario drivers believe speed cameras work, while 73 per cent are in favour of placing more of them in targeted areas, such as school zones and near community centres.

To be clear: this is a survey of licensed drivers, conducted by an organization whose mandate is to advocate for drivers. This is not “war on the car” propaganda. “Our research shows that (speed-camera enforcement) continues to have strong public support and can be effective in getting drivers to change their behaviour,” a CAA spokesperson said in announcing the results.

This has been consistent across North America. Last month,  rounded up research from across the United States that shows a majority of Americans support the use of speed cameras. As the author writes, such support “can transcend party lines and geography.”

Now, I know there are people who hate speed cameras (and I know most of us hate getting tickets from them — which, as I’ve noted before, is something different). I often hear from drivers who think they constitute a form of tyranny, and I suspect the premier hears a lot from them, too. The intensity and volume of their whining may even lead him to believe that they’re speaking for most voters.

It’s unlikely that they are. Many drivers speed on occasion: in the CAA poll, 40 per cent of respondents admitted to having done so in the past year. But most of us also realize it’s dangerous and welcome measures to prevent it. It’s only a small minority of drivers who seem to believe it’s their absolute right to race past schools and public parks in residential zones. It’s an even smaller one who apparently feel justified in committing brazen crimes to prevent enforcement.

To the rest of us, these vandals aren’t folk heroes standing up for the silent majority. They’re jerks. Criminal jerks, no less. And it would appear that’s who Ford thinks his voters are.