2 weeks Ago By Editorial Board
If Chicago lawmakers are known for anything, it’s cutting shady backroom deals as part of the political machine. Corruption trials are common, but sometimes an individual case offers important insight into how the game is played beyond the Windy City. So it is with Emil Jones III, who escaped prison Thursday after a federal jury deadlocked while trying to decide whether the Democratic Illinois state senator should be sent up the river for taking bribes.
The charges remain open, but for now he’s free, despite being videotaped lining up campaign cash and a job for a 23-year-old friend in return for adjusting legislation in a speed camera vendor’s favor. Prosecutors thought the case would be a slam dunk. They set up the sting with Omar Maani, co-founder of the red-light camera company SafeSpeed.
Maani became an FBI snitch to avoid prison after being nabbed handing envelopes stuffed with cash to influential officials. As Maani and Mr. Jones dined at expensive Chicago-area steakhouses, they discussed arrangements that included a campaign donation in return for tweaking the parameters of a bill studying red-light camera effectiveness.
“If you can raise me five grand, that’d be good,” Mr. Jones says in the taped conversation played for jurors. “I’m not for getting rid of red-light cameras at all,” he added.
Mr. Jones defended himself on the witness stand, insisting he knew the conversation wasn’t on the up-and-up. He texted an associate afterward: “LMAO Omar trying to make sure I don’t file my red light camera bill anymore.
He thinks steak 48 will do it” — referring to his favorite Chicago restaurant. Maani wanted the pending legislation altered because, as written, it would have directed the Illinois Department of Transportation to investigate the statewide impact of camera use. Maani was concerned after Florida’s statewide review discovered collisions rose whenever the cameras flashed.
“The headline was, ‘Red light cameras increase accidents,’” Maani complained. “That got so much momentum that it literally almost banned the cameras in the state.” This inconvenient truth is why payoffs are so prevalent in the photo-ticketing racket.
Thus far, two dozen politicians and industry executives have been busted for engaging in illegal activities, including the former chairman of the Illinois Senate Transportation Committee, who took $250,000 from Maani. According to the Illinois Policy Institute, kickbacks are a small cost of doing business in the Prairie State, where the flash-for-cash has generated over a billion in revenue. But it’s the same swindle across the country.
A few years ago, a top official at another vendor, Redflex, admitted he paid off politicians in more than a dozen states, including Virginia. Legislators on both sides of the aisle participated in the graft. Still, the FBI tended to pull its punches or look the other way when powerful Democrats were involved, particularly in Ohio.
Hopefully, the FBI, under Director Kash Patel, will be more zealous about curbing larceny. These robotic devices pick the pockets of hardworking drivers while making the roads measurably less safe. Locals know exactly where the cameras are placed.
When they hit the brakes to avoid getting a ticket, unsuspecting out-of-towners can be caught by surprise and fail to stop as swiftly. Statistics consistently show a huge rise in rear-end accidents. U.
S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy can become the hero of motorists everywhere by cutting off federal subsidies for these corrupt and dangerous programs. Copyright © 2025 The Washington Times, LLC.
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