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If you'd slugged down a shot of Jack Daniels every time Big Brother was invoked in a hearing about the city's red-light cameras, you would've been too drunk to drive.

The City Council's town hall meeting Tuesday on the never-blinking cameras that have ticketed thousands of city drivers from afar turned into a massive group therapy session.

Most who turned out railed at the cameras; their comments were punctuated by the occasional voice supporting the automated law enforcers.

But even as the program draws drivers' ire, potential changes to the city program abound at the city and state level. And Mayor Martin Chavez says he will shut down the cameras if a state Senate bill to appropriate $74 of every $100 city citation is signed into law.

"We simply wouldn't have any money to run the program," Chavez said today.

Chavez said he's amenable to proposals by some city councilors and state legislators to reduce the city's red-light camera fines, so long as the program earns enough to pay its own way.

Until then, the cameras are the talk of the town, and Tuesday the hand-wringing ran the gamut, from talk of excessively high fines to short yellow lights, unaccountability and, of course, money. The words Nazism and communism cropped up.

Anger was a common theme throughout the hearing, but many people focused on the technology. The cameras have about as much personal touch as an ATM, but personal touch is what people said they need.

Jeff Garvin said the red-light technology "promotes a disconnect between the government and the governed."

Talking with police and judges is a normal part of the legal process, he said. Not anymore.

"Using technology negates that interaction," he said. "Normally if you get popped you have an opportunity to address an officer. This is a demonstration of the frustration when human beings are unable to express themselves, guilty or innocent."

Others were more direct. "I do not want to be a sheep to Big Brother, Marty and the pigs," one irate driver said.

Asked another, "Do we need to move out of Albuquerque?"

A third said he drives out of his way to stay out of the cameras' vision. "I'm willing to spend the extra time and gas to avoid that."

Not everyone opposes the program, however. Said Don Couchman, "I have a very serious problem with the red-light cameras - there are not enough of them."

Others who spoke out in favor, especially those supporting the $100 fines, garnered boos, causing council President Debbie O'Malley to put her foot down.

"Booing. C'mon," she said.

It stopped, temporarily.

The wrath transfer from citizens to their elected officials ended with little comment from councilors. But as the meeting adjourned and people filed out, the words of Dwayne Longenbaugh hung in the air: "Why do you people (councilors) do this job?"