Howard University Student Forced to Skip College to Pay For Hidden Camera Speeding Tickets
The purpose of the police issuing speeding tickets is to discourage people from speeding because speeding can lead to accidents. At least that’s rationale we’re given
, but speeding tickets have become a main source of income for many cities, making it less about safety and more about ensuring a steady stream of income.
Enter hidden speed cameras, which made it possible for the police to ticket you without even sending out a squad car. Worst of all, these hidden cameras take human discretion out of the ticketing process, and ticket you even if you’re only going a few miles over the legal limit.
Howard University student Bianca Lamar shared her frustration with speed cameras on the Metropolitan Police Department’s 5th District online message board. Lamar says she was forced to skip a semester of college because she had to use her tuition money to pay off speeding tickets.
The Huffington Post spoke with Lamar about her experience:
Lamar tells The Huffington Post she was supposed to return to Howard University this fall, after taking time off for personal health issues. She’d spent the summer bartending at a restaurant in Alexandria, Va., and had saved just enough to pay for her tuition (about $3,500 per semester), rent (about $1,000 per month for off-campus housing in Northeast D.C.) and living expenses.
“I had saved up all summer,” she says.
Her tickets — which she says are mostly for going about ten miles per hour over the speed limit in different places in the District — arrived in the mail before the beginning of the fall term.
According to Lamar, the tickets totaled around $300, and then her car was booted because of the tickets, which brought the bill to over $500. So instead of going to school, Lamar is back to bartending, so she can make up for the money she lost to the tickets.
Although Lamar says she has learned to slow down, a good question to ask would be whether the ratio of boots and tickets in poor to moderate income neighborhoods is comparable to those in swanky areas, such as Georgetown and Cleveland Heights.
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D.C. sniper attack of the camera, you’d think? Somebody will one day think up such a 2nd amendment remedy for what they feel is an unjust law/act, which is how little people speak to powers-that-be. And, a new super hero will emerge in the darkest of the nights . . .portable ‘Welder/Tourchman’( able to cut a BOOT from a car and leave it in the gutter). Yes sir, once the camera locations have been found, license plate removed from lower back of car to back window and reflector glass shield over Lic. Plate, D.C. and other ‘d**k Cheney’ type ways will be addressed by the poor and poor-in-spirit from the Robin Hood tradition of ‘Just say No’!
Check that, “ENOUGH”!
This is a non-issue. The only one she has to blame is herself.
Something about this story isn’t adding up to me. She had to miss school because of 800.00. She could have set up a payment arrangement through ams or sallie mae. I am sure hu has an agreement with one. Ultimately, she has herself to blame for breaking the law.
So each ticket is $300, and getting her car “un-booted” was another $500. How many tickets do you need to rack up to earn The Boot?
Essentially, she ignored paying each ticket during the grace period, and let them rack up until she amassed $4,500 in fines! I’m SURE she received notifications about each ticket.
Seems to me this is a person who doesn’t understand the definitions of two words: 1) Responsibility, and 2) Consequences.
Perhaps missing a semester of school will give her the time to learn that if she were RESPONSIBLE in the first place, and drove the speed limit, she wouldn’t have any tickets. Further, if she paid those said tickets on time, then she wouldn’t have racked up additional fines and the boot. So now, the CONSEQUENCES of her irresponsibility will be heavier.
She has no one to blame but her own self.
This story does not add up. Howard University tuition for one semester is $11,441.50 not $3,500!
RIGHT! something is NOT right and where do you live in upper N.E. that rent is only $1000 a month? Please let me know because if thats really the case I need to move!
This article acts as if it’s the city’s fault the lady isn’t in school. Really? She wasn’t forced to drive 10 or so miles over the speed limit on multiple occasions…. This story makes her out to be a victim of some sort. Let’s stop with the pity parties.
Welcome to DC! What you should do is what the rest of the residents like me do, we IMMEDIATELY slow down when we see the “PHOTO ENFORCED” signs that they put up right before the camera comes up. I received just ONE $150 ticket before I learned my lesson. I will say this, one ticket equals $150, they give you 60 days to pay before it doubles and you have to have over $1000 worth of tickets before they boot, what were you doing all this time sitting on tickets?
Or she could’ve properly prioritized. No one told her to have a car that she should probably look in to selling.
Nobody wants to live on the “yard ” anymore school is expensive enough with out trying to live like you got it like that this story is suspect to many unanswered questions
How is it that she’s a victim? The cameras don’t know the race or s*x of the driver. She was speeding, she got caught (REPEATEDLY). Pay up and shut up. Actions have consequences.
Everybody knows there are cameras all over D.C. Pay your tickets and slow down before you kill somebody or yourself. And the answer is “no” they are not ticketing rich white folks…because the money is in young Black folks and poor neighborhoods.