Red light camera tickets and the burden of proof

The malleability of the law and its application is apparent in the issuance of red light camera tickets in Chicago. Imagine…it’s a holiday, you’re attending a gathering of family and friends. Someone yells, “we need ice,” and looks out about the drive way to see that your car is the most accessible for making the run. You, unwilling to make the run, think nothing of tossing your keys to the designated runner who scurries on to complete his task. While on the ice run, the runner runs through a traffic light fitted with a red light camera; the car is captured as the driver commits the infraction.

The red light ticket debate

Three weeks later, you receive a red light ticket in the mail, displaying the rear license plate and your vehicle going through a red light; the ticket also states the date and time of the alleged infraction. You question the ticket because you neither live nor work in the area where the infraction occurred. Then, you realize you were not the driver because the infraction occurred during the ice run.

Who is responsible for the ticket?

You confront the family member who made and ice run and committed the infraction; he laughs, “You can’t prove it was me; so, it wasn’t me; therefore, I’m not responsible for the ticket. The court sent the ticket to you, not me.” You point to the picture, trying to tie the accused to the infraction, but all you have is a picture of the rear license plate of your car proceeding through the red light. A bit steamed, you realize that you will have to pay a fine you did not incur for a moving violation you did not commit, which will be reflected on your driving record. Reluctantly, you pay the ticket and suffer the consequences of allowing others to drive your car. However, burden of proof says fight such tickets because their issuance places responsibility on the owner of the car, not the violator.

Flawed application

Now, imagine making the ice run, but you’re riding in the passenger seat of your car; your nephew wants to test drive your new sports car, so you let him. He runs through a red light and is espied by a police officer who pulls the car over. Who gets the ticket? Get the picture?

When Will We Learn?

Calumet High School was closed and converted into a Charter School, in Chicago Public Schools’ efforts to provide better education designed to leave no child behind. However, Calumet, located on Chicago’s Southside, was the only high school in the neighborhood, serving ten elementary feeder schools. Therefore, several children will be left behind or killed while crossing rival gang territory, in their pursuit of a high school diploma.

Ironically, there was no mass protest by concerned parents or local leaders to block the closure; Oddly, the only protest at Calumet High School (1995) occurred when the school decided to ban the wearing of black and red Air Jordan’s: colors worn by one of the gangs that plague the community.

If nothing else, the poverty level of the Auburn-Gresham neighborhood strongly vetoes closing Calumet. Closure forces community parents to find a school that their children can attend without venturing far from their neighborhood; this requires paying daily bus fare on a shoestring budget. As a result, many students will be forced to miss classes because their parents cannot afford the astronomical bus fare required to transport children to and from school. Calumet was closed, and parents’ of the community are left to fend for themselves in their quest to provide their children with a high school education.

Sadly, parents of high school students in the Auburn Gresham community can only hope that as their children go to and from school that they do not meet the same fate as 16 year old Derrion Albert, who was beaten to death at Fenger High School. Albert, too, was forced out of his community of Altgeld Gardens because Carver High School, the only high school in the community, was closed and reopened as a Charter School. When will we learn?