(WSVN) - She got a red light camera ticket. Then, under her race, an initial that left her stunned. So she turned to Help Me Howard with Patrick Fraser to see what that letter stood for.
It was a question I had never asked because there was never a reason.
Until now.
Patrick Fraser: “Have you ever been called the n-word?”
Christine Hall: “Nah.”
Patrick Fraser: “Never?”
Christine Hall: “No, no, you know, I’m 70 years old. Never. Never in my life.”
I wanted to know because Chris’ granddaughter was caught going through a red light camera.
The car is in Chris’ name and she got the ticket.
Now look at it and the letter under the owners race. “N.”
Christine Hall: “Bothers me? Because the n-word. I don’t use the n-word. Never in my life.”
Seeing the letter “N” reminded Chris of stories she had heard from older family members.
Christine Hall: “It made me think way back, you know, like in my grandparents days, their parents days. You don’t put nothing like that and whoever did that, they’re very nasty.”
Maybe it was a typo. Maybe it meant “Negro.”
But Chris says police can look at her drivers license and see her face, which convinced her it was intentional.
Christine Hall: “It says ‘N’. That means (expletive). But they should have put black.”
Chris is so aggravated she used the word she despises and wants to make sure she never see that letter “N” under race again.
Christine Hall: “So somebody thought I was not going to see it. But they dumb because I seen it. That’s why I call Help Me Howard.”
The ticket came from the Miami Beach Police Department.
We contacted them.
A few days later, they wanted to meet with Chris and me.
Christopher Bess: “We’re very transparent. Right? And we really believe if there is room for improvement, we will improve and we have done that.”
It turns out no-one was using the n-word.
Patrick Fraser: “When you explain it all, it makes perfect sense.”
Alan Chin handles red light camera violations for the department.
He showed us what happens when he writes NA for “not applicable” under race.
Alan Chin: “It prints a single digit. So, instead of “NA,” it will read “N”. When I put gender, obviously it’s ‘M’ for male, ‘F’ for female.”
A company in Colorado prints the tickets changing “NA” to “N,” and Chris wanted to make sure the department knew how much that computer printing one letter affected her.
Wayne Jones?: “Some people get hurt because of this. It hurt me bad.”
The police chief, Wayne Jones, had met with his staff to fix the problem.
Wayne Jones: “I so appreciate you reaching out to Patrick Fraser on this because, quite frankly, we don’t want to have this happen again. We don’t want anybody to feel what you felt.”
Instead of “NA,” which the computer turns to the letter “N,” under race and sex, the department will type “UK” for unknown, which will print out as “U” under both race and sex.
Wayne Jones: “So are you satisfied with the explanation?”
Christine Hall: “Yes.”
Wayne Jones: “This is how positive change is made cause people, like you, see something that needs to be corrected. You speak up through Patrick and, in this case, it’s been corrected.”.
Howard Finkelstein, 7News legal expert: “This was impressive by Miami Beach. But the state doesn’t use the category race on the drivers license. Why do they require police departments to even include the category of race on a ticket? The smart thing is for the state to quit requiring race on a ticket to avoid any problems at all.”
Miami Beach eliminated the “N” letter on their violation notices.
We are happy cause Chris is happy.
Christine Hall: “They straightened everything out and did a very good job and I thank Patrick for helping me out mostly.”
Thank you, Chris.
She saw a problem and helped get it fixed. If you see something that needs changing, you can do it, and if you need help doing it, call us.
A letter bothered you? Ready for the green light to solve it? Initial contact with us to race in to help you.
With this Help Me Howard, I’m Patrick Fraser, 7News.
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Reporter: Patrick Fraser at pfraser@wsvn.com
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