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Booting cars not merely annoying, it puts people's safety
at risk
By Dane Bergeson
January 18, 2005 | "We are being extorted,"
says Quinn Bingham, student at Utah State University.
"Booters are performing an illegal seizure of your property
and extorting you for your well earned money."
I am sure most all people can sympathize with Quinn.
I myself, like most USU students, have parked in an
area not knowing that it was a booting zone and had
to pay the most unforgettable $50 of my life. I have
felt robbed and powerless in the situation. The whole
ordeal feels really shady. After being booted you call
an individual's cellular number and they arrive only
to take your hard-earned money. Most often it is a young
college-age person in an unmarked car.
Other reasons why people may feel robbed or wronged:
You may feel cheated because the booters usually have
no workers identification or proof of employment. They
rarely give you a receipt, and you have no "due process."
Due process, according to dictionary.com,
"is an established course for judicial proceedings,
or other governmental activities designed to safeguard
the legal rights of the individual." In other words,
if an individual is booted, there isn't any way for
the individual to fight the sanction. There is no appeals
process. The Fifth Amendment states "no person shall
be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due
process of law."
Quinn has been working with David Daines, an associate
professor and legal confidant here at Utah State. Together
they are filing a lawsuit about just that. They, like
most all students, feel it is dishonest and unconstitutional.
Daines and his son Chris Daines are lawyers and feel
Quinn has a very strong case. They feel so passionately
about the issue, the father-son duo has teamed up to
fight the injustices pro bono or in laymen's terms,
donated legal work.
Les Essig, USU student body president, said, "Not
only is booting dishonest and unconstitutional not to
mention it is a danger to our students. We can't have
people walking all over town late at night trying to
put together money to pay for a boot." Most people end
up finding that their car has been booted at night.
That makes for a very dangerous situation. The individual
is vehicle-less and scrounging up cash. There isn't
an ATM on every street corner.
With any luck the City of Logan will re-consider its
parking situation. Booting can not continue with such
high risks.
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