Appeasing the agitators. Why they gotta pay?
Via The State
There were lots of jitters at the Ferguson police clerk’s window this week, as steady streams of drivers with unpaid traffic tickets and pending arrest warrants turned themselves in as part of a new city initiative to repair its frayed relationship with black residents.
They looked around skeptically. “I don’t know if they are going to lock me up,” said Katrina Clemons, who owes almost $800 in fines and penalties from a $250 traffic ticket. “I do not like coming here.”[…]
On Tuesday, the City Council decided to abolish fines that are routinely issued if a defendant fails to show up for court, repeal a “failure to appear” law that led to many incarcerations and give people a month to come forward and void their warrants. It also created a special docket for defendants who have difficulty making payments on outstanding fines and moved to establish a civilian review board to oversee the Police Department, which is under investigation by the Justice Department’s civil rights division.[…]
I believe it’s all a lie,” said Zurich Bruckner, a 39-year-old construction worker who went to traffic court Thursday night to fight a $102 ticket he got because of a blue light near the license plate of his 1993 Lexus. “That’s extortion.”
Bruckner explained: The light was not broken; it was blue. “That’s an extraordinary amount to pay for a bulb that’s working,” he said.
Bruckner recently served two 90-day sentences for traffic fines in another city and for failing to pay child support, so he made sure to show up to court in Ferguson to avoid problems. The charge was dismissed but he had to pay $25 in court costs.[…]
Knowles and the City Council sat stone-faced for three hours Tuesday night as resident after resident vented about racial profiling and police harassment. They heard from Markese Mull, a 39-year-old father of three who told how his traffic fines climbed to $2,000 because the municipal court would not allow him to pay them in $50 installments.
His $600 fine for driving without a license more than tripled and landed him in jail twice, he said. On Friday, he went to the police station and put down $100.