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The Injustice the DOJ Uncovered in Ferguson Wasn’t Racism

ksen

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http://www.nationalreview.com/artic...oj-uncovered-ferguson-wasnt-racism-ian-tuttle

But what the material in the report reveals is less a culture of racial animus than one of predatory government: “Ferguson’s law enforcement practices,” states the report, “are shaped by the City’s focus on revenue rather than by public safety needs.” In the interest of expanding its treasury, Ferguson has employed its police department — 58 officers, policing a town of 21,000 — as an enforcer of the myriad municipal regulations that, rigorously enforced, nickel-and-dime the citizenry to the local government’s benefit. This is the injustice on which the Justice Department has stumbled, which helps to explain the city’s racial tensions — and which merits urgent correction.

I'm just glad a conservative has acknowledged there's any problem in Ferguson.
 
Plus they uncovered a plot to smear Darren Wilson as a homicidal maniac.
 
Yeah. It appears to be a quite institutionalized issue there.

Of course this will mean "We shouldn't have governments at all."
 
Yeah. It appears to be a quite institutionalized issue there.

Of course this will mean "We shouldn't have governments at all."

We have this "expensive infraction" phenomenon going on in L.A. now. Our parking meters have slots for debit cards. Rates are up and enforcement is well financed. When you squeeze local government, it always has a very un-progressive out to keep the lights on in City Hall. A good part of the problem in NoHo is that for years, the Citiy permitted two and three story apartments being built in areas with streets that are only good for single family residences. The result is a parking crunch with plenty of parking ticket revenue. It's just a kind of a racket that springs up when city coffers fall to unacceptable levels. Our last mayor had what he called "tiger teams" to bust the parkers.
 
Misusing fines for revenue generation is common in the US (and not only here). Particularly speed limits are too low and still assume everyone is driving horrible 70s era cars. Particularly rural communities along major highways can make a mint by fining people just driving through.
 
Misusing fines for revenue generation is common in the US (and not only here). Particularly speed limits are too low and still assume everyone is driving horrible 70s era cars. Particularly rural communities along major highways can make a mint by fining people just driving through.

Hey. I'm from speedersfundus. We have crosswalks. So not only do tourists ignore us they blast right through crosswalks with pedestrians on them killing about one of us every two years. There is no fine high enough to recover for the loss of a child, an elder, a wife, or a mayor, just because Jimmie Bob from Cape Sheer Ignorance wants to get to the Redwoods before three PM.

If you believe in freedom you must also believe in respecting the freedom of others. Getting yours is not an exercise in freedom. Getting yours is an exercise is superiorist contempt. You want to get yours don't do it here because we'll get ours too. Ka-ching!

My only problem with the Republican dodge is that they ignore that the city elects whites and the city makes its bucks off blacks. Now that would be fine if blacks were encouraged to vote but that's not the case is it. How Restrictive Voting Laws Block Ferguson’s Citizens From Having Their Fair Say http://www.brennancenter.org/blog/h...ock-ferguson’s-citizens-having-their-fair-say

Many criminal disenfranchisement laws were enacted alongside poll taxes and literacy tests to keep African Americans from voting. The intended effects of these laws continue to this day: an estimated 3 in 10 African American males will lose voting rights in their lifetime.

The reach of these laws extends to the community of Ferguson, which is 67 percent African American. Missouri bars people serving their terms of probation and parole from voting. There are nearly
75,000 disenfranchised citizens living and working in communities in the Show me State, and like in the rest of the country, the harmful effects of the current law disproportionately impact people of color. One third of the total disenfranchised Missouri population is African American, though they comprise only about eleven percent of the state population.
Wow, funding and disenfranchisement are jobs of police. Way to go.
 
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Yeah. It appears to be a quite institutionalized issue there.

Of course this will mean "We shouldn't have governments at all."

We have this "expensive infraction" phenomenon going on in L.A. now. Our parking meters have slots for debit cards. Rates are up and enforcement is well financed. When you squeeze local government, it always has a very un-progressive out to keep the lights on in City Hall. A good part of the problem in NoHo is that for years, the Citiy permitted two and three story apartments being built in areas with streets that are only good for single family residences. The result is a parking crunch with plenty of parking ticket revenue. It's just a kind of a racket that springs up when city coffers fall to unacceptable levels. Our last mayor had what he called "tiger teams" to bust the parkers.

An elite squad of meter maid commandos?
 
Hey. I'm from speedersfundus. We have crosswalks. So not only do tourists ignore us they blast right through crosswalks with pedestrians on them killing about one of us every two years. There is no fine high enough to recover for the loss of a child, an elder, a wife, or a mayor, just because Jimmie Bob from Cape Sheer Ignorance wants to get to the Redwoods before three PM.

If you believe in freedom you must also believe in respecting the freedom of others. Getting yours is not an exercise in freedom. Getting yours is an exercise is superiorist contempt. You want to get yours don't do it here because we'll get ours too. Ka-ching!

Funny. I failed to see any crosswalks on the I-75 going into Florida and that's where a lot of the highway robbery that I described takes place.
Just because some speed limits are sensible doesn't make others not pure funding mechanisms.
 
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Misusing fines for revenue generation is common in the US (and not only here). Particularly speed limits are too low and still assume everyone is driving horrible 70s era cars. Particularly rural communities along major highways can make a mint by fining people just driving through.

Hey. I'm from speedersfundus. We have crosswalks. So not only do tourists ignore us they blast right through crosswalks with pedestrians on them killing about one of us every two years. There is no fine high enough to recover for the loss of a child, an elder, a wife, or a mayor, just because Jimmie Bob from Cape Sheer Ignorance wants to get to the Redwoods before three PM.

If you believe in freedom you must also believe in respecting the freedom of others. Getting yours is not an exercise in freedom. Getting yours is an exercise is superiorist contempt. You want to get yours don't do it here because we'll get ours too. Ka-ching!

You make a good point.

I live in the middle of a fairly large city, right on a major thoroughfare. A lot of commuters use this street to get form downtown to the outlying suburbs. Speeding and accidents are common. Pedestrians and bicyclists use the street at their own risk.

In a few weeks, my street will be converted from a 45 mph 4 lane, to a 35 mph 2 lane with a center turn lane. Since the plan was announced, I've heard a lot of people declare it will make traffic worse, which shows they don't understand the goal of the project.

We want commuters to take other routes. I don't care how long it takes them to get home. I have no reason to let my quality of life suffer because someone bought a house 20 miles from his job. It's not my problem. My problem is having a street which gives easy access to my store, for drivers and pedestrians, alike. The 45 mph commuters are not my customers.
 
Hey. I'm from speedersfundus. We have crosswalks. So not only do tourists ignore us they blast right through crosswalks with pedestrians on them killing about one of us every two years. There is no fine high enough to recover for the loss of a child, an elder, a wife, or a mayor, just because Jimmie Bob from Cape Sheer Ignorance wants to get to the Redwoods before three PM.

If you believe in freedom you must also believe in respecting the freedom of others. Getting yours is not an exercise in freedom. Getting yours is an exercise is superiorist contempt. You want to get yours don't do it here because we'll get ours too. Ka-ching!

Funny. I failed to see any crosswalks on the I-75 going into Florida and that's where a lot of the highway robbery that I described takes place.
Just because some speed limits are sensible doesn't make others pure funding mechanisms.

If the same speed limits are enforced for locals and transients, no one has a complaint. It's simple enough to avoid contributing to the city coffers, just obey the speed limit.
 
Hey. I'm from speedersfundus. We have crosswalks. So not only do tourists ignore us they blast right through crosswalks with pedestrians on them killing about one of us every two years. There is no fine high enough to recover for the loss of a child, an elder, a wife, or a mayor, just because Jimmie Bob from Cape Sheer Ignorance wants to get to the Redwoods before three PM.

If you believe in freedom you must also believe in respecting the freedom of others. Getting yours is not an exercise in freedom. Getting yours is an exercise is superiorist contempt. You want to get yours don't do it here because we'll get ours too. Ka-ching!

Funny. I failed to see any crosswalks on the I-75 going into Florida and that's where a lot of the highway robbery that I described takes place.
Just because some speed limits are sensible doesn't make others pure funding mechanisms.

I used to travel from Tallahassee to Atlanta via 319 N to I 75 back in the day I drove through Moultrie. There traffic lights are arranged horizontally with a right to left green, yellow, red sequence with the lamps matched for perceived brightness. Strange, until one realizes this is just the right way to do things to get those who have most forms of colorblindness (about 5% of the driving population). Also there in Moultrie just before one enters town from west or east there are speed signs conveniently mostly hidden behind large bushes announcing 25 mph speed limits with no advanced warning for those going at the arrive alive speed. Oh, yeah, there's usually some rib meat filled belly Jimmie Joe Bob sitting in a supercharged dodge wearing a badge just behind that obscuring bush. Now, that's fine worthy. That's taking advantage.

In our neck of the woods we rely on Californians used to driving the 405 at 85 mph acting as if their going to work while driving in beautiful rural coastal Oregon. We have only one road going north south along the coast and it's not an interstate. Its an old US designated highway that runs right through towns where where we plant all of our most important building, schools, emergency buildings, businesses. Since we're so small we don't qualify for lights yet the state highway commission designated it to be a four laner in our town. We defend ourselves. Those shitheads in the east have Interstate whatever everywhere. No need for schools or cross walks there. So before you get all burned up about us rural types checkout what rural types have to put up with with respect to funding, state and national highway regulations, etc.

It seems to be that in rural and small town places there's never enough money to build an overpass or underpass at railway crossings so several hundred of us every year get scraped off the tracks.

I'm thinking that its not so much rural. It seems to be more about values and respect for populations than bumpkins making things better by harvesting the vanities and conceits from city road rage idiots. You city morons think you're entitled. You aren't. Show some respect the next time you cause us to get all our charities out to pickup the trash you throw on our beautiful byways.

Just because you are conservative you aren't entitled to make our towns, farms, and roads as disgusting as are your road cleanliness habits. First it's responsibility, then its freedom. Get it right next time

Nothing personal here. I feel the same about everybody who defends the users from the city.
 
Hey. I'm from speedersfundus. We have crosswalks. So not only do tourists ignore us they blast right through crosswalks with pedestrians on them killing about one of us every two years. There is no fine high enough to recover for the loss of a child, an elder, a wife, or a mayor, just because Jimmie Bob from Cape Sheer Ignorance wants to get to the Redwoods before three PM.

If you believe in freedom you must also believe in respecting the freedom of others. Getting yours is not an exercise in freedom. Getting yours is an exercise is superiorist contempt. You want to get yours don't do it here because we'll get ours too. Ka-ching!

Funny. I failed to see any crosswalks on the I-75 going into Florida and that's where a lot of the highway robbery that I described takes place.
Just because some speed limits are sensible doesn't make others pure funding mechanisms.

Yet another "small government" rightist leaping to the defense of the government.

Sorry, Derec, but I can't ever trust the government as much as you do.
 
We have this "expensive infraction" phenomenon going on in L.A. now. Our parking meters have slots for debit cards. Rates are up and enforcement is well financed. When you squeeze local government, it always has a very un-progressive out to keep the lights on in City Hall. A good part of the problem in NoHo is that for years, the Citiy permitted two and three story apartments being built in areas with streets that are only good for single family residences. The result is a parking crunch with plenty of parking ticket revenue. It's just a kind of a racket that springs up when city coffers fall to unacceptable levels. Our last mayor had what he called "tiger teams" to bust the parkers.

An elite squad of meter maid commandos?

While most of these parking enforcers are women, there still are a few men involved, but it would be fair to say they are the "tigress team."
 
http://www.nationalreview.com/artic...oj-uncovered-ferguson-wasnt-racism-ian-tuttle

But what the material in the report reveals is less a culture of racial animus than one of predatory government: “Ferguson’s law enforcement practices,” states the report, “are shaped by the City’s focus on revenue rather than by public safety needs.” In the interest of expanding its treasury, Ferguson has employed its police department — 58 officers, policing a town of 21,000 — as an enforcer of the myriad municipal regulations that, rigorously enforced, nickel-and-dime the citizenry to the local government’s benefit. This is the injustice on which the Justice Department has stumbled, which helps to explain the city’s racial tensions — and which merits urgent correction.

I'm just glad a conservative has acknowledged there's any problem in Ferguson.

Since police departments are generally seen as a source of ticket revenue this doesn't surprise me at all.
 
Hey. I'm from speedersfundus. We have crosswalks. So not only do tourists ignore us they blast right through crosswalks with pedestrians on them killing about one of us every two years. There is no fine high enough to recover for the loss of a child, an elder, a wife, or a mayor, just because Jimmie Bob from Cape Sheer Ignorance wants to get to the Redwoods before three PM.

How about a traffic light for pedestrians to use to cross the street? And how about lowering the speed limit where people will actually be crossing the street rather than a mile or two out from there? All too often the speed limits look like they are set more with revenue in mind than safety.

I have never seen a cop staking out a location I regarded as a safety issue. The places I see the cops staking out are places where the law conflicts with sensible driving, or places where they can step out in the crosswalk in another lane when you have no chance of stopping in time--guaranteed ticket. Furthermore, if the problem with the law gets fixed the stakeout goes away.
 
I live in the middle of a fairly large city, right on a major thoroughfare. A lot of commuters use this street to get form downtown to the outlying suburbs. Speeding and accidents are common. Pedestrians and bicyclists use the street at their own risk.

In a few weeks, my street will be converted from a 45 mph 4 lane, to a 35 mph 2 lane with a center turn lane. Since the plan was announced, I've heard a lot of people declare it will make traffic worse, which shows they don't understand the goal of the project.

We want commuters to take other routes. I don't care how long it takes them to get home. I have no reason to let my quality of life suffer because someone bought a house 20 miles from his job. It's not my problem. My problem is having a street which gives easy access to my store, for drivers and pedestrians, alike. The 45 mph commuters are not my customers.

You've got some despicable government there.

They bought those places considering how the roads were. You should owe them money for what you just took away from them. You chose to live on a 45 mph street, that's your problem, not theirs.

I don't mind traffic calming on side streets, but not on main streets.
 
If the main street can be crossed on foot, I'll park and shop. If not, I'll shop elsewhere. How americans manage to keep high streets going when they seem determined to make them unpleasant for foot traffic, escapes me.

In my old university town, they're gradually removing cars from the town altogether and subsidising park and ride and edge of town car parks. They worked out that every time they pedestrianised a street, it filled with shoppers and tourists. They've been cautiously expanding this from one street to five, and it's still working. The discount stores are being replaced with mainstream shops, the shopping centre which was being closed down is now expanding, and they're licensing street theatre and street vendors. The motorists are forced to take the ring road, which they complain about, but they're not really what the town centre is for.

I took a motoring holiday on the west coast of the US. Two weeks driving in an obviously overpowered shiny red sports car, and I didn't get a single ticket. US signage isn't very good, but driving within the limit isn't that hard, even if you have a long way to go.
 
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