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| Capitalism, Racism, and Entropy |
NYTimes | The racially torn city of Ferguson, Mo., took an important step on Monday when the City Council announced proposals aimed at remaking its troubled court system and creating a civilian review board for the Police Department.
The
initiatives, which have yet to be fully explained, speak to
longstanding grievances in the black community and are meant to defuse
racial tensions that erupted into riots last month after Michael Brown,
an unarmed black teenager, was shot to death by a white policeman.
For
the reforms to be truly meaningful, they will need to be adopted by
neighboring towns in St. Louis County that have similarly unfair legal
systems, which appear to single out black motorists for traffic and
streets stops. The reform effort also needs a strong push from the State
Supreme Court, which should bring the municipal courts into line with
state law and United States Supreme Court rulings that make it illegal
to jail indigent defendants solely because they are unable to pay fines.
Defense
lawyers say that such abuses are common in St. Louis County, where
black motorists are often targeted for petty offenses that generate
fines, which provide some towns with 40 percent or more of their
revenues. When motorists who can’t afford to pay the fines and penalties
miss their court dates, arrest warrants are issued — which makes them
vulnerable to losing job opportunities and housing.
A
Times article on Tuesday said that Ferguson had the highest number of
warrants relative to its size in the state. A report by ArchCity
Defenders, a nonprofit organization, found that last year Ferguson
issued roughly three warrants for every household in town.
The
City Council seems to have gotten the message. It announced that it
would take up a proposal to repeal the offense of “failure to appear” in
municipal court so that defendants would no longer be charged or fined
for not appearing. Presumably, the new system will allow defendants to
explain their absences and permit them to work out payment plans for
fines.
The
Council also said it would take up proposals that limit court-fine
totals to 15 percent or less of the city’s revenue and abolish onerous
fees that can have a catastrophic effect on the lives of impoverished
defendants. The Council also expressed the hope that municipal judges
and prosecutors would explore alternative methods of sentencing,
including community service.
The
state courts in Missouri are already forbidden by law to jail indigent
clients solely because they are too poor to pay. The State Supreme Court
should grant a recent request by defense lawyers and legal scholars
that expressly states that the same standard applies in municipal courts
to indigent defendants, many of whom are racial minorities.
In
acting this week, the Ferguson City Council was clearly being mindful
that the Justice Department has begun a broad investigation into police
practices in Ferguson, focusing on issues like mistreatment of
prisoners, use of excessive force and discriminatory traffic stops.
That
investigation needs to go forward, not just in Ferguson but in
neighboring towns in St. Louis County, which have been similarly bad
records. The goal should be to induce those towns to embrace judicial
fairness as well.
