theatlantic | Conservatives are typically eager to disparage politicians and
bureaucrats who conspire to seize wealth. So you'd think that they'd be
outraged to learn that officials in one municipality treat residents as
revenue sources rather than citizens. In this city,
policymakers have made maximizing the intake of money their number one
priority. They urge police to cite residents as aggressively as possible
and evaluate their municipal court judge based on the fines that he
levies. Challenges to the city's system are thwarted by a deliberately
complicated thicket of rules and red tape. And violations of the
Constitution are frequent and unpunished.
This city's government does not solve problems. Its government is
the problem. One illustration of many concerns a poor woman who got a
single parking ticket there. "From 2007 to 2014, the woman was arrested
twice, spent six days in jail, and paid $550 to the court for the events
stemming from this single instance of illegal parking," federal
investigators report.
"Court records show that she twice attempted to make partial payments
of $25 and $50, but the court returned those payments, refusing to
accept anything less than payment in full. One of those payments was
later accepted, but only after the court’s letter rejecting payment by
money order was returned as undeliverable. This woman is now making
regular payments on the fine. As of December 2014, over seven years
later, despite initially owing a $151 fine and having already paid $550,
she still owed $541."
What a burden the public sector has imposed on her life.
No city in America better illustrates government run amok than Ferguson, Missouri. Libertarians have long excoriated the city.
Less so, movement conservatives. Most are ambivalent about the abuses.
Some have even defended Ferguson officials. Why haven't conservatives
seized this opportunity to highlight government-caused damage and to
show blacks, Ferguson's most frequently abused demographic, that the
right is intent on protecting everyone's civil rights?
