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Friday, August 21, 2015

Local Government Larceny

Many local municipalities experience budgetary pressure. Rather than raise taxes or cut services in response, things that are often politically unpalatable, they turn to law enforcement and courts to make up the difference in tickets and fines. Some can also increase the number of finable offenses and stiffen the penalties.

Officers, already disproportionately deployed and arrayed in so-called "high-crime" neighborhoods — invariably poor and minority neighborhoods — are then charged with doing the dirty work. The increase in sheer numbers of interactions creates friction with targeted populations and ups the odds that individual biases will be introduced.

Without fail, something eventually goes horribly wrong.

We look at the end interaction, examining the officers for bias and the suspect for threatening behavior, rather than looking at the systems that necessitated the interactions. – New York Times, Aug. 9, 2015

Charles Blow, the New York Times columnist we quote today, is no libertarian. Nonetheless, he points to an important issue libertarians should consider.

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10 comments:

Anonymous said...

The crappy neighborhoods are where most crime is committed, then you got Slumsbury, here the whole town is infested with crime. The mayor and police chief have their heads up their asses, believing everything is fine.

Anonymous said...

The state of Maryland has done this for years with new laws and increased fines and penalties. They especially use the state police to write tickets for more revenue. The state doesn't care about points on your license, just the fine and court cost

Anonymous said...

Better to have the cops in the poor high crime hoods than to have the high crime hoods in low crime neighborhoods.

Anonymous said...

Amen 10:39

Anonymous said...

Saw the sheriff's running radar on 50 last couple nights. Not msp. Guess the county asked the state for a chunk of that money.

JoeAlbero said...

You should see all the state police on Rt. 50 this morning! I counted five. No Sheriff's Deputies.

Anonymous said...

If traffic tickets were all about money to police officers, then why d traffic stops result in more than 50% warnings?

Anonymous said...

12:12 simple answer; cops don't like to write tickets to someone that may know someone they know.

Anonymous said...

They balance the books on the backs of the poor who are forced to live in these "high crime" areas (self-fulfilling), force people to waste money at a bail bondsman, make them jump through hoops and pay out the nose for supervised probation. The justice system is a joke.

Anonymous said...

I think I made 9 traffic stops during the last two days. Two citations for a suspended driver and one citation for a driver doing 24mph over speed limit in the middle of town. Everything else was a written warming. And that is pretty typical for me on all traffic stops. Frankly I could care less who you know.

Giovanni Jones