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Ferguson’s municipal court system features prominently in this shakedown scheme . The court “does not act as a neutral arbiter of the law or as a check on unlawful police conduct . Instead, the court primarily uses its judicial authority as the means to compel the payment of fines and fees that advance the City’s financial interests .”7 The court issues arrest warrants, not on the basis of public safety, but as “a routine response to missed court appearances and required fine payments . In 2013 alone, the court issued over 9,000 warrants on cases stemming in large part from minor violations such as parking infractions, traffic tickets, or housing code violations .”8 The municipal court issued warrants in these situations despite the fact that the underlying code violations themselves hardly justified jail time . And, “until recently, Ferguson also added charges, fines, and fees for each missed appearance and payment .”9 Ferguson’s municipal court is, in essence, no more than a collection agency .
These practices wreak havoc on the lives of Ferguson’s poorest and most vulnerable, and cause disproportionate harm to Black residents .10 Tonya DeBerry‘s experience is illustrative . Last year, Ms . DeBerry was arrested for failure to pay multiple traffic tickets . She spent two nights in jail until her daughter could post bond of $300, which she was required to borrow from a neighbor . Ms . DeBerry is unable to work and relies on disability and food stamps . Of course, having to pay bond made it harder to pay the underlying traffic tickets .11 Thus begins the never-ending cycle of debt and despair, indignity and incarceration, for Ms . DeBerry and far too many others, who insist they would pay the fines and fees if they could afford to do so . In another case chronicled in the report, an unnamed Black woman received two citations and a ticket in 2007 for having an illegally parked car . The total cost was $151 . The woman, who was in and out of homelessness for years, was unable to pay the fine . Over the next seven years, she missed several deadlines and court dates . That led to more fees, more deadlines, and more charges . The woman ultimately spent six nights in jail . And she is not done . Despite having paid $550 in fines and fees, as of December 2014, she still owes $541, notwithstanding that the initial fine was just $151 .12
Ferguson is not unique in these practices . In St . Louis County alone, there are ninety municipalities, many of which sprung up and were zoned to prevent the influx of Black residents . All but a few have their own police force, mayor, city manager, and town council . Eighty-one have their own municipal court .13 There are too many towns and not enough taxpayers to sustain them all, so, they resort to petty fines and fees to generate revenue . Some towns derive up to 40 percent of their annual budgets from fines and fees collected by the municipal courts . In 2013, court fines and fees funded nearly 25 percent of Ferguson’s municipal budget, netting the city $2 .6 million, its second-largest source of income .14 While most of the fines are for traffic offenses, there are many
7 Id. at 3.
8 Id.
9 Id.
10 Id. at 5.
11 Rachelle Blidner, Ferguson Sued for ‘Grotesque’ Debtors Prison: Lawsuit, N.Y. Daily News (Feb. 10, 2015), http:// www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ferguson-sued-grotesque-debtors-prison-lawsuit-article-1.2109381.
12 Terrence McCoy, Ferguson Shows How a Police Force Can Turn Into a Plundering ‘Collection Agency,’ wash. posT (March 5, 2014), http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/03/05/ferguson-shows-how-a- police-force-can-turn-into-a-plundering-collection-agency/.
13 Radley Balko, How Municipalities in St. Louis County, Missouri, Profit From Poverty, Wash. posT (Sept. 3, 2014), http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2014/09/03/how-st-louis-county-missouri-profits-from- poverty/.
14 Blidner, supra note 11.
Impact: Collected Essays on the Threat of Economic Inequality