More likely this. I have never rated their rationality, and this is borne out by their IQ test results.
One year later: Ferguson is still pumping out arrest warrants Loud music. Not wearing a seat belt. Speeding. "A year after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown sparked a firestorm in Ferguson, the city is still pumping out thousands of new arrest warrants and jailing people over minor offenses, according to an exclusive CNNMoney analysis. "This practice continues despite a scathing report from the Department of Justice in March that found that Ferguson's police department and municipal court were unconstitutionally targeting low-income and minority residents with tickets and fines for minor offenses -- often in pursuit of revenue. The report noted that there were more than 16,000 people (residents and non-residents alike) with outstanding arrest warrants as of the end of last year, equivalent to around 75% of the town's population. "While the police were the ones giving out the tickets, the DOJ slammed the city's court for using arrest warrants to squeeze money out of the people least able to afford the fines.Even though there need to be repercussions for people who break the law and ignore their tickets, the DOJ says jail time is far too harsh a punishment for infractions that rarely pose a major threat to public safety. "But in the wake of the DOJ report, CNNMoney found that Ferguson is still at it. The city has issued more than 2,300 new arrest warrants so far this year and thousands of older warrants continue to haunt people -- even as neighboring municipalities are wiping out old tickets or warrants entirely. "But that number, provided to CNNMoney by the state, only tells part of the story. So CNNMoney decided to zero in on the underlying offenses that are leading to these warrants.Getting this information wasn't easy. At first, CNNMoney filed a public records request for data showing all offenses that have led to outstanding warrants, which was denied. CNNMoney then turned to a state committee of judges, which ultimately ordered Ferguson to release the city's court records. But then the city said it doesn't store these records digitally and could only make paper copies available. "So CNNMoney analyzed more than 700 pages of paper court dockets from the two most recent months available at the time, April and May. Related: Traffic tickets land pastor, student, single mom behind bars "For one Ferguson woman, an old ticket for an expired car registration resulted in a warrant that she didn't learn about until she tried to renew her license several months ago. Meanwhile, her neighbor could be arrested at any time because of a ticket she couldn't afford to pay for having an old, beat-up car parked in her driveway. "A St. Louis mail carrier went to court in Ferguson five times to fight a ticket for driving through a stop sign, but he still ended up with an arrest warrant when he was late to pay the fine. And CNNMoney spoke to multiple people who had recently been arrested and taken to Ferguson's jail after police had discovered their warrants during traffic stops." More >>
It looks appalling and self-defeating to us, but they get far more results from politicians than we do with our polite letters to the editor. Cops are now afraid to use their weapons against a black thug. Several cops have had their jobs terminated and likely lives ruined because of having to deal with out of control blacks. The guy in Dalls was beaten bloody with his own gun. No one is demonstrating for him. We will probably have to go through a cycle of ever-increasing violence and crime before people are fed up enough to get changes. This was happening in NYC in the 1970's and finally Rudy G came into office and said "enough." It is no mystery how to stop the anarchy. Tough, intrusive policing, no tolerance policies for minor law-breaking, flooding high crime areas with cops, borderline martial law if necessary. Instead, big city dems want to send money to community groups, ie slush funds for supporters.
As a "conformist" I tend to avoid behavior that I can not afford the "penalty" for. Most rational humans follow a similar path reasoning out risk vs. reward... In effect this is the basis of a statistical approach to be behavior. Humans who do not think out risk vs. reward tend to land up with arrest warrants.
Yep...There is just no hope for this country. It's over. What is going on in this country is many, many, many times worse than what was happening in 1776.
Throughout every state, town, county, and city in the U.S. if you do not pay a fine then a warrant will be issued for your arrest. This is not unusual. Ferguson is not in any manner out-of-line in their issuing of warrants. The "punishments" are not exceeding the crimes. The "punishment" is pretty standard throughout the U.S. Actually those who viewed the DoJ report and crunched the numbers came to the conclusion that the only thing that the report demonstrates is that Ferguson has a high minority population and a high poverty rate. This naturally leads to people who can not pay their fines having arrest warrants issued for them. You can make a case that Ferguson uses it muni court simply for fund raising (100s of other towns do the same thing). Should the justice for traffic tickets, etc. be handled in the county court to get the town out of the court (and fund raising business)? If you answer yes for Ferguson then the DoJ should demand the same of hundreds of other towns doing the same thing should have their courts shut down and turned over to the county. Part of this comes back to behaviors norms related to risk vs. reward. If I am wealthy and own a Mercedes then I may go 65 in a 55 zone thinking that cops will give me some leeway and I am not likely to get a ticket - certainly I can afford the $110 fine. I am unlikely to do 105 in a 55 zone because the risk of personal injury is high and the ticket would probably result in losing my driving privileges. If I am poor driving an old beater however then I am likely to do only 55 in the 55 zone, because I can not afford to pay the $110 ticket - and would land up with an arrest warrant in time. Unfortunately some people in the population don't appear to have rational decision making skills associated with basic risk vs. reward scenarios much less figuring out anything more complex. The "punishments" fit their crimes (and are pretty standard country-wide)... the real problem is their lack of common sense -- not a problem with "punishments exceeding the crimes".
So in general, government, or should I say "gubmint", is regarded around here as corrupt, incompetent, too big, and abusing its power everyday. But if we're examining the civil unrest in Ferguson, that city's municipal and county government is good. It's "those people" living there, their character, which is corrupt.