Do not trust the police. Ever. The police force has become something evil in its purpose...

[whereisjustice]

15. The police are mercenaries who work on a cash basis...

and we agree that right now that cash is coming from Wall Street. However, the public needs to stop supporting them, and defending them and apologizing for them. Instead it is time to get tough and let them know that we are aware of the corruption and abuse and it must stop.

http://www.salon.com/2011/10/07/the_nypd_now_sponsored_by_wall_street/

Tomorrow the cop in that picture will pull that woman over, ticket her for driving while black and she'll pay a fine. The truth is in the data, from all the killings, beatings and corruption that is slowly leaking out shows just how broken our system of justice has become.

According to statistics in the report, “86% of vehicle stops involved black motorists although blacks make up just 67% of population; by comparison, whites comprise 29% of the population of Ferguson but just 12.7% of vehicle stops.” Blacks stopped in Ferguson are nearly twice as likely as whites to be searched and twice as likely to be arrested, however, contraband is seized from whites more often than blacks.

On average, one household in Ferguson has 3 warrants. In 2013, the municipal court “disposed of 24,532 warrants and 12,013 cases.”

Harvey explained that, legally, the courts are not doing anything wrong by issuing all these warrants and incarcerating a person for not paying fines or failing to appear in court. That does not change the fact that warrants are “wreaking havoc” on the lives of people in communities like Ferguson.

Our clients “feel like they’re being exploited and they believe that it’s because they’re poor and they’re members of communities of color,” Harvey shared. It is often part of the reason why clients they help are struggling with homelessness.

A number of residents from the St. Louis area have been arrested while demonstrating for justice for Brown. They were not immediately released because they had warrants or fines and this gave authorities the ability to keep them in jail.

In theory, Harvey suggested the municipal court structure was created to benefit the middle class so they could “avoid the impact of pleading guilty to ordinance violations.” This structure does not exist in counties outside the St. Louis region. It helps individuals avoid certain consequences that would normally be levied. Of course, avoiding consequences depends on one’s ability to pay and it “doesn’t work for poor people.”

“It pushes poor people further into poverty,” Harvey stated. “If you’re hanging on to the margins, and you get one of these warrants and you get locked up, how many people can afford to spend a couple days in jail without losing a job, especially if you’re working an entry-level job?” Harvey asked. Anyone living week-to-week would have their life seriously disrupted.

http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2014/08/25/fergusons-municipal-court-system-makes-millions-off-targeting-black-and-poor-people/