Marginal revolution reviews the DOJ report on Ferguson and what they found might shock you. But not me. Read about it here.
Three points:
1. This is fairly normal for a poorer St. Louis municipality. The richer ones only loot outsiders.
2. The legal profession is complicit in the looting because of the Missouri tradition that lawyers can easily “fix” tickets with no points or information flowing to insurers: just pay the fine and a fee to the lawyer and you’re off. Unless you’re poor and can’t pay, that is.
3. Massive over criminalization and over enforcement have their roots and legitimacy in “broken windows” policing. Hyper aggressive and picayune “broken windows” policing was the European American establishment’s response to the breakdown of the old cultural consensus in our cities due to waves of both domestic and international migration from very different cultures. Its top down, coercive nature is an admission by elites that we have not sustained a common culture where everyone abides by common norms. It is an admission of cultural defeat by European America. As is the war on drugs which complements and intensifies it’s effects.
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