How Municipalities In St. Louis Profit from Poverty

[allodial]

How municipalities in St. Louis County, Mo., profit from poverty


If you were tasked with designing a regional system of government guaranteed to produce racial conflict, anger, and resentment, you’d be hard pressed to do better than St. Louis County. (from the article)
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[More/source (http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2014/09/03/how-st-louis-county-missouri-profits-from-poverty/)]

Its a lengthy article but quite insightful.

[shikamaru]

Someone needs to instruct those souls on Administrative, Civil, and Criminal law procedure.

Commercial law study wouldn't hurt either to round out the bases.

[pumpkin]

I saw this yesterday: http://www.wsj.com/articles/lawsuit-alleges-ferguson-mo-legal-system-violates-constitutional-protections-by-jailing-poor-for-fines-1423502968

These municipalities are being sued for "jailing people solely for the inability to pay fines and fees on offenses like traffic tickets and other minor offenses." This is being done by "lawyers from Equal Justice Under Law and ArchCity Defenders, two advocacy groups that often provide pro bono legal assistance with a mission to assist indigent clients."

I find this interesting because I have ended traffic tickets with a mere answer only (about 4 pages). Part of that challenge is subject matter jurisdiction, which of course, can be challenged at any time, even years after the fact. Why is a team of lawyers suing in federal court? Are they not taught the law in school? Lawyers are educated with what they are wanted to know. I wonder if a federal court will even hear a case that can be dealt with so easily within the state court.

[Chex]

Could not read the article pumpkin unless I "registered" for an account (LOL) but here is one you don't have to register at, http://wwno.org/post/civil-rights-attorneys-sue-ferguson-over-debtors-prisons

[pumpkin]

Thanks Chex. That article was not that way when I copied and pasted the two sentences from it earlier. Must be getting a fair amount of attention, at least enough to exploit.