Thread by @HoarseWisperer

It's late and I'm tired and this will probably suck but I was in municipal court yesterday and, oh, I've got some thoughts.

I've had to go to traffic court a few times in my life. Different municipalities. Different demographics. Largely the same experience and takeaways.

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The first is that, in my state at least, traffic court has morphed into a revenue collection center. A taxation office. A cash cow.

Only a small fraction of the charges requiring a court appearance are really about policing driving per se. They're excuses to levy a fine.

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Sure, drunk driving, leaving the scene of an accident and a few other charges are treated as serious but just about every other charge is just a reason to collect a payment.

Take today for example. I watched about 75 appearances before mine. In virtually every case...

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...no matter what the original charge, the prosecutor typically agreed to kick it down to some lesser offense with no impact on a person's license or insurance.

Got stopped for not having insurance but got it three days later? Dropped to not presenting paperwork. Pay a fine.
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Expired registration but you've renewed it since? Same thing. Dropped to a charge of failing to show your registration when stopped.

Driving while suspended for some administrative reason like an unpaid ticket? Dropped to an administrative offense. Pay a fine. Free to go.

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90+% of the people who walk in are just ATMs. People dropping money into the municipal budget for some minor infraction.

Those fines are expensive though and their impact is regressive. They hurt the disadvantaged far more than the well off, of course.

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And disadvantaged people are far less likely to even know that they could talk to the prosecutor and get charges reduced in many cases.

So, if a disadvantaged person gets dinged for not renewing their registration on time and just pays the ticket, they're looking at $150...

7/

...AND they're looking at another $250 in surcharges... because the state has gotten in on the game and added surcharges so they get a piece of the revenue action too.

That disadvantaged person is on the hook for $400.

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And if they don't make the payments on time, they'll get suspended... and then they'll owe $100 more to get reinstated.. and if they don't pay it and get pulled over, they'll owe several hundred more.

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Someone with privilege and means, on the other hand, would have a chat with the prosecutor, get the charge kicked down and walk away with a $40 ticket. A poor person who knows no better pays 10x that.

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And the fines change the decision-making. A person who can't afford an attorney can apply for a public defender but that costs $200 bucks... and if they can't afford that, they're probably going to just plead guilty or plead not guilty and get convicted.

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A person who can afford an attorney has all their options open though.

Today, I saw several cases dismissed because the state wasn't ready to prosecute. The defendants literally did nothing more than show up twice. Walked away with a free pass.

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And I saw multiple people plead guilty to the same kinds of charges.

Had they had attorneys and known how the system works, they probably would have gotten dismissals too. Instead, they walked away with a big bill to pay... and a payment plan.

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This is long and boring, I'm sure, so I'll bring it in for a landing...

People who think the justice system is just should spend a few hours in municipal court. Watch closely. Pay attention to how it goes for the poor vs. the well off, the uneducated vs. the educated.

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The underprivileged are at a vast disadvantage in even minor matters as small as traffic tickets... and those disadvantages snowball into burdensome fines... which compound when they can't be paid... which lead to further stops and charges... which lead to loss of licenses.

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For the well off, traffic tickets are an inconvenient small-dollar shakedown to put some money in the town's coffers.

For the less well off, they're an out-sized poor tax with potentially vast consequences.

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Traffic courts should not be profit centers. When towns have a vested profit motive in policing, it's interests are no longer aligned with its citizens'.

When a town makes money by issuing tickets just to issue tickets, it ain't looking out for townfolk. It's taxing them.

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...and fines should be means-adjusted. Flat fees regardless of means punish the poor more than the rich.

A $200 fine to a person making $3k a week is a nuisance. The same $200 to a person making $400 a week is devastating.

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And I didn't even touch on the additional impact of *racism* on policing, stops, ticketing, etc.

Add all of this together and the justice system the privileged have access to bears no resemblance to the one available to the less privileged.

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Our justice system is inequitable in ways big and small and that punishes the disadvantaged no matter how tiny the charge. Even if it's just a parking ticket or paperwork error.

As for me, I paid a little inconvenience fee and got a walk.

Because I have that privilege.

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