Um, a town official got shot in a * courtroom* for complaining about the police. If that could happen to him, in that setting, I shudder to think what “I dare you” said by Joe Sixpack out on the road somewhere could bring.
This little town has the funds to buy the mayor a Crown Vic?
I say, sic the State BI on them and let the IRS descend. Let no document or coin go unturned. After about a three year investigation, let them go to jail for a good 10 years and be a lesson to the other pissants that take power and abuse it.
I work for the Gov, and this type of shit pisses me off to no end. It makes all public employees look bad.
Perhaps the town is full of a bunch of drunken speeders that feel they are above the law. Perhaps not. That the Mayor has a personal Crown Vic for such a small town speaks volumes.
That’s because it was alread out of hand. Daring a cop after they’ve gone completelly mad with power would definately have bad results.
Daring them to push their legal abilities is supposed to be done before it spirals into near chaos. Then if they actually do something they’re not allowed to, fight back. Prevent it from ever getting so bad so as someone gets shot in public and only gets “disciplined”.
It’s all moot of course, I’m just saying, this poor city must be enormously populated by sheep to have let it get this bad.
I’ll be very surprised if that’s not what is happening, or something very similar. I wonder if the courts have been upholding these fines, because that would also be screwed up.
I’d say that was a pretty good bet. Any honest prosecutor who got some of the stuff he probably would have gotten would have told them to stop the crap or be prosecuted. And I’d wonder about the judge also.
The line from the Stones “All the cops are criminals” is true in that town for sure.
According to the story, the town has ZERO industries and businesses, not even a grocery store, and a tiny, poor population. I bet they were having problems paying for necessary services. I can imagine a town sort of sliding into a situation like this – at first it being an ‘honest’ attempt to raise money for the town. So what if we soak a few outsiders with expensive tickets? They can afford it, we need the money, and they shouldn’t have been speeding.
This is an extreme example, of course, but that part of the country is dotted with places like this, where the local sheriff tries to make a few (and often times more than a few) extra bucks by hosing drivers. In the Piney Woods of East Texas, especially, you better be mighty careful if you’re driving around with out of state plates. I know from experience.