this post was submitted on 18 Nov 2023

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269

This Louisiana Town Runs Largely on Traffic Fines. If You Fight Your Ticket, the Mayor Is Your Judge. (www.propublica.org)

submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

22 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Fenton, population 226, brings in over $1 million per year through its mayor’s court, an unusual justice system in which the mayor can serve as judge even though he’s responsible for town finances.

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[–] [email protected] 61 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (3 children)

I live in Louisiana. Fenton is what's known here as a speed trap town.

Except for the i-10, every major highway in LA has these. The trick is that the average speed limit on these highways is around 60 or 70, and then it drops to 30 or 40 for a mile stretch where cops are waiting for you just after the sign.

If you missed the sign or haven't slowed down sufficiently by the time you reach it, they pull you over and write you a ticket for ~$600. I got one of these in 2018 for the latter reason.

You can follow the speed limit to the letter and miss one sign on accident. It actually is a trap. As the article says, It's a main source of income for the small towns along the highways of LA. It's corrupt as shit but we allow it so what can you do?

[–] [email protected] 42 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Sounds like highway robbery. Literally.

They also like to throw up temporary construction signs with adjusted speed limits without actually doing construction.

Fucking parasites.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Friendly reminder that highway robbery is legal if you're a cop

[–] [email protected] 13 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Robbery is legal if you’re a cop*

Civil asset forfeiture is fucking evil

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

An expensive CO2 pistol of mine was "temporarily" held. I never got it back

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

So, like every other mile of state highway in Georgia?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

so what can you do?

Repeal the town charter and fold it in to the control of the county? I'm not going to pretend that I'm well versed in Louisiana law, but this has happened in lot of other states. If the town is a legitimate trap for the residents of that county/state then isn't it everyone's best interest? Including Fentons who clearly doesn't have another income source.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago

omg! its literal Hazzard County!

[–] [email protected] 53 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Sounds like a grave conflict of interest

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago

Yea, but that's just because it is.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Yeah…. Uhm…. Seems like that’s a fairly easy thing to appeal?

[–] [email protected] 34 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I assume that for many people the time and effort to try and appeal shit like this is way more than the original fine is worth.

That is why it keeps happening.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 10 months ago (1 children)

yup. But, I imagine a half-decent lawyer could turn that into a class action and make bank.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I dunno the success of any suits against these towns, but they exist all over the country. They count on you passing through and not being able to come back for court.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Which is perhaps why a class action might be the best way to go, rather than just appealing it.

But part of due process is a free and impartial trial. I suspect there’s other forms of corruption, as well, though. It’s the kind of thing that festers

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

But you have to have $$ for it be worth a lawsuit. Notice in this case they don't even keep records, so it's likely hard to even fight them using their own papers. Better would be to contest in federal court using the Supreme Court opinion imo

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

90+% of the victims of these towns lives far enough away that it's cheaper to just pay the damn ticket than drive 400 miles to show up for court.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 10 months ago (1 children)

This is the exact plot of Nothing but Trouble except the mayor in the movie is a literal dicknose.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago (2 children)

That movie sounds fucking insane.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago

It very much is. 2Pac dances in it. He was a dancer in Digital Underground. You might know them from the hit song "The Humpty Dance". There's a random performance from them in the movie.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

I watched it once at the age of 8 in a hotel on a roadtrip. It has haunted my dreams ever since.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 10 months ago

ummm, holding an executive and judicial position simultaneously