Ferguson

West Florissant Ave., the scene of clashes earlier in the week, remained calm for a second straight night.

Police arrested only seven people Thursday, the second consecutive day when the number of arrests has stayed in the single digits. Three of those detained are from Detroit.

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The violent clashes between police and protesters on Monday and Tuesday have become a national embarrassment for local law enforcement leaders.

Even Sam Dotson, the St. Louis metropolitan police chief, questioned the aggressive militarized response to protesters by St. Louis County officers.

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Schools in Ferguson have remained closed over the past several days of civil unrest.

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The press conference capped a wearying day of social protest during which the temperature climbed to 97 degrees and the heat index broke 100. In the stifling heat, foot traffic along West Florissant was light, and the crowd at the evening’s protest march was smaller than previous nights.

The town's atmosphere changed after Attorney General Eric Holder visited Wednesday and met with Brown's parents.

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He announced the Justice Department will examine whether local police are guilty of civil rights violations, a development that gave protesters hope their complaints were being heard in Washington.

  The Hill

Underlying issues continuing, there will be future incidents.

Debtor’s prisons are supposed to be illegal in the United States but today poor people who fail to pay even small criminal justice fees are routinely being imprisoned. The problem has gotten worse recently because strapped states have dramatically increased the number of criminal justice fees….Failure to pay criminal justice fees can result in revocation of an individual’s drivers license, arrest and imprisonment. Individuals with revoked licenses who drive (say to work to earn money to pay their fees) and are apprehended can be further fined and imprisoned. Unpaid criminal justice debt also results in damaged credit reports and reduced housing and employment prospects.

  Marginal Revolution

A new report from Arch City Defenders, a non-profit legal defense organization, shows that the Ferguson municipal courts are a stunning example of these problems.

[...] Despite Ferguson’s relative poverty, fines and court fees comprise the second largest source of revenue for the city, a total of $2,635,400. In 2013, the Ferguson Municipal Court disposed of 24,532 warrants and 12,018 cases, or about 3 warrants and 1.5 cases per household.

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If you are arrested on a warrant in one of these jurisdictions and are unable to pay the bond, you may spend as much as three weeks in jail waiting to see a judge.

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According to local judge Frank Vatterott, 37% of the courts responding to his survey unconstitutionally closed the courts to non-defendants. Defendants are then faced with the choice of leaving their kids on the parking lot or going into court. As Antonio Morgan described after being denied entry to the court with his children, the decision to leave his kids with a friend resulted in a charge of child endangerment.

You don’t get $321 in fines and fees and 3 warrants per household from an about-average crime rate. You get numbers like this from bullshit arrests for jaywalking and constant “low level harassment involving traffic stops, court appearances, high fines, and the threat of jail for failure to pay.”

  Marginal Revolution

[W]hy are police departments allowed to fund themselves with ticket revenue in the first place? Or red light camera revenue. Or civil asset forfeiture revenue. Or any other kind of revenue that provides them with an incentive to be as hardass as possible. Am I missing something when I think that this makes no sense at all?

  Mother Jones

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.