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The Louisiana Town Where a Traffic Stop Can Lead to One Charge After Another (www.propublica.org)

submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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The city of Gretna, Louisiana, in the shadow of New Orleans, brings in more money through fines and related fees than some larger cities in the state. An investigation by WVUE-TV and ProPublica shows that much of that money comes from drivers who rack up multiple violations and hefty fines.

Defendants in Gretna’s mayor’s court, a unique justice system found only in Louisiana and Ohio, are charged with more violations — and face greater fines as a result — than those in seven other cities and towns we looked at. Many of those charges in Gretna are for nonmoving violations such as an expired license plate or vehicle inspection sticker.

And if a defendant misses a payment and doesn’t come to court to explain why, the court often adds a contempt charge, with an additional $150 fine. About half of Gretna’s cases over a three-year period included contempt charges.

A city representative said that officers charge people with violations only when they have probable cause, and that such fines deter motorists from breaking the law. A former New Orleans police chief, however, said cities can get people to follow the law without issuing lots of tickets.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago (1 children)

The fun of all of this shouldnt be the aggressive law enforcement, It should be, what is the town spending it all on. I mean with all this cash flow they should have the best of the best and lots of parks and civic outreach buildings. From a quick google maps look of the place, the money isnt getting spent on roads, schools. All the police cars look brand new, same with all the cars that were in special parking at the court house.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

Well ofc that's what's happening. Greedy cops gotta take care of their wants first before serving the community.

ACAB

[–] [email protected] 18 points 6 months ago (1 children)

It sounds like it might be another form of poor tax.

Your license/inspection is expired (possibly because you either couldn't afford to renew it, or couldn't take the day off to renew it) = given a fine.

Misses a payment, because they already couldn't afford the fine = given another fine and a court date.

Have to show up in court, but can't, again for the same reason you never renewed your license or paid the fine = given yet another fine.

It just seems like it is intended to snowball due to greed. But maybe I'm wrong and just excessively jaded and cynical.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 months ago (1 children)

We have plenty of speed trap towns like that around here. They want lower property taxes, so they augment their income using bullshit fines they give to out of towners. I'm sure they're shittier to poor people and people of color like all cops are, but really they want someone who will pay the fine and lives far enough that they won't go to court.

It is just one of several reasons traffic fines should go to the state or federal government.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

Traffic fines should go to the schools, but you're right that the feds are probably the best ones to dole the money out.

[+] [email protected] -20 points 6 months ago (1 children)

The police is actually doing their job? What's the story here?

Or is it just a car-brain-argument about being held accountable at all is a bad thing?

[–] [email protected] -4 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

Read through the article, and yeah honestly I struggled to find the point. Seems like this specific town gets a ton of money from cops dinging people with minor infractions, but I didn’t see any suggestion that the cops were somehow inflating that number. Sounds like a lot of people there can't afford the ticket, so they ignore the summons and get dinged again for not showing up.

Sooooo yeah, the data suggests something is fucky, but it's not like cops are breaking into garages to ticket people, so what's actually happening?

[+] [email protected] -9 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Seems to me like it's just the only place that's actually enforcing the law and not treating the drivers as if they are untouchable

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 months ago (1 children)

These types of towns use dirty tactics to catch people, like going from 75mph to 45mph without warning, often at the bottom of a hill or without enough time to properly slow down without hitting your brakes.

There are many states without absolute speed limits. This means a speeding ticket is really an 'unsafe speed' ticket, and you can get out of it if you can argue the speed was safe for the road conditions, even if you fully admit to exceeding the posted limit. It's also what allows cops to issue warnings instead of citations.

These towns basically exist to create situations where they can write citations for things that could easily be beaten in court. Their hope is that the people won't return to the town to fight it.

It's not very different from highway robbery.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

"These types of towns use dirty tactics to catch people, like going from 75mph to 45mph without warning, often at the bottom of a hill or without enough time to properly slow down without hitting your brakes."

I would wager there is no location like that in Gretna. Louisiana has speed zone ahead signs. It seems like they are specifically going for expired registration type items. Even the expressway has a steady speed limit through Gretna. I think the worst part about all of this is the "contempt" fee.

My brake tag is expired. I will be avoiding Gretna.