Ferguson Black Tax Continue

Here’s how incestuous and crooked the small-town of Ferguson officials and system has been

"Ferguson Black Tax" contiue and being heavily enforced by Ferguson Prosecutor, Stephanie Karr. The highest court we’ve got took decisive action to address the kangaroo municipal court where Ronald J. Brockmeyer galavants around St. Louis County playing judge sometimes and prosecutor at others. As judge in Ferguson, he essentially operated the city cash register by fining — and then fining some more — Ferguson’s black residents. "BlackTax" or FergusonBlackTax

St. Louis Post-Dispatch story painted Brockmeyer, a lawyer in St. Charles County, as a veritable Pone Express dispenser of legal services, working as a judge or prosecutor in five different municipalities, as well as representing defendants.

Here’s how incestuous and crooked the small-town system has been: “Judge” Brockmeyer once prevailed on Ferguson prosecutor Stephanie Karr to dismiss a traffic ticket he had been issued in a nearby municipality where Karr was also the prosecutor, also Ferguson mayor has had Karr to dismiss tickets for his friend and coworkers.

In a recent report, the U.S. Department of Justice http://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/opa/press-releases/attachments/2015/03/04/ferguson_police_department_report.pdf excoriated the Ferguson Police Department and Municipal Court for routinely violating people’s — mostly black people’s — constitutional rights. The report said Ferguson’s fines were among the highest in the region, with hundreds of dollars levied for such violations as “peace disturbance,” “failure to comply” and “manner of walking.”

Manner of walking?

Citing the need for “extraordinary action,” the Supreme Court appointed Judge Roy Richter of the Missouri Court of Appeals in St. Louis to go in, hear cases and clean up the mess.

But Stephanie Karr is not finish yet with Ferguson Black Tax, one year later she's still pumping out arrest warrants.

A year after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown sparked a firestorm in Ferguson, the city is still pumping out thousands of new arrest warrants and jailing people over minor offenses, according to an exclusive CNNMoney analysis. This practice continues despite a scathing report from the Department of Justice in March that found that Ferguson's police department and municipal court were unconstitutionally targeting low-income and minority residents with tickets and fines for minor offenses -- often in pursuit of revenue. The report noted that there were more than 16,000 people (residents and non-residents alike) with outstanding arrest warrants as of the end of last year, equivalent to around 75% of the town's population. http://money.cnn.com/2015/08/06/news/ferguson-arrest-warrants/

"Ferguson Municipal Court Judge Ronald Brockmeyer, has since resigned. But Karr -- who by day works for Curtis, Heinz, Garrett and O’Keefe, one of several St. Louis law firms that profit off of the county's network of tiny municipalities desperate for revenue -- is still around and doubles as the City of Ferguson counsel."  http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/7707802