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The Battle of Jericho
| Sat Sep. 5, 2009 12:15 PM PDT
When the fire chief of Jericho, Arkansas, finally got fed up and went to court a few days ago to challenge his second traffic ticket in as many days, the town's entire 7-man police force showed up for the hearing. And then shot him.
Seriously. Apparently a scuffle broke out and one of the cops pulled out his gun and shot the guy in open court. He's OK, but the police department, which was already in deep trouble for its habit of ticketing everything on wheels that rolled through Jericho, has been disbanded and all outstanding tickets have been voided. The town's part-time judge has quit too. And nobody knows what's happened to all the ticket revenue.
Story here. Happy Labor Day! (Via OTB.)
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Comments
Woo Pig Suey!
Submitted by jrw on Sat Sep. 5, 2009 12:34 PM PDT.
That state's gotta be some kind of crazy hellhole. When Texas secedes, perhaps it should take Arkansas and Oklahoma with it. Are there any Arkansas readers who can tell us some good things about Arkansas?
Uh, yeah, we Texans will be
Submitted by Avatar (not verified) on Sat Sep. 5, 2009 1:27 PM PDT.
Uh, yeah, we Texans will be getting right back to you on that one. Promise.
Actually, we already took care of our speed trap problem. A state law was passed that mandated that no more than 40% of a city's budget could come from tickets, and that any tickets collected over that percentage had to be given to the state budget. Amazingly, none of the speed trap cities had enough other revenue to continue employing a police officer to collect traffic tickets. (And the towns of sufficient size to afford it, don't; both because they're more interested in getting people to move there, and because the state can always jigger that number if it feels it has to...)
land of the deep fried Snickers bar
Submitted by cld (not verified) on Sat Sep. 5, 2009 3:52 PM PDT.
From the land of the deep fried Snickers bar,
Obesity Can Increase Dementia Risk by up to 80%,
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080507105556.htm
"Obesity increases the risk of dementia in general by 42 percent, Alzheimer's by 80 percent and vascular dementia by 73 percent, the new review suggests. . . .
"Our analysis of the data shows a clear association between obesity and an increased risk for dementia and several clinical subtypes of the disease," . . . "Subjects with a healthy body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference saw a decreased risk for dementia than their counterparts with an elevated BMI or waist circumference." . . . ."Preventing or treating obesity at a younger age could play a major role in reducing the number of dementia patients and those with other commonly associated illnesses such as Alzheimer's disease by up to 20 percent in the United States."
And that's the problem with Health care reform.
you have censors here
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat Sep. 5, 2009 4:16 PM PDT.
that eat comments when you hit the skip this message button. But only if you have links in your posting.
Pastor Johnathan Ayers was murdered by Drug Task Force in Tacoa, Georgia on Tuesday afternoon at the gas pumps of a convenience store. He was not involved with drugs. His young wife is 16 weeks pregnant with their first child. This incident needs some national investigation.
Lots of video at youtube
The thugs are armed and dangerous and will kill at the slightest provocation. They have badges.
here we go
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat Sep. 5, 2009 5:00 PM PDT.
That's Taccoa, GA, pastor Johnathan Ayers.
Jericho isn't Representative
Submitted by Bhelverson on Sat Sep. 5, 2009 8:33 PM PDT.
Jericho isn't representative of the rest of Arkansas. It is a TINY town that, even growing up in Arkansas, I had never heard of. However, Jericho is on the main route between Memphis and St. Louis on the Arkansas side and they were undoubtedly running a speed trap to catch the dreaded Out-of-Staters. Tyronza, another town just up the road, is a notorious speed trap and I suspect that Jericho was just trying to get a piece of the action.
And yes, JRW, I can tell you several good things about Arkansas. A Progressive Democrat as Governor, a Democratic Legislature, two Democratic Senators, and 3 (of 4) Democratic Congressmen. Arkansas has little in common with Texas, where the crazies rule.
What about your State, JRW? Any progressives there? Or is it filled with mindless snipers like you?
So, they're Democrats, and therefore not corrupt?
Submitted by leafsong1 (not verified) on Sun Sep. 6, 2009 7:51 AM PDT.
Thank you for demonstrating the sort of thought process that occurs in the minds of the people of your state. This explains why 174 people would put up with a manifestly corrupt 7 man police force. You can't be free until you free your mind.
Just mindless snipers like me
Submitted by jrw on Sun Sep. 6, 2009 8:39 AM PDT.
That's all we have here in Oregon. Jeez, don't be so touchy.
I thought
Submitted by Paul Camp (not verified) on Sat Sep. 5, 2009 8:38 PM PDT.
Andy made 'em keep their bullet in their pocket.
Well, actually, yeah I can
Submitted by URK (not verified) on Sat Sep. 5, 2009 8:49 PM PDT.
Well, actually, yeah I can tell you alot of good things about Arkansas. I'll acknowledge that we have our assholes, our redneck crazys and haters. But not enough to make it a "hell hole." Moreover, I think that some indictments, like the poll of 780 people that supposedly demonstrated that half the state is birthers, are given more credibility because of our homegrown dumbass quotient.
I'll start by noting that the University of Arkansas quietly desegregated in 1948, well before any other southern state schools, and that two Arkansas towns, one being my native Fayetteville, were the first two southern school districts to comply with Brown V. Board. Now, I admit that those are relative virtues - I'm not trying to duck the fact that it was a Jim Crow state, but parts of it got out form under JIm crow relatively quickly. I hold no brief for Little Rock in this regard, & in fact most of my affeciton is for the Northwest corner of the state, which is culturally pretty different form the Delta, which is different form South Arkansas, etc.
And, Arkansas has the first nationally protected waterway, the Buffalo River, and some of the most beautiful country you could ever see is in the Arkansas Ozarks. You can also find some nice back-to-the-land communities there, folks who've been living sustainably since the early 70s. In fact, the conservative majority in the Ozarks is mostly made up of Midwestern retirees and their descendents, who started buying land there in the late 50s.
and..well,t here's alot I'd like to add, but I have to cut this short. but briefly, Arkansas, especially Northwest Arkansas has the same kinds of vital art and culture and music that flourish throughout the south in spite of the south, if that makes sense. Go read Ellen Gilchrist's first novel, the Annunciation and see if her description of Fayettteville in the 70s sounds like a "hell hole" to you.
and I never, ever, saw a deep fried snickers bar, or much of deep fried anything (except little pies) the whole time I lived there.
Important true, but the most
Submitted by MNPundit (not verified) on Tue Sep. 8, 2009 1:38 AM PDT.
Important true, but the most eloquent and succinct argument against Arkansas that I know is: the Heat.
What's crazy is this little
Submitted by Mo (not verified) on Sat Sep. 5, 2009 9:25 PM PDT.
What's crazy is this little nugget.
Prosecutor Lindsey Fairley said Thursday that he didn't plan to file any felony charges against the officer or Payne. Fairley, reached at his home, said Payne could face a misdemeanor charge stemming from the scuffle, but that would be up to the city's judge.
My guess is if any other citizen shot someone in the leg in court, felony charges would be filed so fast it would make your head spin.
Ticketing getting out of hand
Submitted by Nancy Irving on Sat Sep. 5, 2009 10:29 PM PDT.
With sales and property taxes tanking because of the recession, many localities are trying to make up the difference by sending cops out to ticket their towns' way to solvency.
It ends up hurting the people at the bottom the most. Not only are tickets an extremely regressive form of "taxation," but poor people are much more likely to be ticketed, partly because of police bias, but also because many ticketing offenses are for equipment problems like broken tail-lights, problems that are expensive to fix and that poor people can't always address immediately.
I was in court last week to contest a moving violation. I got off--the cop didn't show. But I had to listen to two hours of other people's cases, and I ended up pretty outraged at some of the violations that cops wrote up.
Any kind of moving violation costs approximately four hundred dollars to clear up here (Contra Costa County near San Francisco), and several of the infractions seemed to merit a warning rather than a ticket. But neither the cops nor the judge gave the perps any leeway.
The worst was a Hispanic guy who was actually written up for jaywalking. I have been an aggresssive jaywalker for decades, and I have never been ticketed for a jaywalking offense, or even warned by a cop for same. Of course, I am white. Western Contra Costa County is heavily Hispanic; but most of the cops don't seem to consider cultural sensitivity as part of the job description. (While we perps were waiting for court to begin, a cop came out of the courtroom and asked for someone named Quinones. Except he didn't say "Quinones," he said "I don't know how to pronounce this," and then spelled the name out. This is a very common Spanish surname. Pathetic. Most of the cops in my town, where only about twenty percent of residents are white, are white guys from white suburbs.)
At least the jaywalking guy escaped with a ticket of "only" ninety-five dollars.
But really, it seems like local governments are gonna try to ride out the recession on the back of minorities and the poor. (So what else is new?)
Meanwhile, I am skulking around, avoiding major thoroughfares where the cops hang out, charting trips through sides streets, feeling like a criminal. Sheesh!
Oh, and I forgot to mention
Submitted by Nancy Irving on Sat Sep. 5, 2009 10:36 PM PDT.
If you're convicted (and EVERYBODY was convicted, except for those of us who were lucky enough that the cop who wrote us up didn't show) and you just can't come up with four hundred dollars to pay the fine, they swear out a bench warrant and it's now not a mere "infraction," but a criminal offense. And don't even think about what it'll do to your car insurance rates.
This is how poor people become "criminals."
Grrrrr.
Re: Deep Fried Snickers Bars
Submitted by Chicago Resident (not verified) on Sat Sep. 5, 2009 10:40 PM PDT.
What's the matter with deep-fried Snickers bars? If Arkansas is the land of their invention, then it is indeed hallowed ground.
-A Chicago Resident
Excellent Comment
Submitted by Bhelverson on Sun Sep. 6, 2009 1:18 PM PDT.
Thanks, URK, for bringing up other wonderful things about Arkansas. However, I suspect that neither one of us can convince those people who have never been to Arkansas but, somehow or another, think that they know enough to express opinions.
I suspect that we are once again seeing Clinton-hatred rearing its disgusting head.
Oh c'mon, we love the Big Dog!
Submitted by jrw on Sun Sep. 6, 2009 5:55 PM PDT.
Other than the fact he was mostly Republican-lite, who doesn't love Bill? It appears Arkansans (is that what we call them?) are awfully sensitive to real and imagined slights. Go ahead, make fun of Oregon all you like (it's easy), and I won't be offended. I promise. But, I will be on the lookout for hippie-hatred rearing its disgusting head.
Well, if you really love the
Submitted by Urk (not verified) on Mon Sep. 7, 2009 12:14 AM PDT.
Well, if you really love the big dog, then your feelings are probably stronger than mine. I have some affection for him, some of it sentimental, some of based on his skills & intelligence & some of it because I think that there are a few big issues (race mainly) where I think his heart is really right. But yeah, he was a big part of the corporatization of the Democratic party and I'm no fan of that.
My point was that people need to look beyond stereotypes and even political majorities to understand a place. There are hippies in Oregon you say? Hey, there are hippies in Arkansas too. Especially the Ozarks. The actual culture and conditions of a place, why people stay there, what their lives are like, is more varied and more interesting than the stereotypes. I'm sure that's true for Oregon too.
Arkansans, Arkansawyers, whatever, might be a little sensitive about this. But it's sensitive due to prolonged irritation, not sensitive because we're just touchy. We're collectively signified not only by the Stereotypes that apply to the rest of the South, but also by the hillbilly subset, an image that's iconically white, rural, backwards, and poor. And it comes more often than it should from liberals, who ought to know better, because it's* in essence a class division voiced as a "cultural" difference. It plays right into the shell game that keeps "populism" and "republican" snug and tight, even tho that's a historically unnatural romance.
So, yeah, it gets irritating enough that you want people (who you probably agree with aobut alot of things politiclaly) to at least get the stereotypes right, if they are gonna toss them around in public dialogue. Irritating enough to want to point out that the Deep Fried Candy Bar originated in Scotland and spread to State Fairs across the Midwestern and Southern US, that if you want a kooky deep fried southern food you might bring up Elvis' fave snack, deep fried (pan fried actually) peanut butter and banana sandwiches or anything that a significant subset of southerners invented or even ate in their daily lives. And that even that's not a particularly or even accurately stereotypically Arkansan thing. Which would mean pretty irritated, cuz it's really a silly thing and not, I'm certain intended meanly.
* and here by "it's" I mean the Hillbilly thing especially, because southern stereotypes are broad enough to include figures from various classes, tho even then there's a leftover twinge of anti-rural snobbery in the halls of real power.
Well, if you really love the
Submitted by Urk (not verified) on Mon Sep. 7, 2009 12:16 AM PDT.
Well, if you really love the big dog, then your feelings are probably stronger than mine. I have some affection for him, some of it sentimental, some of based on his skills & intelligence & some of it because I think that there are a few big issues (race mainly) where I think his heart is really right. But yeah, he was a big part of the corporatization of the Democratic party and I'm no fan of that.
My point was that people need to look beyond stereotypes and even political majorities to understand a place. There are hippies in Oregon you say? Hey, there are hippies in Arkansas too. Especially the Ozarks. The actual culture and conditions of a place, why people stay there, what their lives are like, is more varied and more interesting than the stereotypes. I'm sure that's true for Oregon too.
Arkansans, Arkansawyers, whatever, might be a little sensitive about this. But it's sensitive due to prolonged irritation, not sensitive because we're just touchy. We're collectively signified not only by the Stereotypes that apply to the rest of the South, but also by the hillbilly subset, an image that's iconically white, rural, backwards, and poor. And it comes more often than it should from liberals, who ought to know better, because it's* in essence a class division voiced as a "cultural" difference. It plays right into the shell game that keeps "populism" and "republican" snug and tight, even tho that's a historically unnatural romance.
So, yeah, it gets irritating enough that you want people (who you probably agree with aobut alot of things politiclaly) to at least get the stereotypes right, if they are gonna toss them around in public dialogue. Irritating enough to want to point out that the Deep Fried Candy Bar originated in Scotland and spread to State Fairs across the Midwestern and Southern US, that if you want a kooky deep fried southern food you might bring up Elvis' fave snack, deep fried (pan fried actually) peanut butter and banana sandwiches or anything that a significant subset of southerners invented or even ate in their daily lives. And that even that's not a particularly or even accurately stereotypically Arkansan thing. Which would mean pretty irritated, cuz it's really a silly thing and not, I'm certain intended meanly.
* and here by "it's" I mean the Hillbilly thing especially, because southern stereotypes are broad enough to include figures from various classes, tho even then there's a leftover twinge of anti-rural snobbery in the halls of real power.
sorry!
Submitted by URK (not verified) on Mon Sep. 7, 2009 12:22 AM PDT.
apologies for the triple post. We're sensitive, but not that sensitive. I didn't mean to do that.
Well, if you really love the
Submitted by Urk (not verified) on Mon Sep. 7, 2009 12:17 AM PDT.
Well, if you really love the big dog, then your feelings are probably stronger than mine. I have some affection for him, some of it sentimental, some of based on his skills & intelligence & some of it because I think that there are a few big issues (race mainly) where I think his heart is really right. But yeah, he was a big part of the corporatization of the Democratic party and I'm no fan of that.
My point was that people need to look beyond stereotypes and even political majorities to understand a place. There are hippies in Oregon you say? Hey, there are hippies in Arkansas too. Especially the Ozarks. The actual culture and conditions of a place, why people stay there, what their lives are like, is more varied and more interesting than the stereotypes. I'm sure that's true for Oregon too.
Arkansans, Arkansawyers, whatever, might be a little sensitive about this. But it's sensitive due to prolonged irritation, not sensitive because we're just touchy. We're collectively signified not only by the Stereotypes that apply to the rest of the South, but also by the hillbilly subset, an image that's iconically white, rural, backwards, and poor. And it comes more often than it should from liberals, who ought to know better, because it's* in essence a class division voiced as a "cultural" difference. It plays right into the shell game that keeps "populism" and "republican" snug and tight, even tho that's a historically unnatural romance.
So, yeah, it gets irritating enough that you want people (who you probably agree with aobut alot of things politiclaly) to at least get the stereotypes right, if they are gonna toss them around in public dialogue. Irritating enough to want to point out that the Deep Fried Candy Bar originated in Scotland and spread to State Fairs across the Midwestern and Southern US, that if you want a kooky deep fried southern food you might bring up Elvis' fave snack, deep fried (pan fried actually) peanut butter and banana sandwiches or anything that a significant subset of southerners invented or even ate in their daily lives. And that even that's not a particularly or even accurately stereotypically Arkansan thing. Which would mean pretty irritated, cuz it's really a silly thing and not, I'm certain intended meanly.
* and here by "it's" I mean the Hillbilly thing especially, because southern stereotypes are broad enough to include figures from various classes, tho even then there's a leftover twinge of anti-rural snobbery in the halls of real power.
Reintegration yea!
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun Sep. 6, 2009 5:19 PM PDT.
Maybe police departments are largely economic stimulus for thugs and other people abusive people: people who might lie and conflate to justify their jobs and salaries. The Bush administration has shown them that it is OK. There will be no repercussions.
It will be hard to argue for less police spending, although War on Drugs and ICE funding could be cut, and their duties reintegrated into regular police departments.
America needs an All Volunteer thuggery!
Fleecing Drivers
Submitted by Don K (not verified) on Sun Sep. 6, 2009 5:32 PM PDT.
I think it's getting more common for towns to target drivers as revenue sources these days. A guy I know was ticketed for right on red at an intersection about a quarter mile from my house. Now I know that intersection well - I drive through it every day - and there are no "No Right on Red" signs in any direction. I guess the township has told the cops to get more aggressive on ticketing, and if they have to then just make shit up.
The first step was to go to a magistrate. There the deal was either fess up and pay $120 with no points, or take it to court. The magistrate basically said the guy could take it to court, but he'd most likely be found guilty anyway, regardless of how many pics he had of the intersection, and after court costs it would be more like $300, and he'd get the points (and have to pay up to his insurance company for the next five years).
So at that point he took the path of least resistance. At least he didn't get shot...
ticketing can't bring in much money
Submitted by cld (not verified) on Mon Sep. 7, 2009 12:28 PM PDT.
It occurs to me that a town that has to make up a substantial part of its' budget through ticketing doesn't have much budget in the first place.
They should be getting tremendously more from their state government than they're getting, and that they are not getting it is itself expressive of general corruption.
I don't know how Oregon got
Submitted by Gene O'Grady (not verified) on Mon Sep. 7, 2009 7:58 PM PDT.
I don't know how Oregon got into this discussion, but since it's there I have to say that the little old town of Coburg, just north of Eugene on I5, had been notorious for depending on speeding tickets for city revenue for years. Recently the legislature put a stop to that.
I still joke, however, when I see the signs on the smaller highways saying "SPEED ZONE" that in Oregon we spell trap z-o-n-e. Watch out for Pleasant Hill, by the way. Lovely little town, but....
a uniform is not a license to kill
Submitted by tpx on Tue Sep. 8, 2009 8:43 AM PDT.
Police should not be allowed to use deadly force without a warrant. The police should be disarmed, with only specialists allowed to use deadly force. Arming traffic cops puts deadly force into the hands of ignorant authoritarians, who think a uniform is a license to kill.
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