After the 2014 fatal police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into the local police department found that the city used fines, fees and court costs, imposed overwhelmingly on impoverished African Americans, to pay for municipal government. Failure to pay meant driver’s license suspensions, jail — and more fees. It’s an oppressive, racially unjust system, packaged as equal justice under law.
Source: latimes.com – Los Angeles Times