269

Fenton, population 226, brings in over $1 million per year through its mayor’s court, an unusual justice system in which the mayor can serve as judge even though he’s responsible for town finances.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] Seasoned_Greetings@lemm.ee 61 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I live in Louisiana. Fenton is what's known here as a speed trap town.

Except for the i-10, every major highway in LA has these. The trick is that the average speed limit on these highways is around 60 or 70, and then it drops to 30 or 40 for a mile stretch where cops are waiting for you just after the sign.

If you missed the sign or haven't slowed down sufficiently by the time you reach it, they pull you over and write you a ticket for ~$600. I got one of these in 2018 for the latter reason.

You can follow the speed limit to the letter and miss one sign on accident. It actually is a trap. As the article says, It's a main source of income for the small towns along the highways of LA. It's corrupt as shit but we allow it so what can you do?

[-] Wrench@lemmy.world 42 points 1 year ago

Sounds like highway robbery. Literally.

They also like to throw up temporary construction signs with adjusted speed limits without actually doing construction.

Fucking parasites.

[-] Seasoned_Greetings@lemm.ee 18 points 1 year ago

Friendly reminder that highway robbery is legal if you're a cop

[-] Supervivens@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago

Robbery is legal if you’re a cop*

Civil asset forfeiture is fucking evil

[-] glibg10b@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago

An expensive CO2 pistol of mine was "temporarily" held. I never got it back

[-] ElderWendigo@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago

So, like every other mile of state highway in Georgia?

[-] FoundTheVegan@kbin.social 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

so what can you do?

Repeal the town charter and fold it in to the control of the county? I'm not going to pretend that I'm well versed in Louisiana law, but this has happened in lot of other states. If the town is a legitimate trap for the residents of that county/state then isn't it everyone's best interest? Including Fentons who clearly doesn't have another income source.

[-] HubertManne@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago

omg! its literal Hazzard County!

this post was submitted on 18 Nov 2023
269 points (98.6% liked)

News

23517 readers
5706 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS