We held a hearing about whether or not the mayor should also be the Judge. The mayor has decided that the mayor runs the court impartially and there is no need for a 3rd party magistrate.

All the other corruption and such aside, imagine how terrible this is for the urban development of your town.

The municipal government has no incentive to invest in forward-thinking policy that will lead to healthier and more economically sustainable communities. If they invest in any kind of maintenance or developments that increase road safety - and thus decrease fines - it hurts the government's ability to operate. Indeed, they have direct Financial incentive to make the roads less safe. Not to even mention that they have no incentive at all to do things that improved the city in ways that won't affect their traffic fines.

They've committed to giving up on good governance of their small town. They found a way to function by just parasitizing others. They've given up.

I'm generally for local control over local matters, but this shit should be illegal at the federal level. The right to due process is impossible to implement when the executive and judicial branches are run by the same person.

in ohio ... and

seems like a clear conflict of interest to have a mayor adjudicating

I’m from this area. A mayor got in trouble for embezzlement a few year ago. Look it up.

the most expedient solution would be to drive nowhere near Fenton, LA

Reading the article, there is obviously there's some shady-ass conflict-of-interest shit going down in this specific case.

However.

Literally any municipality in America could make bank if they enforced the traffic laws to the letter. Conditions permitting, most drivers regularly go 5-10mph over the speed limit. Distracted driving is common, and evolving (apparently the new things is people watching streaming videos while driving). In certain areas drivers leave their cars parked on sidewalks, blocking crosswalks, inside bike lanes, etc. Laws about stopping for pedestrians waiting to cross the street may as well not exist. Buzzed (and more recently, mildly-stoned) driving is socially acceptable. My local municipality could probably fund itself exclusively off tickets from drivers who don't have their lights on in the rain.

To be very clear: enforcement is a terrible way to get people to follow traffic laws (an outsized number of encounters that end in police violence started with a traffic stop, traffic stops are disproportionately made against people of color, tickets are regressively priced, etc etc). However the case study of this little town reveals a big truth: lawbreaking while driving is widespread on American streets to a level so extreme that nearly all drivers on the road will break the law (however minutely) every time they get behind the wheel. What kind of a broken system is that?

My cat's name is Fenton!

Hey, it’s the plot line to “nothing to lose”. Is there a coal fire under the courthouse?

There was once a town that the state took its town charter away for the shitty way they pulled people over.

Louisiana needs to do the same.

People should literally stay away from this town, and drive around it. It's simply unacceptable for any municipality to work or either exist this way. It's better for everyone besides the 221 people living there not to ever visit or even passthrough the place

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And here I thought that city that the Spiffing Brit did in Cities Skylines (and, to a lesser extent, Tropico) that subsisted entirely on toll tickets were just too dumb to be real. If that game allowed you to exist on fines, I suspect it'd be exactly like this place

PS - Invidious link to the vid - https://inv.tux.pizza/watch?v=gBe39Tn_75c

Reminds me of Waldo Florida, back in the day.