Nitpicky ordinances can become oppression of poor
The tiny town of Pagedale, Mo., would make a good setting for an episode of “The Twilight Zone.”
The 3,300 residents live under intense scrutiny, fearing city workers who hand out a dizzying array of fines and tickets for the slightest of infractions.
Imagine cowering in your front room, fearful that a codes inspector will roll up with a ruler, ready to measure the lawn’s height. Or possibly he’ll peer into the windows, checking to see that screens are not frayed, and that sufficiently tidy and matching curtains are hung. Maybe he’ll find a shingle is out of place.
No kidding. These are real citations.
A few more gems: Walking on the wrong side of the crosswalk, wearing pants too low and setting up a barbecue grill in the front yard can earn you a fine. Grilling out front is allowed only on national holidays.
The hammer of the U.S. Constitution came down on Pagedale on Nov. 4. A class-action lawsuit by the Arlington, Va.based Institute for Justice was filed. The suit alleges that Pagedale is nitpicking codes to fill municipal coffers after the Missouri Legislature cracked down on how much revenue could be raised by traffic tickets. (The Legislature was moved by the national embarrassment of Pagedale’s neighboring jurisdiction, Ferguson.)
The Pagedale lawsuit illustrates again why Ferguson mattered — and not in the ways usually discussed.
Ferguson police were expected to harass residents, the goal being revenue, an exhaustive U.S. Justice Department report later found. The municipal court system was geared for revenue, too, even down to the hours the courts were open. It quickly generated additional fines when people didn’t pay up or appear.
Police officers and city officials who balked, the federal study found, were penalized professionally and silenced. This is how bad policy becomes institutionalized.
Unlike in Ferguson, race discrimination is not at the forefront in Pagedale. Its mayor and city council are AfricanAmerican. But the oppression of poor citizens is just as onerous.
The lawsuit charges that Pagedale’s excessive citations are a reaction to a new cap for total traffic fines of 12.5 percent of municipal revenue. Since 2010, the lawsuit alleges, nontraffic tickets have risen by nearly 500 percent. In 2014, that meant about two tickets for every household.
Pagedale, like Ferguson, is part of a county of about 90 different municipalities, each trying to stay afloat fiscally. Pagedale’s patch covers 1.19 square miles.
The Institute for Justice also points to far larger jurisdictions using police action or codes enforcement to drive revenues at questionably high rates.
Pagedale officials profess to simply trying to keep the city nice.
“It’s got nothing to do with driving up revenue,” Sam Alton, the city attorney, told The New York Times. “And it’s got everything to do with making the properties code-compliant and safe.”
Alton may believe that. Officials probably are concerned with the city’s reputation. The problem is that they seem to have lost a sense of proportion, not to mention empathy. Irrespective of their rationalizations, they have become an oppressive government, and the oppressed have decided to fight back.