When the Justice Department says “We’ve reached an agreement” you really shouldn’t argue with them.
When your argument is that your revenues are down because “we don’t pull over people at the rate we used to pull people over. We don’t issue tickets like we used to issue tickets.”
When your argument is that “we began changing things in our courts, which we felt were onerous, which were probably burdensome on the people who are going through our court system.”
And finally when “those things which the Department of Justice alleges” is part of your thought process, you really need to step aside or go to jail.
The legal system is not meant to be a revenue generator for your city. For any city.
If you really “don’t believe the Department of Justice should tell us how much we have to pay our city staff.”
Then, how can you believe that you have the right to remove a persons liberty and them shake them by their ankles to see how much money fall out of their pockets?
Ari Shapiro, NPR. Ferguson, Missouri Mayor says there was no agreement with the Justice Department.
