This video from the USA says about itself:
Ferguson “debtors’ prisons” targeting low-income African-Americans – civil rights lawyers
9 February 2015
Civil rights lawyers are taking the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, Mo. to court over what they are calling unconstitutional “debtors’ prisons.” Claiming that city officials routinely burden low-income individuals with outrageous fines before proceeding to throw them in jail for failure to pay these penalties, the group of attorneys is targeting the largely African-American city’s second largest source of income.
By Peter Funt in California, USA:
California’s license scheme punishes the poor
April 7, 2015
SAN FRANCISCO — Imagine if a doctor struggled to pay a small debt and as punishment the government took away his stethoscope. Or, if a ballerina owed money and was forced to surrender her toe shoes. Makes no sense, right?
Yet, here in California as many as 4 million citizens have had driver’s licenses suspended for reasons having little or nothing to do with vehicular safety. The state increasingly uses license-suspension as a tool and, in doing so, creates “cycles of poverty that are difficult if not impossible to overcome.”
That is the conclusion of a just-released report co-authored by five leading legal aid and civil rights groups. An offense as minimal as loitering can result in a fine that multiplies quickly if unpaid—often leading to a suspended license, lost employment and, before long, crippling debt.
Such scenarios create significant economic and social problems in California, where nearly a quarter of the state’s 38 million residents live in poverty. Uncollected court-ordered fees now total more than $10 billion. In an ill-conceived effort to balance the books, California annually suspends over a half-million driver’s licenses for missed court dates or delinquent payments of fines and fees.
While the recent Justice Department probe in Ferguson, Missouri, got headlines for revealing a pattern of abuse through fees and arrest warrants in noncriminal cases, California has long engaged in similar efforts to feed state coffers. For example, a $100 base fine—say, for failure to carry proof of auto insurance—actually costs $490 with mandatory fees and assessments. If the initial deadline for the fine is missed, the total due soars to $815.
What began as a system of fines to punish bad behavior has gradually become a scheme to fund state programs. And whereas driver’s licenses were once suspended solely to keep unfit motorists off the roads, California now takes away driving privileges for such things as misplaced registration stickers, failure to report a change of address, failure to pay a bus fare—even for skipping school.
Whether it’s in California, Missouri or any other state, government actions such as these invariably have the greatest impact on the poor and otherwise disadvantaged.
“The human cost of this practice is enormous,” said Meredith Desautels, a staff attorney at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area. She notes that “a disproportionate burden is placed on communities of color, already unfairly targeted by law enforcement, and low-income people who don’t have the means to pay.”
Under Gov. Jerry Brown, California has overcome many of its financial problems. The state is in the vanguard of much progressive legislation, yet the scandalous process of exorbitant fees and license suspensions persists.
Desautels and her colleagues say reform efforts in California have gained bipartisan support but remain stalled because some lawmakers believe the cost of change is too steep.
Their report, titled “Not Just a Ferguson Problem—How Traffic Courts Drive Inequality in California,” suggests that California restructure its debt collection process and end the use of license suspensions. Additionally, the authors urge creation of a formula by which more than 4 million residents with suspended licenses can have their driving privileges restored.
Included in the report are numerous case studies of crippling effects from the current system of fines, fees and suspensions. Typical is Alyssa, a bus driver, who received a ticket for not notifying the DMV when her address changed. She corrected the documents but failed to pay the $25 fine. Her license was suspended. The bus company fired her. Alyssa had to seek state aid to provide for her children. She is unable to pay her fine and penalty fees, which now total $2,900.
That’s a crime. And Californians such as Alyssa are the victims, not the villains.
How St. Louis Police Robbed My Family of $1000 (and How I’m Trying To Get It Back): here.
Study: Targeting the Poor For Traffic Violations and Jailing Extends Beyond Ferguson: here.
Justus Howell, a young African-American, was killed on Saturday afternoon by a police officer who shot him twice in the back, today confirmed a report by the Police. The 17-year-old, resident in the town Waukegan, was killed by a policeman from Zion, Illinois, and according to a report from the forensic’s office in Lake County, one of the bullets penetrated the left side of the back affecting the heart, liver and spleen of the victim: here.
OFFICER CHARGED WITH MURDER OF UNARMED VICTIM “A white South Carolina police officer was arrested and charged with murder Tuesday after video showed him fatally shooting a fleeing, unarmed black man in the back. North Charleston Police Officer Michael T. Slager, 33, can be seen shooting 50-year-old Walter Scott after a confrontation on Saturday.” You can watch the video (warning: graphic content). And here’s everything the police said about the incident before the video surfaced. [Andy Campbell, HuffPost]
Every day in America, workers and young people are set upon by the police. On most days, at least one is killed. Over the seven days between March 27 and April 3, 28 people were killed by police officers across the US. Christopher Prevatt, 38, of Winchester, Virginia became the 28th fatality of the week, and the 298th of 2015, when he was shot and killed in his home at about 5 PM on April 3 by a Frederick County Sheriff’s deputy: here.
THE APPS DOCUMENTING POLICE ABUSE “In an effort to protect that constitutional right, developers, in recent years, have been partnering with advocacy groups like the American Civil Liberties Union to develop smartphone apps aimed at making it easier for members of the public to document allegations of police abuse — and to know their rights while doing so.” [HuffPost]
Dear Kitty. Some blog 
White SC officer charged with murder in black man’s shooting
By BRUCE SMITH
Associated Press
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) – A white South Carolina police officer was charged with murder Tuesday, hours after law enforcement officials viewed a dramatic video that appears to show him shooting a fleeing black man several times in the back.
North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey announced the charges at a hastily called news conference in which he said City Patrolman Michael Thomas Slager made “a bad decision.”
Saturday’s shooting, which began as a traffic stop over a faulty brake light, occurred as Americans grapple with issues of trust between law enforcement and minority communities after a series of deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of police. They include the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner on Staten Island, New York. Both sparked protests nationwide.
In the Charleston case, authorities said the victim, 50-year-old Walter Lamer Scott, was shot after the officer already hit him with a stun gun.
“When you’re wrong, you’re wrong,” Summey said. “When you make a bad decision, don’t care if you’re behind the shield or a citizen on the street, you have to live with that decision.”
A video of the shooting released to news media outlets shows the officer firing eight shots at Scott’s back as Scott is running away. Scott falls on the eighth shot, fired after a brief pause. The video then shows the officer slowly walking toward him, and ordering him to put his hands behind his back.
When Scott doesn’t move, Slager pulls his arms back and cuffs his hands. Then he walks briskly back to where he fired the shots, picks up an object, and returns the 30 feet or so back to Scott before dropping the object by Scott’s feet.
Slager’s then-attorney David Aylor had released a statement Monday saying the officer felt threatened and that Scott was trying to grab Slager’s stun gun. Aylor dropped Slager as a client after the video surfaced.
Attorney L. Chris Stewart, who came to North Charleston a day after the shooting to represent the family, said the video forced authorities to act quickly and decisively, and he called the person who made the video a hero.
“What happened today doesn’t happen all the time,” Stewart told a news conference. What if there was no video?” Scott’s mother stood nearby, saying, “Thank you, Lord” and “Hallelujah.”
Scott may have tried to run from the officer because he owed child support, which can get someone sent to jail in South Carolina until they pay it back, Stewart said. He had four children, was engaged and had been honorably discharged from the U.S. Coast Guard. There were no violent offenses on his record, the attorney said. Stewart said the family plans to sue the police department.
Justice Department spokeswoman Dena Iverson said the Federal Bureau of Investigation will also investigate the shooting.
At the earlier news conference with the mayor, North Charleston Police Chief Eddie Driggers appeared close to tears.
“I have been around this police department a long time and all the officers on this force, the men and women, are like my children,” he told reporters. “So you tell me how a father would react seeing his child do something? I’ll let you answer that yourself.”
Slager was denied bond at a brief first appearance hearing Tuesday. He was not accompanied by a lawyer. If convicted, he could face 30 years to life in prison. Slager also served in the United States Coast Guard and had been with North Charleston police for five years.
…
The shooting occurred as heightened scrutiny is being placed on police officer shootings, particularly those that involve white officers and unarmed black suspects. A grand jury declined to indict Ferguson, Missouri, officer Darren Wilson in the fatal shooting of Brown last August, leading to nationwide protests.
In a separate case in South Carolina, a white police officer who shot a 68-year-old black man to death last year in his driveway was charged Tuesday with a felony: discharging a gun into an occupied vehicle. A prosecutor previously tried to indict North Augusta officer Justin Craven on a manslaughter charge in the February 2014 death of Ernest Satterwhite. But a grand jury instead chose misconduct in office, which is a far lesser charge.
Craven chased Satterwhite for 9 miles beyond city limits to the man’s driveway in Edgefield County. After Satterwhite parked, the officer repeatedly fired through the driver-side door, prosecutors said. The 25-year-old officer faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted of the gun charge.
_____
Associated Press writers Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, S.C., and Tom Foreman Jr. in Charlotte, N.C., contributed to this report.
Copyright 2015 The Associated Press.
http://www.wsvn.com/story/28744280/white-sc-officer-charged-with-murder-for-shooting-black-man
See also here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/07/officer-michael-slager-shoots-man-in-back-video_n_7021134.html
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