[lbo-talk] is law enforcement a way to raise money forlocaleconomies?

[123hop at comcast.net]

Wait a sec. My dimming memory tells me that starting in the early 80's a lot of PDs started financing themselves from their new ability to seize property, at al. in the process of the drug war. No? 

And the cost of tickets for minor infractions has doubled in the last three years...."coinciding" with the loss of tax revenue and fed $$ following the crash. 

Joanna

----- Original Message -----
michael yates writes:


> not enough has been said about out of control cops, money
> as a motivator of arrests, false charges, innacurate
> breathalyzers, etc.

For me this comes down to: does this happen sometimes?  Of course.  But 
is it likely to actually be a concerted effort to raise money?  If it 
is, it's dismally inefficient at it.  In most cases, police and the 
court system are a serious drain on everyone's budget (not to mention 
GDP).  So unless you can find a police department or a court that pays 
for itself -- or even pays for a significant amount of the total -- I'd 
say this is in the realm of Welfare Queens: yes, some people can 
cheat/abuse the system, but no one "wins" at it ...

/jordan 

___________________________________
http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk