Indentured Slavery for the Poor, Unpaid Tickets Can Land You in Forced Labor

Unpaid tickets? Welcome to labor (indentured servitude) camp! In a twisted scheme to make profits for the court and police, "authorities" in Montgomery, Alabama have turned to forced labor to increase the amount of money their city "generates". It's ironic that this injustice that reverts a society back to the 1950s is being carried out in the birthplace of Martin Luther King Jr. who fought for justice against a corrupt society.

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The poor have become the prime target of state tyranny to maximize profits. An appeal court ruling has revealed the new twisted form of "indentured slavery" that's happening, as judges and police are giving poor who can't pay for traffic tickets two options. One "option" is to go straight to jail, and "pay their debt" by wasting their time away and the taxpayers money. The other is to work as a state-labor cleaning force and pay-off their debt, like an indentured slave.

The appeal was filed by at least 5 jailees, "ANGELA MCCULLOUGH, MARQUITA JOHNSON, KENNY JONES, ALGI EDWARDS and LEVON AGEE" against current and former Chief of Police of the City of Montgomery, current and former Presiding Judge of the Municipal Court of the City of Montgomery, as well as the Mayor of the City of Montgomery.

"This appeal requires us to decide whether two municipal judges enjoy absolute judicial immunity and a mayor and two police chiefs enjoy qualified immunity from a complaint alleging claims of peonage and false imprisonment. Several residents of Montgomery, Alabama, who were sentenced by the municipal court for traffic violations, sued officials of the City of Montgomery for allegedly operating a scheme to raise revenue by jailing indigent offenders for their failures to pay fines and court costs."

"The complaint alleges that the city of Montgomery, aggressively collected fines and court costs owed by individuals for various offenses, typically traffic tickets. But indigent offenders, who could not afford to pay their fines, were forced to sit-out the fines in jail by earning a credit of $50 a day."

The jailees say "they were forced to participate in a work program". In return, they would received a reduced jail-time and remove another $25 to debt they owed for each day worked. Is this a "work program", or a "forced labor policy" as they claim in their suit? It looks like it's more likely to be the latter, as the corrupt "authorities" unlawfully threatened them with more "jail time if they refused to work".

The jailees provided examples of their forced labor. Angela McCullough was "forced to stand suicide watch over an inmate infected with hepatitis C." Algi Edwards says "he was forced to clean jail cells and pick up trash." And Marquita Johnson says "she was forced to wash police cars and clean courtrooms". The suit alleges the city of Montgomery forced poor people to pay fines by forcing them into labor in order to increase profits for the courts and police, as they

"... raised three times more money in fines and 15 times more money in court costs than neighboring Huntsville, Alabama."

So, do these authorities end up getting "absolute judicial immunity"* as the appeal mentions? It turns out they do! They are given absolute immunity from lawsuits and prosecution like a District Attorneys (DA). Citizens can be mistreated by corrupt officials, and there is absolutely no recourse for the injustice dishes out by these "authorities". And the poor are the ones who suffer the most.

To justify their dmissal of the complaint and uphold the immunity, the appeals court ruling stated:

"We divide our discussion in two parts. First, we explain that absolute judicial immunity bars the jailees’ claims against the judges. Second, we explain that the jailees’ complaint fails to state a claim that overcomes the qualified and state-agent immunity of the mayor and chiefs."

It appears that judges can do whatever they want to people, and certainly are more likely to get away with it when they are poor people who have little means to fight back against the tyranny of state power:

"A judge enjoys absolute immunity for judicial acts regardless of whether he made a mistake, acted maliciously, or exceeded his authority."

Further "clarification", or bullshit justifying the actions of these judges, was provided:

"...a presiding judges' acts are not transformed into administrative acts. And went to say that because the judges' acts were judicial they enjoy absolute judicial immunity.

The Appeal Court also used the case of giving the FBI immunity for falsely arrested an Muslim man named Iqbal after 9/11:

"Substitute the mayor for the attorney general and the chiefs for the FBI director in Iqbal, the comparison is uncanny."

A justice system like this is a failure. This is why people have no faith such a system, wrought with corruption and cover-ups as one "authority" covers up the actions of others, turning it into "law" and "justice". Authorities go out of their way to protect and shield each other from facing consequences of their wrongdoings. The justice system is rightly mocked as an injustice system.

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References:

• Court: Can't pay your ticket? Wash police cars and clean courtrooms or go to jail
• UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT

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Thank you for your time and attention. Peace.

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