Traffic fines are Ferguson, Missouri’s second-largest source of municipal revenue. Municipal court day features a white judge, a white prosecutor, and numerous black residents lined up to pay fines. “We’re just used to raise revenue,” said Patricia Bynes, a Democratic committeewoman for Ferguson Township. http://www.newsweek.com/fergus…..ice-267357
Michael Brown’s death was a cog in this money machine. He was stopped for jaywalking. He tried to walk away from a city agent whose job was to shake him down for money by issuing a ticket. In Ferguson, a police stop is a municipal taxation event. So when you get right down to it, Michael Brown was shot and killed by a city tax collector because he objected to paying the tax.