The Rising Cost of Justice

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I know you have missed your daily dose of the Informer. I have not faded into the sunset, I have opted to do smaller post using the Face Book app. So, if you missed some of the stories, they are now being posted to Face Book. Now, to the issue at hand, there has been a lot of news about the corruption that is taking place in the Hattiesburg Municipal Court system. Apparently, an independent investigation by the Hattiesburg Police Department has uncovered a system of corruption that is being abused by clerks as well as judges. If you're like me, you were wondering when would there be an investigation into the corruption that is taking place in the City of Lumberton's court system. Well, it will be a long wait. Unlike the City of Lumberton, the Hattiesburg Police Department is autonomous and they have the ability to conduct an investigation. Unfortunately, the City of Lumberton does not have a system of checks and balances. Therefore, the Lumberton Police Department will never conduct such an investigation; despite the high level of improprities that are seemingly taking place. However, former police officers have used the court system to implement their personal vendettas. For instance, prior to Judge Stewart becoming ill, warrants were issued that were seemingly copied and pasted for personal gain. I find it strange that Stewart would sign a warrant for the arrest of a person that owed $140 in parking tickets while the City of Lumberton has a volume of unpaid tickets. Now that's a clutch your pearls moment. You mean to tell me that Stewart rummaged through over $575,000 worth of unpaid fines and tickets to issue one warrant. In my opinion, it seems like clerks/officers were working together on a personal agenda. Now, the things they were doing out of spite are the same things that are seemingly taking place in Hattiesburg. A judiciary is an institution, not an individual. When the two become mixed up, then the appearance of individual corruption can have a devastating impact on the ability of the institution to be accepted as independent. And once a court has lost the faith of the people, it is very hard to regain. Hopefully, we will actually get a board into office that is concerned about the welfare of the city and not just concerned about personal vendettas. We have an aging fleet of police cars, the court system is doing nothing to collect over a half a million dollars in fines but we permit city officials to use their position for retaliatory purposes.

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