Municipal Violations: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

What Hacker News said

Recommends bsimpson · 2015-10 · on “A debtors’ prison in Mississippi”

Here's the John Oliver version of the same story: [this video] (Also, incognito mode is your friend when cookies conspire against you.)

Recommends utefan001 · 2015-10 · on “A debtors’ prison in Mississippi”

This is so sad. This has got to stop. (repost from below) bsimpson 2 hours ago Here's the John Oliver version of the same story: [this video]

Recommends kevin_thibedeau · 2016-01 · on ““No Cost” License Plate Readers Are Turning Texas Police into Debt Collectors”

Even more relevant is his piece on municipal violations and how they can unfairly steamroll the poor with escalating fees. [this video]

Recommends Clubber · 2017-03 · on “A majority of millennials now reject capitalism, poll shows”

>How much can the government be stealing from you if you have no money? John Oliver did a good breakdown of how municipalities do pretty nasty things when you can't pay your tickets. [this video]

Recommends SuoDuanDao · 2020-06 · on “My family saw a police car hit a kid, then I learned how NYPD impunity works”

Well, I can give you a simple example. Where I grew up, you'd hear a gunshot every so often. No one paid it any mind - we knew it was the neighbors hunting out of season. Technically a crime. But we all knew they and their children needed the meat. If everyone did it, the deer population would collapse and no one could hunt effectively even in-season. If someone had called a wildlife officer they could have certainly made the trek down. But no one would think to call the wildlife officers on them, because we knew it would lead to their children going hungry. I think the thing people from rich neighbourhoods miss about that sort of thing is that when they hear stories of that nature [1], peop

Cites cgearhart · 2015-03 · on “Economic Inequality: It’s Far Worse Than You Think”

That's the problem though -- there is not equality is possibilities. Analysis [1] of a study from the Pew Research Center on economic mobility [2] found that you are 10x more likely to be in the top 20% if you're born there than if you're born in the bottom 20%. Someone born in the top 20% who doesn't go to college is still 2.5x more likely to have an income in the top 20% as an adult than someone from the bottom 20% who does go to college. Moreover, it's worsened because life is more expensive in subtle ways as you move down the income bracket. [3] Even municipal fines -- as emphasized by John Oliver recently -- contribute to the problem. [1] [LINK] [2] [LINK] [3] [LINK] [4] [this video]

Cites themartorana · 2015-10 · on “Police Leaders Join Call to Cut Prison Rosters”

At this point, anyone "joining the call" are simply attempting to hop onto the right side of history. This problem is so egregious that taking any other position is simply absurd. Or just f-ing evil. [0] [0] [this video] Edit: what, did I piss off some people that like imprisoning an unbelievably disproportionate percentage of citizens, especially minorities, for crimes as mundane as an unpaid parking ticket? Well, you do you, I guess...

Cites justifier · 2015-10 · on “People Want Fairness, Not Economic Equality”

fairness is a horrendous choice of words, but the one this article chose to use there are many unfair side effects of current economics look at taxes.. recently i read a major corporate entity paid 4k pounds in taxes in 2014(o). The top comment says: TIL our small UK startup pays 10-20x more corp tax .. Doing things honestly and by the book is expensive in both money terms and time terms (paying accountants) Big corps .. make me feel like a fool. though these corps are seen as equals in buraecratic lines, the expectations and avenues of utilising those regulations seems unfairly balanced or look at fines.. if i get a parking ticket(i) for 100$, i may be unable to pay it right away with my ze