- Social:
University of Minnesota Law School
Professor of Civil Rights Law at the University of Minnesota Law School and Director of its Institute on Metropolitan Opportunity
PROFILE
Myron Orfield
Guest
FROM Myron Orfield
To the Point
How local cops are becoming tax collectors So-called "zero tolerance" policing has been embraced as a way of reducing major crimes by focusing on minor ones. But there's another reason: fines and fees for low-level violations are now major sources of revenue for cities that have reduced taxation. When poor people can't pay, they're assessed with penalties — often increased until jails become debtors' prisons, especially for blacks and other minorities. That's led to anger, resentment and sometimes to violent confrontations with the police. We hear how back-door municipal finance causes social chaos.
To the Point
How local cops are becoming tax collectors So-called "zero tolerance" policing has been embraced as a way of reducing major crimes by focusing on minor ones. But there's another reason: fines and fees for low-level violations are now major sources of revenue for cities that have reduced taxation. When poor people can't pay, they're assessed with penalties — often increased until jails become debtors' prisons, especially for blacks and other minorities. That's led to anger, resentment and sometimes to violent confrontations with the police. We hear how back-door municipal finance causes social chaos.
To the Point
Does Your ZIP Code Determine Your Future? The federal Fair Housing Act was enacted by a bipartisan Congress in 1968 and signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson. It banned outright discrimination, such as racial restrictions in zoning and deeds. It also required the government to actively dismantle segregation and foster integration in its place. Since then federal subsidies for affordable housing have focused on poor neighborhoods — with the effect of expanding racial and ethnic ghettos. The Obama Administration now wants cities to build affordable housing in more desirable neighborhoods . The goal is desegregation, but opponents denounce it as "forced integration" and predict resistance to what they call "social engineering."
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