ST. LOUIS (AP) — In the aftermath of Michael Brown's death, legal activists suggested that some of the raw anger that erupted in suburban St. Louis had its roots in an unlikely place — traffic court.
It was there, they said, that low-income drivers sometimes saw their lives upended by minor infractions that led to larger problems. A $75 ticket for driving with expired tags, if left unpaid, could eventually bring an arrest warrant and even jail time.
So courts began an experimental amnesty program designed to give offenders a second chance by waiving those warrants. But the effort is attracting relatively few participants, despite a renewed emphasis on municipal court reform after Brown's death last summer in Ferguson.
Some attorneys say St. Louis County's municipal-court system is a virtual debtor's prison.
