Damned if You Do, Damned if You Don’t

As Jay will tell you Massachusetts is one messed up state. I’ve mentioned before that the state’s Supreme Court ruled that it’s OK to charge people to appeal a ticket and now they’ve ruled that it’s OK to charge somebody who successfully fought a ticket:

Motorists issued a traffic ticket in Massachusetts will have to pay money to the state whether or not they committed the alleged crime. According to a state supreme court ruling handed down yesterday, fees are to be imposed even on those found completely innocent. The high court saw no injustice in collecting $70 from Ralph C. Sullivan after he successfully fought a $100 ticket for failure to stay within a marked lane.

Emphasis mine. In the state of Massachusetts you can be punished for not even committing a crime. How fucking convenient is that for agents of the state? If the local police department is running low on money they can just write a bunch of tickets to everybody and collect money whether or not their victims are able to get the bogus tickets overthrown.

This precedence sets up a huge conflict of interest. What’s to stop police officers from issuing bogus tickets now? No matter what happens they win and get money out of the deal.