Very smart of the cops.
If they hadn’t been “following orders” and enforcing the cigarette-revenue law, there would have been no Eric Garner incident, two cops wouldn’t have been murdered, etc.
It has been little noted, but because of its lousy tax base, Ferguson’s government is highly dependent on taxation-by-harassment, the main reason for tension between cops and “the community.”
The whole system of taxing-by-harassment is corrupt. Cops should not be revenooers.
The cops-as-revenuers thing gets even worse when you start to look at the abuses of the various seizure laws that allow cops to stop you on a highway, rob you of your cash, and then deny you the ability to appeal their actions.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-texas-profiling_wittmar10-story.html#page=1
We could use some of that here, Maine drivers are the worst. They're much like those in the Russian bad drivers videos.
Cops should be giving ticket to tailgaters, blow-around drivers, red-light and stop sign runners. Half the revenue should go to the town where the ticket was given.
We'd become a rich state and have the best drivers in the Northeast.