But a lot of the same people think the idea of everyone carrying guns is acceptable, too. Via Think Progress:
Colorado Springs will pay back destitute people it illegally jailed because they couldn’t pay court fines, the city announced Thursday.
The city will also discontinue its debtor’s prison policy, which violated both the U.S. Constitution and a 2014 state law in Colorado. The system usually targeted non-jailable offenses like jaywalking, violating park curfews, or drinking in public.
More than 60 victims of the city’s debtor’s prison policy are getting repaid with interest under the $103,000 settlement with the state’s American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) chapter. Under the city’s previous “pay or serve” sentencing policy, people who couldn’t afford fines for non-criminal violations like panhandling near highways were forced to spend one day behind bars for every $50 the court said they owed. The settlement sets compensation for 66 pay-or-serve victims at the rate of $125 per day they were jailed.
That translates to an $11,000 payout for Shawn Hardman, a homeless man who was imprisoned for more than 90 days at significant taxpayer expense under multiple pay-or-serve sentences for panhandling.
Colorado Springs had issued more than 800 separate “pay or serve” sentences in less than two years, the ACLU found. The group alerted the city of the figures and relevant legal arguments in October. Mayor John Suthers said Thursday he was “pleased to report that our Municipal Court, City attorneys and Councilmembers worked expeditiously to correct the situation upon learning of the non-compliance.”
Your city attorneys and municipal court judges should be disbarred for their contempt of the Constitution.