Jericho, Arkansas — which, with 174 inhabitants, is no longer the cotton hub that it used to be — is the ideal spot for committing felonies that do not involve automobiles. The zealous seven-man police force spends all of its time pulling drivers over and writing traffic tickets. Fire Chief Dan Payne finally had enough.

It was anger over traffic tickets that brought Payne to city hall last week, said his lawyer, Randy Fishman. After Payne failed to get a traffic ticket dismissed on Aug. 27, police gave Payne or his son another ticket that day. Payne, 39, returned to court to vent his anger to Judge Tonya Alexander, Fishman said.

It’s unclear exactly what happened next, but Martin said an argument between Payne and the seven police officers who attended the hearing apparently escalated to a scuffle, ending when an officer shot Payne from behind.

Doctors in Memphis, Tenn., removed a .40-caliber bullet from Payne’s hip bone, Martin said. Another officer suffered a grazing wound to his finger from the bullet.

The big question, of course, is where the proceeds of all those fines has gone. The town recently missed payments on official vehicles. D’you think that Judge Tonya knows? (via MetaFilter)

This entry was posted on Friday, September 4th, 2009 at 9:30 pm and is filed under Constabulary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.