Starvin Larry

He noted, for example, that Ferguson had issued about $2 million in petty fines last year — a reference to recent reports that the city’s second-biggest source of income came from court fines and fees levied even on low-level traffic violations. Paul said that “may seem petty” until “you’re a poor person who has to come up with hundreds of dollars in fines.”

The senator continued his criticism Tuesday in an op-ed published by Time.

“In the search for culpability for the tragedy in Ferguson, I mostly blame politicians. Michael Brown’s death and the suffocation of Eric Garner in New York for selling untaxed cigarettes indicate something is wrong with criminal justice in America,” he wrote. “The War on Drugs has created a culture of violence and put police in a nearly impossible situation.”