I scratch your back...You scratch mine?

The city of St. Peters, Missouri announced Friday on STLToday.com the arrest of their Mayor, Shawn Brown, on charges of soliciting and accepting $2,750 in bribe money from a company wanting to install red light cameras in St. Peters.

According to the federal indictment, “Brown, 34, told an employee of Redflex Traffic Systems Inc. he would veto a measure approving the purchase of Redflex’s cameras unless the company paid him off.

On the 16^th of June, legislation was approved in the purchase of Redflex’s digital red light and speeding enforcement system. According to the indictment, “the following week a Redflex employee stopped by Brown’s house to deliver the $2,750 check.”

Brown was elected as the mayor in 2004, without having prior political experience, winning against a twenty year incumbent. This is just another scenario of high officials in the public eye crumbling with the power they possess. Though this is at the lower level of Government, the temptations obviously have higher stakes and more incentives for politicians to turn to greed. One of the things that plague our society is the rising number of dirty Politicians.