Missouri Court of Appeals Judge Roy Richter presided over his first Ferguson municipal court docket last week.  The Missouri Supreme Court took the unusual step of reassigning Richter after the U.S. Department of Justice issued a blistering report accusing the former Ferguson Municipal Court Judge Ronald J. Brockmeyer of depriving residents of their constitutional rights and using the court as the city’s ATM machine.Judge Richter was sent to Ferguson to help restore the integrity of the town’s municipal court. We applaud the Supreme Court for taking decisive action by sending him there to clean up the mess.We wish Judge Richter well. He has a tough job. If you believe the DOJ report, the city’s municipal court, just like the police department, city government and just about everything else in Ferguson, is badly broken.If you believe the media hype that has attended the Ferguson municipal court imbroglio, you might get the impression that all of Missouri’s municipal courts are broken. At least that’s the implication.The narrative some are peddling is that Ferguson isn’t an anomaly — all of our municipal courts are inherently corrupt, aided and abetted by unscrupulous private attorneys playing the role of prosecutors and judges in a professional wrestling version of our judicial system.Some of the hype borders on hysteria.The truth is much of it doesn’t square with reality. We hate to pour cold water on the narrative that there has been a wholesale failure of Missouri’s municipal courts, but it just isn’t so.Some municipal courts aren’t broken, they work just fine. They treat defendants fairly and equally regardless of whether they are represented by a lawyer.That includes most if not all of the municipal courts in Warren County.Some might find that hard to believe after Warren County Presiding Judge Wes Dalton was featured prominently on the front page of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch expose under the headline “Favors, Fines Grease Wheels.”The story indicated Dalton sent an email to a Frontenac prosecutor requesting a summons for a local business man’s daughter be dismissed. The email implied the business man was “our connection” for a golf resort at Lake of the Ozarks. According to the Post story, the case was dismissed.The implication is that the judge used his position on the bench to have the case dismissed. The larger implication is that judges do this all the time. That also doesn’t square with reality.Who can argue that the email that Dalton sent to the Frontenac prosecutor looks bad. That part is crystal clear. But what’s not so clear is if the judge’s action violated any rules governing a judge’s conduct.  Dalton said he didn’t remember the case because it was almost nine years old. He denied receiving free golf or anything else of value and said if he did send the email he was simply asking the prosecutor to review a “bad’ case that would have had legal obstacles to prosecuting. Lawyers do it all the time when they represent defendants in municipal court.Obviously, there are ethical considerations when a judge makes the request. But the questionable conduct of one judge shouldn’t indict every judge. What this incident has to do with Ferguson is even harder to discern.Are there problems in Ferguson?  Without question, just as there are in a number of other municipalities in the St. Louis region. Nor would we argue with the claim that institutional racism is a factor in some courts. That is deplorable and unacceptable.But as the cries for radical municipal court reforms grow louder and more strident, we urge caution in trying to fashion a “one-size-fits-all” solution to what is largely a north St. Louis County problem.That is where the issues are. That is where the solution should focus.And the issues arise from the fact there are too many municipalities in St. Louis County that use their police departments and their courts as revenue generators.But more fundamentally, there are way too many municipalities in St. Louis County operating way too many courts under too many different procedural standards. Fix this problem and most of the problems will go away.Our guess is that isn’t going to happen. But as the debate over municipal court reforms rolls on, we hope there is a broader conversation on some of the other aspects of the issue that have been wallpapered over in the media analysis and outrage.  Chief among them is the issue of personal responsibility which was once considered a moral imperative in our culture. Apparently it is not as important as it once was. Either is following the law.Why do people drive without insurance? Why do people drive when their license is suspended? Why do people fail to appear in court when their case is set?The DOJ report indicated there are a lot of these type of cases in the Ferguson municipal court. Should we excuse these violations? Should we ignore them in some communities and not others?Here is a news flash. If you don’t want to be in municipal court, don’t break the law. If you don’t want a warrant issued for your arrest, show up in court when your case is on the docket.We’re all for reforms in the municipal court system. The Missouri Supreme Court recently amended its operating rule 37 to require consideration of an indigent defendant’s ability to pay. That’s important.It’s also something many municipal court judges across the state have been doing for years.When people don’t trust the justice system, you have problems. That is the case at every level of the justice system and especially at the municipal court level where approximately two-thirds of all legal cases in our state are adjudicated. Municipal courts must operate fairly, transparently and above all, ethically.Clearly there were problems in Ferguson. But let’s not lose sight of the fact that not every municipality in the state is Ferguson.