That is a problem, yes, but I didn't see anything in the article citing obscure laws that no one knows about. The closest I saw was not subscribing to the only approved trash service.
It's a bit inverted, but a good chunk of the article centered on the common misconception that if you show up to court for a ticket and can't pay the fine, you'll go to jail. This is causing a lot of people to fail to appear in court, getting them in much more trouble than they were originally.