somebody's making a killing in the roid business selling to most of those doughnut munchers
Posted on 10/12/2014 8:53:49 AM PDT by Second Amendment First
Police agencies have used hundreds of millions of dollars taken from Americans under federal civil forfeiture law in recent years to buy guns, armored cars and electronic surveillance gear. They have also spent money on luxury vehicles, travel and a clown named Sparkles.
Stop and Seize: In recent years, thousands of people have had cash confiscated by police without being charged with crimes. The Post looks at the police culture behind the seizures and the people who were forced to fight the government to get their money back.
“In tight budget periods, and even in times of budget surpluses, using asset forfeiture dollars to purchase equipment and training to stay current with the ever-changing trends in crime fighting helps serve and protect the citizens,” said Prince George’s County, Md., police spokeswoman Julie Parker.
Brad Cates, a former director of asset forfeiture programs at the Justice Department, said the spending identified by The Post suggests police are using Equitable Sharing as “a free floating slush fund.” Cates, who oversaw the program while at Justice from 1985 to 1989, said it has enabled police to sidestep the traditional budget process, in which elected leaders create law enforcement spending priorities.
“All of this is fundamentally at odds with the U.S. Constitution,” said Cates, who recently co-wrote an article calling for the program’s abolition on The Post’s editorial page. “All of this is at odds with the rights that Americans have.”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
there is always a handful looking for pieces in the left wing media to attack the profession of law enforcement, it’s usually by the anarchists or those who want anyth9ing what goes but the go crying when they are broken into or a loved one was attacked because there is no police on the street
Exactly ..!!!!!
No I don’t!!
Any person who takes law enforcement personnel of any stripe as public ‘servants’ has lost track of the real world. These ‘law enforcement’ agencies have mutated into self serving fraternities. There are still remnants of/for public first obligations but most such groups today like other ‘public’ workers have an attitude that the public is our social poodle dogs. Unions of/for law enforcement people should be abolished.
don’t give a crap what the left wing media says. You are trying to say that the police, custom patrol border patrol are training dogs to bark if they detect money and then the police go in and take it, LOL
Suppose we should stop all this and defund the police, border patrol customs etc, will that make you happy, I know the drug lords and druggies will be so happy, but then again I suppose that is what some druggies and anarchists wants
If the IRS can do it so can we.
Stop and Seize: In recent years, thousands of people have had cash confiscated by police without being charged with crimes.
somebody's making a killing in the roid business selling to most of those doughnut munchers
You do know that a lot of those bills you carry in your wallet have traces of drugs on them, don’t you?
Simply because I don't have current data does not mean that the practices have stopped. So how do you reach the conclusion they must have stopped?
If it was happening today, the left would be screaming.
Nonsense. They weren't screaming then. Nor has the trend abated. Just because I don't recall numbers off the top of my head that are more current, does not mean that it isn't happening now.
The only incidents I’ve heard about are from the EPA, FDA, etc. These are NOT police - these are govt agencies who have formed their own enforcement units. And, I’m hoping our next President will swiftly disband them.
Won't happen without Congress. Even the NPS rangers spend more time learning law enforcement than they do wildlife management.
I suggest you buy and read Radly Balko's Rise of the Warrior Cop. It has the hard numbers and is very well documented.
Maybe it’s time to start practicing “police asset seizures”. If the police and sherrifs want to run a mafia racket, they should anticipate some competition. The worst fear any law enforcement agency should have, is when those agencies overstep their bounds, and become as despised as the criminals they supposedly swore to protect the public against, the public decides that those corrupt agencies have become the enemy, and will be dealt with accordingly.
There are many good, honest police.
At the same time, there are some crooks (and worse) among them.
Perhaps not surprising, since there are so many police in modern=day, transformed Amerika...
and... when one of them steals your stuff from you, there’s almost nothing you can say or do about it, practically speaking.
just like in “backwards third-world tin-pot dictatorships”
You are espousing a decent position, which I would agree with but, you seem wholly uninformed on this subject.
Asset forfeiture laws are civil and leave little recourse for those objecting to a practice that violates the 4th.
They take stuff and simply declare it as “ill gotten”.
If it’s “ill gotten” then prove it in a court of law.
Asset forfeiture enables the to forgo due process, with no money spent to defend their claim.
Asset seizure can be compared to the practice of prize taking in the Royal Navy. When prizes were seized by Royal Navy ships, the value of the ship and cargo were awarded to the ship’s crew in an allocation determined by the crown.
Enemy warships captured in battle were considered to be prizes, but merchant vessels could become prizes as well, subject to British and Admiralty law. Merchant ships of an enemy nation, or neutral ships carrying cargo to an enemy port could be seized with the ship and cargo sold, and the proceeds divided among the crew. Many Royal Navy Captains became wealthy men through prize taking.
But, all seizures were subject to the judgment of an Admiralty Court. The Captain had to prove that the prize was legitimate and that the due process of law was applied. Any Captain found to have violated the law could be both sued and imprisoned.
The recent case of the Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes illustrates. This ship was part of a fleet of 4 Spanish warships carrying a treasure to Spain in 1804 that was meant to finance an intended war against Great Britain. The British got wind of it and the Royal Navy intercepted the ships, seized three and sank one with all its treasure. War was declared shortly thereafter. Since at the time of the battle, Spain and Great Britain were not at war, the prizes were declared by the Admiralty to be the property of the crown and the crews got nothing. The discovery of the wreck by the commercial company Odyssey Marine led back into Admiralty Court to settle a dispute with Spain that Spain, not Odyssey had the rights to the salvage.
The point of all of this is that these police seizures include no judicial review. Government administrators make all the determinations that decide the fate of assets with no due process for the apparent owners of the assets. The police have every incentive to conduct illegal searches, to seize assets found in any search and neglect to determine if crimes were committed. People sailing the seven seas 200 years ago had more rights than people driving down the Interstate today.
so they bark on cue , but they are not trained to bark, er ok got it]]Ever thought they bark because they smell drugs what was there, no didn’t think so.
So shall border patrol and cops just give the drugs and money back to the druggies and drug dealers in your view?
This is a direct result of the war on drugs. Many thanks to all the jackbooted drug warriors for this, and it’s been going on for years.
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