Posted on 12/01/2020 10:49:00 AM PST by aimhigh
The panel affirmed in part and reversed in part the district court’s summary judgment in an action brought pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 alleging, in part, that law enforcement officials violated plaintiff’s Fourteenth Amendment due process rights when they seized and destroyed a portion of his firearms collection.
Officers of the Los Angeles Police Department (“LAPD”) executed a search warrant and seized plaintiff’s collection of over 400 firearms. Plaintiff spent the next decade trying to recover the collection, asserting he owned the firearms lawfully. The LAPD voluntarily returned approximately eighty firearms, but kept the rest because, in its determination, plaintiff had not submitted sufficient proof that he owned them.
While the parties were still negotiating, LAPD officer Edwards applied to the Los Angeles County Superior Court for an order granting permission to destroy the firearms, without giving plaintiff notice that he intended to seek such an order. Having obtained the order, the LAPD destroyed the firearms by smelting them.
(Excerpt) Read more at cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov ...
Good sue his ass and make him pay even into his retirement. Maybe he is a good guy maybe not, but you can be sure that no LA cop will risk his financial well being in this manner again.
The sad fact of the matter is that we now live in a Third World Shithole where we have NO voice in our governance nor does the Constitution serve any purpose other than a substitute for a roll of Charmin. If the Ruling Class tells you to stay in your home, wear a mask and keep paying your taxes, then, by God you had best do so like good little Serfs and Subjects. You have no rights to any property nor protections. Get used to it.
I bet they did not smelt the firearms, my gut tells me that some of the police officers took them, sold them and pocketed the money and when pressed to explain where they were, simply lied about them being destroyed.
It is the CA #ComDem Way.
If the confiscated firearms had been properly catalogued when seized, this wouldn't be necessary. Smells like BS to me.
Being a CA Native I can affirm that you’re over the target; it’s not a question of “if,” but of “how many,” and “to whom.”
A praying man would ask for a sudden rash of guilty consciences all around to bring this thing to light.
The serial killer?
Oh, I guess not....
Thank you sir. I suspected as much. That was the issue from the beginning. $500,000 is a lot of money.
The plaintiff is a retired cop and Vietnam Vet. He claimed his collection was worth over $700K. I saw the list, and there are some pretty nice pistols, rifles and shotguns in there.
I suspect the underhanded scheme to "destroy" the firearms without informing the plaintiff was in order to cover up the fact that some of the weapons were actually stolen by the police. A person who has a collection of 400 firearms likely has some that are very rare and valuable. No one is in a hurry to destroy valuable and collectible firearms unless they are have an ulterior motive.
List of weapons begins at page 27.
https://michellawyers.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Complaint.pdf
The one Officer not granted immunity needs to be sued to the fifth generation of his descendants.
I didn’t read far enough to find out, but there’s a queasy feeling in my gut says some number of those firearms were irreplaceable, and that runs the value out through the roof, in my book.
What’s the value of a rare 17th century fowling piece just by the books? Maybe five to fifty thousand, depending?
Now tack on that it was a family heirloom still in working order handed down father to son for 400 years?
You can’t put dollars to that. There’s nothing that’s going to make that loss whole; it’s gotta be taken out in flesh and blood. Bring back indentured servitude and make the guilty bastard the family servant until death.
The event did not occur in America, it occurred in Los Angeles, in California.
California has in effect seceded by claiming sanctuary and renouncing federal law
I am of the opinion that the plaintiff should be awarded 3x damages and there was an intentional deprivation of rights.
Questions,,,,why did they seize them in the first place? Owning 500 guns is not illegal. If you aren't selling them, I know of no license needed. A person that sells at gun shows needs an FFL if they sell a certain number per year. Did someone see a black rifle and assume he is starting a revolution? Was there anything that needed a tax paid?
IMO, someone assumed he was a straw man after noticing many gun purchases at the same address and thought they were going to bust the crime of the century. After checking all the serial numbers the crime investigation is over if they are not stolen.
I know several people in Texas with hundreds of weapons and nothing is thought about it.
simply lied "TEST-A-LIED" / "TEST-A-LYING" (Thank you Alan Dershowitz, see testimony before congress) about them being destroyed.
Fixed it.
See: Alan Dershowitz. [House Hearing, 105 Congress] December 1, 1998.
Before the Committee on the Judiciary House of Representatives
I (Alan Dershowitz) appreciate very much your asking me to share my experience and expertise here with you today. On the basis of my academic and professional experience, I believe that no felony is committed more frequently in this country than the genre of perjury and false statement crimes.
Perjury during civil depositions and trials is so endemic that a respected appellate judge once observed that ``experienced lawyers say that, in large cities, scarcely a trial occurs in which some witness does not lie.'' Police perjury in criminal cases, particularly in the context of searches and other exclusionary rule issues, is so pervasive that the former police chief in San Jose and Kansas City has estimated that ``hundreds of thousands of law enforcement officials commit felony perjury every year testifying about drug arrests'' alone.
The Mollen Commission in New York, for example, concluded that the practice of police falsification is so common that it has spawned its own word: "testilying."
So you have to prove that the property they seized from you is yours? If it is in your house, it is presumptively your property. What is this BS that says otherwise?
Judge Paes was appointed by President Clinton.
Judge Callahan was appointed by President G.W. Bush.
Judge Van Dyke was appointed by President Trump.
That was my point. If they seized a bunch of your stuff, they should have made a list of what they took.
The Ninth Circuit, no less, told the police they were wrong in a unanimous decision.
I wonder if they will ask for an en banc ruling.
They are only spending someone else's money, so what do they care?
He said his brother told him he was often given guns by citizens. I had to wonder how many might have been "given" to avoid prosecution.
He said his brother had a very nice collection...
It's California. Guns are illegally confiscated from lawful owners every day here. Then it is up to the owner to submit a Law Enforcement Gun Release Application, or LEGR, with proof of ownership and your legal ability to possess a firearm. That's right, the cops come into your house, seize your property, any it's up to you to prove it's yours.
If you have family heirlooms with no way to prove ownership, you probably won't get them back.
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