Posted on 05/21/2012 8:34:55 AM PDT by heartwood
Here's a Wisconsin story that needs more attention, care of former Reasoner Radley Balko:
On Feb. 29, a judge set [Joel] Greer's bail at $7,500, and his mother called the Brown County jail to see where and how she could get him out. "The police specifically told us to bring cash," Greer says. "Not a cashier's check or a credit card. They said cash."
So Greer and her family visited a series of ATMs, and on March 1, she brought the money to the jail, thinking she'd be taking Joel Greer home. But she left without her money, or her son.
Instead jail officials called in the same Drug Task Force that arrested Greer. A drug-sniffing dog inspected the Greers' cash, and about a half-hour later, Beverly Greer said, a police officer told her the dog had alerted to the presence of narcotics on the bills -- and that the police department would be confiscating the bail money. [...]
The Greers had been subjected to civil asset forfeiture, a policy that lets police confiscate money and property even if they can only loosely connect them to drug activity. The cash, or revenue from the property seized, often goes back to the coffers of the police department that confiscated it.
The good news: The Greers eventually got their money back. The bad news: This kind of organized police theft of property from people who are not even charged with a crime is common nationwide.
Read all about it in Balko's February 2010 Reason feature, "The Forfeiture Racket: Police and prosecutors won't give up their license to steal."
The Supreme Court hasn't heard a civil forfeiture case in more than ten years. I think it's time to revisit the issue.
I bet the only reason they got the money back is because the County clerk didn’t like seeing the cops take his bail money.
“I bet the only reason they got the money back is because the County clerk didn’t like seeing the cops take his bail money.”
Cops and Counties, a criminal conspiracy!
Police dogs have to stay away from ATMs and banks lest their noses explode.
About the only currency not contaminated with drug residue is direct from the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Once it gets stuck in a wallet or cash drawer it starts picking up enough drug residue to detect.
Police dogs have to stay away from ATMs and banks lest their noses explode.
About the only currency not contaminated with drug residue is direct from the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Once it gets stuck in a wallet or cash drawer it starts picking up enough drug residue to detect.
"This town's police department is conniving with the federal government to circumvent Massachusetts law — which is less permissive than federal law — in order to seize his livelihood and retirement assets. In the lawsuit titled "United States of America v. 434 Main Street, Tewksbury, Massachusetts," the government is suing an inanimate object, the motel Caswell's father built in 1955. The U.S. Department of Justice intends to seize it, sell it for perhaps $1.5 million and give up to 80 percent of that to the Tewksbury Police Department, whose budget is just $5.5 million. The Caswells have not been charged with, let alone convicted of, a crime. They are being persecuted by two governments eager to profit from what is antiseptically called the "equitable sharing" of the fruits of civil forfeiture, a process of government enrichment that often is indistinguishable from robbery.
I suspect this story is BS. First, author Radley Balko claims to be Libertarian, but is really hard core leftist.
Secondly, ATM cards have a daily limit. It’s usually $400 to $600. That is not per dispensing machine. It’s per card.
For them to have gotten $7500, they would have to have had approximately 15 ATM cards, 15 separate bank accounts, each with at least $500 in it,
Doesn’t pass the smell test. If was from machines, they could have shown the receipts.
Bet the “kid” was a drug dealer and the money came from his tainted stash.
Remember, all crooks in prison are innocent. Just ask them.
Wisconsin Green Bay Bail Money Confiscation Scam?
FReep Mail me if you want on, or off, this Wisconsin interest ping list.
Used to live in Wisconsin and the state police were very corupt. They would ask for cash at a traffic stop and offer the threat of a ticket or jail time if you refused. Creeps.
My suspicion is that the reason she got the money back is that she was able to prove she got it from an atm.
If it's a good bank, all you have to do is call them and request a temporary raise of your limit. They raise your card limit immediately.
According to the article, A) this wasn’t the only time this department has tried this trick. And B) Other departments are telling people to bring bail money in cash, even though that isn’t required. It seems this could be a growing trend if it isn’t stamped out early.
Note to self: rub pepper on all bills if I am ever in that situation.
“Doesn’t pass the smell test.”
My bullshite meter went right off the scale after just a cursory glance at this reported fairy tale.
I suspect this story is BS. First, author Radley Balko claims to be Libertarian, but is really hard core leftist.
Secondly, ATM cards have a daily limit. It’s usually $400 to $600. That is not per dispensing machine. It’s per card.
For them to have gotten $7500, they would have to have had approximately 15 ATM cards, 15 separate bank accounts, each with at least $500 in it,
Doesn’t pass the smell test. If was from machines, they could have shown the receipts.
Bet the “kid” was a drug dealer and the money came from his tainted stash.
Remember, all crooks in prison are innocent. Just ask them.
Is there a state without a culture of police corruption? Seems like there are no good cops left.
It’s not that I take as gospel every story told by people who are arrested or by their families.
The point is that asset forfeiture without trial is unconstitutional; and that the forfeiture laws are inherently corrupting, as they give the law agencies the proceeds of the seizure, in some cases on the word of a dog.
According to another article, forbidden by FR to be linked, the Greer family did have have documentation of the sources of the cash.
Like Alan Dershowitz, Radley Balko may be right twice a day.
That is not necessarily so. I know of one bank that will allow you to take the needed funds out if you have them in your account. It does take a call to the bank to arrange it and there is a window of time during which the transaction must be completed, but it can be done. My son needed cash for a deposit on a rental a few years back and our bank arranged it for him.
That being said, I do not buy the idea that the woman had to hit multiple ATMs unless she did have multiple cards and accounts. There usually is a limit as I have found in the past. The whole thing is a tad shady.
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