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."
Actually, it gets it at the Federal Reserve bank, while passing through their counting machines. Someone a few years back tested brand new bills direct from an FR bank, and it tested positive.
The U.S. Government is a criminal enterprise.
It must be fake, otherwise we would have seen it in the .....British press.
“The incorruptibility of law enforcement matched with the infallible judgment of dogs. “
The dog is okay, it is the cash that had the “scent.” Dog was doing its job very well but you see, according to studies, up to 75% of cash in circulation would cause a drug dog to “hit” on it.
“Drug Dog’s “Alert” to Cash Not Grounds for Forfeiture When Up to 75 percent of Currency Tainted With Drugs.
http://ndsn.org/dec94/dog.html
“The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that the government did not have probable cause to seize $30,060 from a motorist based only on a drug-detection dog’s reaction (U.S. v. $30,060 in U.S. Currency, CA9, No. 92-55919, Nov. 8, 1994; 56 CrL 1169; BNA Criminal Practice Manual, Nov. 23, 1994, p. 572; “Drugs Taint Most Currency in Los Angeles,” Washington Post, Nov. 13, 1994, p. A4).
Key to the court’s ruling was a finding that up to 75 percent of all currency in the Los Angeles area is coated with traces of cocaine or other controlled substances.”
There is no contradiction there, it is a branch of the left, that goes right on a few issues.
“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 tainting of cash is true of most of the cash Americans carry.
The next victim could be any one of us.
****
The term “dirty money” is for real.
In the course of its average 20 months in circulation, U.S. currency gets whisked into ATMs, clutched, touched and traded perhaps thousands of times at coffee shops, convenience stores and newsstands. And every touch to every bill brings specks of dirt, food, germs or even drug residue.
Research presented this weekend reinforced previous findings that 90 percent of paper money circulating in U.S. cities contains traces of cocaine.
****
Money can be contaminated with cocaine during drug deals or if a user snorts with a bill. But not all bills are involved in drug use; they can get contaminated inside currency-counting machines at the bank.
“When the machine gets contaminated, it transfers the cocaine to the other bank notes,” Zuo said. These bills have fewer remnants of cocaine. Some of the dollars in his experiment had .006 micrograms, which is several thousands of times smaller than a single grain of sand.
Zuo, who spoke about his research at the national meeting of the American Chemical Society on Sunday, found that $5, $10, $20 and $50 bills were more likely to be positive for cocaine than $1 bills.
If they play Sheriff of Nottingham, do we get to play Robin Hood?
There are still good peace officers remaining. Unfortunately, as they die or retire, they are replaced by LEOs.
My card has a 1200 dollar limit on it, and I could probably get that increased if I promised to keep a minimum balance of 5k or so.
Nonsense! He rips lefty hypocrites way more than conservatives. You should read his blog. Everyone should.
No complaints in my rural area. My theory is that, the larger the dept., the more corrupt. With their unions, political clout, etc. they are unaccountable and the bad apples will naturally dominate.
He wrote a false detailed story about a friend that I had to call network to get pulled.
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