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 ...
“What agency do you work for?
Still waiting for an answer.”
I really think he is a cop, or family to one. No one can be that stupid as to believe cops are honest people.
Oh, little facts for you. How many departments actually track the success rates of their dogs? Hmmm? Answer? Almost none. Those who do were required by law to do so, because they don’t want to cooperate voluntarily.
Why? Because if the success rates of their dogs was the measure of it’s ability to provide probably cause, the dog would loose that power. They don’t want the numbers tracked.
The Sheriffs dept near me accounts for it’s dogs and over the years I have got to know many many of them , and not one thing which has been stated here is true with where I live.
As for lying, gang mentality bla bla, well every profession has bad apples, everything frigging one of them from plumbers, store keeprs, to LE, to firemen to border patrol every profession has a few bad ones.
That is the difference between what I am saying and what some on here who have their anti cops agendas and obviously some , usually liberaltarians can’t understand that and will use anything to use their crap.
Around here we have had deputies save a guy this weekend from drowning, helped to stop a robber, stopped a cop killer, and yes even got a snake from an old womans house.
Like I said there is a few bad ones in every profession, not just LE, but to say they train their dogs to bark when they want to get into a car just to take peoples money for their own pocket is absurd and outright nutty
As for LE having no honor, then you lump entire profession together, so you are saying every border patrol agent is corrupt, every MP is corrupt, every customs is corrupt.
If you are saying that then I pity how you cant get past a small mind
Now I answered your question, how about answering mine.
How many K9 officers do you know, I ma guessing NONE, not one.
Also how about this.
You or someone is saying they tell their dogs to bark just to get in the car to take your money, OK how do they know you have money then?
Simple two questions for you
do you mean all cops are dishonest or some cops?
Maybe all firemen are dishonest, all store keepers are dishonest, all plumbers, hell everyone is dishonest including you then if that is how you look at this.
This is the new Washington Post owned by Jeff Bezos. They are actually beginning to act like real journalists for a change. Do I trust them - nah, they are still journalists, and still in Washington DC which means they are congenital liberals, but still they deserve applause for doing the right thing here. Keep it up
Simple question for you:
What agency do you work for?
oh and if you like talking about me then maybe give me a courtesy ping, as for second amendment first, , well he should know he;s on my ignore list by now along with a few others who have not been banned yet
I have given you courtesy posts.
You can ignore me, but you still have not answered any questions.
Still polishing your jackboots?
And yet you have not seen any federal judges yell “its not constitutional”. Like they do with every thing else. Because the judges are political hacks who have been bought and paid for.
Ferguson, MO and Police Militarization
Language warning, but still worth it.
“The Sheriffs dept near me accounts for it’s dogs and over the years I have got to know many many of them , and not one thing which has been stated here is true with where I live.”
Glad you live in Mayberry. But a cursory look and search will easily show cops using dogs who CAN’T reliably detect drugs. Cars torn apart over nothing but a dog bark. And the issue of Trick Ponies is not a small one. Even cops have challenged it.
“As for lying, gang mentality bla bla, well every profession has bad apples”
And those bad apples are policed. LE bad apples aren’t. They get excuses left and right. THAT is the difference. I don’t blame LE for its bad apples. I blame LE for it’s apathy to its bad apples.
“That is the difference between what I am saying and what some on here who have their anti cops agendas and obviously some , usually liberaltarians can’t understand that and will use anything to use their crap.”
I’m not libertarian. Not even anti-cop, at least in the ideal of what they are supposed to be. I’m just sick of the attitude problems they have, the FACT that they are corrupt. And their lack of any real accountability. Do you know a cop killed a guy recently because the pig was using his computer while driving? And he walked from it.
“Around here we have had deputies save a guy this weekend from drowning, helped to stop a robber, stopped a cop killer, and yes even got a snake from an old womans house.”
Not relevant. You can’t erase bad deeds with good ones.
“As for LE having no honor, then you lump entire profession together, so you are saying every border patrol agent is corrupt, every MP is corrupt, every customs is corrupt.”
I lump an entire ‘profession’(cops are not professional at all) together when they show a tendency to behave in a certain way. If they had honor, they’d do far more to deal with their own trash. You think it is an accident that the cops that shot up innocent people in the Dorner hunt were never punished? That SWAT raid over nothing but a car thief’s word? How about the cops who shoot people under other ridiculous situations?
Your problem is you are too close to LE to see clearly their problems. More and more people are becoming highly critical of cops, and they aren’t criminals. They are citizens who are seeing what cops have become.
A cop said it best at another web site. “When people are rooting for that Dorner nut, cops need to take a look at themselves and ask why.”
For all my disagreements with him, and he with me, he was starting to see it. At least see people were seeing something they couldn’t respect.
sorry you had a experience and can’t get past that and distinguish who are good and bad in a profession, and now you can;t get past that every profession who might have that bad one who might take the money or even the good one who might stop an attacker raping you daughter then OK that’s your view of ALL LE .
.
Thnx
Anyone can stop an attacker raping someone's daughter... That isn't something that police forces have a lock on... in fact, "when seconds count", I would hope the woman would pull out a weapon and equalize the situation herself.
“The Sheriffs dept near me accounts for it’s dogs and over the years I have got to know many many of them , and not one thing which has been stated here is true with where I live.”
Okay, great. Let’s see those numbers, then.
I can't remember which state it was, but one of them passed a law doing exactly what you are describing, i.e., changed the recipient of the funds to schools and whatnot. Seizures quickly dropped, then ramped back up. Why? Well, they discovered that if you could call in a fed to participate in the 'bust', the feds would steal the money, and then launder some back to the police department.
It's interesting how similar the feds and police departments are to criminal organizations.
You must have led a sheltered life, the police started taking people’s money decades ago without the necessity of even charging them with a violation of any kind. You have to prove yourself innocent to get your money back and then you don’t get anything to cover your unnecessary expenses. This was covered on national television long ago before the media sold out what little was left of its honesty. Just consider this sentence,
“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.
What that basically says is that using money stolen from citizens helps serve and protect the citizens. Remember the massacre in Vietnam memorialized in the sentence, “We had to destroy the village in order to save it”?
Actually this sort of thing was exposed on national television decades ago, it is not new by any means. There was video of police stopping cars for something like a taillight being out and then asking for permission to search the car. If the driver gave permission and the police found money in the car they took it without the necessity of filing a charge. It is up to the car owner to prove his innocence if he wants his money back. You apparently are just not really aware of what is going on in this country. By the way most paper money in circulation was found to carry traces of drugs like cocaine just from being handled by people who use drugs. A dog trained to sniff out drugs will alert at the smell of drugs on the money, then the cops say that they suspect the money has been involved in drug dealing and that is all it takes for them to keep your money.
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