Post by thebin on Jan 23, 2015 15:33:05 GMT -5
www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/2014/09/06/stop-and-seize/#
In a disgusting and tyrannical abuse of power, police forces across the country are stealing cash every day from people they can't even charge with a made up crime. Blame this on the Law & Order Over Everything types.
The bone-headed War on Drugs...it may not have remotely dented drug use or sales in this country but at least it has wasted trillions in tax dollars, exploded prison populations (ie crime universities), and now is the excuse cops needed to simply steal your money without even charging you if they can at least claim you looked nervous while they were interrogating you for no reason.
One of life's delicious ironies is the kinds of people who support these blatant state abuses of power in the name of law and order are the same dudes that like to claim (apropos of nothing) that America is the freest country in the world.
"....Cash seizures can be made under state or federal civil law. One of the primary ways police departments are able to seize money and share in the proceeds at the federal level is through a long-standing Justice Department civil asset forfeiture program known as Equitable Sharing. Asset forfeiture is an extraordinarily powerful law enforcement tool that allows the government to take cash and property without pressing criminal charges and then requires the owners to prove their possessions were legally acquired...."
Justice Dept records show:
"There have been 61,998 cash seizures made on highways and elsewhere since 9/11 without search warrants or indictments through the Equitable Sharing Program, totaling more than $2.5 billion. State and local authorities kept more than $1.7 billion of that while Justice, Homeland Security and other federal agencies received $800 million. Half of the seizures were below $8,800.
Only a sixth of the seizures were legally challenged, in part because of the costs of legal action against the government. But in 41 percent of cases — 4,455 — where there was a challenge, the government agreed to return money. The appeals process took more than a year in 40 percent of those cases and often required owners of the cash to sign agreements not to sue police over the seizures.
Hundreds of state and local departments and drug task forces appear to rely on seized cash, despite a federal ban on the money to pay salaries or otherwise support budgets. The Post found that 298 departments and 210 task forces have seized the equivalent of 20 percent or more of their annual budgets since 2008."
In a disgusting and tyrannical abuse of power, police forces across the country are stealing cash every day from people they can't even charge with a made up crime. Blame this on the Law & Order Over Everything types.
The bone-headed War on Drugs...it may not have remotely dented drug use or sales in this country but at least it has wasted trillions in tax dollars, exploded prison populations (ie crime universities), and now is the excuse cops needed to simply steal your money without even charging you if they can at least claim you looked nervous while they were interrogating you for no reason.
One of life's delicious ironies is the kinds of people who support these blatant state abuses of power in the name of law and order are the same dudes that like to claim (apropos of nothing) that America is the freest country in the world.
"....Cash seizures can be made under state or federal civil law. One of the primary ways police departments are able to seize money and share in the proceeds at the federal level is through a long-standing Justice Department civil asset forfeiture program known as Equitable Sharing. Asset forfeiture is an extraordinarily powerful law enforcement tool that allows the government to take cash and property without pressing criminal charges and then requires the owners to prove their possessions were legally acquired...."
Justice Dept records show:
"There have been 61,998 cash seizures made on highways and elsewhere since 9/11 without search warrants or indictments through the Equitable Sharing Program, totaling more than $2.5 billion. State and local authorities kept more than $1.7 billion of that while Justice, Homeland Security and other federal agencies received $800 million. Half of the seizures were below $8,800.
Only a sixth of the seizures were legally challenged, in part because of the costs of legal action against the government. But in 41 percent of cases — 4,455 — where there was a challenge, the government agreed to return money. The appeals process took more than a year in 40 percent of those cases and often required owners of the cash to sign agreements not to sue police over the seizures.
Hundreds of state and local departments and drug task forces appear to rely on seized cash, despite a federal ban on the money to pay salaries or otherwise support budgets. The Post found that 298 departments and 210 task forces have seized the equivalent of 20 percent or more of their annual budgets since 2008."
