It's Past Time To Get Rid Of Asset Forfeiture
Asset forfeiture is lucrative business for police departments and it has helped them to bring in billions of dollars, by allowing them to confiscate the property of citizens. They don't even have to be criminals, they might not ever have any charges laid against them, yet this program still allows authorities to confiscate the property. If the police believe that they might be able to link that property to a crime in some way, then they won't waste any time in taking it away from you. The property itself is able to be charged and you yourself are under the onus of proving that it isn't guilty.
The financial incentives that asset forfeiture programs provide police departments are perverse.
It has been found in many cases that the assets acquired through the asset forfeiture program, were tied to police department funding directly. Because of the opportunity for a financial incentive, officers have even planted evidence in an effort to try and seek a conviction and justify an arrest and detention. If those departments become dependent on their budgets being tied to the assets they obtain, then it's likely that they will continue to acquire whatever they can or whatever they'd like.
These financial rewards provide an incentive for widespread corruption.
In one recent case involving the city of Bay St. St. Louis, the city was just ordered to repay about $300,000 to the Federal Department of Justice, after it was uncovered that they allegedly misspent asset forfeiture funds that they had confiscated. They say that the money went to police operating costs and that every rule was broken that was laid out by the Department of Justice.
This practice occurs across the nation, where innocent people very frequently get punished, and the police departments can use that money for salaries, trips, boats and more. One officer even referred to the money as "pennies from heaven,.. it gets you a toy or something that you need" he said.
Traveling with too much cash in your car? The police might say that the cash is connected to money laundering or drug activity and they could seize it without ever having to take you to court. There was one woman who owned a home with her children, and one of the children sold drugs/made an exchange outside of the home, and though the crime had nothing to do with her, the police decided to come after her home and take it from her. Many legal experts maintain that this is nothing more than a scam and that's why so many individuals are dedicated to ending this practice.
Not There To Protect Us
It could be argued that the police don’t really work for us, if you are referring to the majority of the public/population when you use the term “us”. The picture looks quite different in that we ultimately get up and go to work for them, quite literally. This is because we go to work to earn the money/wealth that they will then get to take forcibly from us for a myriad of reasons. They can confiscate our wealth by taxation or straight unapologetic outright confiscation with methods like asset forfeiture.
Looking at it this way, it's difficult to see how the cops work for us rather than it being the other way around. The police work for the state just as they always have. And as long as they continue to be an aggressively enforced monopoly that is entirely dependent on taxation and wealth confiscation etc, then we can expect that we will hardly see them act as our protectors; but rather what they are which is preservers of the state.
Pics:
pixabay
Toke Signals
Sources:
http://www.wlox.com/story/34460563/bay-st-louis-must-pay-back-nearly-300k-to-doj
http://blog.tenthamendmentcenter.com/2017/02/the-300000-asset-forfeiture-mistake-in-mississippi/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/instituteforjustice/2014/06/05/cops-in-texas-seize-millions-by-policing-for-profit/#348580b03aa8
https://www.buzzfeed.com/nicks29/the-14-most-ridiculous-things-police-bought-with-a-4y3w
https://steemit.com/politics/@doitvoluntarily/policing-for-profit-new-bill-looks-to-reform-civil-asset-forfeiture
This happened to a friend of mine couple years back. He was driving back from Atlantic City after playing a series of poker tournaments (what he does for a living) and had a very large sum of cash on him.
He got pulled over in Georgia and they tried to say he was a drug dealer (drugging sniffing dog "smelt drugs") and they seized all of his money.
Guys has never done let alone sold drugs in his life. Fought them in court for more than a year and ended up getting back 1/4 of his money. Crazy.
When i've mentioned how they can just take the cash before, some folks responded in defense saying well who would carry that much $ on them? as if that was reason enough for it to be stolen... the scenario you describe above is a perfect scenario, what if they just came from the casino? or were going shopping? or going to make a big purchase? just because someone has a large sum of cash shouldn't automatically render them guilty of something
Then they'd have to start robbing us honestly! I remember reading about a federal judge in Conn. that was called the "Forfeiture Queen." She'd confiscate property on the flimsiest of evidence. When her son got caught selling LSD out of her home however...
Its only getting worse and fast, I dont feel safe anymore like I used to having a family only complicates matters further.
I am not a Trump Supporter or Basher. Though I've disliked the hypocrisy coming from a lot of people and media bashing him. I've been "triggered" (getting to hate that word) by hypocrisy and have written pieces that may make me seem a Trump supporter. I am not. Yet I don't like hypocrisy and will generally respond or challenge it.
So what is my point?
I watched Trump meeting with the Sheriffs association and talking to them and heard some Sheriffs mention asset forfeiture and their concern that some were trying to stop them from being able to do it before conviction. Trump came down as a strong supporter for what they want.
The ability to take your property before they've proven you are a criminal.
I have some big problems with that. I've tried to tell people that what Trump SAYS is of no concern to me. I wait to see what he actually does. At the moment those too are just words he made to these Sheriffs. I have not seen any actual actions on this. If/When they happen then I will indeed have something I dislike a great deal about Trump other than simply me not being a fan of the "State" in general. :)
Modern attitude of "why solve the problem ourselves, when we can have the state/government solve it for us in the most wasteful way they can conceive of" really needs to be snapped out of.
If we have a problem and we cannot solve it as a group then the government has not proven good at anything other than waste, and enslavement.
Yes. The "50 laboratories of innovation" implies an incentive on coercive, stupid entities that caused the problem to respond to "innovation" pressures from 50 other(if DC is included) similar malevolent, stupid, destructive entities. Now, this is not to say that this can't cause some improvement, but the fastest avenues toward improvement (open access to the ballot, organized juries that elect sheriffs who require a valid "cause of action" before action, etc.) are ruled out by this lazy and uninformed approach.
Your local police department, prosecutors, and judges are the problem. Without recognition of that fact, and without recognizing them as the murderous totalitarians they are, there is no solution possible. (It's possible to murder people by stealing the wealth they need to survive, especially in an era where radical life extension can be purchased, if one knows where to look. I've already lost so much money to police and automated traffic cameras that I will probably die of my illness, even though I have most of the knowledge necessary to save my life, and am an avid reader of cutting edge life-extension information.)
Looks like some folks have a different long term goal in mind for the blockchain and YOUR True monetary and post values.
https://steemit.com/abuse/@iloveupvotes/this-is-the-operation-going-on-behind-your-back-and-all-the-people-that-fund-this-theft-ring
Watch as they flag even this comment to silence the truth from you.