Authorities In Alabama Sued Over Abusive Speed Trap
Law enforcement in the town of Castleberry, AL, are alleged to have a police force that is 5x the national average per capita.
The average police presence in the US is alleged to be roughly 16.6 officers for every 10k people, but Castleberry with only a small population of 500+ already has had 5 officers, making their police presence equal to 90.9 per 10k people.
A lawsuit has been launched against the town of Castleberry and the former police chief.
When the authorities confiscate the assets from travelers going through the speed trap, all they need to say is that they believe it to be connected to criminal activity (sans evidence) and they can then confiscate the property. This seemingly criminal behavior has eroded the semblance of justice in the eyes of many and has consequently fueled heavy criticism from the public. Many legal experts and others have called for an end to civil asset forfeiture for some time now, as it allegedly encourages law enforcement to engage in corrupt policing for profit tactics.
For the unlucky folks who have found themselves traveling through this small town in Alabama, many of them have had their cash confiscated or even their vehicles taken. And later many were allegedly forced to pay roughly $500 for an impound fee in order to get their car released to them, those who were lucky enough to get it back. In some cases, it's alleged that victims had to pay cash directly to the police chief at the time, and in some of those cases they allegedly weren't given any official receipts.
Police departments around the US have been accused of misusing this practice of civil asset forfeiture in order to boost their budgets.
At the moment, there are at least 15 plaintiffs who have accused the former police chief and the town of negligence. In other words, they are arguing that the police were exercising unreasonable policing methods in using civil asset forfeiture practices to convert private assets belonging to citizens, to police assets.
Authorities in the town have also been accused of fraud and false imprisonment.
As it stands currently, officers in Alabama are able to keep 100 percent of the proceeds that they confiscate during civil asset forfeiture procedures. So we can see that there is a very lucrative incentive for police to continue with their business as usual, even if it has been harshly criticized and deemed by many to be an unconstitutional practice.
Pics:
Pixabay
AA Roads via aaroads.com/guide.php?page=u0031nbal
Sources:
http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2017/10/post_153.html
http://blog.al.com/live/2013/07/castleberry_police_chief_our_l.html
http://www.governing.com/gov-data/safety-justice/police-officers-per-capita-rates-employment-for-city-departments.html
Related Posts:
Kentucky Farmer Fights Back Against Civil Asset Forfeiture
https://steemit.com/politics/@doitvoluntarily/kentucky-farmer-fights-back-against-civil-asset-forfeiture
It's Past Time To Get Rid Of Asset Forfeiture
https://steemit.com/news/@doitvoluntarily/it-s-past-time-to-get-rid-of-asset-forfeiture
Plans To Revive Civil Asset Forfeiture Fall Flat
https://steemit.com/news/@doitvoluntarily/plans-to-revive-civil-asset-forfeiture-fall-flat
Wow. This really makes me sick, how the police force is allowing all this I'm so glad that the lawsuit has been launched and that people are fighting back against the police of Castleberry and its police chief.
These guys are supposed to keep us safe, not steal from us. Hopefully this case will get resolved soon and the criminals will get what they deserve.
So good to see people fighting back and standing for their rights and truth.
i used to live in pennsylvania and worked next to a small town named hamburg and whenever i would go to work i would have to go down a steep hill where the speed limit was 25 and a cop always hiding on the side of the road and that cop would pull over someone over all day and night
knowing that just going down that hill your vehicle would just go over the speed limit without pressing the gas pedal. sometimes my car went over the speed limit if i wasnt pressing the breaks hard enough.
anyways i hope that cop loses his job one day cause hes just stealing hard working peoples money.
"They should be immune from the case" is no justification at all! I hope those defendants keep the heat on their officials and their outrageous abuse. You may have heard about police in Seattle WA and federal investigations necessitated by ongoing local police violence which has resulted in an unusually high number of citizens deaths. And more recently, an officer charged for multiple "road trips", transporting marijuana, which is legal for both medical and recreational use in our state, to supply illegal distribution out of state- for his own financial benefit. The police need to be policed, perhaps more than the public.
Remember; KARMA ........
Great news
We all know fines make money, not keep people safe! thnks for sharing this x
This is fake news, being from Bama I know castleberry has at least 600 people,,, hahaha. I've had a ticket in castleberry before, although they did not take any of my stuff, they where a little on the kick of, this is my town... here's some advice to anyone driving through the big state of alabama, if you get pulled over just scream out "ROLL TIDE"
small population of 500+ , most estimates are placing it around 500-600 according to census info from just a few years ago so it might be a tad higher now 👍 current litigation on this matter is still pending.
Sounds like one those crooked southern towns in a 70's exploitation movie
Totally does 😂
Exactly what I was thinking! That town needs Serpico.
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I lived in Alabama for a while and I'm not surprised about this. Alabama small towns love speed traps. There was a speed trap in another city two hours from where I lived. I had to drive through it twice a year while heading to visit relatives and it was always stressful because the cops hid really well. At that particular trap police loved to give reckless driving charges for going over the speed limit...they usually lowered the charges to something less serious but they always had $600 fines. They made a lot of money off reckless driving charges.