Stop and seize: Aggressive police take hundreds of millions of dollars from motorists...

[alp227]

not charged with crimes (didn't fit in title bar)

After the terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, the government called on police to become the eyes and ears of homeland security on America’s highways.

Local officers, county deputies and state troopers were encouraged to act more aggressively in searching for suspicious people, drugs and other contraband. The departments of Homeland Security and Justice spent millions on police training.

The effort succeeded, but it had an impact that has been largely hidden from public view: the spread of an aggressive brand of policing that has spurred the seizure of hundreds of millions of dollars in cash from motorists and others not charged with crimes, a Washington Post investigation found. Thousands of people have been forced to fight legal battles that can last more than a year to get their money back.

Behind the rise in seizures is a little-known cottage industry of private police-training firms that teach the techniques of “highway interdiction” to departments across the country.

One of those firms created a private intelligence network known as Black Asphalt Electronic Networking & Notification System that enabled police nationwide to share detailed reports about American motorists — criminals and the innocent alike — including their Social Security numbers, addresses and identifying tattoos, as well as hunches about which drivers to stop.

full: http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/2014/09/06/stop-and-seize/

[arcane1]

1. This will take some time to finish reading but I'm kicking now!

[RKP5637]

2. K&R! This F'en nonsense has to stop. n/t

[villager]

3. Frankly, it's an argument for the eventual use of digital crypto currencies

Reading the article, the notion is that carrying too much cash is "suspicious" (and can be therefore be seized by our "protectors," the cops, without any due process).

So of course, using far more easily databased ATM and Credit Cards resolves that. (And keeps everyone more easily tracked).

In other words, any financial transaction not easily tracked by our minders is now potentially "criminal." Particularly, of course, if your skin color is wrong.

[msongs]

4. one would think the democratic party INC would condemn to this sort of thing but nary a peep

about this sort of thing or the privatization of prisons racket

[JHB]

12. The victims are as free to attend $1000/plate fundraisers as anyone else

[beam me up scottie]

5. This has been going on for years in Tennessee.

At first I was shocked by the blatant corruption and lack of outrage but I now realize that Boss Hog types not only exist down here, they are allowed to flourish...as long as everyone gets their piece of the pie.

[Live and Learn]

6. Asset forfeiture is an asinine and unconstitutional policy.

Not only is in unfair but it leads to the corruption of our public officials.

[fishwax]

7. wow ... on some level it seems like this ought to be on a conspiracy site, rather than wapo

[daleanime]

8. Kick....

[BlueinOhio]

9. Stealing homes too

My son was arrested last year for turning around in a parking lot. They had changed the street pattern. Found out later they had arrested several people for the same thing. Anyway he had $800 on him at the time of arrest and not all of it was there when they returned it.
Read this article last night.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/03/us/philadelphia-drug-bust-house-seizure/index.html
So they can take your home without any cause or arrest.
So if they see something they like, they can just steal anything they want and now they are getting away with murder on top.

[strawberries]

14. There is more to your story about your son

Not sure why anyone would be carrying $800.00 in cash these days. With that said there had to be some proof that the money was related to drugs in order for them to take your home.

Since the full $800.00 was not there I suspect the cops had to write down a lower amount at the time of his arrest. Then it becomes his word against their word and we know how that works out......

As for your link
You act like the cops get to keep the home that is seized. You never mentioned that they family was given back their home after eight days.

This is one law I do like, but it is intended for the big drug lords, not the kid with $40.00 of heroin on him. It's a shame the way power is abused by some.

[Buns_of_Fire]

10. If you fly (or even take a bus), the TSA is there to mess with you.

If you drive, the State Police are there to mess with you.

If you walk, the local Barney Fife Squad might shoot you.

And if you just give up and stay in your house, who knows when the local militarized SWAT team is going to get the wrong address and blow you away anyway?

Tell me again how well this "War on Drugs/Terror/Flavor-of-the-Day" is going.

[MindPilot]

17. But if you're not doing anything illegal, you have nothing to worry about, right?

Riiiiiight.

[spanone]

11. just reading this....makes my blood boil

[pintobean]

13. Organized crime masquerading as law enforcement.

The same kind of shit is happening with eminent domain.

Things have progressed quite a bit from cops getting free beer from teens.

[Hemmingway]

15. Yeah, whatever.

I have little sympathy for the guy transporting 100k in cellophane wrap hidden in his gas tank. Nothing nefarious about that at all.

[CreekDog]

16. That wasn't in the article

Making stuff up?

[MindPilot]

18. oooh a low-post badge sniffer...

be gone with thee!

[GP6971]

27. In the other thread

You mentioned shrink wrap. Why the change to cellophane?

[NutmegYankee]

19. To Protect and Serve

THEMSELVES. Everyone else must comply or be beaten/murdered.

[Liberal_in_LA]

20. kick back to the top

[Dawson Leery]

21. Law "enforcement" has become organized crime.

[adirondacker]

22. +1000. I would interject the word "more" before organized. I get the feeling the mafia is running

the show in this country.

[Dawson Leery]

23. This is far worse than any mafia.

Police are the state and are therefore allowed to legally steal from us.

[Aerows]

24. Don't ever get pulled over wearing an expensive watch

or jewelry like earrings. They know they can't take your wedding rings, but your watch and your earrings will get "misplaced". "Sorry, we misplaced your Tag Heuer. Feel free to file a report."

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

25. Kick

[poster123]

26. Hooray Washington Post! Another expose!

[Louisiana1976]

28. Excellent post. K&R

[beam me up scottie]

29. Link to HuffPost article about Tennessee's civil asset forfeiture:

Tennessee Asset Forfeiture Bill Seeks To Abolish Abusive Police Practice

A Tennessee state legislator has introduced a bill to abolish civil asset forfeiture, the controversial legal power that allows police to confiscate and keep property without ever charging the owner with a crime. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Barrett Rich (R-Somerville), would require a criminal conviction of the owner to permit law enforcement to keep any property associated with the crime.

***

Just this month, for example, the owners of the Motel Caswell in Tewksbury, Mass., won a years-long fight to keep the federal government from seizing their business. In that case, the government didn't even allege the owners were involved in any criminal activity. Instead, prosecutors argued that the Caswell family didn't do enough to prevent other people from committing drug crimes while staying at the hotel. As evidence, they cited 15 drug-related incidents at the hotel over a 15-year period. None involved the Caswells or anyone they knew. The family's fight to keep their business required a half-million dollars' worth of legal services -- although some of the defense was handled pro bono by the Institute for Justice.

***

That can create some odd incentives. For example, in a 2011 report, Nashville's News Channel 5 found that the vast majority of police stops looking for suspected drug smugglers were made on the side of the highway leaving the city, not the side entering it. For police coffers, it was better to let the drugs come into Nashville, be sold and then seize the cash as the dealers left town.

Likewise, in a 1994 study published in the journal Justice Quarterly, criminologists J. Mitchell Miller and Lance H. Selva found that several police agencies delayed making busts of suspected drug houses until most of the drug supply had been sold. They waited until the drugs had already hit the streets so that they could maximize their forfeiture bounty.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/22/tennessee-asset-forfeiture_n_2933246.html

[woo me with science]

30. K&R