Canadians Warned That US Law Enforcement Officers Will Pull Them Over And Seize Their Cash

[Katashi_itto]

From the US-outed-as-serial-abuser dept or Third-World-Nation-in-Training.

The exploitation of asset seizure/forfeiture laws by law enforcement isn't anything new, but it is receiving a lot more attention thanks to an extensive exploration of the subject by the Washington Post. The findings are astonishing/sickening. Over the last 13 years, nearly 62,000 cash seizures have been made by law enforcement officers, resulting in a $2.5 billion haul. And that's just the cash. Depending on local laws, people who have had their cash seized may also lose their vehicles, houses and access to any bank accounts.

Only one-sixth of those whose cash has been seized have engaged in the expensive process necessary to retrieve their money. Nearly half of those who make this attempt have their funds returned, which indicates that many of the cash seizures are predicated on tenuous legal ground (to put it very nicely). But even more bad news awaits should a citizen fight an uphill battle against an infinitely-funded opponent: in many cases, the responding governments only offer back half of what was seized and force citizens to sign a release agreement promising not to sue before they'll hand over the check.

The abusive farce that is asset forfeiture has now reached critical mass: CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) has issued a warning to Canadian travelers. Senior Washington Correspondent Neil MacDonald posted this bluntly-titled article late last week. (via Boing Boing, which also gives us this great phrase: "robbery at badgepoint&quot
American shakedown: Police won't charge you, but they'll grab your money
In it, he cautions Canadians that visiting the US with a bunch of cash on hand is a good way to end up short on funds. He points out that the Canadian government has no law limiting the amount of cash Canadians can take into or out of the country, but that has no bearing on what any local police force inside the US would consider to be the "legal" amount of cash a person -- especially a foreign citizen -- can carry. After all, half the seizures were for less than $8,800 and that number includes a college graduate (with no criminal record) who was relieved of $2,500 given to him by his parents to make a trip to California for a job interview.

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140915/09500928521/canadian-news-outlet-warns-canadians-that-us-law-enforcement-officers-will-pull-them-over-seize-their-cash.shtml

Think we need some more "police are great people threads"

[The Magistrate]

1. Asset Forfeiture Laws, Sir, Are Indeed Highway Robbery, And By Men With Badges....

They are a shame and a disgrace, and ought to be repealed or struck down as un-constitutional.

[FiveGoodMen]

13. Could NOT agree more!

[hootinholler]

2. I still can't believe that one of these cases hasn't been in front of the Supremes yet

This clearly violates due process.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

3. "Think we need some more "police are great people threads""

Or at least one post claiming these people MUST have deserved it.

Probably from refusing to cooperate.

[Katashi_itto]

4. Exactly

[PoutrageFatigue]

8. Or not showing ID...

...or being black and not showing ID, or being black and female, and not showing ID...

[The Wizard]

5. We slipped into

the third world without notice,

[calimary]

16. No kidding.

[marmar]

6. That's the behavior of a kleptocratic state.

[pscot]

7. k&r

[AtheistCrusader]

9. If they were innocent, they wouldn't be suspects, would they?

( )

[Scalded Nun]

10. Welcome to the new police state

They can kill you, they can rob you, they can destroy you and your family's life.

They do all this with impunity.

They are thugs, thieves and are without honor.

The 'Good Cop' is now the exception.

Don't count on the courts to fix this. Only citizens (and their vote) can change this, along with changing all of the other disgraces occurring in this country.

[Garion_55]

11. dupe

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1017215559

[iscooterliberally]

12. Thank the war on drugs for this crap.

It has undermined our 4th amendment rights across the board, and turned law enforcement into militarized thugs in our country. "land of the free" my ass.

[Romulox]

14. Actually, I applaud when laws crafted for the Drug War are used on the general public.

Your privacy, your property, your human dignity isn't worth any more than that of a drug user. We all sat by and watched this police state metastasize in front of our eyes; as long as it was happening to them most of us didn't say a damn thing.

We all need to feel the pain, so we can demand this be ended.

[calimary]

15. And a big ol hearty "Thank You!!!" to nancy reagan for starting it all!!!

Poor dear needed a PR lift back then because the public hated her snooty, elitist, wanna-be-queen attitude and found her off-putting, or at least what glaringly came off that way. Recording all those PSAs for the Foster Grandparents Program didn't do much for her image, so they came up with the "Just Say No" traveling road show for her. And we're still paying for that. Mainly so dear nancy could appear more warm and sympathetic.

[maindawg]

17. This is not new

This crap goes back 20 years or more now. Its all a part of the 'war on drugs'. The cops have developed the strategy and learned how to take full advantage of the law to commit crimes against citizens. We are a fascist country now.The term 'homeland security ' is a fascist term taken directly from Nazi Germany. The very same scumbag asshole billionaires who backed Hitler now own our government thank you Ronald fucking Reagon and Dick head Nixon along with the rest of the pack of assholes that have their collective foot on our collective necks.
Every day is a struggle in the modern world. They stole hundreds of dollars from my bank account and no one cares. Not the corp, PNC , not my local bank who I have been with for 27 years nobody.
Your turn will come, and no one will care.

[Jake Stern]

18. The legal reasoning behind asset forfeiture is that cops are "arresting" the item

IIRC, Missouri tried to clamp down on the practice but the boys in blue got around that by calling in the Feds to do the seizure. Example: St.Louis cop stops a car and learns the driver is carrying $5000 in cash. Since Missouri law makes it hard to just seize the cash the cop radios in for a DEA agent to be dispatched to the scene. The DEA agent does the forfeiture and the department gets a check from Uncle Sam.

[Orrex]

19. Crunching the numbers?

Over the last 13 years, nearly 62,000 cash seizures have been made by law enforcement officers, resulting in a $2.5 billion haul.

Damn. That's an average of about $40,300 per seizure! Quite a haul indeed!

After all, half the seizures were for less than $8,800

Even worse! If my math is right, that means that half of the seizures average close to $72,000.

Only one-sixth of those whose cash has been seized have engaged in the expensive process necessary to retrieve their money.

Of the 62,000 who've had cash seized, I wonder how many have not ultimately been arrested or charged? Presumably, if the money is found to be unlawfully obtained, than retrieval is not an option. We can only assume that the 1/6 (who make the effort to get their money back) represent a significantly smaller number than would actually be eligible to reclaim their seized cash. And I would personally be amazed if this program were applied equally and without regard to skin color or ethnicity.

Even if we work with the article's figures at face value (i.e., that 1/6 of the victims are eligible for reimbursement), that's 800 per year for 13 years. The odds aren't great that any single traffic stop will result in cash seizure, but it's still about 800 more per year than it should be!