Comments on: Cash Strapped PDs Tap New Source of Revenue: Stealing!

By: Poetariat » Blog Archive » the year we make contact

Poetariat » Blog Archive » the year we make contact — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 16:18:18 +0000

[...] universe costs too much police like to record you, don’t like when you record them; they also steal from innocent people, with Obama’s support more illegal spying MPAA wants a censored internet (and spying begins in the UK), and [...]

By: Links 10/12/2009: CIsco and IBM GNU/Linux Servers | Boycott Novell

Links 10/12/2009: CIsco and IBM GNU/Linux Servers | Boycott Novell — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 15:07:58 +0000

[...] Cash Strapped PDs Tap New Source of Revenue: Stealing! I have a feature on asset forfeiture coming in the February 2010 issue of Reason. Forfeiture critics I interviewed for the article say there’s good reason to think laws that send forfeiture proceeds back to prosecutor offices may be unconstitutional. Whereas police only make the initial seizure, prosecutors actually make the policy decision of determining which cases to take. Dicta in prior U.S. Supreme Court cases indicates the Court may find due process problems with those same offices then materially benefiting from those decisions. [...]

By: Richard Stallman

Richard Stallman — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 03:47:29 +0000

With police like this, who needs criminals? Civil forfeiture is fundamentally unjust if it can be done when the victim has not been convicted of a related crime.

By: gordy three horses

gordy three horses — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 02:14:56 +0000

make the pigs show the lomar in cort and then beat themn over the head with it.

By: Toastrider

Toastrider — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 23:13:21 +0000

Horsepuckey, JG. People have fled far worse places than Detroit, with far less than a ‘crappy car’. Would it be painful and arduous? Certainly. But if you’re not willing to pack up your marbles and leave, you might as well resign yourself to the day to day hell.

The computer said it best: The only way to win is to /not play/.

By: ShortWoman» Blog Archive » The Shorties Saga: New Moon

ShortWoman» Blog Archive » The Shorties Saga: New Moon — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 21:19:13 +0000

[...] Further Regulated: “We think your passenger is a hooker so we’re taking your car… Oops we’re mistaken, you owe us $1400 to get your car [...]

By: JG

JG — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 20:38:10 +0000

@Jennifer: get out of your privileged and unreal middle-class existence for just a minute and trying thinking about it.

Do you drive a $1700 car? Do you have any conception of what a piece of crap a $1700 car is? And if it was your only car and you actually needed it badly enough to try to get it back, do you really think you’d be “wealthy” enough to actually leave Detroit and possibly even less well off relatives likely depending on you? Probably not.

Get over your own class-blinded ignorance and naivete, please. Gaining some broader experiences and thinking outside you little box of existence can be helpful for understanding the real world. It’s not all nice and pretty like yours.

By: zeeba

zeeba — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 19:57:34 +0000

It just seems like common sense that forfeitures and fines should not be allowed to fund police, prosecutors and courts – otherwise, there’s just too much incentive to use them as a means of revenue, instead of simply maintaining public order.

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 16:36:33 +0000

I’m not playing “blame the victim” here, but asking a sincere question: why the hell does ANY actual working productive person live in Detroit anymore? I occasionally play real-estate fantasy games: check online sites in search of properties my apartment-dwelling self could afford to buy outright with cash on hand, and if you focus exclusively on property costs I could buy a few square blocks of the city. However, Bill Gates himself could barely afford the 30 or 40 years’ back-tax bill such property would have, and anyone who lives in Detroit has to pay a special city income tax for that dubious privilege, and the city charter apparently makes it illegal for anyone with a three-digit IQ to run for office there. Didn’t the cops recently announce they would no longer investigate property crimes because they were undermanned? The only property crimes they pay attention to anymore are the ones they personally commit.

By: Cynical in CA

Cynical in CA — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 15:51:21 +0000

Asset forfeiture sounds like an end game to me.

When the thin veneer erodes, society will cannibalize itself.

Detroit and other areas disappearing from the map are a harbinger as the current trend continues.

America is rotting from within.

By: Frank

Frank — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 13:07:24 +0000

Virginia still requires all forfeitures to go to the state literacy fund. Supposedly this removes the greed, but the feds have found ways around that to let the locals get a slice of the pie.

By: c. well

c. well — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 08:04:05 +0000

oh yeah…. and they can do it cause it’s on our dime. stealing straight up like this makes for a nice bonus…. but really…. we fund it.

you must pay the gang that runs your hood or you don’t even get a second to breathe.

own land? pay up asshole.

would say get out of the country but where are you gonna go?

when the world is an authoritarian state where is your exit?

seriously.

the government is actively consolidating power.

DC get’s rich while you stay put.

ever study history?

know what feudalism means?

if you do that sucks. cause you now we’re screwed.

sucked then. still sucks now.

… but what are you gonna do?

… start a revolution?

i know a few guys who tried that once.

oh but wait…. i forgot they changed the rules on us. if you don’t like the US government you’re not patriotic…. and this land has a long history of burning witches.

By: c. well

c. well — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 07:49:24 +0000

every one of you should read “serpico”. the movie is entertaining but the book is insightful. straight forward. how it is.

police = mafia.

things haven’t changed a bit.

it’s just now… everyone else has been edged out the game.

By: Rune

Rune — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 05:28:38 +0000

Sounds to me that asset forfeitures are part of the budgeting, meaning that the thugs have quotas to reach as not to go in the red. This is so fucked up.

By: Cornellian

Cornellian — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 05:18:59 +0000

“We would be just as aggressive even if there wasn’t any money involved.”

Great to hear it. Let’s put that proposition to the test.

By: anonymous

anonymous — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 04:54:34 +0000

Lots of money taken in by asset forfeiture. Just today in my neck of the woods:

http://www.azcentral.com/community/mesa/articles/2009/12/04/20091204mr-motorcycles1205.html

By: Boyd Durkin

Boyd Durkin — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 04:44:29 +0000

It will only get worse, not better. More and more people will have their property taken from them when the state struggles with money issues.

By: perlhaqr

perlhaqr — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 02:28:41 +0000

anonymous homeowner: I hate HOAs as much as the next anarchist (which is why I bought a house somewhere that doesn’t have one) but I think you may have misread the intent of the last link you posted. The guy seems to be talking about people who own condos who refuse to act like owners. If you’re going to act like a renter, in a massively conjoined building, then for survival’s sake, the other people in that building have to treat you like a renter.

If you don’t like that, don’t put yourself in a big urban box like that, or at least act like a real property owner. Or preferably, both.

By: anonymous homeowner

anonymous homeowner — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 02:17:41 +0000

> Seems like the sort of thing Barack Obama might have fought
> to change in his days as a community organizer.

What type of things did Obama actually fight to change back in his days as a community organizer?

Did he ever work on asset forfeiture reform?

By: Radley Balko

Radley Balko — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 02:10:57 +0000

Thomas Ptacek:

That’s how long they can hold it before they have to give you a preliminary hearing. Much more time can pass before the actual civil trial. Three of the claimaints in the Alvarez case waited more than a year.