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Tuesday, September 09, 2014

This Is A Must See Article and Video

Stop and seize

Aggressive police take hundreds of millions of dollars from motorists not charged with crimes

The Post found:
  • There have been 61,998 cash seizures made on highways and elsewhere since 9/11 without search warrants or indictments through the Equitable Sharing Program, totaling more than $2.5 billion. State and local authorities kept more than $1.7 billion of that while Justice, Homeland Security and other federal agencies received $800 million. Half of the seizures were below $8,800.
  • Only a sixth of the seizures were legally challenged, in part because of the costs of legal action against the government. But in 41 percent of cases — 4,455 — where there was a challenge, the government agreed to return money. The appeals process took more than a year in 40 percent of those cases and often required owners of the cash to sign agreements not to sue police over the seizures.
  • Hundreds of state and local departments and drug task forces appear to rely on seized cash, despite a federal ban on the money to pay salaries or otherwise support budgets. The Post found that 298 departments and 210 task forces have seized the equivalent of 20 percent or more of their annual budgets since 2008.
  • Agencies with police known to be participating in the Black Asphalt intelligence network have seen a 32 percent jump in seizures beginning in 2005, three times the rate of other police departments. Desert Snow-trained officers reported more than $427 million in cash seizures during highway stops in just one five-year period, according to company officials. More than 25,000 police have belonged to Black Asphalt, company officials said.
  • State law enforcement officials in Iowa and Kansas prohibited the use of the Black Asphalt network because of concerns that it might not be a legal law enforcement tool. A federal prosecutor in Nebraska warned that Black Asphalt reports could violate laws governing civil liberties, the handling of sensitive law enforcement information and the disclosure of pretrial information to defendants. But officials at Justice and Homeland Security continued to use it.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

If that happened to me I would be very polite to the officer but I would make sure I got his name then after finding out who he was and where he lived he would pay for his crime VERY dearly.I'm sure I am not the only one who thinks like that.

Anonymous said...

the cops have got to learn you can only push people so far and they will push back. There have been several examples of that lately, and its getting worse

lmclain said...

Highway robbery, by those who claim to "protect and serve".
And IF you have enough time and money, you can "ask" to have your money and property back (after all, you were essentially ROBBED at gunpoint, with no charges or trial --- and we still have "due process"??????).
The telltale sign that the cops are robbing you? If you DO get their permission to have your own money returned ("We, the people" need to ASK if the money cops stole from us can be given back???) you are FORCED to sign a release that you won't pursue legal action against these thieves with guns. If what they were doing was RIGHT, why would they worry about a lawsuit?
Yet, if I rob a drug dealer at gunpoint, it's 25-life?
Keep cheering. But DON'T carry a lot of cash on your next trip to Vegas. You are a criminal. Guilty until proven innocent.
That's the new Amerikan way.
And you stupid lemmings continue to cheer like your team just won the Super Bowl.
Until they do it to YOU.

Anonymous said...

OH WHATS THIS?

ANOTHER ARTICLE PROVING WHAT I SAY IS RIGHT? say it isn't so...

I TOLD YOU cops are POS and get paid to ruin your life and WORK FOR THE HIGHEST BIDDER...

I guess I am just a conspiracy theories huh? even tho you like it and can see it and have it happen to you...

Anonymous said...

You were right.