Post by doctork on Feb 21, 2019 18:03:40 GMT -5
I think I've written about this before. When a police officer stops you for some "reasonable suspicion" of a crime, he or she can decide to take all your property - your car, everything in it - even if you haven't committed a crime, and you will fight for years at get anything back - at best.
The "suspicion" may be "structured deposits" to a bank - someone repeatedly makes modest cash deposits under $10,000, as the $10K mark is where it must be reported by the bank to the fed. This pattern is common among many legitimate small businesses that do a lot of cash business - dry cleaners, restaurants, lawn care companies, etc. If the authorities determine that your pattern is consistent with drug dealers, they may seize your entire bank account, even if they haven't charged you with a crime (and you may have committed no crime).
Police departments are then free to spend those ill-gotten gains on all kinds of "toys" and equipment. Other city and state agencies too may partake of the funds, to the extent that such forfeitures are a major component of their budgets. Instead of speed traps, police can operate "forfeiture traps" by stopping out-of-town or better yet out-of-state motorists and seizing their property.
Clarence Thomas cited a case of a black man in the nursery business traveling with substantial cash to another city to buy some shrubbery for his customers. He was stopped and accused of drug dealing as the reason for having thousands of dollars in cash. They too his cash, his car, even his cell phone and left him by the side of the road with nothing.
So GOOD NEWS. Yesterday the Supreme Court handed down a decision against this practice; it was 9 - 0 and when there is a 9 - 0 decision you know the bad guys were really bad!
It will take a while to filter down to all the money grabbers, but at least there is a beginning to a defense against these practices.
The "suspicion" may be "structured deposits" to a bank - someone repeatedly makes modest cash deposits under $10,000, as the $10K mark is where it must be reported by the bank to the fed. This pattern is common among many legitimate small businesses that do a lot of cash business - dry cleaners, restaurants, lawn care companies, etc. If the authorities determine that your pattern is consistent with drug dealers, they may seize your entire bank account, even if they haven't charged you with a crime (and you may have committed no crime).
Police departments are then free to spend those ill-gotten gains on all kinds of "toys" and equipment. Other city and state agencies too may partake of the funds, to the extent that such forfeitures are a major component of their budgets. Instead of speed traps, police can operate "forfeiture traps" by stopping out-of-town or better yet out-of-state motorists and seizing their property.
Clarence Thomas cited a case of a black man in the nursery business traveling with substantial cash to another city to buy some shrubbery for his customers. He was stopped and accused of drug dealing as the reason for having thousands of dollars in cash. They too his cash, his car, even his cell phone and left him by the side of the road with nothing.
So GOOD NEWS. Yesterday the Supreme Court handed down a decision against this practice; it was 9 - 0 and when there is a 9 - 0 decision you know the bad guys were really bad!
It will take a while to filter down to all the money grabbers, but at least there is a beginning to a defense against these practices.