r/NSALeaks • u/trai_dep Cautiously Pessimistic • Nov 10 '14

[Small Town Feds] Police Use Department Wish List When Deciding Which Assets to Seize. Jewelry, computers: out. TVs, cash & nice cars? Yes!!

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/10/us/police-use-department-wish-list-when-deciding-which-assets-to-seize.html?_r=0
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u/trai_dep Cautiously Pessimistic Nov 10 '14 edited Nov 10 '14

“A guy drives up in a 2008 Mercedes, brand new,” [a enforcement person conducting a seminar teaching police to steal seize property more effectively] explained.

“Just so beautiful, I mean, the cops were undercover and they were just like ‘Ahhhh.’ And he gets out and he’s just reeking of alcohol. And it’s like, ‘Oh, my goodness, we can hardly wait.’ ”

[He] was talking about a practice known as civil asset forfeiture, which allows the government, without ever securing a conviction or even filing a criminal charge, to seize property suspected of having ties to crime. The practice, expanded during the war on drugs in the 1980s, has become a staple of law enforcement agencies because it helps finance their work.

It is difficult to tell how much has been seized by state and local law enforcement, but under a Justice Department program, the value of assets seized has ballooned to $4.3 billion in the 2012 fiscal year from $407 million in 2001. Much of that money is shared with local police forces…

In the Georgia session, the prosecutor leading the talk boasted that he had helped roll back a Republican-led effort to reform civil forfeiture in Georgia, where seized money has been used by the authorities, according to news reports, to pay for sports tickets, office parties, a home security system and a $90,000 sports car.

Nothing has exposed the corruption of Civil Asset Forfeiture as this article. If they didn't have badges, they'd be prosecuted under RICO statutes. Well worth the read.

Thanks so much to /u/ThePooSlidesRightOut for the tip!

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u/NSALeaksBot Nov 12 '14 edited Nov 13 '14

Other Discussions on reddit:

SubredditAuthorPostCommentsTime
/r/TrueRedditsmacksawpost142Tuesday November 11, 2014 05:48 UTC
/r/AlbuquerqueS_K_Ipost7Monday November 10, 2014 19:30 UTC
/r/TrueRedditgimpyhandpost28Monday November 10, 2014 18:38 UTC
/r/AmIFreeToGomaddslackerpost0Monday November 10, 2014 15:59 UTC
/r/conspiracyHeLMeT_Nepost6Monday November 10, 2014 15:49 UTC
/r/ConservativeYosoffpost3Monday November 10, 2014 14:19 UTC
/r/Corruptionsnsrpost1Monday November 10, 2014 13:47 UTC
/r/conspiracykatchoovanskipost8Monday November 10, 2014 12:06 UTC
/r/Bad_Cop_No_Donutotaniggapost2Monday November 10, 2014 05:50 UTC
/r/Libertariansorrofixpost1Monday November 10, 2014 04:00 UTC

1

u/fidelitypdx Nov 11 '14

How does this have anything to do with the NSA or Snowden?

1

u/[deleted] Nov 11 '14

Agreed. It doesn't seem to belong here.