Way worse than NSA fears 1: Five Egregious Ways Police Are Seizing Property From Those Never Accuse

[uhnope]

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/08/05/2411801/five-egregious-ways-police-are-seizing-property-from-those-never-accused-of-a-crime/

As law enforcement officers continue to ramp up use of a controversial practice known as civil forfeiture, police are seizing cash, cars, houses, and other assets in the name of drug enforcement without ever having arrested or charged their owners with a crime. Funds collected from these seizures frequently go directly back into law enforcement, creating a dangerous profit incentive for police and other law enforcers. Both the New Yorker and ProPublica have new investigations of this practice, in which officers seize property they believe is connected to drug or other illicit activity, with a much lower burden of proof than when charges are filed against a person. Below are five of the most egregious incidents to emerge from these reports.

[msongs]

1. can we seize police stations where on duty police violate the law then? nt

[Shrike47]

2. In Oregon voters passed an initiative that gave any proceeds of forfeiture to rehab programs.

LOTS of people thought we ought to take the incentive to lie out of it.

[uhnope]

5. thx for the good news

we need those laws everywhere

[Dawson Leery]

3. Saginaw Piggy's show off a car they stole:

[Old Codger]

4. As stated in previous

Oregon pretty much stopped that from happening. One of the favorite tricks they use is to arrest someone seize the property then drop the charges, in order to get things returned you had to sue and more or less prove you were not guilty, in a lot of cases they had already sold the property .. Was pretty much a steal for the police...

[GiaGiovanni]

6. How did Oregon stop it

And I love your coffee and donut gif.

[Old Codger]

7. It was a measure on our ballot

We voted it out


In November 2000, Oregon nearly nipped this problem in the bud by passing Ballot Measure 3, The Property Protection Act, with a 67% majority. As soon as it passed however, one of our state’s biggest stakeholders in the use of CAF, Lincoln County, filed suit. The Oregon Supreme Court upheld the law in October 2006 by overturning an Appeals Court decision in Lincoln Interagency Narcotics Team v. Kitzhaber.

[GiaGiovanni]

8. Nice.

And good for your courts. I doubt that you'd get SCOTUS to do the same.

[Old Codger]

9. I don't know

What would happen there but they were seriously abusing the law by taking assets and then dropping charges after the assets had been sold forcing people to sue. When it would go to court the accused people pretty much had to prove innocence without having been given a chance to defend themselves in a court of law...bad deal all around ..

[GiaGiovanni]

10. That's just theft

Amazing how ethics is suffering in law enforcement.

[Old Codger]

11. Exactly

That was what they called it and that is why we voted it out

[GiaGiovanni]

12. People will vote against getting ripped off

if they get the chance to do it.

[Old Codger]

13. Thankfully

we had that opportunity to do it here...

[AppleBottom]

14. Yes that's terrible but Russia is worse!

Now just think about that!

[uhnope]

15. funny. nt