Michigan cops seize the belongings of vulnerable people for their coffers

[Liberal_in_LA]

Thomas Williams was alone that November morning in 2013 when police raided his rural St. Joseph County home, wearing black masks, camouflage and holding guns at their sides. They broke down his front door with a battering ram.

"We think you're dealing marijuana," they told Williams, a 72-year-old, retired carpenter and cancer patient who is disabled and carries a medical marijuana card.

When he protested, they handcuffed him and left him on the living room floor as they ransacked his home, emptying drawers, rummaging through closets and surveying his grow room, where he was nourishing his 12 personal marijuana plants as allowed by law. Some had recently begun to die, so he had cloned them and had new seedlings, although they were not yet planted. That, police insisted, put him over the limit.

They did not charge Williams with a crime, though.
Instead, they took his Dodge Journey, $11,000 in cash from his home, his television, his cell phone, his shotgun and are attempting to take his Colon Township home. And they plan to keep the proceeds, auctioning off the property and putting the cash in police coffers.

---!

Among the cases tracked by the Heritage Foundation: Krista Vaughn of Detroit was working for the American Red Cross in 2004 when she dropped a fellow worker off at a local bank and promised to swing back around and pick her friend up once the friend finished her banking. They were both wearing their Red Cross badges, according to published reports.
A Detroit police squad working on prostitution in the area determined that Vaughn's friend was "making eye contact" with motorists in an attempt to solicit them.
Police ticketed the friend and confiscated Vaughn's 2003 Sebring, claiming that it was being used as part of a prostitution ring. They eventually dropped the charges against her friend, but Vaughn had to pay $1,800 in fines, towing and repairs to her car in order to get it back.

http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2015/02/22/civil-asset-forfeiture-michigan-seizures-aclu-heritage-foundation-institute-justice/23737663/

[atreides1]

1. More good cops hard at work

...fucking over the citizens, again!!

Let's face facts the police are nothing more then the Praetorian guard of the elite and affluent, they are no longer concerned with enforcing the laws, as much as they are with filling their coffers at the expense of the citizens they are suppose to be working for.

And as long as their unions are allowed collective bargaining for their members, they will continue to serve the rich...why do people think that police and fire unions are never restricted as many public worker unions have been?

The police who continue to do this are nothing more then a cancer on society...

[Jackpine Radical]

2. It's the only judicious way for them to proceed:

"Michigan cops seize the belongings of vulnerable people for their coffers"

They gotta make a living somehow.

There would no doubt be serious ramifications if they were to do this to the well-connected and well-protected.

[Turbineguy]

3. Life in the New America

We can do anything you can't stop us from doing.

[CurtEastPoint]

4. This is pandemic. And it needs to be stopped.

[Downwinder]

5. Law Enforcement is a criminal enterprise.

[freshwest]

6. What's been happening in MI has been shocking for years now! But anyway:

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2015/01/eric-holder-ends-horrible-civil-asset-forfeiture-program

This should end this law enforcement practice. Michigan has become a ruthless Koch Kleptocracy.