http://www.msn.com/en-us/ne...-to-seize/ar-AA7muBH When police start planning which property to seize and how to keep it, and do this without needing a conviction or a finding of guilt, that makes it theft and a violation of our rights.
Sad, but it is even on some of these reality police shows. I watched as California police were deciding on what assets to sweep in on in their meeting about the raid of poachers. There was a hint of drool coming from the speakers mouth. No proven guilt yet, but they already were discussing the value of the vehicles, boats, and property.
Ideas live longer than men. Not always a good thing.
The motives for abuse are obvious and in my dealings with the authorities they seem to think that they are "above" us and unaccountable. Not in all cases of course, but the older I get the more it seems that way.
This is why I oppose all asset forfeiture laws. There should not be a profit motive for seizing property.
I agree on both counts. No forfeiture of property without due process, and no law enforcement agency should ever benefit directly from the proceeds of seized assets.
[This message has been edited by Marvin McInnis (edited 11-10-2014).]
That goes on here too a lot. A buddy of mine also in the body business has a cop thats a regular customer. The cop gets drug dealer cars that have been seized for pennies on the dollar, then has him fix them to flip or keep for himself. The office that holds the seized vehicles gives him a heads up. He bought an Escalade for almost nothing that only had key scratches down the side and a newer BMW that had a busted plastic bumper. My buddy said he paid less than $1,000 for both of them.
I agree on both counts. No forfeiture of property without due process, and no law enforcement agency should ever benefit directly from the proceeds of seized assets.
I don't think there should be forfeiture at all in most cases. Take drugs for example. Sell drugs out of your house and you can lose your house. That's wrong, IMO. Lock the person up. Forfeiture of freedom should be the punishment. The only physical items that should be seized are the drugs themselves.
I have family in law enforcement. Few years back I start buying sheriff confiscated "stuff"
anything and everything.
Then I get a tip. No one can buy this stuff because they must have legitimate use for it. It is grow equipment for weed. I have a horticulture license,nurserymans license,seller's permit,State cannabis medical growing permit, Wholesale brokerage license and blah blah blah so they sell it all to me at auction but I'm pretty much the only one there authorized to bid. There are a couple others here in California also but I know them so we never bumped heads.
A pallet would come across the block and I wouldn't bid and I was the only one allowed to bid. So it gets bundled with the next lot that i wouldn't bid on and then they both get bundled with next lot and so on.
No kidding one time over 20 lots got bundled up until I finally bid on it all for 25 bucks.
20 foot flat bed and 20 foot trailer to haul it. Grossed over 25 Gs on that first auction. most of it was marked for evidence with case number,name .addy and sometimes even phone numbers of the people that it got booked with. I sold most of back to the original owners for about third cost of new and in bulk and with the sheriffs blessings. They helped track down info for me as long as investigation was over and it was public info. I actually same stuff again at auction a couple three times.
As it was explained to me by the cops this stuff funds their force and they need a good size force when they do big drug busts for real drugs. The weed busts are just a funding source so they can go after crack houses and dealers. Plus the weed growers always give them good intel on the crack houses.
Unfortunately A auction scam got organized with top cops around the state and most everything goes there now. Propertyroom is the name. They sell junk on the net for a lot more money but they have a lot of out of state customers.
I don't think there should be forfeiture at all in most cases. Take drugs for example. Sell drugs out of your house and you can lose your house. That's wrong, IMO. Lock the person up. Forfeiture of freedom should be the punishment. The only physical items that should be seized are the drugs themselves.
Word around here, is the 41 ac of land across the highway from me where the grow plot was partially located-- now belongs to the county, and the out-of-state owner is fighting it. Perhaps just rumor, but it doesn't sound good.
