Money seized. But much less paperwork. The DEA loves it.
The War on [Some] Drugs…
And everyone knows that [some] drugs are far more dangerous when [some] people possess them.
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I don’t love everything the IFJ has done but I’ve donated to them to support their CAF programs.
Agree that changing the laws is the critical path. I’m still hopeful that even the current SCOTUS will find CAF (or at least pre-conviction CAF) in violation of the constitution, but if that doesn’t work I’d love to set up a well-funded NFP that challenges every single forfeiture. My take is eventually you could make it so for each agency it’s not worth their while monetarily to steal from people. Maybe on an agency-by-agency basis starting with the worst offenders. And in the meantime lobby for CAF reform.
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So if you’re a drug dealer, the Feds can confiscate your profit. But if they have a legal claim on your money, that means they also own your losses, so if you lose money dealing drugs then the Feds have a fiduciary obligation to reimburse you for your loss.
Disclaimer: I am neither a lawyer nor an accountant, and this is neither legal nor financial advice.
Forget Thomas Jefferson, try Murray Bookchin instead.
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Walking around at night wearing all black and carrying a pair of bolt cutters is perfectly legal, but rather suspicious, and would justify being detained and talked to by the police. It certainly is not evidence enough to convict you of a crime or even arrest you without any evidence that a crime has been committed. Large amounts of cash are similar: legal, but suspicious. Indeed there is a legal requirement to report transactions of $10,000 or greater, although they are perfectly legal.
Look, I’m old fashioned enough that I go to some trouble to use cash for most purchases I do this because: I don’t feel like enriching the CC companies with every purchase, I don’t wish to share with them every detail of my life, and borrowing money (which is what using a credit card IS) for regular necessities offends my dislike for personal debt. So I object to the “war on cash,” which is also a war on the unbanked and poor.
Edited to add: and IMHO there should be a legal requirement that they should be forced to pay interest. After all, he has been denied the use of his money, and that has actual value in and of itself.
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Nope. Because that’s basically mass murder. Fuck that noise.
Well white men will be okay, most likely, so who cares what happens to the rest of us? /s
And raped Sally Hemmings…
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No-that’s the thought process that led to stop-and frisk policies. Because what is going to happen in that conversation? “We think you’re a criminal! Convince us you aren’t!” “I’m just walking around officers. I’m not planning to do anything bad, I promise!” Behavior deemed suspicious can be and has been expanded to include walking, talking and breathing while Black.
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This.
Except Elon is not likely to have to carry around $30k. I’d be surprised if he carries around any cash at all.
The wealthy have banking and financial service companies tripping over themselves to make their percentage through convenience services.
Elon would have just had somebody in his retinue deposit the cash in the “pocket money” account, where it would be available at his destination. Or, he would have had someone e-transfer it to wherever it needed to be.
Besides the obvious racist aspect of who “is suspected to be involved with drugs”, this seems to disproportionately affect those without full access to financial services (i.e. lower income people).
So… racist and classist. My guess is “working as intended”.
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Biden literally wrote this bill - the
Comprehensive Asset Forfeiture Act of 1984.
Giving police and drug warriors the power to take people’s cash, cars, homes… just by accusing them of a crime - what could go wrong?
By 2014, the police were stealing more property than burglars.
C Span has Biden’s speech in 1991 to Congress praising his asset forfeiture bill and the flat sentencing law, which is one of the main reasons for our mass incarceration disaster.
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Many of us are aware of that. Still better than having an actual fascist in the white house, tho.
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Eric Honeker would have loved all the Secret Policemen America currently has.
The DEA has no right to exist. Neither does Homeland Security, which should be renamed " “People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs”
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