Attorney General Eric Holder changed this somewhat in January. It's an improvement but not as much as some people thought according to this Forbes article.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacobsullum/2015/01/22/despite-h...
Why police could seize a college student's life savings without charging him
11–20 of 186 posts
Re: Why police could seize a college student's life savings without charging him
#12I'm not saying the police are right, the whole seizure thing is ridiculous, but this story is so shady. You have 11 grand in cash and want to move it from A to B. The obvious and safe way is to deposit it in a bank and get a cashier's check or do an ACH transfer. Who in their right mind would carry it with them or even worse, put it in a checked bag that airlines notoriously lose? The point of the story is valid, but…
Who in their right mind would do thing X where thing X is risky because of an out-of-control state agency.
Someone who is blissfully unaware of how out of control the state agency is, probably.
Re: Why police could seize a college student's life savings without charging him
#13The main reason why the War on Drugs is so popular in police departments.
I read somewhere there are hundreds of thousands of untested rape kits sitting in police labs nationwide. Catching rapists is not profitable.
Re: Why police could seize a college student's life savings without charging him
#14These stories make me very upset. How can we, as a society, let this go on?
I wrote my Congresswoman and Senators, asking them about this case. I urge you all to do the same.
Re: Why police could seize a college student's life savings without charging him
#15Now I'm not sure if Norway has similar laws, but I haven't heard of any. However, watching John Oliver talk about how ridiculous the civil forfeiture laws are in the US just makes me want to laugh so much. I know of all the great things happening in the US, and I'm not calling you a bad country. But it's so hard not to categorise you together with North Korea, China and the United Arab Emirates with how trigger happy…
To group the US in with the likes of N. Korea and China is dishonest and inaccurate. If the US were run by either of those governments, you would not have Jon Oliver, Washington Post, etc. exposing and criticizing the very issues you mention.
Re: Why police could seize a college student's life savings without charging him
#16I'm not saying the police are right, the whole seizure thing is ridiculous, but this story is so shady. You have 11 grand in cash and want to move it from A to B. The obvious and safe way is to deposit it in a bank and get a cashier's check or do an ACH transfer. Who in their right mind would carry it with them or even worse, put it in a checked bag that airlines notoriously lose? The point of the story is valid, but…
Who in their right mind would do thing X where thing X is risky because of an out-of-control state agency. Someone who is blissfully unaware of how out of control the state agency is, probably.
He said it was risky because airlines lose bags. He's right--doing that is insane.
Re: Why police could seize a college student's life savings without charging him
#17I'm not saying the police are right, the whole seizure thing is ridiculous, but this story is so shady. You have 11 grand in cash and want to move it from A to B. The obvious and safe way is to deposit it in a bank and get a cashier's check or do an ACH transfer. Who in their right mind would carry it with them or even worse, put it in a checked bag that airlines notoriously lose? The point of the story is valid, but…
> Sounds like someone wanted an untraceable 11 grand. Shady.
It is not "shady" in any way, shape, or form to want all of ones private financial affairs to be completely untraceable.
No one should, ever, under any circumstances, be required to justify or explain possession of cash or items of high value absent clear, tangible evidence of wrongdoing.
Furthermore, eleven thousand dollars is chump change, and not only that, these criminals and thieves with badges are harassing people for carrying as little as $500.
Re: Why police could seize a college student's life savings without charging him
#18Now I'm not sure if Norway has similar laws, but I haven't heard of any. However, watching John Oliver talk about how ridiculous the civil forfeiture laws are in the US just makes me want to laugh so much. I know of all the great things happening in the US, and I'm not calling you a bad country. But it's so hard not to categorise you together with North Korea, China and the United Arab Emirates with how trigger happy…
To group the US in with the likes of N. Korea and China is dishonest and inaccurate. If the US were run by either of those governments, you would not have Jon Oliver, Washington Post, etc. exposing and criticizing the very issues you mention.
Free speech is one facet of analysis. It's an important one, but doesn't invalidate the others.
Re: Why police could seize a college student's life savings without charging him
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
It wasn't a false positive, he admits himself that he smoked weed on the way to the airport. That's really not the point of the article however.
My point is that it can still be a false positive, even though "detecting weed" and "using weed" both occurred. The dog "alerted" for drugs, but the dog can't testify as to why -- because it actually smelled drugs or because it sensed its handler wanted it to. http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/crime-courts/legal-challen...
So just to be clear: He said he used drugs, a gate agent smelled drugs, the cops smelled drugs, and you just want to argue that if a dog also smelled drugs that that dog is unreliable even though the arrested party says the dog was correct..?
I just don't understand what point you're even trying to make. Just seems like you want to talk/criticise drug-dog evidence even though it has no relation to this case at all.
If the guy arrested and whose money was taken says he used drugs right before arriving at the airport I, for one, believe him. He has more to lose by saying that than he does by lying about it.
Re: Why police could seize a college student's life savings without charging him
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
To group the US in with the likes of N. Korea and China is dishonest and inaccurate. If the US were run by either of those governments, you would not have Jon Oliver, Washington Post, etc. exposing and criticizing the very issues you mention.
Free speech is one facet of analysis. It's an important one, but doesn't invalidate the others.
No one is claiming that it invalidates the others.