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Why police could seize a college student's life savings without charging him

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Re: Why police could seize a college student's life savings without charging him

#121

Post by startling »

douche wrote: post #98
davismwfl wrote: post #96

It bugs me reading some of the the comments here blaming the person that did nothing illegal by carrying cash. It doesn't matter if you (or I) feel it is inadvisable to carry cash, it isn't illegal. Smoking pot (illegal in most places) before flying is obviously not the brightest idea given the enhanced level of security at an airport. So I am ok with the "smell" prompting some extra questions (even an agreed to sear…

I'm really curious, how do you not qualify for a savings account? I've never seen a bank that wouldn't take money, especially when they can charge account maintenance fees.

Many banks also just don't do business in lower-income areas.

Re: Why police could seize a college student's life savings without charging him

#122

Post by glenra »

readme wrote: post #72
hoffspot wrote: post #5

I'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…

You know what man, you're absolutely right. But most people here are going to disagree with you, downvote you, and your brand new account is only going to be visible when I click "showdead" because apparently HN can't handle an opinion without hitting the down button. I would bet you so much, not a soul on HN would dream of carrying 11k in cash through an airport. It's ok though, we should make sure people have the r…

> not a soul on HN would dream of carrying 11k in cash through an airport.

I've carried over $11k through an airport dozens of times and occasionally carried $30k or more.

(I used to be involved with a professional blackjack team. :-) )

Re: Why police could seize a college student's life savings without charging him

#123

Post by LeUsername »

LeUsername wrote: post #101
superuser2 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Checking accounts. Bitcoin (not free, but close). If it weren't the state, it could just as easily have been an ordinary mugger, or an airline employee theft, or simple airline incompetence. >And certainly they aren't free from surveillance. If you want a financial system free from surveillance then you need to get the public on board with ending taxation (and consequently all public services). Good luck. And, as we…

> Bitcoin (not free, but close). Suggesting Bitcoin in its current state of evolution as a free and "vastly safer" alternative to carrying cash is CRAZY. Whereas having the cash on you carries the risk of being mugged (I understood the story that he had the cash directly with him when the police arrived, it wasn't in the checked luggage, therefore the airline risks you mention do not apply), using Bitcoin carries muc…

To elaborate more - each and every method of moving money has its own inherent risks. For example, when my father bought a car several times decades apart, he would take the cash both from home and bank, carry it in a jacket in an envelope to a dealer, put it on the table, immediately receive keys and papers for registration and drive away.

Fast forward in time and somebody had a very "clever" idea to outlaw paying more than 5,000 EUR in cash. Now, I have to wire transfer the funds in advance, wait for the transfer to clear and then come in to get the car. I certainly don't risk being mugged on my way to the dealer (in broad daylight, without advertising everyone, e.g. on social networks, that today I am buying a car and waving the wad of cash in a selfie). But if the limited liability company with 6,000 EUR liability deposit bankrupts, I will have neither the money (wire transfer have nothing like cashback on credit cards) nor the car until a lengthy legal process hoping that they have enough funds and property to pay out all creditors... You don't risk mugging but have to do way larger due diligence, check finance health of the company, ask around for customer feedback on the company, etc.

Re: Why police could seize a college student's life savings without charging him

#124

Post by dalke »

powera wrote: post #90
dalke wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Umm, it is normal enough thing to do. Here are some other cases, found by searching just for "$15,000": "The Catholic priest took $15,000 in cash to Skid Row and doled it out to hundreds of the city's most down-and-out residents outside the Fred Jordan Missions" - http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Priest-turns-90-handin... "Dr. Berlin took $15,000 from the cash received in wedding gifts, leased an examination roo…

Honestly, the only one of these that doesn't seem weird is the Cuba trip (and carrying large amounts of cash across international borders has its own laws). Most of the rest are either "possibly criminal activity" or "likely not a giant pile of cash".

"Weird" is an odd word. Should we penalize the weird? Should we be encouraging more conformity? Or is it merely that only the unusual makes the news?

The doctor received $15K in cash from wedding gifts. How is that weird? Is it because your baseline doesn't include people with rich relatives?

The "Baltimore Woman [who] Posted a Stranger’s $15,000 Cash Bail" was because of a judge's order:

> But in addition to criminal charges a judge had imposed a strict “cash only” bail condition on Wilkes. The so-called “cash only” restriction bars suspects from using a bond or personal property to make bail.

Had it not been an anonymous person, and one of the family members brought in the $15K, it wouldn't have made the news.

At the very least, it establishes that a judge thinks that walking around with $15K in cash is not beyond the pale.

Re: Why police could seize a college student's life savings without charging him

#126

Post by fweespeech »

douche wrote: post #98
davismwfl wrote: post #96

It bugs me reading some of the the comments here blaming the person that did nothing illegal by carrying cash. It doesn't matter if you (or I) feel it is inadvisable to carry cash, it isn't illegal. Smoking pot (illegal in most places) before flying is obviously not the brightest idea given the enhanced level of security at an airport. So I am ok with the "smell" prompting some extra questions (even an agreed to sear…

I'm really curious, how do you not qualify for a savings account? I've never seen a bank that wouldn't take money, especially when they can charge account maintenance fees.

I was denied a bank account when I was in the middle of moving out of my parents house and needed them to essentially cosign/co-own the account.

The stated reason was an inability to document my income and a lack of credit information.

Similarly, I've been denied credit cards and bank accounts since this "co-ownership" has mixed my financial information in LexisNexis [and similar services] with that of my parents and I don't always know the questions they ask to verify my identity and/or claim that I'm not me.

For instance, I shutdown my Chase account because one part of Chase insisted I wasn't me [to the point of denying me access to services I had paid for] while the other part of Chase held my money. I'm not going to trust Chase to hold 5 figures of my cash if they are simultaneously going to insist over the phone I'm not me because I can't answer questions sourced from services like LexisNexis. That'd be insane.

Re: Why police could seize a college student's life savings without charging him

#127

Post by eldavido »

reagency wrote: post #110
eldavido wrote: post #61

Civil asset forfeiture is horrible and we should get rid of it. On a different note, my takeaway from this story: pick your battles. Sure, you can go into an airport with $11k in cash. Maybe you're a Sikh and you want to carry a kirpan [0] into the airport, or you're a high school kid working on a science project and you have a bunch of C-cell batteries taped together with wires hanging out the ends of them (experien…

That's great if you are privileged enough to pass as normal. Not acting Jewish was fine in 1937 Germany too, until that wasn't good enough and they started checking who your grandparents were.

Guess it all depends on how you measure your life. Literature is filled with ample anecdotes of members of the WW2 French resistance, prisoners, and other persecuted minorities holding their tongue until the time was right. Sometimes you have to sacrifice the battle to win the war, though it may seem less "heroic" in the moment.

Re: Why police could seize a college student's life savings without charging him

#129

Post by IndianAstronaut »

hmottestad wrote: post #8

Now 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…

A better comparison is with Brazil. After reading all the news out of Brazil, it feels like the US is really a Brazil-lite.
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