Sometimes, we are just evil vindictive assholes for no good goddamn reason. And it's shit.
Why police could seize a college student's life savings without charging him
161–170 of 186 posts
Re: Why police could seize a college student's life savings without charging him
#162Civil 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…
To many clever people it will probably seem that in the case of this young gentleman, and in cases of many similar people all across the nation, the battle picks them.
Your advice basically boils down to: "If I could go to a bank with a saner management, surely you can go to a country with a saner government." That may be the case, but some people would prefer the government to do the going.
Re: Why police could seize a college student's life savings without charging him
#163I don't know why someone would take the chance caring that much money on them. Couldn’t he have gotten a check and cashed it once he got home or a bank account?
He won't make the same mistake again, that's for sure.
Re: Why police could seize a college student's life savings without charging him
#164Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am not from USA so curious, with ATMs, debit cards what is the use of check. In my 10 years of banking had to get money out of check only once, when I had lost my card.
I pay rent every month with a check, and this still seems common. Only one of my previous four landlords has accepted another form of payment (a large rental company who accepted credit/debit cards).
And in my experience, landlords charge extra fees for credit/debit. A cheque is usually the most universal and cheap way to pay in the US.
Re: Why police could seize a college student's life savings without charging him
#165Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, the US is a big joke, and it sucks to have to suffer through the police state and looter healthcare system. Civil asset forfeiture is an insane rejection of our right to property. The problem is that "rights" are really more like "ideas which we must nod to and then can ignore fully" here. Least we have startups, right?
Yeah, and it's hard to get citizenship!
It's also hard to get rid of.
Re: Why police could seize a college student's life savings without charging him
#166Earlier quoted context omitted.
True. I suppose in these (and many) cases, it's simply that this feature is turned off; probably regarded as a bug by the user.
Or this feature simply does not exist, contrary to your belief.
Well, if you think that Balko mis-reported, go ahead and ask him for clarification.
Re: Why police could seize a college student's life savings without charging him
#167Earlier quoted context omitted.
Or this feature simply does not exist, contrary to your belief.
Well, if you think that Balko mis-reported, go ahead and ask him for clarification.
No, I don't think so. I don't see where he said dogs are trained like that. He actually said almost the opposite - dogs are not ignoring weak smells.
Re: Why police could seize a college student's life savings without charging him
#168Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
Try contacting the CFRB
Re: Why police could seize a college student's life savings without charging him
#169Now 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…
Before taking that opinion it might be useful for you to go through the exercise of engineering solutions for the various problems that lead to some of the things you point out. It sounds like you are in Norway, it might just be impossible for you to think of these solutions because of the lack of context. Not putting you down, it would be just as impossible for me to have a valid opinion about anything going on in N…
>a situation where segments of the population are advocating killing cops. And, in fact, cops have been killed just sitting in their cars doing absolutely nothing more than existing.
[...]
>They are very concerned that every time they put on their uniform they become targets for maniacs. They'd love to be able to walk around without their guns when in uniform but, today, in the USA, that would be suicidal. And today, in the USA, for a cop to approach contact with a civilian not prepared for the potential of a gun being pointed at them would be just as dangerous.
That comes with the territory of participating in a violent criminal gang. Perhaps if, collectively, they behaved more like police instead, it wouldn't be as risky for them. Unfortunately, the cops have been giving people lots of good reasons to be defensive and/or seek vengeance, and their actions have eroded trust and respect even in those who aren't their usual victims.
It may be a small percentage of cops that are bad while the rest just support them, but because their coworkers don't bother to stop them, and they are unaccountable and immune to any form of punishment for violating the law, and they take advantage of that to victimize the citizens, they (and their fellow gang members) are naturally going to be at risk of their victims fighting back. When their victims can't get justice through the justice system, it is going to be messy frontier justice.
> form follows function
And effect follows cause. We should address the cause.
Stop letting police commit armed robbery under the fancypants name "civil asset forfeiture" and start holding them accountable for behaving properly and respectably. Teach them that throwing flashbangs at babies, shooting at protesters, stealing from people, and randomly arresting people for not being white are not proper respectable behavior. Teach them about the constitution and the laws of our land. It'll be a long and difficult change, but de-escalating (something police are supposed to do) sure beats the alternative of escalating further.
Hundreds of years ago, we had problems with corruption in law enforcement. That's why we have explicit laws against this: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated [...] nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation"
While the police are acting as a violent criminal gang, they will be perceived and treated as such. When they stop doing that, or at least justice occurs, then the problems will be greatly reduced and the police themselves will be much safer.
Re: Why police could seize a college student's life savings without charging him
#170It 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.
A bank refused me because I didn't have a valid driver's license - I had a valid state ID from the DMV, which was the exact same in every way except it had 'non-driver' printed on it. I asked to speak to the manager, but he couldn't explain it either, just said something about "It's a policy". You have to drive a car to have an account at that bank.