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A 64-year-old put his life savings in his carry-on, and U.S. Customs took it

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Re: A 64-year-old put his life savings in his carry-on, and U.S. Customs took it

#151

Post by jakelazaroff »

opo wrote: post #136
arcticbull wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can absolutely get punished for what you say in the US -- freedom of speech was long ago recognized as anything but absolute. You can't yell fire in a crowded theater. Obscenity (as defined in Miller v. California) is not protected by the constitution. You can't lie under oath. You can't deliberately tell lies about people (Libel). The First Amendment doesn’t protect the speech of people plotting to overthrow the…

>...You can't yell fire in a crowded theater. Wrong. https://www.popehat.com/2012/09/19/three-generations-of-a-ha... >...The only difference is they've chosen to draw the line somewhere just offset from what you're used to. There's still a line in these here United States. It looks like the US probably has the strongest free speech protections of any country in the world - that isn't a bad thing.

…right. That article bemoans the use of "shouting fire in a crowded theater" as a rhetorical device, but doesn't actually discuss the legality of such speech.

(IANAL, but there exists such a thing as depraved indifference murder: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depraved-heart_murder)

Re: A 64-year-old put his life savings in his carry-on, and U.S. Customs took it

#152

Post by gowld »

JackCh wrote: post #22
Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #17

Here's something that gets me... A lot of Second Amendment advocates say we need the right to bear arms to protect ourselves from a tyrannical government. Well...here's your tyranny. Now where's that armed uprising?

There is a common saying: "There are four boxes to be used in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury and ammo. Please use in that order." Emphasis on Please use in that order. I can't believe this needs to be emphasized, but killing people should be a last resort. I'm glad these "2nd Amendment advocates" aren't as trigger happy as you seem to suggest they be. I don't think it's hyperbolic to say that shooting peo…

The first 3 have long been exhausted for civil forfeiture.

Re: A 64-year-old put his life savings in his carry-on, and U.S. Customs took it

#153

Post by space_fountain »

romwell wrote: post #101
core-questions wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If people in America just stopped to look around at how other countries do things they'd be doubly as well run. Most parts of Europe, Japan, Canada, and many other places are well run and have a great deal of governmental involvement. One big problem with this approach is that it basically pretends that the American citizenry is interchangeable with those of the countries you mentioned. It's not. Identity politics…

>Metaphor >small network The population of the EU is 741.4 million, the area is 1,707,642 sq miles. There are quite a few things that are prevalent in the EU, and are nonexistent in the US (public healthcare and higher education, for starters; throw public transportation into the mix, and have a party). Don't pretend the EU is Norway.

I'm not sure if that's what they meant, but regardless. Remember that there are plenty of places in the EU where things aren't going particular well.

I also remember online lots of grandstanding about the US's questionable policies around imigrants as compared to Europe. I haven't really heard them in a bit.

Re: A 64-year-old put his life savings in his carry-on, and U.S. Customs took it

#154

Post by originalsimba »

lewis500 wrote: post #55

Only as I get older do I realize how incredibly bad elements of law enforcement in the US can be, and legally so. Few cops and agents are bad, but it is a system with little filtering, personally or institutionally, of the bad elements. Civil asset forfeiture is overwhelmingly unpopular, but when states try to reform it the law enforcement groups rally around it mightily. Essentially they want the right to steal mone…

Police are a cancer in a free society. We should be raising all of our citizens to be capable of handling their own self defense and defense of their families. If that was a required part of becoming an adult in our culture, we wouldn't need uniformed father figures to protect us.

Re: A 64-year-old put his life savings in his carry-on, and U.S. Customs took it

#155

Post by nrmitchi »

jbob2000 wrote: post #89

Why would you risk carrying around that kind of money? What’s wrong with doing a wire transfer? Or just writing yourself a cheque? Failing to see an honest use case for moving that much cash by hand.

Besides the points already mentioned by others (as well as in the article), writing a cheque in this situation has the problem of being able to cash it on the other side. I cannot think of a single bank (and please correct me if I'm wrong) that would allow a client, especially a new, previously unknown client, to walk in and cash a $60k international check. Without special circumstances, you'd likely be looking at an extended hold period, which would defeat the purpose in many situations.

Source: Wrote myself a check for a similar reason (not wanting to carry more than 10k across the border). Funds were held by the receiving bank for 15 business days.

Re: A 64-year-old put his life savings in his carry-on, and U.S. Customs took it

#156

Post by orf »

retox wrote: post #145
orf wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shame on you for spreading that fake news. People on HN should know better and be held to a higher standard. > Part and parcel of living in a great global city is you’ve got to be prepared for these things, you’ve got to be vigilant, you’ve got to support the police doing an incredibly hard job. We must never accept terrorists being successful, we must never accept that terrorists can destroy our life or destroy the…

>Part and parcel of living in a great global city is you’ve got to be prepared for these things, Living in a city, you must be prepared for terror. This is not how things should be.

It's not how things should be, but it's what decades of incredibly poor middle Eastern foreign policy gets you.

Being prepared for these things is not the same as saying these things are unavoidable certainties. There is quite a big distinction, along the lines of having a gun for self defense Vs having a gun to shoot someone.

He is basically saying support the police in their counter terrorism work, and report anything suspicious if you see it. Pretty much what you hear over the airport tannoys every time you fly.

Re: A 64-year-old put his life savings in his carry-on, and U.S. Customs took it

#157

Post by ra1n85 »

gowld wrote: post #134
ra1n85 wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm quite happy my government takes measures to assure a certain level of personal safety, both physical and psychological. All except for terrorist attacks, which are considered part and parcel of living in a big city[1] like London (but strangely not Tokyo which has 4-5m more citizens!). [1] https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/new-york-explosion-sad...

These things come and go throughout the world over time. The occasional terrorist attack seems better than starting a world war that invited retaliatory firebombing and nuclear bombing. USA is taking its turn at feeling the consequences of colonial imperialism.

>The occasional terrorist attack seems better than starting a world war that invited retaliatory firebombing and nuclear bombing.

Wasn't London bombed too? What's your point? Terrorist attacks are better than world wars?

Re: A 64-year-old put his life savings in his carry-on, and U.S. Customs took it

#158

Post by therealtomsmith »

userbinator wrote: post #76
Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well said. I guess the problem is that not enough people know that civil forfeiture is a thing yet. I'm just blown away that such a thing could ever be written into law. I think it's a pretty clear-as-day violation of our Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure.

I guess the problem is that not enough people know that civil forfeiture is a thing yet. ...or that not enough people have experienced it yet, and probably never will. There's a lot of "it won't happen to me" thinking around this, and to be honest, how many people do take large amounts of cash with them while traveling? The fact that this item is newsworthy is enough to show that it happens rarely. I'm almost willing…

> but the government is smart enough to not do that

you're talking about our government?

Re: A 64-year-old put his life savings in his carry-on, and U.S. Customs took it

#159

Post by gowld »

user982 wrote: post #57
tracker1 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have to sue the government body that took your funds. Get a good lawyer and pray, basically.

The government body will refuse to return the money voluntarily if you sue.[0] [0]: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180508/10330739804/cbp-s...

That's a different kind of suit. The first suit to is to prove your innocence (ugh) to get the money returned. The second suit is to complain about the civil rights violations.

Re: A 64-year-old put his life savings in his carry-on, and U.S. Customs took it

#160

Post by celticninja »

core-questions wrote: post #65
3pt14159 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not last. Not first. Not all powerful. Not feckless. Americans act like their government is representative of governments. It isn't. They act like everything needs to be invented there. It doesn't. They believe that America is the greatest country in the world. It isn't. If people in America just stopped to look around at how other countries do things they'd be doubly as well run. Most parts of Europe, Japan, Canada,…

> If people in America just stopped to look around at how other countries do things they'd be doubly as well run. Most parts of Europe, Japan, Canada, and many other places are well run and have a great deal of governmental involvement. One big problem with this approach is that it basically pretends that the American citizenry is interchangeable with those of the countries you mentioned. It's not. Identity politics…

But the same could be said of the US, people of Detroit are not the same as the people from eg. Vermont.
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