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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

#171

Post by celticninja »

ra1n85 wrote: post #111
iforgotpassword wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't wrap my head around how you can see it as positive that these kind of actions would go unpunished, in the name of "freedom". If I were harassed and bullied I'd not feel very free, but rather anxious, threatened, depressed. I'm quite happy my government takes measures to assure a certain level of personal safety, both physical and psychological.

> 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...

The UK has been dealing with terrorist attacks for a long time, London especially so. And it is foolish to suggest that the government takes no measures to prevent it. They take appropriate measures to prevent many attacks and to reduce the likelihood of others, but it is impossible to stop all of them.

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

#172

Post by celticninja »

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.

Be prepared for unexpected events that end up as a mass casualty situation due to the high population density.

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

#173

Post by [deleted] »

jacob019 wrote: post #108
tracker1 wrote: post #10

I absolutely hate even the idea of "Civil Asset Forfeiture." It's even more of a bullshit legal construct than a non-living entity having first amendment rights. It's clearly a 4th Amendment violation and deserves to be challenged. I'd be okay with freezing assets for up to say 3 months while formal charges are filed, but just taking them forever is fucking bullshit.

It is outrageous. We need a legislative fix.

[deleted]

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

#174

Post by throwaway062018 »

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.

I would argue "because I want to" should be enough reason.

That aside, the reasons are quite clear from the article:

"In an interview translated by his son, Kazazi said safety concerns prompted him to take cash on his trip, rather than wire the funds to a local bank.

“The crime [in Albania] is much worse than it is here,” he said. “Other people that have made large withdrawals [from Albanian banks] have had people intercept them and take their money. The exchange rates and fees are [also] excessive.”

Albanian contractors often prefer dollars and euros over the local currency, Kazazi said. For those reasons, he said, many expatriates who return to visit Albania bring large amounts of cash with them."

Folks from nations with fully functional banking and money systems don't understand this argument because they cannot envision what it means.

One potential way to think about this is to just replace cash in this situation with your favorite payment system - payment, debit & credit card and Apple / Samsung payment watch - whatever and imagine that you are in a world where i) cash does ALL the things that these systems do for you ii) these systems can, for some reason, easily have your money withdrawn from them and iii) for some reason, you get a huge discount for using cash instead of other payment systems (think the way you get cashback or purchase points from some cards)...

in this world, hard cash, especially US currency that comes with even more discount and flexibility benefits is worth the effort

but, all that aside, "because I want to" should be enough reason

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

#175

Post by mnm1 »

warent wrote: post #166
mnm1 wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You start holing these cops personally accountable for this or any of the massive amounts of other disgusting actions they commit on a daily basis and I guarantee this fixes itself overnight. Cop murders someone, electric chair. Cops steals money, they pay back their entire life savings. It's about time we hold public servants to a higher set of standards rather than a lower one. If only there were such incentives, t…

This isn't what I intended to communicate at all. Lower level personnel behaving badly is just a symptom of the real problem, and punishing them would be an easy scapegoat for higher up authority. Just like with a toxic CEO in a company, firing some employees isn't a long term solution to fixing the culture. The leaders, the heads of the departments, is where the accountability should be.

Absolutely. The supervisors and chiefs of the cops who murder, steal, or otherwise break the law should indeed also be held accountable. But so should the actual perpetrators. Because in many of these cases, it is actually the low level cops who decide to commit crimes without any outside influence. Theft like this probably does go all the way to the top, but when cops murder unarmed, innocent people who are no threat to them, that's more on the cop committing the murder more than anyone up high.

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

#176

Post by dsabanin »

I hate civil forfeiture as much as the next guy, but the story of a guy from Albania carrying all his family's "life savings", including his adult son's savings (why would he give his father his life savings?), in amount of ~60k USD back to Albania because "bank wire was too risky" sounds like a cover up lie. What's more believable is that bank wire was too risky because you need to declare where the money is coming from when you send them and when you receive them, and also probably pay taxes. It just looks like a simple money laundering operation.

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

#177

Post by [deleted] »

jacob019 wrote: post #108
tracker1 wrote: post #10

I absolutely hate even the idea of "Civil Asset Forfeiture." It's even more of a bullshit legal construct than a non-living entity having first amendment rights. It's clearly a 4th Amendment violation and deserves to be challenged. I'd be okay with freezing assets for up to say 3 months while formal charges are filed, but just taking them forever is fucking bullshit.

It is outrageous. We need a legislative fix.

[deleted]

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

#179

Post by ra1n85 »

orf wrote: post #156
retox wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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 anyth…

So much here.

>but it's [terrorist attacks] what decades of incredibly poor middle Eastern foreign policy gets you.

You believe terrorist attacks are deserved as a result of what your government has done in the past?

>I'm quite happy my government takes measures to assure a certain level of personal safety, both physical and psychological.

Which is it? Your government is taking measures to assure your protection, or is actively provoking foreigners to kill you on your own soil?

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

#180

Post by JackCh »

gowld wrote: post #152
JackCh wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I disagree and I strongly discourage you from shooting people. There is still a large portion of the public who don't know what civil forfeiture is or why it's a bad thing. If you want to make a difference the best thing you can do right is educate people.
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