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Using loophole, Seward County seizes millions from motorists without convictions

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Re: Using loophole, Seward County seizes millions from motorists without convictions

#51

Post by kickout »

arcticbull wrote: post #42
kickout wrote: post #12

Drive through this county everyday. The tricks they got up their sleeve are impressive if you don’t have a local plate. RIP to Illinois and Cali plates. ETA: Yes, everyday you drive through this county you will see cops searching vehicles (usually out of state plates, CO/CA/IL the most obvious). Almost feel bad for legit people driving through I80 with out of state plates, but the's what happens when you have a low p…

> ... but the's what happens when you have a low population state with a major thoroughfare. Well, not really - that's what happens when you don't fully fund your law enforcement at a state or federal level and instead leave them to fund themselves through fines and seizures. Local authorities shouldn't be allowed to keep a single penny of anything they seize or any fines they rack up. They should be fully funded by…

They don't need funding. Seward county is virtually no/low crime. They likely could get by with a handful of officers, which the tax payers would likely gladly pay. No a lot of need for LE with 10K residents in the county in arguably the middle of no where (yes, it's ~20 from the capital of the state)

Re: Using loophole, Seward County seizes millions from motorists without convictions

#52

Post by grogenaut »

alanfranz wrote: post #25

While the cited behaviour is really astonishing, as a EU citizen, I must say that I still find it very curious that somebody drives around the country with that large amount of cash. I'd never (and most people here wouldn't either) travel with more than, say, $1000 in cash, and I would rely on ATM/electronic transactions/checks for additional money. Surely it wouldn't be illegal in any EU country that I know of (but…

The us doesn't have wide spread fast direct money transfer. So cash is a good way to get stuff done in many cases. Such as buying a car.

Re: Using loophole, Seward County seizes millions from motorists without convictions

#53

Post by skeeter2020 »

yieldcrv wrote: post #23

I always chuckle when I hear boomers reminiscence about how we differentiate from communist countries because of our strong private property protections. I fail to see a difference aside from shared willingness to for random state actors to play along with that shared desire.

Why throw shade on boomers? I'm pretty sure I could find people of any age on both sides of this.

Re: Using loophole, Seward County seizes millions from motorists without convictions

#54

Post by sowbug »

_fat_santa wrote: post #20

This raises a question: why carry that much cash with you? Two things can be true at the same time: cops should not be seizing cash from folks on the side of the road without clear evidence of a crime, and it looks shady as hell if you are traveling with $18k in the backseat of your car.

For the same reason people use VPNs, buy burner phones, have two Gmail addresses, sign up for porn sites with fake email addresses, delete web cookies, and walk through white neighborhoods while Black.

Because we live in a free country, and we ostensibly get to be "shady as hell" but still be left alone.

Re: Using loophole, Seward County seizes millions from motorists without convictions

#55

Post by tptacek »

Without wanting to offer an opinion on the case presented in this article, and certainly not wanting to argue in favor of civil asset forfeiture, which is obviously abused nationwide, the author of this news piece definitely smoothed down the facts alleged in Bouldin's case:

The officer testified to various pieces of information that he obtained during the stop that led him to believe that Bouldin intended to purchase a large amount of marijuana with the seized money. Among other things, the officer testified that Bouldin told the officer he was traveling from his home in Virginia to Colorado; that a certified drug dog positively indicated the presence of illegal narcotics in the vehicle; that Bouldin's phone had pictures of marijuana taken in both Virginia and Colorado; that a Colorado area code phone number had sent text messages to Bouldin's phone containing photographs and video of what the officer identified as marijuana and "THC wax"; that Bouldin had sent text messages to the same number requesting "8 widow" and "8 goat"; and that in the officer's opinion, the person using the other phone number was offering to sell marijuana and "THC wax," and that Bouldin was agreeing to make a purchase. The State also introduced evidence that Bouldin had previously been convicted in Utah of attempted possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute.

Bouldin's attorney did an abysmal job with this case, with Bouldin originally failing to appear at all, and then filing an appeal that failed to state any meaningful arguments. Again: obviously, there's a counterpoint that people shouldn't have to hire lawyers to keep their cash, I get it.

Re: Using loophole, Seward County seizes millions from motorists without convictions

#56

Post by jrflowers »

_fat_santa wrote: post #20

This raises a question: why carry that much cash with you? Two things can be true at the same time: cops should not be seizing cash from folks on the side of the road without clear evidence of a crime, and it looks shady as hell if you are traveling with $18k in the backseat of your car.

Cars are sometimes sized in civil forfeiture, so let’s apply that to cars!

This raises the question: why drive a valuable car? Two things can be true at the same time: cops should not be seizing cars from folks on the side of the road without clear evidence of a crime, and it looks shady as hell if you are traveling in an $18k+ car.

Re: Using loophole, Seward County seizes millions from motorists without convictions

#57

Post by jlick »

29athrowaway wrote: post #15

I see it as some sort of punishment for not using the banking system, which is where transactions, balances and such can be observed by the IRS. When you use a bank account, all transactions over $10,000 are reported to the IRS. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_Secrecy_Act

...also if you make deposits just under $10k or make multiple deposits that add up to $10k+ in $ArbitraryTimePeriod they can be reported as suspected "structuring." Structuring is a technique to spread out transactions to avoid reporting. But it also catches people who just happen to have transactions that look like structuring. There was an example of a rural store owner that made deposits around $8k because that was their revenue and it got seized because the government thought they were structuring.

Re: Using loophole, Seward County seizes millions from motorists without convictions

#58

Post by sokoloff »

yieldcrv wrote: post #29
ryanwaggoner wrote: post #2

Haven’t we been hearing about the horrors of civil asset forfeiture for more than a decade? Why is this still happening? Is there any sizeable constituency for this? Does anyone think this is a good idea, other than the corrupt law enforcement officers who are benefiting?

> Why is this still happening? Because nationally its been upheld as constitutional and would require a constitutional amendment. This interpretation of the sixth amendment isn't open to other interpretations. Specifically that civil cases are different than criminal cases, so they civilly charge the asset itself and the not the human being. Whoops. Subsequently, some states started changing their own laws to stop th…

There's still the Fourth Amendment prohibition against unreasonable search and seizures, which seems like it gives grounds here.

Re: Using loophole, Seward County seizes millions from motorists without convictions

#59

Post by kickout »

arcticbull wrote: post #50
hparadiz wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ftfy: They should be in prison. It's not our responsibility to fund every bumblefuck police force with a staff of 5 in a town with a population of 500. They shouldn't even have jurisdiction on a federally funded interstate.

Of course they should be in prison, but the goal is also to stop them from doing this in the future, which is easily achievable be eliminating their incentive. They're not going to do it just for the money if they don't get any of it. Once there's no incentive, jail the rest. > It's not our responsibility to fund every bumblefuck police force with a staff of 5 in a town with a population of 500. They shouldn't even h…

I think it's simply a matter of bad incentives. Cops get to keep 50% (or some number) of what they seize? A bunch of anonymous people driving through with no ties to the community? Open season is the prevailing thought.

Don't know where you put seized assets though because it gets sticky wherever they go.

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