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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

#71

Post by bloody-crow »

grogenaut wrote: post #52
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.

But you can literally walk into a branch of your bank with a debit card and withdraw that amount in like 5 minutes.

The only reason to carry this much cash across multiple state lines I can imagine is him not wanting to leave a paper trail and withdrawing large amounts outside of his home state.

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

#72

Post by jfengel »

civilitty wrote: post #46
_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.

This country is full of people, both native and recently arrived, who wouldn't trust $18 dollars to a bank, let alone $18,000. 18K is "shady as hell"? Might as well get rid of habeus corpus completely. Better question is: This is fucking America, where by all accounts money is speech. Why the fuck is anyone taking someone's property without due process in violation of the Fifth Amendment?

Because we love it when cops beat up people we don't like.

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

#73

Post by throwaway22032 »

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…

As a Brit, the only reason I _don't_ use cash for virtually everything is that ants like you find it "suspicious" and so it causes me a ton of social friction.

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

#74

Post by nraynaud »

grogenaut wrote: post #27
_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.

Why should I not have cash on hand? I just redid my deck and fence. I paid Time+Materials. Guy brought me the materials and the receipts, I paid cash for the materials upfront. That was $35k in materials, in several $10k chunks. This happens all the time in the real world. The guy does several jobs at a time. My wife was concerned about us having that much cash in our safe. This contractor is doing it all the time pr…

In the EU with have a working banking system that does transfers very well and very fast. (Actually, for 35k, I’ll need to lift some thresholds with my banker)

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

#75

Post by defrost »

tptacek wrote: post #55

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 purchas…

It's complicated to be sure.

Accepting all that you quoted to be true it still leaves hanging the question of what right do Seward County police have to do anything about any of that.

Marijuana is legal in Colorado, there was none in the car (was there?) despite what the alledged dog sniff indicated, and while pictures of drugs and begging requests from others to "get some while you're there" are indicators of potential future crimes .. they are not crimes in and of themselves (to the best of my knowledge of US law (I'm in Australia)).

I uderstand the suspicion but I'm honestly not seeing an actual crime.

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

#76

Post by boomboomsubban »

Buttons840 wrote: post #26
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…

Do they have warrants to search to vehicles, or do they trick people into agreeing to the search? Or maybe they have a dog that does something like breathe near the vehicle, which is clearly cause for suspicion (\s)?

The case in the story had the officers request a search, which was denied, then bring in a drug dog that responded despite no drugs being found.

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

#77

Post by tptacek »

defrost wrote: post #75
tptacek wrote: post #55

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 purchas…

It's complicated to be sure. Accepting all that you quoted to be true it still leaves hanging the question of what right do Seward County police have to do anything about any of that. Marijuana is legal in Colorado, there was none in the car (was there?) despite what the alledged dog sniff indicated, and while pictures of drugs and begging requests from others to "get some while you're there" are indicators of potent…

Yeah, so the tricky thing here is, I probably agree completely with the prevailing sentiment about civil asset forfeiture, but I'm picky about journalism; the more solid the underlying story is, the less acceptable it should be for them to put their thumbs on the scale. There are truly awful asset forfeiture cases, where there is no connection whatsoever to any kind of crime. This doesn't look like one of those. And: fine! It's still not OK! But that's not the framing the article uses.

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

#78

Post by boomboomsubban »

bloody-crow wrote: post #69
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…

There's ample evidence that Bouldin was actually driving to Colorado to purchase marijuana products, hence cash. Still though, Colorado has ATMs. Maybe he didn't want to leave paper trail by withdrawing large amounts on cash outside of his home-state, I dunno. Also, marijuana still being federally illegal in 2023 is a joke.

>There's ample evidence that Bouldin was actually driving to Colorado to purchase marijuana products, hence cash.

What evidence? He said he planned to use some in Colorado, but that wouldn't necessitate $18k. I'm not sure it'd require any cash.

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

#79

Post by duxup »

bandyaboot wrote: post #41

Until federal courts put a stop to this insanity, I think congress should pass a bill that cuts off Federal Highway funding to any state that allows this sort of thing to happen.

State of Nebraska can put an end to it, they choose not to.

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

#80

Post by bloody-crow »

boomboomsubban wrote: post #78
bloody-crow wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's ample evidence that Bouldin was actually driving to Colorado to purchase marijuana products, hence cash. Still though, Colorado has ATMs. Maybe he didn't want to leave paper trail by withdrawing large amounts on cash outside of his home-state, I dunno. Also, marijuana still being federally illegal in 2023 is a joke.

>There's ample evidence that Bouldin was actually driving to Colorado to purchase marijuana products, hence cash. What evidence? He said he planned to use some in Colorado, but that wouldn't necessitate $18k. I'm not sure it'd require any cash.

This comment has it summarized neatly: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36386584
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