Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
"But they could stop enforcing the law." That's true, there is very wide latitude in law enforcement discretion, but there is one exception. Law enforcement discretion does not extend to warrants, and police officers have no control over warrants that do not originate in their agency (especially civil warrants, where they normally have a must serve mandate that is even strong than criminal warrants). Within their agency, they can simply choose not to apply for criminal warrants, though even that can circumvented easily by a prosecutor or judge. Obviously they have no such discretion with civil warrants since those easily originate outside their agency.
Some quick research found that federal civil warrants were issued in all three of the cases in the article, and none of those warrants originated with the agency that did the seizure. One of the cases eventually resulted in a criminal warrant as well.
Do you really think the warrent said they had to steal the old mans leaf blower?
I don't see any attempt to get the other side of the story. The cops enforce the law. If the forfeiture law is dumb, the anger should be directed at Michigan lawmakers.
Police are heavily involved in lobbying nowadays. It would surprise me if those laws were not passed in part due to lobbying efforts on the part of police unions and other police organizations.
Police are heavily involved in lobbying nowadays. It would surprise me if those laws were not passed in part due to lobbying efforts on the part of police unions and other police organizations.
Exactly. They have a financial incentive to steal people's stuff. But taking the guy's leaf Blower?????
In a nutshell..Hell yes! Police powers of search and seizure were already expanded for the "war on drugs". Now, under the Patriot Act, it has gone , leaps and bounds, further. Car more people have been arrested, imprisoned a d bad everything they have seized, because of drug violations, many quite minor, under powers granted by the Patriot Act, than terror suspects, foreign or domestic.
If a cop wants to drag you out of your car, and rip it apart, all be has to do is say " I THINK I detect an odor of alcohol/marijuana". SWAT can get a no knock, and kick in your doors, because of "suspicious odors" . The point being, SUSPICION, alone.is now enough for LE to rip your car , home. life, to shreds. OK, yea, its the LAW that's the problem, but, it does seem as of LE takes an inordinate amount of pleasure in enforcing such "law". It do seem as if more cops than not enjoy these new extensions of their authority.
It also amazes me how many people seem to be just fine with that, as well. " If you have nothing to hide, why should it be a problem if they want to toss you"? Well, I DONT have anything illegal to hide, but that doesn't mean I'm OK with a bunch of cops tearing through our house, dumping out the contents of my lady and my..personal..life on the floor, so they can have a yuck in the locker room later. The bloody HELL if I'm OK with cops wanting to search anything of mine. Just to satisfy their curiosity or because someone has a suspicion.
Its not about whether I'm hiding anything illegal. There are certain things people want kept PRIVATE, and I am NOT good with allowing LE to parade our personal lives out, embarrassing us and feedinglocker room humor because of a "suspicious odor" or some other trumped up drivel. Our privacy, and rights to that privacy, trumps suspicion of wrongdoing. If a cop asks me if its OK to search my car/home, the answer will always be HELL NO!
Yes! I really don't understand why people defend abuse of power.
In many jurisdictions, the police have become revenue collectors, taking whatever they can in order to make up for the lost funding that's gone into "tax cuts for the wealthy."
Things tend to be connected.
The connection you are missing is the one between unconstitutional forfeiture laws and police paychecks.
The more they seize, the more they can auction off to fund police overtime.
We have a system in which police essentially receive bonuses for stealing from the public.
Much like the left`s brilliant economic strategy of paying people to not work to correct economic problems, forfeiture laws have become a legal scam that punishes those not convicted of violating any law to reward the corrupt.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Well, I DONT have anything illegal to hide, but that doesn't mean I'm OK with a bunch of cops tearing through our house, dumping out the contents of my lady and my..personal..life on the floor, so they can have a yuck in the locker room later. The bloody HELL if I'm OK with cops wanting to search anything of mine. Just to satisfy their curiosity or because someone has a suspicion. 
