We’re not precisely strangers to the idea of civil asset forfeiture, however that doesn’t imply it stops being irritating to examine individuals having their issues stolen for no purpose. Take, for instance, the automotive dealer highlighted in a current Atlanta News First article. He was flying from Washington, D.C. to Sacramento, California and had a connection via Atlanta. As he was boarding his flight to Sacramento, officers with the drug job pressure pulled him apart and proceeded to take $23,850 in money from one in every of his baggage.
Did he have any medicine in his possession? Nope. Had he really executed something unlawful? Nope. A TSA agent simply noticed he had money in his bag and narc-ed on him. The cops mentioned his baggage smelled like weed, so they only took his cash. He was by no means arrested or charged with a criminal offense, and leisure marijuana is authorized in D.C. By flying “from Atlanta, a known drug hub city, to Sacramento, California, a known drug source city,” the prosecutor claimed that was sufficient of a purpose to warrant taking his money.
“There was nothing illegal or suspicious in the smell of marijuana on the Claimant’s belongings,” the person’s lawyer wrote when requesting his a reimbursement. “If the Claimant had smoked marijuana, he had legally done so in another jurisdiction … no basis for a seizure in Georgia.”
The dealer was capable of present receipts that proved he had earned his cash legally, and finally, the courtroom agreed to return his cash. Just not all of it. He obtained $17,887.50 again, however the county nonetheless stored $5,962.50. Why? That’s not clear, however we’re going to imagine they only needed it.
To be clear, having greater than $10,000 in your possession will not be unlawful. There are loads of completely official causes you would possibly carry that a lot money, reminiscent of whenever you’re touring to purchase a automotive from a non-public vendor. Still, attributable to civil asset forfeiture legal guidelines, cops can simply take your cash every time they really feel prefer it. As Dan Alban, an lawyer with the Institute for Justice, instructed Atlanta News First:
There isn’t any methodology of transporting money or storing money that police is not going to say triggers possible trigger. This particular person was sporting his footwear on his ft, and that’s one thing that’s a typical attribute of drug traffickers. Of course he was, as a result of that’s how everybody wears footwear. This man had cash in an envelope, and that’s a attribute of drug traffickers. It’s additionally a attribute of what number of different individuals transport money.
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There is a robust incentive for regulation enforcement to attempt to get as a lot cash as it might probably into what I’d name a slush fund. They can spend the cash on no matter they need. And that encourages them to spend the cash pursuing extra forfeiture {dollars}. Essentially, it’s a self-perpetuating, revenue-generating machine.
So that’s enjoyable. We’d like to imagine that the Supreme Court goes to step in and cease this nonsense quickly, however one thing tells us that’s not going to occur. Not whereas cops stay so highly effective and politically influential.
Source: jalopnik.com