Posts Tagged ‘forfeiture’

Boston Police Use Asset Forfeiture Funds to Secretly Purchase Stingray Spy Device

By Michael Maharrey Civil asset forfeiture is a pernicious policy in its own right. It is nothing more than legalized, institutionalized, government-sanctioned theft. Forfeiture laws flip due process on its head and create perverse “policing for profit” incentives. It’s bad enough that police can take people’s stuff, oftentimes without even charging them with a crime. But the […]

Highway Robbery in Reno: Nevada Cops Use Civil Forfeiture To Steal a Veteran’s Life Savings

Last February, while driving down a Nevada highway on the way to visit his daughters, Stephen Lara was robbed in plain sight. But his assailants were not ordinary criminals—they were police officers from Nevada Highway Patrol. Using a controversial legal tactic called civil forfeiture, the officers fabricated a reason to stop Lara, detained him for […]

Amash Sponsors Law to END Civil Asset Forfeiture

TOPICS:Civil ForfeitureCongressConstitutionMatt AgoristPoliceProperty DECEMBER 18, 2020 By Matt Agorist For decades now, federal government and their cohorts in law enforcement have been carrying out theft of the citizenry on a massive scale. We’re not talking about taxes, but an insidious power known as Civil Asset Forfeiture (CAF). The 1980s-era laws were designed to drain resources from […]

How Civil Asset Forfeiture Could Undermine Efforts to Defund Police

Shadowproof —Between 2001 and 2017, the federal government seized $40 billion from ordinary people and high profile criminal defendants, including major corporations, through asset forfeiture. The money was funneled into the Assets Forfeiture Fund (AFF), a trust founded in 1984 through the Comprehensive Crime Control Act as part of the War on Drugs. Asset forfeiture is […]

New Colorado Law Expands Asset Forfeiture Reforms

By Michael Maharrey On Tuesday, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper signed a bill into law expanding asset forfeiture reporting requirements instituted last year.  Rep. Leslie Herod (D-Denver) introduced House Bill 1020 (HB1020) on Jan. 10. The legislation expands asset forfeiture reporting requirements by redefining the agencies required to submit reports. Last year, Hickenlooper signed a bill […]

Virginia Law Requires Strict Asset Forfeiture Reporting; First Step Toward Reform

By Michael Maharrey Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam has signed a bill into law implementing reporting requirements for all asset forfeitures in the state, including cases passed off to the federal government. The bill takes the first step that could lead to substantive reforms.  Sen. Mark Peake (R) and Sen. Adam Ebbin (D) sponsored […]

To the Governor: Wisconsin Passes Bill Taking on Asset Forfeiture

February 25, 2018 By Michael Maharrey Yesterday, the Wisconsin Assembly gave final approval to a bill that would reform the state’s asset forfeiture laws to prohibit the state from taking property without a criminal conviction in most situations. The legislation also takes a small, but important step toward closing a federal […]

Washington Committee Passes Bill to Reform Asset Forfeiture Laws; First Step to Address Federal Loophole

By Michael Maharrey Last week, a Washington state House committee passed a bill that would improve the state’s asset forfeiture laws and set the stage to close a loophole that allows state and local police to circumvent more strict state forfeiture laws by passing cases off to the feds. Rep. Matt Shea (R-Spokane Valley) […]

Alabama Police Use Asset Forfeiture to Ruin an Innocent Small Business Owner

A news report from Alabama offers two textbook cases of how sweeping powers of civil asset forfeiture allow police to seize people’s property with near impunity. Under civil asset forfeiture laws, police can take property suspected of being connected to criminal activity, even if the owner is not charged with a crime. Law enforcement and […]

No Forfeiture-Database Backup With Millions on the Line, NYPD Admits

MANHATTAN — New York City is one power surge away from losing all of the data police have on millions of dollars in unclaimed forfeitures, a city attorney admitted to a flabbergasted judge on Tuesday. “That’s insane,” Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Arlene Bluth said repeatedly from the bench. This morning’s revelation stems from a request […]

Leaked ICE Guide Offers Unprecedented View of Agency’s Asset Forfeiture Tactics

Leaked ICE Guide Offers Unprecedented View of Agency’s Asset Forfeiture Tactics October 17th, 2017 Via: The Intercept: AN INTERNAL HANDBOOK obtained by The Intercept provides a rare view into the extensive asset seizure operations of ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations, an office that trains its […]

Senator Blasts Asset Forfeiture "Slush Fund" US Marshals Used for Granite Countertops, Salaries

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) sharply criticized the US Marshals Service (USMS) for several expenditures that “appeared excessive and wasteful” and called for greater oversight for spending confiscated money. The money in question came from the Justice Department’s Assets Forfeiture Fund (AFF), which is managed by the Marshals, who act as the “primary custodian” […]

[WATCH] Police Officer Uses “Civil Forfeiture” To Steal All Of The Money Out Of A Hot Dog Vendor’s Wallet

Download your free copy now. Source Article from http://filmingcops.com/watch-police-officer-uses-civil-forfeiture-steal-money-hot-dog-vendors-wallet/

Civil Asset Forfeiture: Jeff Sessions Thinly Veiled Plot To Rob Us Blind

Confiscated cash on display as New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly speaks to reporters during a news conference at New York City Police Department. (AP/Mary Altaffer) “Laws are no longer made by a rational process of public discussion; they are made by a process of blackmail and intimidation, and they are executed in the same […]

Trump’s Police State: More Militarization and Civil Asset Forfeiture

Most people in the alternative media are busy kvetching over the media attacking Trump, ignoring this big issue. Source Article from http://www.renegadetribune.com/trumps-police-state-militarization-civil-asset-forfeiture/

The Feds Just Expanded Civil Asset Forfeiture ‘Laws’ Nationwide

When you’re a government agency, asking for a tax increase is always a hassle. As Ryan McMaken notes, for the most part, taxpayers don’t like taxes, and if asked if they want to pay more, they’re likely to often say “no.” Moreover, when public officials pass tax increases, they may face the wrath of […]

Supreme Court Sees Criminal Asset Forfeiture Can Be Abused Too; Almost Does Something About It

Recently, the Supreme Court passed on a case that could have seen it address the highly-problematic civil asset forfeiture issue head on. In that case, cops seized $201,000 (and a bill of sale for a home) from two people during a traffic stop. Despite having no evidence of criminal activity, the cops kept the […]

Sen. Paul, Scott Bullock: Civil Forfeiture has Ruined Countless Lives. It’s Long Overdue for Reform

Justice Clarence Thomas made headlines last month when he criticized civil forfeiture, a notorious police practice that allows law enforcement to confiscate property, even from people who have never been charged with a crime. “This system,” he wrote, “has led to egregious and well-chronicled abuses.” Hearing one of the Supreme Court’s most conservative members […]

Man Locked in Closet By Cops For Four Days Without Food Awarded $22M

A Maple Heights, Ohio man that was punched by an East Cleveland police officer during a traffic stop and then locked in a closet for four days without food, water or a toilet, was awarded $22 million by a jury late last month. Arnold Black said in a lawsuit that he was tailed by Det. […]

‘Highway robbery’: OK police seize $53k of funds for Thai orphanage

     After being accused of “highway robbery” for seizing over $53,000 from a Christian rock band fundraising for a Christian school in Burma and an orphanage in Thailand, police in Oklahoma have been forced to backtrack on felony charges they had initiated against the man safeguarding the money. Eh Wah, a native of Burma but […]

Homeland Security Now Preparing Cops for Mass Riots

Paul Joseph Watson | InfoWars The Department of Homeland Security oversaw a first of its kind three day training exercise in Texas this week during which police officers from fifteen different departments took part in drills on how to deal with riots and conduct mass arrests. Dozens of McLennan […]

Devastating Radioactive Leak In Washington Sparks Outrage

A massive radioactive leak was discovered this past Sunday at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington. Officials have stated that the original container holding the radioactive material has slowly been trickling out roughly 70 gallons since 2011, though they have not determined what accelerated the problem. They are set to begin pumping an […]

Fresno City Council Rejects Beware Surveillance Software (For Now)

The Fresno City Council rejected a proposal by Police Chief Jerry Dyer Thursday to purchase the Beware software the police department has been testing. The Fresno Police Department was among the first in the nation to use the controversial software. After hearing concerns from community representatives, the council voted 5-0 to reject Dyer’s request to […]

VIDEO: Brave Granny Refuses Unconstitutional Checkpoint — She WINS!

In a video uploaded to Youtube recently, a brave grandmother filmed herself refusing to ‘show her papers’ at an unconstitutional DUI checkpoint in California. The results were inspiring. Sobriety checkpoints — also known as DUI checkpoints — are the most common roadblocks you might encounter. They function as a general purpose […]

Arizona Becomes Ground Zero in Fight Over Secret Political Spending

Arizona’s Republican-controlled legislature voted Tuesday to dismantle the state’s strict campaign-finance disclosure rules, a move critics say will unleash a flood of undisclosed political spending in an election already increasingly dominated by “dark” money. The fight over the Arizona bill…has pitted good government activists against deep-pocketed corporate donors and political groups underwritten […]

Boycott Israel? You Die!!!

By Richard Edmondson It’s not hard to imagine a dystopian future in which calling for a boycott of Israel can result in the death penalty. Does that sound farfetched? Last summer, Sheldon Adelson, Haim Saban and other wealthy Jews got together and hosted an anti-BDS summit at Adelson’s luxury Venetian hotel in Las Vegas. Closed to the […]

Libya Was Invaded to Prevent Pan-African Currency

According to the document posted on the US State Department website advisors to Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the second son of Muammar Gaddafi, told sources the Libyan government held 143 tons of gold and a similar amount in silver valued at more than $7 billion. The gold and silver was to be used to establish […]

He Witnessed Cops Murder a Man — He Was Just Found Dead the Day Before He Could Testify

Mike Heuer | Courthouse News Service LOS ANGELES (CN) – A witness who saw a Los Angeles police officer shoot a black man to death was shot to death himself days before he was to give evidence against the officer, despite promises from the highest-ranking officials in Los Angeles […]

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