PA family has house seized because son sold $40 worth of drugs

seebell

Hall of Fame
Mar 12, 2012
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Should not be allowed until conviction and then only after demonstrating that drug profits paid for most of the property. Terrible potential for abuse.
 

Crimson1967

Hall of Fame
Nov 22, 2011
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Seize the kid's stuff, but not the parents' house.


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2003TIDE

Hall of Fame
Jul 10, 2007
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ATL
This is how the Feds got local law enforcement buy in on the war on drugs. Let them confiscate all cash and property related to "crimes" and keep it for profit. Who would say no to that deal?
 

Tidewater

Hall of Fame
Mar 15, 2003
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Hooterville, Vir.
The law itself is the problem. It's misapplication is an unfortunate result. There were those who warned this would happen way back when...
A close friend of mine says this is a result of the "get tough on crime" attitude in some states (Virginia included). Local jurisdictions make a great deal of money by confiscating personal property used "in breaking the law." If you get busted selling a dime bag of marijuana out of your car, the county gets to keep your car (and auction it off and pocket the money or use it for undercover ops).
The Pennsylvania law seems particularly egregious.
 

Displaced Bama Fan

Hall of Fame
Jun 5, 2000
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A close friend of mine says this is a result of the "get tough on crime" attitude in some states (Virginia included). Local jurisdictions make a great deal of money by confiscating personal property used "in breaking the law." If you get busted selling a dime bag of marijuana out of your car, the county gets to keep your car (and auction it off and pocket the money or use it for undercover ops).
The Pennsylvania law seems particularly egregious.
Even if you have a large sum of money on you and no drugs, under many drug laws, that cash can be seized under "suspicion" of using that to buy drugs. It happened to a Vietnamese family traveling through Louisiana on their way to Alabama to buy a shrimping boat.
 

TIDE-HSV

Senior Administrator
Staff member
Oct 13, 1999
84,527
39,615
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Huntsville, AL,USA
Thought I'd responded, but must have been on another forum. Some of the lower LA parishes have become infamous for fattening their coffers for little more than an errant sneeze at the wrong time...
 

PacadermaTideUs

All-American
Dec 10, 2009
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Even if you have a large sum of money on you and no drugs, under many drug laws, that cash can be seized under "suspicion" of using that to buy drugs. It happened to a Vietnamese family traveling through Louisiana on their way to Alabama to buy a shrimping boat.
I think this particular incident was Tennessee, but I may be thinking about a different case. Anyway, Tennessee is notorious for this - seizing cash on the premise that no one carries large sums of cash unless they're up to no good. More often than not, it's an expensive and long battle to get the money returned - more expensive than just letting them keep it. It's legalized extortion.
 

Displaced Bama Fan

Hall of Fame
Jun 5, 2000
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No it was Louisiana. These Vietnamese were from Texas travelling through Jefferson Davis Parish or one of those other Parishes and got pulled over...had over $100K on them and had it all seized. I think they eventually got it back after a legal battle...still, they lost in the sense of having to pay a lawyer and had lost revenue not being able to use the boat that was to be purchased.
 

Tide1986

Suspended
Nov 22, 2008
15,670
2
0
Birmingham, AL
"In these efforts we will follow applicable law to protect the rights of those involved -- not only drug dealers and those associated with them -- but the law-abiding citizens who are negatively affected by them."
It's interesting that the DA's office doesn't view the parents as law-abiding citizens who are negatively affected by drug dealers and those associated with them. If the DA's office did, then it might do more to protect the rights of the parents as well.
 

bamachile

Hall of Fame
Jul 27, 2007
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Oakdale, Louisiana
This all goes back to the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984. I stated in another thread that the spending habits of RR and his drug war were my two primary divergences from his policies - this is why I could never support his tactics in the ill-named war on drugs.

A quick article, if you are interested.

This potential for abuse is compounded by the strong financial incentive that law enforcement has to make seizures--since they benefit directly from forfeited property. It was the passage of the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984, part of the Reagan-era ramp-up in the war on drugs, that first made this possible. At a federal level, the law established two new forfeiture funds: one at the U.S. Department of Justice, which gets revenue from forfeitures done by agencies like the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and another now run by the U.S. Treasury, which gets revenue from agencies like Customs and the Coast Guard. These funds could now be used for forfeiture-related expenses, payments to informants, prison building, equipment purchase, and other general law enforcement purposes.

But equally important, local law enforcement would now get a piece of the pie. Within the 1984 Act was a provision for so-called "equitable sharing", which allows local law enforcement agencies to receive a portion of the net proceeds of forfeitures they help make under federal law--and under current policy, that can be up to 80%. Previously, seized assets had been handed over to the federal government in their entirety.

Immediately following passage of the Act, federal forfeitures increased dramatically. The amount of revenue deposited into the Department of Justice Assets Forfeiture Fund, for example, soared from $27 million in 1985 to $644 million in 1991--a more than twenty-fold increase. And as forfeitures increased, so did the amount of money flowing back to state and local law enforcement through equitable sharing.
 

Displaced Bama Fan

Hall of Fame
Jun 5, 2000
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I think this particular incident was Tennessee, but I may be thinking about a different case. Anyway, Tennessee is notorious for this - seizing cash on the premise that no one carries large sums of cash unless they're up to no good. More often than not, it's an expensive and long battle to get the money returned - more expensive than just letting them keep it. It's legalized extortion.
Here's an incident in TN that happened to an insurance adjuster from New Jersey.


Would you trust this guy to search your car? I'm not sure he made it out of high school.
 

mittman

All-American
Jun 19, 2009
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Seriously, the one thing that can kill this country quicker than anything is corruption. I am not the most jaded of people about our government, but these kinds of stories worry me far more than anything else.
 

Catfish

Hall of Fame
Oct 11, 2005
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Here's an incident in TN that happened to an insurance adjuster from New Jersey.


Would you trust this guy to search your car? I'm not sure he made it out of high school.
This practice is just unbelievable and that officer is dumber than a bag of hammers (and a liar). The most outrageous part of the law is explained in that video:

“While police are required to get a judge to sign off on the seizure within five days, state law says that hearing shall be ex parte, meaning only the officer’s side can be heard. That’s why George Rebee was never told there was a hearing on his case.”

Even if you know about the hearing, which they have no obligation or incentive to tell you about, you can’t produce any evidence that the money was from a legitimate source. As the ex-Texas prosecutor explains, “It wouldn’t have mattered. Because the judge would have said, ‘This says it shall be ex parte. Sit down and shut up. I’m not to hear from you, by statute.'”

Without any real evidence of wrong-doing, this is legalized theft.
 
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Displaced Bama Fan

Hall of Fame
Jun 5, 2000
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This practice is just unbelievable and that officer is dumber than a bag of hammers (and a liar). The most outrageous part of the law is explained in that video:

“While police are required to get a judge to sign off on the seizure within five days, state law says that hearing shall be ex parte, meaning only the officer’s side can be heard. That’s why George Rebee was never told there was a hearing on his case.”
Even if you know about the hearing, which they have no obligation or incentive to tell you about, you can’t produce any evidence that the money was from a legitimate source. As the ex-Texas prosecutor explains, “It wouldn’t have mattered. Because the judge would have said, ‘This says it shall be ex parte. Sit down and shut up. I’m not to hear from you, by statute.'”
That's why I have no trust for cops either.

It happens in NV as well in some small hick town outside of Vegas.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/institu...-with-a-crime-now-hes-getting-his-money-back/
 

gmart74

Hall of Fame
Oct 9, 2005
12,344
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Baltimore, Md
Without any real evidence of wrong-doing, this is legalized theft.[/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE]
when our legal system protects injustice, it is upon the citizen to take justice into his own hands. I do believe a $22k injustice would result in a massive amount of pain for the thief.
 

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