Another Asset Seizure
- Thread starter Tidewater
- Start date
People aren't always bright about it. I was on vacation in Austria in 1972 and we were up in the Ötz valley and decided to cross over for the day into Italy, over the same pass where Ötzi was discovered. Italy was having a currency crisis and, unless you declared it at the border on the way in, you could only take out $50. My MIL was a survivor of the Great Depression and was strictly a cash person. I suspected she had secreted some cash despite my advice to convert everything to traveler's checks. When we got to the checkpoint, I turned and asked her directly if she were carrying cash. She had $5K in a money belt. After some unpleasantness, we managed to get inside to declare it. Interestingly enough, they were rude because they thought we were Germans, since 99% of the tourists crossing there were. The guards were southern Italians. They treated us like royalty after learning we were Americans. That was 1972. That $5K would amount to about $28.5K today. Of course, the fixed currency standard (and the dollar) crashed while we were on that trip, so the value of that currency shrank markedly before we got back home...
Thanks for the perspective. I assumed that most of these forfeitures likely target poorer appearing minorities, as anyone with money would likely be so outraged and willing to go toe to toe that they are probably avoided. Just a guess though based off the stories regarding seizures I have read.
Well, as I said, she was a victim of the Depression and a lot of those people didn't trust banks at all, much less traveler's checks. (BTW, our US denomination traveler's checks - and currency - became worthless in Europe on that trip.) In fact, they didn't trust brokers either, since anyone who had had securities in street name during the Depression lost them when the brokers went bust. In my early days of practice (I've always handled a lot of estates), when we handled the estate of an elderly client, my secretary's desk would be piled up with stacks of paper stock certificates. Now, I hardly ever see one...
But from a context standpoint do you think that the cops are targeting old people for these types of seizures? I figure it would be a PR nightmare. The fastest way to get a law changed in the US is to get a whole bunch of AARP members angry about it.
No, I really don't. I really meant it only as an example of how unconscious people can be about cash, even older individuals who are at the most risk for aggression. Profiling has been going on for a long time. I had a little difficulty getting back into the US once from Mexico, back when a driver's license was enough. We were in a little family single file line crossing back into the country from Juarez. They stopped and questioned me about birthplace, county seat, all the questions one would be unlikely to know if not a native. My BIL and SIL crossed there regularly. I asked her what that was all about and commented that I didn't really look like a Mexican. (My hair was blond at the time.) She replied that I didn't, but I that I didn't look like an American, either, that I looked like a European. She went on to explain that many Europeans who could not get in legally tried Mexico and Canada at the most laxly (at that time) guarded crossing points. This was coming from my SIL who was about 5'11", blond, mother born in Germany and dad of Dutch descent. However, over the years, as I traveled extensively for many years, I found she was really right. I do look like a European...
I wonder how much of that money was "drug runners" and how much was people the police chose to call drug runners just so they could confiscate their money?
I believe toting a wad of cash is sufficiently odd to warrant the police asking some questions, but not seizing it, unless they are going to charge the holder, based on probable cause.
This just looks like government-authorized theft.
All it takes is one angry dude with nothing left to lose for this issue to get a lot more attention.
Yep. Then there will be Claude Rains-type characters wringing their hands and saying, "I'm shocked, shocked! I say, to learn that innocent people have had their life savings confiscated without trial and conviction or even probable cause."
Love that movie.Yep. Then there will be Claude Rains-type characters wringing their hands and saying, "I'm shocked, shocked! I say, to learn that innocent people have had their life savings confiscated without trial and conviction or even probable cause."
Some banks will not allow you to open an account if you have poor credit or have defaulted on CC debt and such. There is also the fear of IRS if they say you owe them a lot of money from back tax.
There should be a way for most people to show a bag full of money came from somewhere.
What happened to innocent until proven guilty? I should be able to walk down the street with however much cash I want to and unless I break a law, I shouldn't have to worry about the government stealing whatever I am carrying/driving/riding whatever. And even if I have broken a law, jaywalking, littering, whatever, unless they can prove that the stuff was used in the committal of a crime, they should keep their dirty hands off my stuff.
It's kind of like the legal theory of disparate impact. If you employ more males/whites than females/blacks, then you must be discriminating. If you have a large bag of cash or have been making a series of deposits less than some threshold amount, then you must be a criminal.
Here we go again.
Nevada Hispanic guy in Kansas rest stop. No front tag. Cop questions him about that. Dog alerts on the car. Cop finds $32k in cash (but no drugs). Hispanic guy/victim says he was going to buy a truck in St. Louis, but the sale did not go through, so he was on his way back to Nevada.
Cops seizes the money. Legally.
This amounts to legal highway robbery by the state. This really has got to stop.
Nevada Hispanic guy in Kansas rest stop. No front tag. Cop questions him about that. Dog alerts on the car. Cop finds $32k in cash (but no drugs). Hispanic guy/victim says he was going to buy a truck in St. Louis, but the sale did not go through, so he was on his way back to Nevada.
Cops seizes the money. Legally.
This amounts to legal highway robbery by the state. This really has got to stop.
Last edited:
agreed
I bought a car last week and took a sizable amount of $$$ out of savings to do it. joked about cash just to see all the bills and then this went through my mind, spent the 8$ on a cashiers check. Sad that my first concern was robbery, from the police.
When I bought a vehicle for one of my chirruns recently, I literally hid the cash in my truck in case I was pulled over. How ridiculous is it that I, an honest, taxing paying citizen, should have to even consider fearing the government stealing my legally earned money?
IIRC(BIANS*), A lot of the asset seizure nonsense started out in the 80s, primarily by the IRS. The problem with court challenges such as that is you have to first get the government to agree that you have a case against the government. The practice mushroomed out of control during the war on drugs.
*But I am not Selma
New Posts
-
SIAP there was an article that Joe K interviewed for assistant coach
- Latest: CrimsonTitles
-
-
-
-
Latest threads
-
-
SIAP there was an article that Joe K interviewed for assistant coach
- Started by mlingerfelt31
- Replies: 11
-
Final Home Midweek for Alabama Brings Samford to The Joe- Started by Diamond Tide
- Replies: 0
-
-
-
