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XMFSinchiruna (28.58)

Police condicting unjust seizures of cash!

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January 14, 2008 – Comments (7)

Se this article below.  Lately I've been hearing far too many stories about people having cash confiscated from them based purely on suspicion of foul play, even in cases where there is no evidence whatsoever.  I'm not familiar with the particulars of the case outlined below, but when they state that something "didn't add up", that translates to me as making legal decisions on a hunch.  I wish they could have provided the person's name so I could contact him and ask where the money came from.  This is state-sponsored larceny.  If it turns out that the guy was indeed a big dope dealer, then it will look like everything was fine in what they did, but if he's innocent... there's the problem... they're spending this money before they even find out if he's guilty of a crime.  That's not what our legal system is supposed to be.  I post this to the CAPS site because such seizures seem to be on the rise, and I believe it's linked to the larger fiscal crisis facing this country... municipalities are having to get increasingly creative to fund themselves.  Shame. 

 I have another case which I'll post here as well.

Christmas came early last year for a new Kimball County Sheriff's deputy.

Deputy Chris Engel, 25, had been on the job just two weeks when a routine traffic stop Dec. 20 turned into the biggest cash seizure the Nebraska county has ever seen.

Engel pulled over a Salt Lake City, Utah, resident whom he suspected of speeding on Interstate 80 near the town of Kimball.

The driver's story didn't add up, Engel said, so he did a little more investigating. In the end, $69,040 in cash was taken from the car. Officials suspect the money is connected to a drug-trafficking operation, he said.

The driver was not arrested — or even ticketed for going 10 mph over the 75 mph speed limit. (He was warned.) But the investigation is ongoing, Engel said. The Nebraska State Patrol and the Drug Enforcement Agency are assisting in the investigation.

It was the first big cash seizure Kimball County has seen, said Sheriff Tim Hanson. With Interstate 80 running through the Panhandle county, he believes there are ample opportunities to make a dent in drug operations. But in such a sparsely populated county with few resources, it has been difficult to devote deputies' time to patrolling the Interstate, he said.

"Chris is a very aggressive young deputy," Hanson said.

Investigators don't know if they will be able to connect the money to a drug operation, Hanson said, but the important work already has been done.

"The big thing is he grabbed 69 (thousand dollars) and took it away from them," Hanson said of the money seized. "That's going right straight to the heart of the matter."

 

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_pag...u_sid=10231335

7 Comments – Post Your Own

#1) On January 14, 2008 at 9:04 PM, XMFSinchiruna (28.58) wrote:

This one's even worse if you ask me...  poor guy.

http://www.limaohio.com/story.php?IDnum=47047

Man wants his $400K back from the FBI

LIMA — Two robbers who broke into Luther Ricks Sr.’s house this summer may have not gotten his life savings he had in a safe, but after the FBI confiscated it he may not get it back.Ricks has tried to get an attorney to fight for the $402,767 but he has no money. Lima Police Department officers originally took the money from his house but the FBI stepped in and took it from the Police Department. Ricks has not been charged with a crime and was cleared in a fatal shooting of one of the robbers but still the FBI has refused to return the money, he said.“They are saying I have to prove I made it,” he said.The 63-year-old Ricks said he and his wife, Meredith, saved the money during their lifetime in which both worked while living a modest life.A representative of the FBI could not be reached for comment.During the fatal shooting incident inside the house June 30, Ricks and his son were being attacked by two men and his son was stabbed. Ricks broke free, grabbed a gun and shot to death 32-year-old Jyhno Rock inside his home at 939 Greenlawn Ave.Police originally took the money after finding marijuana inside Ricks’ home, which Ricks said he had to help manage pain.“I smoke marijuana. I have arthritis. I have shingles, a hip replacement,” he said.Ricks, who is retired from Ohio Steel Foundry, said he always had a safe at home and never had a bank account.American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio Legal Director Jeff Gamso said Ricks has a tough road ahead, not impossible, but tough to get back his money.“The law of forfeiture basically says you have to prove you’re innocent. It’s terrible, terrible law,” he said.The law is tilted in favor of the FBI in that Ricks need not be charged with a crime and the FBI stands a good chance at keeping the money, Gamso said.“The law will presume it is the result of ill-gotten gains,” he said.Still Ricks can pursue it and possibly convince a judge he had the money through a lifetime of savings. Asking the FBI usually doesn’t work, he said.“The FBI, before they would give it up, would want dated receipts,” he said.If the FBI does keep the money, it would be put toward a law enforcement use, if the city of Lima does not fight for it because the city discovered it, Gamso said.Lima Law Director Tony Geiger said he has not been asked to stake a legal claim for the money.

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#2) On January 14, 2008 at 9:11 PM, XMFSinchiruna (28.58) wrote:

Now, I know many police are fine citizens who are trying to do the best for their communities, but on the other end of the spectrum you have some cops creating false pretenses for arrest in stories that sound like they're out of a bad fiction novel.  I couldn't believe my eyes when I read this one... and they STILL have the poor guys car!

 http://www.officer.com/web/online/Top-News-Stories/Chicago-Man-Sues-after-Prostitution-Arrest/1$37624

CHICAGO --

It was Rocio Palacios who first noticed the woman who appeared to need help.

It was 8 a.m. when she and her husband, Erasmo, dropped their 6-year-old daughter off at school and had picked up their 22-year-old daughter to go out for breakfast when they saw the woman waving her arms at 53rd Street and Kedzie Avenue last November.

The Palacioses, of Chicago, claim the woman approached their car, parked outside Manolo's restaurant, leaned in to the passenger side where Rocio was sitting and asked Erasmo if he wanted oral sex for $20 or sex for $25.

The couple laughed, realizing this wasn’t a woman in distress after all.

But within seconds, Chicago police swarmed the family car, hauling Erasmo Palacios out in handcuffs. He was charged with solicitation of a prostitute

His daughter, who had just run in to exchange her coffee for a hot chocolate, screamed, while his wife cried in fear.

Eight hours later, Palacios, who has no criminal record, was released from custody. And weeks later, charges against him were dropped.

Now, Erasmo Palacios is suing the city and the officers involved in his arrest, saying they violated his civil rights during an incident he described as both frightening and ridiculous.

“I'm so lucky I was with my wife -- imagine if I had to try to tell her and she wasn't with me,” he said, before laughing at the image. “She'd never believe me. Never.”

A Chicago police report offers few details, saying only that it was Erasmo Palacios who asked for sex, never mentioning his wife in the car or his daughter nearby.

Attorneys Lonny Ben Ogus and Joe Cavanaugh also want to know what happened to the family's 1983 Mercedes. It was impounded that November day and, Palacios said, his wife and daughter were even threatened with arrest as they tried to stop police from taking it, as they were left stranded that morning.

The city wants more than $4,700 in towing and storage fees if he wants the car back.

City officials declined to comment on the status of the family's car and the Palacios case, while the undercover female officer involved in the arrest couldn't be reached.

Copyright 2007, Sun-Times News Group

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#3) On January 14, 2008 at 11:31 PM, dwot (99.57) wrote:

Sounds like putting your money in the mattress is a bad idea...

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#4) On January 15, 2008 at 1:24 AM, Imperial1964 (97.90) wrote:

"[explicative deleted] the police!"  --The NWA

I know this isn't related to investing, but my late uncle John was framed by our local police while I was a teenager.

He was becoming very sick from complications of his diabetes and needed to be taken care of, because his kidneys were failing.  So his wife threw him out of the house and divorced him.

She worked as a police dispatcher and has always had a thing for a "man in uniform."  Her first husband was a policeman and the guy she lived with for three years after John was also a policeman.

Once John started dialysis, he felt well enough to get out again, so he started hanging out at the local bar.  It's a small German town and that's what many people do.  But he hadn't drank alcohol for years on account of the diabetes and with no kidneys, doing so would probably have killed him.

Suddenly, he started getting pulled over at night and harassed for no reason.  One day, he was pulled over and the cop found a beer can that had been planted in his car.  (He never thought to lock the doors of his $300 Buick).  But he hadn't been drinking, so they couldn't arrest him.  So far, they had never even told him why they kept pulling him over.

The last time, he got pulled over, the cop told him he had a tail light out.  John asked the cop to show him which one, and when he went to look, guess what?  All the lights were working.  The cop didn't ask him for his license, but asked him for his insurance.  See, the bill had arrived at the ex-wife's house, and instead of forwarding it to him, she had the insurance cancelled.  Because the insurance was expired for a few days, the cop wrote a $600 ticket.

John renewed the insurance and took it to court.  Fortunately, the ticket got dropped because the cop didn't have the guts to show up and explain his actions in what could have easily amounted to a harassment suit against the entire department if John had been the kind of guy who seeks restitution.

Unfortunately, John didn't live all that much longer.  And I'll never completely forgive those cops for playing their part in torturing such a good-natured, innocent, dying man.

I have memories of many other incidents of harassment, corruption, abuse of power, and policemen just being total jerks.  And I have several stories of good policemen and heroic acts.  But what happened to my poor uncle John is the worst thing I've experienced that has involved an entire police department.

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#5) On January 15, 2008 at 11:16 AM, XMFSinchiruna (28.58) wrote:

We're dangerously close to slipping into a police state as a country... in some respects we might already be there.  I'm sorry for the experiences of your uncle.  If everything you described were happening today, it might have ended differently.. i.e. when he asked the officer to show him the inoperative tail light, he might well have been tazed on the spot for resisting arrest or some other foolish concocted charge.  The number of abuses involving tazers recently is staggering, and very scary as we look to the future.  The populace is becoming complacent with their very existence, and I think cops are fascinated by the prospect of using these things... since they are required to be tazed during their training... this makes them want to see someone else go through it.   Sad times for the US of A, and as people become more stressed out during the great great depression of '08-?, we'll see a lot more unfortunate incidents between innocent, frustrated civilians and tazer-happy, also frustrated cops. 

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#6) On January 15, 2008 at 7:28 PM, abitare (99.43) wrote:

Do not try and mint collectable coins either:

U.S. Raids Issuer of Ron Paul Coins

http://www.nysun.com/article/66542 

 

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#7) On January 15, 2008 at 9:12 PM, XMFSinchiruna (28.58) wrote:

Yeah... that illegal raid was an atrocious abuse.  He still hasn't been accused of a crime, but the FBI has seized massive amounts of gold, silver, and copper.  While I don't think the Liberty Mint was a particularly cost-effective way of procuring bullion, I don't think he broke a single section of the constitution, nor any known statute.  And did you hear that AT&T is discontinuing some FBI wiretaps because the FBI hasn't paid its phone bills?  I guess they'll just have to go out and find some more innocent civilians to seize assets from.  Ugh... it's so upsetting what's happening to our country!!!!!!!

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