Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News Editorials & Other Articles General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search
7 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Justin Amash has introduced a bill to end civil asset forfeiture nationwide. (Original Post) mahatmakanejeeves Dec 2020 OP
Very nice ... thank you Mr. Amash ... I agree it should be ended as a practice ... mr_lebowski Dec 2020 #1
It ended in NM some years ago. It had turned into a racket Warpy Dec 2020 #2
Excellent idea! hatrack Dec 2020 #3
Isn't he the one who used to be a Republican? wryter2000 Dec 2020 #4
Yep. He's mostly terrible on issues, but he is principled... Lucky Luciano Dec 2020 #7
Washington state is one of the worst KT2000 Dec 2020 #5
Good! Karadeniz Dec 2020 #6

Warpy

(113,130 posts)
2. It ended in NM some years ago. It had turned into a racket
Thu Dec 17, 2020, 06:53 PM
Dec 2020

as it has in police departments across the country. Cops were helping themselves to ski trips and lots of fancy alcohol on the stolen property of citizens and visitors, alike.

It was a horrible, unconstitutional policy and it needs to go.

hatrack

(60,821 posts)
3. Excellent idea!
Thu Dec 17, 2020, 07:02 PM
Dec 2020


Just as private prisons incentivize locking people up on bullshit charges to make money, civil forfeiture incentivizes bullshit arrests so that cops can fucking steal.

A Pennsylvania judge was sentenced to 28 years in prison in connection to a bribery scandal that roiled the state's juvenile justice system. Former Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella Jr. was convicted of taking $1 million in bribes from developers of juvenile detention centers. The judge then presided over cases that would send juveniles to those same centers. The case came to be known as "kids-for-cash."

The AP adds:

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court tossed about 4,000 convictions issued by Ciavarella between 2003 and 2008, saying he violated the constitutional rights of the juveniles, including the right to legal counsel and the right to intelligently enter a plea.

Ciavarella, 61, was tried and convicted of racketeering charges earlier this year. His attorneys had asked for a "reasonable" sentence in court papers, saying, in effect, that he's already been punished enough.

EDIT

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2011/08/11/139536686/pa-judge-sentenced-to-28-years-in-massive-juvenile-justice-bribery-scandal

EDIT

The county’s district attorney, a fifty-seven-year-old woman with feathered Charlie’s Angels hair named Lynda K. Russell, arrived an hour later. Russell, who moonlighted locally as a country singer, told Henderson and Boatright that they had two options. They could face felony charges for “money laundering” and “child endangerment,” in which case they would go to jail and their children would be handed over to foster care. Or they could sign over their cash to the city of Tenaha, and get back on the road. “No criminal charges shall be filed,” a waiver she drafted read, “and our children shall not be turned over to CPS,” or Child Protective Services.

“Where are we?” Boatright remembers thinking. “Is this some kind of foreign country, where they’re selling people’s kids off?” Holding her sixteen-month-old on her hip, she broke down in tears.

Later, she learned that cash-for-freedom deals had become a point of pride for Tenaha, and that versions of the tactic were used across the country. “Be safe and keep up the good work,” the city marshal wrote to Washington, following a raft of complaints from out-of-town drivers who claimed that they had been stopped in Tenaha and stripped of cash, valuables, and, in at least one case, an infant child, without clear evidence of contraband.

Outraged by their experience in Tenaha, Jennifer Boatright and Ron Henderson helped to launch a class-action lawsuit challenging the abuse of a legal doctrine known as civil-asset forfeiture. “Have you looked it up?” Boatright asked me when I met her this spring at Houston’s H&H Saloon, where she runs Steak Night every Monday. She was standing at a mattress-size grill outside. “It’ll blow your mind.”

EDIT

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/08/12/taken?source=search_google_dsa_paid&gclid=CjwKCAiAoOz-BRBdEiwAyuvA68KJYEi76YlW00N7vs39Up5HNlRtz2GeIA1ywso0U-3JskoBBXv7zRoCphAQAvD_BwE

Lucky Luciano

(11,410 posts)
7. Yep. He's mostly terrible on issues, but he is principled...
Thu Dec 17, 2020, 08:52 PM
Dec 2020

...and is sometimes actually correct on an issue or two like this one.

Latest Discussions»Issue Forums»Civil Liberties»Justin Amash has introduc...