We already live in a police state.

[Archae]

Cracked.com has an article here on how the cops can LEGALLY steal your stuff, steal your identity, and so on. :grr:

http://www.cracked.com/article_18620_6-completely-legal-ways-cops-can-screw-you.html

[Mimosa]

1. I've always wondered why Civil Asset Forfeiture hasn't been declared unconstitutional.

http://www.economist.com/node/16219747?story_id=16219747

Excerpt:

Quote:In most states the police can seize property they suspect has been used to commit a crime. Under “civil asset forfeiture” laws, they typically do not have to prove “beyond a reasonable doubt” that a crime was committed, or even charge anyone with an offence. What is more, the money raised by auctioning seized houses, boats and cars is often used to boost the budgets of the police department that did the seizing. That can mean fancier patrol cars, badass hardware or simply keeping the budget plump in lean times. In one survey 40% of police executives agreed that funds from civil-asset forfeiture were “necessary as a budget supplement”. This conflict of interest has predictable consequences. It spurs the police to pay more attention to cases that are likely to involve seizable assets (such as drug busts) and less attention to other ones. A report from the Institute for Justice, a pressure group, calls it “Policing for Profit”.

An owner can usually challenge a seizure by arguing that he did not know his property was being used for criminal purposes. But in 38 out of 50 states, the burden of proof is on him to prove his innocence. In February Texas demanded to know from Mr Ali whether he had asked the buyer about his previous arrests for drunk driving—as if that were a car dealer’s responsibility. It also demanded a sheaf of irrelevant documents, such as Mr Ali’s bank and tax records for the past two years. Mr Ali’s lawyer, Scott Bullock, argues that this is “clearly designed to intimidate” Mr Ali into giving up. Instead, he is suing to have the Texas civil asset forfeiture law struck down.

[TheWraith]

3. Because of the "Lovejoy" crowd.

https://s3.amazonaws.com:443/cs-theprovince/CommunityServer.Blogs.Components.WeblogFiles/kurtenblog/3326.lovejoy.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=0TTXDM86AJ1CB68A7P02&Expires=1278971553&Signature=SpN60FKXF2LI6RTw%2flUFVJm6QxI%3d

It's easy to incite panic, convince people that you're "doing something" about the problem, and accuse those who disagree with you of being soft on crime.

[Lilith Velkor]

4. The Constitution does not apply to drug suspects.

By the time the bad boys come for you, everyone who could have spoken up to defend you will already be locked up.

[Octafish]

10. Nor Terraris.

That USA PATRIOT Act is a bummer.

[PM Martin]

2. I am not sure which one gets me going more,

the stolen identity or the stealing of ones personal property. :mad:

[stray cat]

5. You need to travel more internationally to experience a real police state

so you have a basis for comparison. Its like the tea baggers calling Obama Hitler.

[laughingliberal]

7. Perhaps we need to travel back in time and see what those police states looked like 20 years ago. nt

[Riftaxe]

6. How terrible it is that we have no remedies

for bad laws, that we are subjugated without the ability to change them....oh wait...we do! What a strange police state we have...

[laughingliberal]

8. Oh, wait! We vote for those who say they'll restore our rights and they don't! nt

[Riftaxe]

11. Which means that the citizens are to blame

not the system. Heck i voted in the primary for the candidate that promised not to sell us out to the insurance companies, which he promptly did when in office, however; i have ability in the next election to withhold my vote for him in 2 years.

[laughingliberal]

12. Total bullshit. I see no way the citizens are to blame. The candidate says he'll do A and does B

How the fuck does that become the fault of the citizens?

[Riftaxe]

14. I edited my previous post

to clarify.

[laughingliberal]

15. The next guy you vote for does the same. It's not the citizens' fault they are all in bed together.

We have utterly lost the ability to influence our government. Money talks and we don't have enough to be heard. Vote, don't vote. Makes no difference, at all.

[Riftaxe]

17. If enough voters act, it does make a difference

there are systems around the world where the process is much shorter, North Korea for instance can change or implement laws extremely fast (astonishingly fast when compared to our system).

[laughingliberal]

18. It is not the fault of the citizens if the officials they elect reneg on their promises. eom

[grasswire]

9. we do have a remedy for bad laws

It's called "jury nullification" and is the last defense against tyranny. The Constitution allows a citizen jury to judge the law as well as the facts of a case.

Utter those words in a courtroom today (or pass out leaflets outside the courthouse about it) and you will be in a peck of trouble.

http://www.fija.org

Fully Informed Jury Association

[laughingliberal]

13. +1 nt

[Morning Dew]

16. We had a "gang Strike Force" here in Minnesota

here are some of the criminal and/or unethical acts these fine public servants engaged in.

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/08/20/strikeforce-report/

took home recreational equipment such as Jet Skis and an ice auger, as well as electronics, computers, jewelry and tools. The items were all seized from suspected criminals, but few of the seizures resulted in actual charges, or even investigations.

an officer brought a large screen television home for that officer's child as a present

Some officers allegedly snooped through the National Criminal Information Center database for their personal use, left loaded guns unmarked in an evidence room, and kept no written record at all for some cases.

routinely combed through the information in cell phones belonging to people they stopped on the street, without search warrants

The report also tells of a squad of officers, acting on a dubious tip about a drug suspect retrieving a car. The officers allegedly laid in wait for Hispanic car owners at the Minneapolis impound lot.
Luger said police seized more than $4,000 in cash from a Honduran man who showed up at the impound lot and $100 from a Mexican man.
"Neither man had any drugs on them. Neither man was ever accused of trying to pick up a car with drugs in them. But all the money was seized and not given back. Both men were undocumented aliens and are now facing deportation," said Luger.



Civil forfeiture laws are easily abused.

Obviously, then, our legislature acted to correct these abuses - not really... they passed a watered down bill that doesn't correct the problem.

http://www.aclu-mn.org/home/news/civilassetforfeiturereform.htm

This year at the Minnesota State Capitol the ACLU-MN was hard at work pressuring legislators to pass Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform. While the ACLU-MN is pleased that a reform bill did pass; unfortunately it did not contain two of the key changes for which the ACLU-MN were advocating. The bill does not require law enforcement officers to get a conviction if they intend to keep property that they confiscate from suspected criminals nor does it require that all seized assets be given to the state for redistribution to the local officials.

However, many important changes to the law were included in the reform.

Reporting Requirement Expanded: Now DNR forfeitures and DUI forfeitures will need to be reported to the State Auditor for the annual forfeiture report. All appropriate agencies must report more information about forfeitures including whether the forfeiture was contested and whether the forfeiture was automatic or decided in court.

Conciliation Court Jurisdiction Expanded: Now forfeiture cases up to $15,000 can be heard in conciliation court, reducing the need to hire an attorney to challenge a forfeiture.

[SunnySong]

19. I am telling you The Shield is more of a documentary than people would care to admit. nt