Today in cops gone feral

That was a sidebar to a main story about the sad-asses little traffic trap of Brookside, Ala., where the police department is averaging more than four arrests per household. No that’s not a typo.

 

At reason.com they write a lot about asset seizures. The government can take your stuff without arresting you for a crime and you have to prove that it is not the product of illegal activity.

Incentivize the police. Great idea.

 

I think Lee Elia said it best. “Rip those country c*cksuckers!”

 

I really don’t get this. The 14th amendment seems pretty clear on this one: “No state shall deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law.”

 

The way the scam works is that they use due process against you, basically.
There have been laws written or applied (and not yet effectively challenged at the Supreme Court level) that give the cops broad latitude to seize property based on suspicion alone. The logic is that anyone actually in the drug trade won't challenge it in court because they'd implicate themselves on a host of other charges by doing so. And for the innocent people who have property seized, the cops and prosecutors will fight you every inch of the way to the point where it's not worth it. Why would you spend $5,000 on a lawyer and have to go through a two-year court fight to try and reclaim $2,000 in cash or a car that's only worth $10,000?
So they say you can have your due process, but we're going to shove it up your ass by making it long, hard and expensive. It's similar to the logic that corporate lawyers use in lawsuits, where they delay you with paperwork and legalities until you run out of money. Legally, they're covered. Morally, it's repugnant.

The cops -- including the ones in my county, who have a cooperative agreement between several departments and use the 30-mile stretch of interstate that passes through to fund their departments -- are preying on apathy and the weak to buy a lot of really neat things and tout how awesome they are.
Civil asset forfeiture is a scourge. It should be banned immediately. I think there are some cases in the pipeline that will set a precedent one way or the other, but justice is slow, especially when the entire justice system has a vested interest in making it so.

 

Remember the case with the suicidal man holding a gun to his head while two police officers try to talk him down when a third officer walked in, told him to drop his weapon, then shot him in the face with a shotgun like seven seconds later? Back in the news, and predictably not for anything good.

 

In a tale as old as time... Off-duty police officer has been drinking and is (allegedly) on his cell phone when he strikes a pedestrian. Instead of calling 911, he and the passenger put the guy in the backseat of his car and drive home, where his mother helps him clean the blood from his clothes, and then tells him to dump the body back where he initially hit the guy. Somehow, his father is the only one with morals, and calls the police on his own son. Don't worry though - Arriving officers didn't feel the need to give the off-duty officer a breathalyzer.

A cop fatally struck a nurse. His actions after the crash shock the victim’s loved ones.

 

My country tis of thee

Sparks fly at city meeting after police union defends Florida cop who choked colleague

 

When I think of a police rally I mean training conference, the first name to come to mind to speak is Tomi Lahren.

One of the recognized experts in the field:

 

I'm sure there have been plenty of cops run a train on Tomi Lahren.

 

By officer-involved shooting, they mean a dozen cops opened fire and killed a guy who was in possession of *check notes* a box cutter.