When Theft is Legal *

Often I come on to some news item that strikes me as well worth my time to read.  Thus it is that my 'Favorites' on occasion becomes glutted.  Here is one such bit I rambled across this middle of the night, it really getting my dander up.

 The article comes out of Canada and is aimed at its citizens crossing the border into the United States with substantial sums of cash and going on to expose just what is happening here in the US under the aegis of legality! 

This situation is not a random occurrence perpetrated by one lone 'officer'.  It is sanctioned by the whole legal spider's web. 

I am appalled and I am angry to know that those we think we can trust practice such rotten behavior.
There is definitely something very wrong with our system.

You should read the full news piece at the link below, in order to realize we are all susceptible to being victims of this legalized trap.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/american-shakedown-police-won-t-charge-you-but-they-ll-grab-your-money-1.2760736

   There’s a shakedown going on in the U.S., and the perps are in uniform.
By Neil Macdonald, CBC News Posted: Sep 11, 2014

Across America, law enforcement officers — from federal agents to state troopers right down to sheriffs in one-street backwaters — are operating a vast, coordinated scheme to grab as much of the public’s cash as they can; "hand over fist," to use the words of one police trainer.

Roadside seizure It usually starts on the road somewhere. An officer pulls you over for some minor infraction — changing lanes without proper signaling, following the car ahead too closely, straddling lanes. The offence is irrelevant.
Then the police officer wants to chat, asking questions about where you’re going, or where you came from, and why. He’ll peer into your car, then perhaps ask permission to search it, citing the need for vigilance against terrorist weaponry or drugs.
What he’s really looking for, though, is money.



'Authorities claim it’s legal, but some prosecutors and judges have called it what it is: abuse. In any case, it’s a nasty American reality.' And if you were foolish (or intimidated) enough to have consented to the search, and you’re carrying any significant amount of cash, you are now likely to lose it.


'Authorities claim it’s legal, but some prosecutors and judges have called it what it is: abuse. In any case, it’s a nasty American reality.'

　
　The Washington Post this week reported that in the past 13 years, there have been 61,998 cash seizures on roadways and elsewhere without use of search warrants.  The total haul: $2.5 billion, divided pretty much equally between the U.S. government and state and local authorities (hence the Kafkaesque “equitable sharing” euphemism).......


note  -   KAFKAESQUE: of, relating to, or suggestive of Franz Kafka or his writings; especially: having a nightmarishly complex, bizarre, or illogical quality

 
final note - Jim, who, unlike this crooked procedure, had his $14,000 cash inheritance from his father, taken by the sheriff as "evidence" from the crook who broke into Jim's safe at his business site and stole the money along with his father's hunting rifles. 

Words to ponder: From what I gathered there was no arrest even though the perpetrator was caught red-handed and was a widely known drug dealer! OMG

Jim is a very hard worker but certainly hasn't the financial means of taking on the legal system to retrieve what's his from a crooked sheriff.  Sheriff lost the election yet almost instantly able to start a new food store business; an all out "spare no money high end" business.

My skepticism has kicked in.  Yes, there are many "somethings" wrong.

Have you or someone you know had an unsatisfactory encounter with our nation's legal machine?