{"id":7098,"date":"2014-10-12T13:58:12","date_gmt":"2014-10-12T19:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/?p=7098"},"modified":"2014-10-12T13:58:12","modified_gmt":"2014-10-12T19:58:12","slug":"all-of-this-is-fundamentally-at-odds-with-the-u-s-constitution-all-of-this-is-at-odds-with-the-rights-that-americans-have","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/nada\/all-of-this-is-fundamentally-at-odds-with-the-u-s-constitution-all-of-this-is-at-odds-with-the-rights-that-americans-have\/","title":{"rendered":"“All of this is fundamentally at odds with the U.S. Constitution. All of this is at odds with the rights that Americans have.”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Seizures of cash from Americans fuel police spending nationwide<\/a> <\/p>\n

\n

<\/a>The Washington Post <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a> <\/p>\n

\"Sanford <\/a>\u00a9 Carl D. Walsh\/Portland Press Herald via Getty Images Sanford Police Chief Thomas Connolly steps down from the department’s Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle. <\/p>\n

Police agencies have used hundreds of millions of dollars taken from Americans under federal civil forfeiture law in recent years to buy guns, armored cars and electronic surveillance gear. They have also spent money on luxury vehicles, travel and a clown named Sparkles.<\/p>\n

The details are contained in thousands of annual reports submitted by local and state agencies to the Justice Department\u2019s Equitable Sharing Program, an initiative that allows local and state police to keep up to 80 percent of the assets they seize. The Washington Post obtained 43,000 of the reports dating from 2008 through a Freedom of Information Act request. <\/p>\n

The documents offer a sweeping look at how police departments and drug task forces across the country are benefiting from laws that allow them to take cash and property without proving a crime has occurred. The law was meant to decimate drug organizations, but The Post found that it has been used as a routine <\/strong>source of funding <\/strong>for law enforcement at every level. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn tight budget periods, and even in times of budget surpluses, using asset forfeiture dollars to purchase equipment and training to stay current with the ever-changing trends in crime fighting helps serve and protect the citizens,\u201d said Prince George\u2019s County, Md., police spokeswoman Julie Parker. <\/p>\n

Brad Cates, a former director of asset forfeiture programs at the Justice Department, said the spending identified by The Post suggests police are using Equitable Sharing as \u201ca free floating slush fund.\u201d Cates, who oversaw the program while at Justice from 1985 to 1989, said it has enabled police to sidestep the traditional budget process, in which elected leaders create law enforcement spending priorities. <\/p>\n

\u201cAll of this is fundamentally at odds with the U.S. Constitution,\u201d said Cates, who recently co-wrote<\/a> an article calling for the program\u2019s abolition on The Post\u2019s editorial page. \u201cAll of this is at odds with the rights that Americans have.\u201d <\/p>\n

Of the nearly $2.5 billion in spending reported in the forms, 81 percent came from cash and property <\/strong>seizures in which no indictment was filed, according to an analysis by The Post. Owners<\/strong> must prove that their money or property <\/strong>was acquired legally in order to get it back.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Seizures of cash from Americans fuel police spending nationwide<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seizures of cash from Americans fuel police spending nationwide The Washington Post \u00a9 Carl D. Walsh\/Portland Press Herald via Getty Images Sanford Police Chief Thomas Connolly steps down from the department’s Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle. Police agencies have used hundreds of millions of dollars taken from Americans under federal civil forfeiture law in recent … Continue reading “All of this is fundamentally at odds with the U.S. Constitution. All of this is at odds with the rights that Americans have.”<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nada","category-wtf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7098"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7098\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7099,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7098\/revisions\/7099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}