beneficii wrote:
eric76 wrote:
auntblabby wrote:
The War on Drugs became a War on Citizens some time ago. This shouldn't be at all surprising.
Don't forget the guy in Los Angeles County who was shot and killed in his house only because the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department was hoping to find drugs so they could seize the property. There was no evidence, not even any articuable suspicion, that he might actually have drugs.
Link please. This would be very interesting to read.
Okay. Here are several (with excerpts -- I hate providing a link without either an executive summary or excerpts of what's on the page):
From
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Donald_P._Scott:
Quote:
Donald P. Scott was killed during a police raid on October 2, 1992 as they attempted to serve a warrant to search for marijuana.
...
Scott's widow, the former Frances Plante, along with four of Scott's children from previous marriages, subsequently filed a $100 million wrongful death suit against the county and federal government. For eight years the case dragged on, requiring the services of 15 attorneys and some 30 volume binders to hold all the court documents. In January 2000, attorneys for Los Angeles County and the federal government agreed to settle with Scott's heirs and estate for $5 million, even though the sheriff's department still maintained its deputies had done nothing wrong.
From
http://www.wnd.com/2000/01/3988/:
Quote:
“I do not believe it was an illegal raid in any way, shape or form,”
Captain Larry Waldie, head of the Sheriff’s Department’s narcotics
bureau, told the Los Angeles Times after the shooting. When Scott came
out of the bedroom, the deputies identified themselves and shouted at
him to put the gun down. As Scott began to lower his arm, one deputy
later said, he “kinda” pointed his gun — which he initially was holding
by the cylinder, not the handle grip — at deputy Spencer who, in fear
for his life, killed him.
...
Although Scott’s ranch was in Ventura County, none of
the 31 people participating in the massive early morning raid, which
included officers from the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, the DEA,
the National Park Service, the California National Guard and the Border
Patrol bothered to invite any Ventura County officers to come along.
Furthermore, once Scott was shot, Los Angeles County tried to claim
jurisdiction over the investigation of Scott’s death, even though the
shooting occured in Ventura County.
To Bradbury, it was easy to see why. L.A. County wanted jurisdiction.
In a 64-page report issued by Bradbury’s office in March of 1993,
Bradbury concluded that the search warrant contained numerous
misstatements, evasions and omissions. The purpose of the raid, he
wrote, was never to find some evanescent marijuana plantation. It was to
seize Scott’s ranch under asset forfeiture laws and then divide the
proceeds with participating agencies, such as the National Park Service,
which had put Scott’s ranch on a list of property it would one day like
to acquire, and the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, which heavily
relied on assets seized in drug raids to supplement its otherwise
inadequate budget.
There are a number of other instances showing the War on Drugs has become a War on Honest Citizens instead.
For example, there was a man in Milwaukee who owned an apartment building. He went to the police to complain about drugs being sold there wanting the police to investigate and arrest those responsible. They didn't do anything. Several months later, he went again to the police. This time they did do something -- since he clearly knew about the drug activity since he had complained before, they seized the building.
For example, there was a charter pilot who flew a man into Albuquerque from further west (from Las Vegas or somewhere in California, if I remember correctly). When they landed, the police searched the customer and found a suitcase of money. They then used the large amount of money, probably drug related, as a reason to not only seize the money, but also the charter pilot's King Air worth about a million dollars. I don't know if he ever got it back, but if he did, it took more than a year. What a way to kill a business.
For example, there was the owner of plant nursery in Nashville (I think) who was flying to Houston to buy plants for his nursery and was carrying about $8,000 to buy the plants. When he paid cash for the airline ticket, the ticket agent called the police who arrived at the airport and confiscated the money because they thought that it might be used to buy drugs.
For example, in Florida for a few years, the police were regularly stopping drivers on an Interstate going into Florida and confiscating money from people who were carrying too much cash on them. How much was too much? If you were black, it was as low as any amount more than $100.
For example, one guy I used to know took his family on vacation to Dallas about twenty years ago. He had no bank account and no credit card and dealt only in cash. When the cashier at a restaurant saw how much cash he had on him when he paid for their meal one night, she called the police who then spent two or more hours taking his car apart in the parking lot looking for drugs. When they didn't find any, they left, leaving him and his wife and his two small kids to put the car back together in the parking lot.
There are plenty of more examples.
07 Nov 2013, 6:31 pm
that is about as cold-comfort as cold comfort gets.
