6 ms·
Just stop trying to justify highway robbery. The criminal is the government until the person has been properly adjudicated by the courts!
by gg82 2y ago
Just stop trying to justify highway robbery. The criminal is the government until the person has been properly adjudicated by the courts!
- jacobn 2y agoI agree it sounds absolutely absurd - first time I heard about it I couldn’t believe it. The Wikipedia page has more on the rationale, good or bad: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_forfeiture_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_forfeiture_in_the_United...
- meroes 2y agoI like how the first two paragraphs under the intro (History) is basically outlining how the British doing it to American colonists was a catalyst for violent revolution to come… …and then the third is describing how American courts immediately recreated the laws with these inspirations to increase their budgets.
- Nasrudith 2y agoI mean say what you will about monarchism and its many flaws, they at least had the sense to hang or behead highway robbers instead of funding them!
- thayne 2y agoOnly as long as they weren't the ones who worked for the monarch.
- 0cf8612b2e1e 2y agoMonarchs used to sponsor pirates to harass enemy nations, so long history.
- bryanrasmussen 2y agoIt was a great work program for young overactive men with low morals and high intelligence - Sir Francis Drake proved his worth to the crown. https://medium.com/luminasticity/adrenaline-culture-bed2d6406d4f https://medium.com/luminasticity/adrenaline-culture-bed2d640... (note: non-serious article has some crude language and scenarios)
- OutOfHere 2y agoIt cost the US a failure to use the metric system.
- eru 2y agoThough I heard that during Drake's circumnavigation his body count was remarkably low, especially for the age.
- bryanrasmussen 2y agoI figured Drake was the kind of guy who would stock his crew with men of his caliber, and those guys tend to make it through hell with a smile.
- eru 2y agoBasically, they (almost?) didn't kill any Spaniards when they raided their ships and settlements in South America.
- IncreasePosts 2y agoIt's a smart move. Word gets around (slowly) that if you don't fuck with Drake, he'll let you live and be on your way, just a little bit lighter
- eru 2y agoIt's an irrelevant move. For this voyage Drake traveled faster than news of him. That's a big part of why him and his crew were so successful again and again.
- OutOfHere 2y agoWhile that's true, you absolutely don't have to settle for monarchy because a lot of democratic countries don't have this problem. Start with Canada (ignoring its namesake monarch). Civil forfeiture is a US specialty.
- grahamjameson 2y agoWhile perhaps specifically Canada does not have this type of asset forfeiture, I’m not sure they’re a good example of financial liberty that we should aspire to here in the US.
- nullfrigid 2y ago[dead]
- soco 2y agoSo let me understand this please: Canada is bad because it doesn't have what the US doesn't have either but aspires to have?
- whacko_quacko 2y agoIt's bad because they deem a protest a terrorist event and freeze your bank account if they found you donated. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/22/world/americas/canada-protest-finances.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/22/world/americas/canada-pro...
- Teever 2y agoAs a Canadian I'd like to take this opportunity to ask you what you know about Canada. Like what do you really know about Canada? Because I'm getting the same "Montreal is the capital of Canada" vibes that I got from an American tourist when I was a little kid visiting the same tourist town that they were on summer vacation. It astounds me how confidentially incorrect Americans (I'm assuming that you're American) are when it comes to their close neighbour. So please, tell me more about Canada.
- Terr_ 2y agoI dunno, there's some stuff like French ferme générale private tax collectors that weren't constrained in their profit-margin [0] or privateers with letters of marque and reprisal that went after civilians from other countries. [1] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferme_g%C3%A9n%C3%A9rale https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferme_g%C3%A9n%C3%A9rale [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_of_marque https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_of_marque
- beAbU 2y agoThat's because a monarchy wants to have a monopoly on the highway robbing in the first place.
- newsclues 2y agoMonarchs are happy to use robbers. See the age of piracy and letters of marque
- trod123 2y agoI believe the correct term you are looking for is privateers, not robbers. They were outside the color of law and often targeted specific trade coming out of adversarial nations.
- newsclues 2y agoOne kings privateer is another’s thieving pirates. It depends on who is getting robbed. Kings and governments just make up special words for when they commit crimes.
- lazide 2y agoYup - it’s a special kind of outlaw (literally, outside the law) who has a home he can go back to and be protected.
- dredmorbius 2y agoThe Sheriff of London paid the monarch for their position, ￡300, and paid for this (as well as stashing away some for themselves) through taxes and fees or fines assessed by the sovereign. This would have certain parallels to contemporary civil forfeiture. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheriff_of_the_City_of_London#History_of_the_office https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheriff_of_the_City_of_London#...>