3 ms·

I wonder what happened. Traffic stop, seizure of "life savings," something about the drug enforcement agency. I can guess what happened, but it would be nice

I wonder what happened. Traffic stop, seizure of "life savings," something about the drug enforcement agency. I can guess what happened, but it would be nice to know the story behind the lawsuit. Like... cop did a search, found a ton of cash, took it as if it were drug money, gave the money to feds, never charged anybody with a crime, feds give most of the money to the cop's precinct. But I just made that up. On the other hand, the point of the post is to explain the legal argument that won, and its implications for upholding the right against unreasonable search and seizure. And it did that.

pizza234 2y ago
It's written in a referenced article (https://ij.org/case/nevada-civil-forfeiture/ https://ij.org/case/nevada-civil-forfeiture/): > On his drive from Texas to California, a Nevada Highway Patrol officer engineered a reason to pull him over, saying that he passed too closely to a tanker truck. The officer who pulled Stephen over complimented his driving but nevertheless prolonged the stop and asked a series of questions about Stephen’s life and travels. Stephen told the officer that his life savings was in the trunk. Another group of officers arrived, and Stephen gave them permission to search his car. They found a backpack with Stephen’s money, just where he said it would be, along with receipts showing all his bank withdrawals. After a debate amongst the officers, which was recorded on body camera footage, they decided to seize his life savings. > After that, months passed, and the DEA missed the deadlines set by federal law for it to either return the money or file a case explaining what the government believes Stephen did wrong. So Stephen teamed up with the Institute for Justice to get his money back. It was only after IJ brought a lawsuit against the DEA to return Stephen’s money, and his story garnered national press attention, that the federal government agreed to return his money. In fact, they did so just a day after he filed his lawsuit, showing that they had no basis to hold it.
- Over2Chars 2y ago
  The part about the receipts I had missed. Although volunteering information about anything seems suspect. And it also seems to be a matter of DEA dropping the ball, but perhaps they foot drag knowing that anyone with illegal money isn't going to ask for it back, as they'd have to explain why they had it. I wonder if Elon is going to suggest we defund the DEA as part of his "DOGE"?
  - YawningAngel 2y ago
    It might be naive, but I don't think it's suspicious to be forthright with the police
    - naasking 2y ago
      Not suspicious, but probably dumb.
  - pizza234 2y ago
    > Although volunteering information about anything seems suspect. I don't live in the USA, but to my understanding, it’s common for individuals from minority groups to be taught by their families specific behaviors for interacting with police, such as how to position their hands. I wouldn’t be surprised if this also includes notifying the police about personal belongings that could potentially raise suspicion.
    - scarface_74 2y ago
      As a minority, you are taught where to hold your hands. But we taught our sons - “don’t talk to the police when questioned”. We also taught them in case they did have to call the police in case of something like a home break-in, describe themselves. We lived in a city that was less than 4% Black and was a famous “sundown town” as late as the mid 80s
  - potato3732842 2y ago
    >I wonder if Elon is going to suggest we defund the DEA as part of his "DOGE"? I hope. Bespoke single police agencies only serve the purpose of sucking up resources to enforce stuff that a broad police agency (like the FBI) would never or could not justify allocating so many resources toward. You get these agencies like the DEA that build up this headcount and budget and then go justify it by engaging in all sorts of bad crap. The FBI would rarely (I'm not gonna say never) waste time going after college kids for making "more than personal use" amounts of acid. If they want to waste man hours on petty things to justify their budget they have a whole laundry list of more legitimate petty things to enforce first.

pizza234 2y ago

It's written in a referenced article (https://ij.org/case/nevada-civil-forfeiture/ https://ij.org/case/nevada-civil-forfeiture/): > On his drive from Texas to California, a Nevada Highway Patrol officer engineered a reason to pull him over, saying that he passed too closely to a tanker truck. The officer who pulled Stephen over complimented his driving but nevertheless prolonged the stop and asked a series of questions about Stephen’s life and travels. Stephen told the officer that his life savings was in the trunk. Another group of officers arrived, and Stephen gave them permission to search his car. They found a backpack with Stephen’s money, just where he said it would be, along with receipts showing all his bank withdrawals. After a debate amongst the officers, which was recorded on body camera footage, they decided to seize his life savings. > After that, months passed, and the DEA missed the deadlines set by federal law for it to either return the money or file a case explaining what the government believes Stephen did wrong. So Stephen teamed up with the Institute for Justice to get his money back. It was only after IJ brought a lawsuit against the DEA to return Stephen’s money, and his story garnered national press attention, that the federal government agreed to return his money. In fact, they did so just a day after he filed his lawsuit, showing that they had no basis to hold it.

Over2Chars 2y ago
The part about the receipts I had missed. Although volunteering information about anything seems suspect. And it also seems to be a matter of DEA dropping the ball, but perhaps they foot drag knowing that anyone with illegal money isn't going to ask for it back, as they'd have to explain why they had it. I wonder if Elon is going to suggest we defund the DEA as part of his "DOGE"?
- YawningAngel 2y ago
  It might be naive, but I don't think it's suspicious to be forthright with the police
  - naasking 2y ago
    Not suspicious, but probably dumb.
- pizza234 2y ago
  > Although volunteering information about anything seems suspect. I don't live in the USA, but to my understanding, it’s common for individuals from minority groups to be taught by their families specific behaviors for interacting with police, such as how to position their hands. I wouldn’t be surprised if this also includes notifying the police about personal belongings that could potentially raise suspicion.
  - scarface_74 2y ago
    As a minority, you are taught where to hold your hands. But we taught our sons - “don’t talk to the police when questioned”. We also taught them in case they did have to call the police in case of something like a home break-in, describe themselves. We lived in a city that was less than 4% Black and was a famous “sundown town” as late as the mid 80s
- potato3732842 2y ago
  >I wonder if Elon is going to suggest we defund the DEA as part of his "DOGE"? I hope. Bespoke single police agencies only serve the purpose of sucking up resources to enforce stuff that a broad police agency (like the FBI) would never or could not justify allocating so many resources toward. You get these agencies like the DEA that build up this headcount and budget and then go justify it by engaging in all sorts of bad crap. The FBI would rarely (I'm not gonna say never) waste time going after college kids for making "more than personal use" amounts of acid. If they want to waste man hours on petty things to justify their budget they have a whole laundry list of more legitimate petty things to enforce first.