4 ms·

Where were the drugs? There was no solid evidence a crime had been committed. It is common for poorer people not to have bank accounts, which would explain the

by glesica 13y ago

Where were the drugs? There was no solid evidence a crime had been committed. It is common for poorer people not to have bank accounts, which would explain the cash, and neither the cash nor the pipe are illegal. It doesn't matter one tiny little bit if you think the people in question are drug runners, or even if they actually are, in fact, drug runners. All that matters is that the government took their property as a de facto punishment for having committed a crime (running drugs) without ever actually proving that they committed a crime. So yeah, there was definitely an agenda here, but it seems to have been to demonstrate a genuinely scary trend in law enforcement and government overreach, which is exactly what it should be.

Domenic_S 13y ago
> This year, they’d decided to buy a used car in Linden, which had plenty for sale, and so they bundled their cash savings in their car’s center console.
gyardley 13y ago
I'm pretty sure the pipe could and would be considered 'drug paraphernalia', and therefore possession is a misdemeanor in Texas. Of course, pretty much everyone has 'drug paraphernalia' lying around somewhere. My coffee grinder, my wife's kitchen scales, our snack-sized sandwich bags, the spoons in our cutlery drawer...
Zimahl 13y ago
I agree with the overreach of the law and possible, obvious abuses. However, police are able to arrest for a crime at any point of the process. That said, other than ones that aren't reversible (like murder), they usually let you commit the crime and then arrest you. This makes it easier to prosecute you. I don't necessarily have a problem with asset forfeiture just that it needs to be required to be associated with a conviction, there should be a cap on what the police get (to avoid overzealous use), and there should be a quick and logical appeal process to prevent innocents having property taken via 'splash damage'.

by glesica 13y ago

Domenic_S 13y ago

> This year, they’d decided to buy a used car in Linden, which had plenty for sale, and so they bundled their cash savings in their car’s center console.

gyardley 13y ago

I'm pretty sure the pipe could and would be considered 'drug paraphernalia', and therefore possession is a misdemeanor in Texas. Of course, pretty much everyone has 'drug paraphernalia' lying around somewhere. My coffee grinder, my wife's kitchen scales, our snack-sized sandwich bags, the spoons in our cutlery drawer...

Zimahl 13y ago

I agree with the overreach of the law and possible, obvious abuses. However, police are able to arrest for a crime at any point of the process. That said, other than ones that aren't reversible (like murder), they usually let you commit the crime and then arrest you. This makes it easier to prosecute you. I don't necessarily have a problem with asset forfeiture just that it needs to be required to be associated with a conviction, there should be a cap on what the police get (to avoid overzealous use), and there should be a quick and logical appeal process to prevent innocents having property taken via 'splash damage'.