What do you expect. They need to pay those bloated union salaries and benefits for those fine policemen and the thousands of other government paid parasites. If they aren’t stealing your property, they’re raising property taxes, sales taxes, income taxes, cigarette taxes, soda taxes, ………………….
PHILADELPHIA’S “FORFEITURE MACHINE”: $64 Million Confiscated From Citizens With No Due Process
By Eric Boehm
In March, Chris Sourovelis’ son was caught selling $40 of heroin to an undercover police officer.
Officers from the Philadelphia Police Department responded by raiding the Sourovelis’ north Philadelphia home, with guns drawn — one of them pointed at the head of the family dog — and found small amounts of the drug in the 22-year old’s bedroom. Chris and his wife, Amy, knew nothing of their son’s drug habit and it was the first time he had been busted for possessing narcotics.
A few weeks later, the cops were back to tell the Sourovelis family they had to gather their things and leave the property. The home was being confiscated under civil forfeiture rules, leaving the family homeless and forced to sleep on a neighbor’s couch.
To get their home back, Chris and Amy Sourovelis had to agree that their son would no longer live with them. Even though they agreed, the family could still lose their home permanently as the case winds through the city’s legal system.
Now, the Sourovelis family is one of a group of people bringing a class-action lawsuit against the Philadelphia Police Department and the city’s District Attorney’s Office, alleging that law enforcement in Philadelphia is routinely and repeatedly violating the due process rights of the city’s citizens.
“I did not do anything wrong, yet Philadelphia is trying to take my house,” said Chris Sourovelis, in a statement released by the Institute for Justice, a libertarian law firm involved in the case. “If this can happen to me and my family, it can happen to anybody.”
And it does, more often than might be expected.
From 2002 through 2012, law enforcement in Philadelphia seized more than 1,000 homes, 3,200 vehicles and $44 million in cash, according to data obtained by the Institute for Justice through an open records request.
Those assets provided more than $64 million in revenue to the Philadelphia DA’s office, because Pennsylvania law allows local law enforcement to keep the proceeds from forfeited property after it is seized and resold.
Property can be seized by police without requiring a conviction — or even a criminal charge, in some cases — and the proceeds have padded the Philadelphia District Attorney’s bottom line by 20 percent during the past decade.
Attorneys working on the lawsuit say the city has set up a “forfeiture machine” to take advantage of the perverse incentives created by the law.
Fuck the cops…..I no longer feel sorry when one of these low life’s get killed.
In a sting operation they seize your home. Dept. of HLS is the tops in this area, most of their cases are sting operations.
Then the home is auctioned off to Bank of America or similar they get their money bac k one way or another.
Fucking scumbags…
How does this ‘civil forfeiture’ bullshit NOT violate the “due process” or “equal protection” clauses of the Constitution?
Part of Section 1, Amendment 14 to the Constitution: “…nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
Rolling in and taking someone’s home and no criminal charges at all? No conviction? That it armed robbery by the State under color of law….
Goddamned thugs… they aughta be prosecuted under the RICO statute – why not? It’s a fucking organized crime ring, right? Just because these bastards wear a state-issued uniform doesn’t mean they can’t be an organized crime ring.
Copfuks roll in, steal someone’s home. It’s resold at auction and the monies go directly to the cops’ boss – the District Attorney – who sends them back out to steal more houses, more property, more cars, more cash…
Sounds like an organized crime ring – a syndicate – to me…
Cops to City Council: ‘We Were Given an Illegal Traffic Ticket Quota’
Melissa Melton
The Daily Sheeple
August 30th, 2014
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For those who still say it’s a myth that cops are given quotas for how many tickets they have to write, maybe you’ve never been to Waldo, Florida. The National Motorists Association listed Waldo as the third worst speed trap for a town of 50,000 people or less in 2012, and it’s so bad, billboards like the one above are taken out to warn drivers before they get there.
But earlier this week, five police officers came forward to testify before the Waldo City Council that they are mandated to write a certain number of tickets each shift or face punishment — even though such a quota stands in direct violation of state law. Waldo, by the way, only has seven police officers to begin with.
The Gainesville Sun reported:
Before a packed room, Officer Brandon Roberts told commissioners they were required by Chief Mike Szabo to write 12 speeding citations per 12-hour shift or face punishment. Roberts explained his claims with the help of an electronic presentation and printed emails as evidence.
“We’re doing this with a heavy heart,” Roberts said. “We would never want to go against our fellow officers but we have no faith in our chain of command.”
It was also noted that apparently half of the city’s $1 million budget comes from something officially listed as “police revenue”.
The officers also accused Chief Szabo of enforcing “questionable” traffic stops and abandoning his post and disabling equipment so none of the department staff could find him.
Szabo has since been suspended pending an investigation. Sadly, Waldo Police Cpl. Kenneth Smith, who was named interim chief following Szabo’s suspension, has also been suspended as well.
At least it’s nice to see a few honest cops for a change…
– See more at: http://www.thedailysheeple.com/cops-to-city-council-we-were-given-an-illegal-traffic-ticket-quota_082014#sthash.9v4quXxB.dpuf
Constitution no longer in force. Case in point above story.
“How does this ‘civil forfeiture’ bullshit NOT violate the “due process” or “equal protection” clauses of the Constitution?” ———- Billy
As da Lawd said unto Paul, I say unto you; —– “It is hard for you to kick against the pricks.’ (Acts 26:14). And, yes, the original KJV said “pricks”.
Civil forfeiture laws represents, imho THE most serious assault on private property rights in the nation today. You don’t even have to be guilty of anything!!
It is mostly motivated by profits …. around $1 Billion Buckeroos collected every fucking year. Many police department budgets include a revenue line item in their copfuk spreadsheets. Good luck fighting them. It WILL normally take thousands of dollars, and years.
.
Article … history of civil forfeiture and how it has exploded today
http://www.ij.org/foreword-2
Article from New Yorker …. typically long …. but chuck full of other horror stories
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/08/12/taken
It’s the rich vs. everyone else. Same as in the Bible & before.
If U’re not 1 of the ultra rich like Corzine or Goldman Sach’s CEOs, U’re the same as the kid in Ferguson. Expendable.
For that, and a variety of other reasons, attorneys challenging the civil-asset forfeiture laws say the law violates due process guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution.
“Allowing law enforcement to keep the proceeds of forfeited property gives them a perverse financial incentive to use civil forfeiture,” said Scott Bullock, senior attorney for the Institute for Justice. “No one in the U.S. should lose their property without being convicted of, or even charged with, any crime.”
That process takes place in civil court, not criminal court. Among other things, that means no free defense attorneys for the poor and no constitutional protections against self-incrimination.
Hey Stucky?
I don’t think “pricks” means what you think it means… I think it metaphorically refers to someone entangled in a thorn bush. The more you struggle to free yourself – “kick” – the more thorns stab you – “prick”…
Someone caught in the thorn bush of today’s legal system is completely screwed. The more the struggle to free themselves, the more they will be injured…
True 2000+ years ago. True today.
Billy
Ehhh …. I think I knew that.
Stuck,
No insult intended… calm yourself…
I’m not an expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I went to catholic school for 12 years, remember? 12 years of study… plus, whatever came afterwards that I did on my own…
Someone not as well acquainted with the good book as we are might misinterpret your quote…
It’s all good bro…
Billy said:
“I don’t think “pricks” means what you think it means… I think it metaphorically refers to someone entangled in a thorn bush. The more you struggle to free yourself – “kick” – the more thorns stab you – “prick”…”
“Someone caught in the thorn bush of today’s legal system is completely screwed. The more the struggle to free themselves, the more they will be injured…”
Sounds like the same thing to me….metaphor or no!
these pieces of shit, a bag of some non-approved substance means they can seize your home. this is more proof that TPTB actually own everything regardless of what our mortgage says. we are all jsut renters, just some of us can pack up and roll out more easily. don’t pay your taxes or try to do what you want on your property and you’ll soon find out who actually owns it. hint: it isn’t you.
i am working on a post regarding an experience from last night that shows how they don’t respect property rights and constantly interject themselves where they aren’t wanted. shoudl be up later today or tomorrow.
civil forfeiture and the levy of perpetual property tax/school tax undermines the entire idea of property ownership.
billy,
i really like your idea that they should be tried under the rico statute. never thought of that but it is very applicable when strictly looking at teh definition. if only it weren’t for the watchmen being tasked with watching themselves.
harry,
I would very much like to see it happen. The RICO statute should apply to everyone – even goons in state issued uniforms.
They operate as well as any organized crime syndicate out there – worse, because they use the law as a shield and are untouchable.. don’t see why the Feds wouldn’t go after them like they went after the Mob.
Anyone out there want to put a bug in someone’s ear?
Settle down, people. Sooner, rather than later, one of these cases will appear before the Supreme Court.
Just like Kelo vs New London, where private property was seized under eminent domain for PRIVATE ECONOMIC GAIN. The Supreme Court by a 5 (liberal) to 4 (conservative) decision said that was ok. Here’s the reaction of the states ….
“Prior to Kelo, seven states specifically prohibited the use of eminent domain for economic development except to eliminate blight: Arkansas, Florida, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Washington. As of June 2012, 44 states had enacted some type of reform legislation in response to the Kelo decision. Of those states, 22 enacted laws that severely inhibited the takings allowed by the Kelo decision, while the rest enacted laws that place some limits on the power of municipalities to invoke eminent domain for economic development. The remaining eight states have not passed laws to limit the power of eminent domain for economic development.”
In other words, 44 states said “Fuck you” to the Supreme Court on the Kelo decision. They simply changed, clarified, or passed new eminent domain laws. See, it can be done. P.S. Arizona led the way for you fucksticks that like to shit on my state.
States determine their seizure and forfeiture laws, not the feds. It is clear that Philly is abusing state law. All this shit will be sorted out. I’m guessing it will start with seizure reform. Minnesota is in the lead. No conviction, no seizure.
No one gave a shit when the pirates seized the homes of “drug dealers” and the poor. But, as I predicted, the pirates would eventually run out of members of both groups and now fully emboldened, would target people with lighter skin, which would lead to a backlash.
I’m waiting for the app that GPSs your location and tells you how much the pirates collected in that area so you know what places to avoid . . .
SSS…while I agree that it will be sorted out eventually the damage done is tremendous . The cop fucks and the other pricks that jumped on the band wagon deserve a three gallon douche for fucking the average American .