Detroit Police Rob Suburbanite

[+EdwardGlen]

I need help for my daughter and her boyfriend who were robbed of $1300.00 by the Detroit Narcotics cops. They were pulled over in front of a supposed drug house but no one got out of the car and no one came out of the house to the car.

 

Tickets were issued for loitering even thou no one got out of the car until the police pulled them out of the car. When searched her money was taken and no receipt was given, when she asked for one the cop said "shut up or I'll make it worse". Scared and not knowing what to do they let it go until she told me, I ain't letting this sheet go!!!

 

We have been on the phone everyday since Monday and have been given wrong numbers to call and even numbers that are disconnected. My daughter and her boyfriend are willing to take a polygraph test and only ask that the cops do the same.

 

If someone can offer some advice on where to turn to next or should we go to an outside agency, State Police, FBI, etc

 

 

1) It wasn't a "crack house" its a relatives house of her boyfriend and its in decent part of Detroit.

2) It was a Friday they had both been paid and yeah it was stupid to have that much cash on them but so what no reason for COPS to be ROBBERS .

3) We have both cops name male and female.

4) They're victims! Not law breakers for being in Detroit to visit friends.

5) We have contacted all news organization's 2-4-7-CNN and hopefully they'll think its worth while to look into.

 

I'm not begun to rock the freaking boat in the Eastern district of Detroit.

 

EG 10/15/10 9:37am

 

As of this posting an investigation is not going to be carried out by the Detroit Police concerning the armed robbery of the kids by the Detroit Police.

EG 10/26/10 11:13am

[capoalto]

i live in detroit every day and if i get pulled over and dont know the side streets of the neighborhood im in.. im gonna have to get out of the car.. i know 1000000000000% that if i have any money on me that most people dont carry it will be taken and if i dont have a check stub from today in my pocket its gone forever... but to be honest if i saw 2 white kids on the east side parked in front of a house and i find out they have 1300 cash on them.. i would bet every time on the odds that they were there for a qp of medical grade or a overpriced lb of commercial... OR worse cuz 1300 of anything else is 5 plus years in MDOC period. of all things to happen they actually got the better stick to be beaten with.

[capoalto]

i live in detroit every day and if i get pulled over and dont know the side streets of the neighborhood im in.. im gonna have to get out of the car.. i know 1000000000000% that if i have any money on me that most people dont carry it will be taken and if i dont have a check stub from today in my pocket its gone forever... but to be honest if i saw 2 white kids on the east side parked in front of a house and i find out they have 1300 cash on them.. i would bet every time on the odds that they were there for a qp of medical grade or a overpriced lb of commercial... OR worse cuz 1300 of anything else is 5 plus years in MDOC period. of all things to happen they actually got the better stick to be beaten with.

next time park in the driveway then ur on private property and can ask them to leave and if they refuse call state police and dont get off phone with them even if being assulted

[Ms Chocolate]

1) Don’t blame the citizen as a whole. There are area I don’t travel because I have no business in those areas (this is true of any city).

 

2) Before you say city v subs, know that most of the officers with the DPD are from the suburbs.

 

3) I always suggest you demand a receipt. The hope is that you won’t, or feel the fight is not worth it.

 

As a side note - During the summer, my son was approached for being parked in front of a “suspected drug house”. He was laughed at when he explained he was picking up a friend who lived across the street. As a search was being conducted (trust that this has been discussed), a young lady exit the house across the street, open the door, claimed inside, looked at the cop, and asked if he was raiding with them.

[Wild Bill]

This is what the "War On Drugs" is all about.

 

THE LOOTING OF AMERICA

 

How over 200 Civil Asset Forfeiture Laws Enable Police to Confiscate Your Home, Bank Accounts & Business Without Trial

 

by Jarret B. Wollstein

 

 

"A police dog scratched at your luggage, so we're confiscating your life savings and you'll never get it back."

Police stopped 49-year-old Ethel Hylton at Houston's Hobby Airport and told her she was under arrest because a drug dog had scratched at her luggage. Agents searched her bags and strip-searched her, but they found no drugs. They did find $39,110 in cash, money she had received from an insurance settlement and her life savings; accumulated through over 20 years of work as a hotel housekeeper and hospital janitor. Ethel Hylton completely documented where she got the money and was never charged with a crime. But the police kept her money anyway. Nearly four years later, she is still trying to get her money back.

 

Ethel Hylton is just one of a large and growing list of Americans – now numbering in the hundreds of thousands – who have been victimized by civil asset forfeiture. Under civil asset forfeiture, everything you own can be legally taken away even if you are never convicted of a crime.

 

Suspicion of offenses which, if proven in court, might result in a $200 fine or probation, are being used to justify seizure of tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of property. Totally innocent Americans are losing their cars, homes and businesses, based on the claims of anonymous informants that illegal transactions took place on their property. Once property is seized, it is virtually impossible to get it back.

 

Property is now being seized in every state and from every social group. Seizures include pocket money confiscated from public-housing residents in Florida; cars taken away from men suspected of soliciting prostitutes in Oregon; and homes taken away from ordinary, middle class Americans whose teenage children are accused of selling a few joints of marijuana. No person and no property is immune from seizure. You could be the next victim. Here are some examples:

 

* In Washington, DC, police stop black men on the streets in poor areas of the city, and "routinely confiscate small amounts of cash and jewelry." Most confiscated property is not even recorded by police departments. "Resident Ben Davis calls it 'robbery with a badge.'" [uSA Today, 5/18/92.]

 

* In Iowa, "a woman accused of shoplifting a $25 sweater had her $18,000 car – specially equipped for her handicapped daughter - seized as the 'getaway vehicle.'" [uSA Today, 5/18/92.]

 

* Detroit drug police raided a grocery store, but failed to find any drugs. After drug dogs reacted to three $1.00 bills in the cash register, the police seized $4,384 from cash registers and the store safe. According to the Pittsburgh Press, over 92% of all cash in circulation in the US now shows some drug residue.

 

* In Monmouth, New Jersey, Dr. David Disbrow was accused of practicing psychiatry without a license. His crime was providing counseling services from a spare bedroom in his mother's house. Counseling does not require a license in New Jersey. That didn't stop police from seizing virtually everything of value from his mother's home, totaling over $60,000. The forfeiture squad confiscated furniture, carpets, paintings, and even personal photographs.

 

* Kathy and Mark Schrama were arrested just before Christmas 1990 at their home in New Jersey. Kathy was charged with taking $500 worth of UPS packages from neighbors' porches. Mark was charged with receiving stolen goods. If found guilty, they might have paid a small fine and received probation. The day after their arrest, their house, cars and furniture were seized. Based upon mere accusation, $150,000 in property was confiscated, without trial or indictment. Police even took their clothing, eyeglasses, and Christmas presents for their 10-year-old son.

 

The incentive for government agencies to expand forfeiture is enormous. Agencies can easily seize property and they usually keep what they take. According to the Pittsburgh Press, 80% of seizure victims are never even charged with a crime. Law enforcement agencies often keep the best seized cars, watches and TVs for their "departments", and sell the rest.

 

How extensive are seizures in America today? The Washington Post has reported that the US Marshals Service alone had an inventory of over $1.4 billion in seized assets, including over 30,000 cars, boats, homes and businesses. Federal and state agencies seizing property now include the FBI, the DEA, the US Marshals Service, the Coast Guard, the IRS, local police, state highway patrols, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, FDA, and the Bureau of Land Management. Asset forfeiture is a growth industry. Seizures have increased from $27 million in 1986, to over $644 million in 1991 to over $2 billion today.

 

Civil asset forfeiture defines a new standard of justice in America; or more precisely, a new standard of injustice. Under civil seizure, property, not an individual is charged with an offense. Even if you are a totally innocent owner, the government can still confiscate your "guilty" property.

 

If government agents seize your property under civil asset forfeiture, you can forget about being innocent until proven guilty, due process of law, the right to an attorney, or even the right to trial. All of those rights only exist if you are charged with a criminal offense; that is, with an offense which could result in your imprisonment. If you (or your property) are accused of a civil offense (offenses which could not result in your imprisonment), the Supreme Court has ruled that you have no presumption of innocence, no right to an attorney, and no protection from double jeopardy.

 

Seizure occurs when government takes away your property. Forfeiture is when legal title is permanently transferred to the state. To get seized property returned, you have to fight the full resources of your state or federal government; sometimes both! You have to prove your property's "innocence" by documenting how you earned every cent used to pay for it. You have to prove that neither you nor any of your family members ever committed an illegal act involving the property.

 

To get a trial, you have to post a non-refundable "bond" of 10% of the value of your property. You have to pay attorney fees – ranging from $5,000 to over $100,000 – out of your own pocket. Money you pay your attorney is also subject to seizure (either before or after the trial) if the government alleges that those funds were "tainted." And you may be forced to go through trial after trial, because under civil seizure the Constitutional protection against "double jeopardy" doesn't apply. Once your property is seized, expect to spend years fighting government agencies and expect to be impoverished by legal fees – with no guarantee of winning – while the government keeps your car, home and bank account.

 

In fact, in a recent Supreme Court decision (Bennis v. Michigan), the Court said explicitly that innocent owners can be deprived of their property if it's used to facilitate a crime, even without the owner's knowledge or consent. That means you can now lose your home or business because of the action of employees, relatives, or guests, over whom you have absolutely no control.

 

 

Police And Prosecutors Have The Incentive

To Confiscate As Much As Possible

 

Not only do police and prosecutors have the power to seize anything you own on the slightest pretext, they also have the incentive. The dirty little secret of the forfeiture racket is that police, prosecutors and judges can benefit personally by stealing your property.

 

Brenda Grantland – America's leading asset forfeiture defense attorney – gives these examples of government greed in her book "Your House Is Under Arrest":

 

* Suffolk County, New York. District Attorney James M. Catterton drives around in a BMW 735I that was seized from an alleged drug dealer. He spent $3,412 from the forfeiture fund for mechanical and body work, including $75 for pin-striping.

 

* Warren County, New Jersey. The assistant chief prosecutor drives a confiscated yellow Corvette.

 

* Little Compton, Rhode Island. The seven member police force received $3.8 million from the federal forfeiture fund, and spent it on such things as a new 23-foot boat with trailer, and new Pontiac Firebirds.

 

But that's just the tip of the iceberg. The head of one Los Angeles police forfeiture squad claims his group personally pocketed over $60 million in seized property.

 

Why do our courts tolerate these outrageous legalized thefts? Because they get their cut. It's completely legal for confiscated property to be used by police, prosecutors and judges, so long as it's for official business. In 1996, a federal district court even ruled that police can personally receive 25% of the value of any confiscated home, car, or business.

 

 

Some Police Will Kill You For Your Property

 

In Malibu, California, park police tried repeatedly to buy the home and land of 61-year-old, retired rancher Don Scott, which was next to national park land. Scott refused. On the morning of October 2, 1992, a task force of 26 LA county sheriffs, DEA agents and other cops broke into Scott's living room unannounced. When he heard his wife, Frances, scream, he came out of his upstairs bedroom with a gun over his head. Police yelled at him to lower his gun. He did, and they shot him dead.

 

Police claimed to be searching for marijuana which they never found. Ventura County DA Michael Bradbury concluded that the raid was "motivated at least in part, by a desire to seize and forfeit the ranch for the government . . . [The] search warrant became Donald Scott's death warrant."

We Must Stop Asset Forfeiture Now

 

As police confiscations become more and more outrageous, opposition has been mounting. California and several other states defeated draconian forfeiture laws a few years ago, and the Supreme Court rendered several hopeful decisions. But improvement was short-lived.

 

Federal, state and local governments are again expanding confiscation with little concern for justice. The latest targets: doctors who resist government-controlled medicine . . . Businesses that employ illegal aliens (who sew most clothing and harvest many crops) . . . and gun owners.

 

Anything you own now can be seized at any time. Every week over 5000 innocent Americans like you now lose their cars, bank accounts, homes or businesses, without ever being charged with a crime.

 

 

The fight against civil asset forfeiture is a battle for your freedom and property. If confiscation isn't stopped, liberty and justice will soon be fading memories. Help stop the looting of America now, before it's too late.

[Bisharoo]

This is what the "War On Drugs" is all about.

 

THE LOOTING OF AMERICA

 

How over 200 Civil Asset Forfeiture Laws Enable Police to Confiscate Your Home, Bank Accounts & Business Without Trial

 

by Jarret B. Wollstein

 

 

Federal, state and local governments are again expanding confiscation with little concern for justice. The latest targets: doctors who resist government-controlled medicine . . . Businesses that employ illegal aliens (who sew most clothing and harvest many crops) . . . and gun owners.

 

Anything you own now can be seized at any time. Every week over 5000 innocent Americans like you now lose their cars, bank accounts, homes or businesses, without ever being charged with a crime.

 

 

The fight against civil asset forfeiture is a battle for your freedom and property. If confiscation isn't stopped, liberty and justice will soon be fading memories. Help stop the looting of America now, before it's too late.

 

 

Still feel like voting for the lesser of 2 evils and continuing down this path, folks?

What do you think Wild Bill? Will the democrats or republicans put an end to this unconstitutional and evil practice?

Time for something completely different?

Too late, I am sad to say. Too many elected and non-elected officials on both sides of this, both of the two so-called main parties are heavy handed controllers, with a vested interest in keeping the confiscations going, to fund their criminal activities, and keep individual human beings under their flavor of tyranny.

I don't see us (today's voters) as being the ones who have the will to move to the next evolution in human existence, that being freedom for each individual human and the fading into the dustbin of history all the authoritarians who have stood against individual human rights. More are waking up and a few are passionate in trying to free the masses from our current form of tyranny.

Wild Bill, will it be enough, or is it too little, too late?

[DT61]

It seems there is no "lesser of 2 evils" - they are they same evil now with a different mask.

[Wild Bill]

"This country is a one-party country. Half of that party is called Republican and half is called Democrat. It doesn't make any difference. All the really good ideas belong to the Libertarians." - Hugh Downs(Politically Incorrect, March 31, 1997.)