"The most significant threat to our national security is our debt," Admiral Michael Mullen, Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, August 27, 2010


Monday, March 30, 2015

“Equitable Sharing” or Government’s ATM machine

Here is the wording/accusation from the DOJ report regarding illegal abuse of police powers to raise money in Ferguson, MO:

Ferguson’s law enforcement practices are shaped by the City’s focus on revenue rather than by public safety needs. This emphasis on revenue has compromised the institutional character of Ferguson’s police department, contributing to a pattern of unconstitutional policing, and has also shaped its municipal court, leading to procedures that raise due process concerns and inflict unnecessary harm on members of the Ferguson community.”
The report is 105 pages long and we offer a link for those who wish to see/read/grasp what one American bureaucracy can do when its leader wants to witch hunt something –  http://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/opa/press-releases/attachments/2015/03/04/ferguson_police_department_report.pdf
According to the DOJ and their 105 page report which is the now cause célèbre of both bureaucrat Holder and his mouthpiece BHObama on this topic – the city of Ferguson committed the following major abuse:
·         In 2010, of its general fund revenue budget of $11.07 million, $1.38 million came from fines and fees collected by the municipal court system
·         In 2011, of its general fund revenue budget of $11.44 million, $1.41 from fines and fees
·         In 2012, they collected $2.11 million
·         In 2013, they collected $2.46 million
·         In 2014, they budgeted for $2.63 million
So, over the five years of the DOJ report focus, the average annual fine/fee collection was $ 2.0 million.  Two million dollars per year.   $10 million over five years.  Keep that number in mind and read on, please.
For some time now, in America, the United States department of justice and its many sister bureaucracies have been seizing cash and property – selling the property and spending the proceeds.  Here are Washington Post reporters, Horwith, Rich and O’Harrow, on this topic.
“Since 2008, thousands of local and state police agencies have made more than 55,000 seizures of cash and property worth $3 billion under a civil asset forfeiture program at the Justice Department called Equitable Sharing.
 
The program has enabled local and state police to make seizures and then have them “adopted” by federal agencies, which share in the proceeds. It allowed police departments and drug task forces to keep up to 80 percent of the proceeds of adopted seizures, with the rest going to federal agencies.”
 
Source:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/holder-ends-seized-asset-sharing-process-that-split-billions-with-local-state-police/2015/01/16/0e7ca058-99d4-11e4-bcfb-059ec7a93ddc_story.html

$10 million over 5 years is worthy of 105 pages of DOJ rhetoric, accusations, race mongering speech giving by Holder and interference in local law enforcement; termination without trial of local bureaucrats and constant racist nonsense from Holder’s presidential mouthpiece and the entire Hollywood media with PBS holding the megaphone.  Meanwhile the DOJ collects billions under Holder's direction and calls it – equitable sharing.  Is this nuts?  No. this is America – politicians and government lawyers and judges pretending to administer justice. 

Here is a bit more from the WP report: 

“…follows a Washington Post investigation published in September that found that police have made cash seizures worth almost $2.5 billion from motorists and others without search warrants or indictments since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
 
The Post found that local and state police routinely pulled over drivers for minor traffic infractions, pressed them to agree to warrantless searches and seized large amounts of cash without evidence of wrongdoing. The law allows such seizures and forces the owners to prove their property was legally acquired in order to get it back.”

Some years ago, a man used these words – “you don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows” to describe the actions of other misguided but out of control American bureaucrats.  Unless and until America eliminates its bureaucracies and the millions of bureaucrats within, our decline will grow and magnify.

 

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