
Federal Judge: Albuquerque's Asset Forfeiture is Unconstitutional - mmirate
https://reason.com/blog/2018/07/30/federal-judge-rules-albuquerques-asset-f
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WalterBright
The whole point of a taxpayer funded police force is so that police operations
are not biased because of where the money comes from. Having the police profit
from police operations completely subverts that.

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senectus1
agreed, I'm inclined to think that "electing" your police force also subverts
it.

Douglas Adams was bang on the nail when he said something to the tune of "that
the only beings that can and should be trusted with power is those that dont
want it, or aren't aware they have it"

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craftyguy
> I'm inclined to think that "electing" your police force also subverts it.

Then you'll end up with a bunch of charismatic police folks who want it, and
can swoon voters to give it, but are generally ineffective at doing it.
Source: politics in the US above the municipal level.

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lgregg
that already happens, county judges and sheriffs.

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craftyguy
Right.. I would consider crap at the county level to be above the municipal
level...

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lgregg
Not in every context. There are quite a few city-county conglomerates.

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t0mbstone
"New Mexico essentially banned civil asset forfeiture in 2015, but Albuquerque
argued the state law didn't apply to its own city codes and continued to seize
cars."

How the fuck is a _city_ able to just decide to ignore state laws? I don't
understand...

The officials in charge at the city level and in the police department need to
see some jail time for breaking the very laws they are sworn to uphold.

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toomuchtodo
Typically the concept of Home Rule is used.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_rule_in_the_United_Stat...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_rule_in_the_United_States)

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ww520
This is huge for justice. Protection for personal property is one of the most
fundamental tenets of our society. Don't know why it takes so long for the
wheel of justice to get going.

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Canada
These injustices will never cease until those who order and execute them face
personal consequences for their illegal conduct.

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mnm1
It's about time a federal judge applies common sense to a forfeiture case. It
really is amazing how little logic and common sense our judicial system has.
How are we the people supposed to trust an illogical system that steals from
people, murders innocent people, and that a third grader can see is
unconstitutional? How can one even explain such madness to children who wonder
if the cops killed the black guy just to take his car and house? Of course
they did.

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teilo
To quote Tom Swift (from Gulliver's Travels):

Judges are picked out from the most dextrous lawyers, who are grown old or
lazy, and having been biased all their lives against truth or equity, are
under such a fatal necessity of favoring fraud, perjury and oppression, that I
have known several of them to refuse a large bribe from the side where justice
lay, rather than injure the faculty by doing any thing unbecoming their nature
in office.

