
Law enforcement took more stuff from people than burglars did last year - DickingAround
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/11/23/cops-took-more-stuff-from-people-than-burglars-did-last-year/
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a3n
It would be more interesting to see asset forfeiture compared to armed
robbery, since that is essentially what happens when police, with a gun on
their hip and the right to use it, take your assets without legal judgement.

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cryoshon
"Still, boil down all the numbers and caveats above and you arrive at a simple
fact: In the United States, in 2014, more cash and property transferred hands
via civil asset forfeiture than via burglary. The total value of asset
forfeitures was more than one-third of the total value of property stolen by
criminals in 2014."

Ah, these are some really revolutionary statistics. People who were not
accused of any crime were robbed by the police for larger quantities of money
than actually taken from homes forcefully by the traditional image of
"criminals". Via this information we can say with confidence that the law
enforcement agencies are the larger criminals when it comes to direct monetary
abduction from the public. This leaves us in a shitty position, because we can
no longer rely on law enforcement to provide support for our society.

We know with confidence that American LEOs will steal, spy on, beat,
dehumanize, ignore, and murder the public without righteous comeuppance from
the political or legal systems. To be clear, this kind of endemic bad behavior
is what reliably drives people to vigilanteeism and anti-police violence.
Barring that, I think a rational response to law enforcement abuses is in
order.

There's a few prongs to this strategy, the most important of which is
political pressure, meaning organizing direct monetary bribery of politicians
via campaign donations near the time of elections; loudly donating large sums
of money to radical police reformists running for public office will go a long
way in solving the problem, as this signals to other politicians, the police
and the public that people are serious about solving the problem of villainous
law enforcement. From here, things get real: I suggest a boycott of assisting
law enforcement with information technology projects in an attempt to handicap
their efficiency, making them realize that the public will resist them if they
continue bad behavior. I also suggest shaming and social exclusion of people
working in or associated with law enforcement-- I know this won't go far, but
it's worth a shot. At least it's nonviolent.

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BillTheCat
Is there any reason, aside from the $1.7 billion from Bernie Madoff, as to why
the amount seized has risen so much in the last 10 years?

Was there some case that made it much easier for law enforcement to seize
assets this way?

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bingo_the_dog
Perhaps a better question would be "What is the median forfeiture amount?".
Without additional data points or underlying explanation, this article is
nothing but click-bait.

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elipsey
I agree that it would be nice to have more data. It might be hard to get "big
picture" data for this. I would imagine that police deptments are not
incentivized to publish details in a convenient, highly visible, summarized
form.

Forbes says $1250 was avg. seized property value in MN.

[http://www.forbes.com/sites/instituteforjustice/2014/09/12/a...](http://www.forbes.com/sites/instituteforjustice/2014/09/12/after-
cops-seized-and-kept-cash-washington-d-c-settles-almost-million-dollar-civil-
forfeiture-class-action/)

This link claims that the avg. cash seizure amount in Phillidelphia from 2010
to present was $550:

[http://ij.org/action-post/seize-first-ask-questions-later-
ph...](http://ij.org/action-post/seize-first-ask-questions-later-philadelphia-
police-take-over-6-million-a-year-in-civil-asset-forfeiture/)

These hardly sound like the sort "untouchable" organized crime cases that
these programs were touted to address.

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r721
Recent discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10591250](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10591250)

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Terr_
> Here's an interesting factoid about contemporary policing

Pedantic correction: Properly speaking, a "factoid" is something which is NOT
a fact fact, but resembles one. Similarly to how an android is not a man.

I realize people are starting to use it like "small fact", but, uh, get off my
lawn.

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rahimnathwani
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10482128](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10482128)

~~~
Terr_
Why are you linking to my own comments?

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tosseraccount
Taxes and more debt are not always popular.

Growing government has figured out how to turn the courthouse and police
station into profit centers with a lot less blowback than raising taxes and
going deeper into the hole with bonds.

