What life is like after police ransack your house, then the charges are dropped

Re:What life is like after police ransack your house, then t... by protomyth on Thursday March 31, 2016 @02:06PM (#11399216)

The only thing I can see as a viable target of asset forfeiture is illegal items (e.g. the drugs themselves). Any other asset that the government wants to seize needs to follow a criminal conviction and a separate trial on the asset itself. This funding our police through stealing (see Philadelphia) is beyond wrong.

I also believe that no money from fines should go to the police department. It should end up in the state's (not the city, etc.) general fund. That will end the incentive to be a bunch of buccaneers.

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Re:What life is like after police ransack your house, then t... by logfromblammo on Thursday March 31, 2016 @03:45PM (#11400030)

It would actually be better if it ended up in a segregated budget category that could not be used to fund policing or courts, and which could not be conditionally reduced based on the amount of funding provided via forfeiture.

If you stick it in the general fund, it is just one spending bill away from ending up in police coffers anyway.

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Re:What life is like after police ransack your house, then t... by protomyth on Thursday March 31, 2016 @06:19PM (#11401032)

Yeah, probably, but I figure moving it up to the state general fund from the city / county is a good start.

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Re:What life is like after police ransack your house, then t... by ascagnel_ on Thursday March 31, 2016 @04:09PM (#11400229)

The issue is that if cash or other valuable items are seized, they can be used to fund a legal defense. This is, at times, undesirable: if someone robs a bank, that money shouldn't be used in criminal defense because it's the property of someone else (either the bank or it's customers).

CF in general is a troublesome idea; a better system would be the court overseeing and holding in escrow any funds or items that are seized by the police and disbursing it as necessary once the trial is over or a plea is reached.

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Re:What life is like after police ransack your house, then t... by protomyth on Thursday March 31, 2016 @06:18PM (#11401027)

> if someone robs a bank, that money shouldn't be used in criminal defense because it's the property of someone else (either the bank or it's customers).

That is provably not the person arrested money, just as a car thief shouldn't keep the car. Drug money is tougher, and the government should have to prove it came from criminal activity. Allowing the government to seize money just because it could have been from illegal activity is bull.

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