Legally Enabled Bullies
The Anne Arundel County Police Department went after illegal Internet gambling and really made out, writes Brian McGraw at OpenMarket.org:
The gist of the story is that the police force set up their own online payment processor and processed payments for internet gambling sites as if they were a real legitimate business. The federal government used this evidence to seize funds belonging to those companies....They begin by seizing roughly $30 million in funds, a large majority of which belonged to American citizens engaged in a private activity within the confines of their home.Then they shut the website down and encouraged Americans to contact the gambling website to see if they can get their funds back. These are the same businesses that were just shut down and lost access to their website, capital, payment processing services, and are dealing with serious criminal charges. There is absolutely no chance that they will be able to pay back the money that belonged to American citizens, some of which is now in the hands of the Anne Arundel County Police Department:
Police said they would use the money for equipment to assist with undercover investigations, plus new vehicles and weapons.Apologies to the Americans who won't be receiving the money they deposited via a fake business the government set up, but fear not as they're going to be buying lots of shiny new police toys with your money. This is yet another way in which horrid police activity fuels itself (much more about that here). The police received monetary rewards for disrupting the lives of innocent people and are using that money to buy fancy new equipment which they will use to harass even more private American citizens engaged in activities that some bureaucrat finds distasteful.
As Radley Balko puts it at the link just above, it's a "license to steal."
via @walterolson and @ceidotorg
When I used to stay in Wayne, NJ(Passaic county), I used to see a police SUV(not sure if it was the sheriff's or some other guys) on which there was a label saying....."This vehicle was purchased with money seized from drug dealers".....always made me wonder if the money was money that was seized after stopping the drug dealers from doing business or whether the money was to allow the drug dealers to continue their business. And this vehicle was the flashiest of all the police vehicles in the area.
Redrajesh at June 17, 2011 1:54 AM
I note the following, in no particular order:
- The government ran a fraudulent business
- The money they took did not belong to the business they targeted, but to individuals who have not been charged with any crime.
- Gambling is entirely legal, when it is in the form of government-run lotteries.
As with asset seizure, this is nothing but self-service corruption: police profiting by taking money that is not theirs. No need for criminal charges, or even any proof. The burden is entirely on the individual, to prove that the government owes them money - a hopeless cause.
a_random_guy at June 17, 2011 3:55 AM
So they basically established their own criminal enterprise for the explicit purpose of converting the funds of anyone that they tricked into believing that the were serving as a legitimate payment processor.
Something to keep in mind is that internet gambling isn't illegal everywhere across the world. So unless they were somehow pruning non-resident IP's, they've likely stolen the money of individuals for whom it's perfectly legal to gamble online. That is, people who'd used their service from territories outside of the US.
silas at June 17, 2011 4:31 AM
This is why I no longer care when cops get killed, most of them are basicaly government certifed mercs no better then the criminals they are supposed to protect us from
lujlp at June 17, 2011 5:35 AM
Apparently, now the cops don't give a crap who they steal from either.
This is why I say about gambling and the lotteries (because the slogan for the lottery in CT used to be "You can't win if you don't play"): you can't LOSE if you don't play.
Flynne at June 17, 2011 5:51 AM
"This is why I no longer care when cops get killed, most of them are basicaly government certifed mercs no better then the criminals they are supposed to protect us from"
I do not agree, and I would not want anyone to associate me with such sentiments because I come to this website.
I certainly have my objections to how police in America are serving the public. Chief among those objections is the growing tendency to be ever-more paramilitary in outlook and tactics, at a time when our society is becoming less violent and crime rates are dropping. The police see the bosses--i.e., us--as sheep to be herded and corrected, not employers to be served. (This "funding" scheme described above is a symptom of that, I believe.)
Yes, American cops need a severe attitude correction, and some firings will be necessary to root out those police officers with overly-predatory, hostile tendencies.
But let's not be indifferent to their deaths; That seems a step way too far.
Spartee at June 17, 2011 6:51 AM
A retired judge recently shared with me a comment he had overheard from a Sheriff's deputy that reveals the police mind-set: "There are two types of people in the world -- cops and assholes."
Let that be a lesson for us, folks.
Jay R at June 17, 2011 7:25 AM
spartee, I live in maricopa county AZ home to the mcso and sherriff Joe camera fuck slut.
I meant to write I no longer care when cops "in my area" get killed.
Read up on the abuses of Joe and his goons and you'll deveolp the same apathy
lujlp at June 17, 2011 7:40 AM
I agree with lujlp. At this point in time I have more to fear from my police force then I have to fear from criminals. And that is spoken from the point of view of a law abiding citizen. The police do not "serve and protect" anymore, they hassle and oppress. I have zero faith in the "authorities." I know that when a cop looks at me, or virtually anyone, he is simply trying to figure out if he can bust me for anything. He is not there to help me.
Matt at June 17, 2011 7:45 AM
Sorry Luj, you lost me on that one. Most cops are the very front line of defense against anarchy. In southern california and phoenix they dealer with shit like MS13 and violence on an hourly basis. I have unfortunately had the police at my front door on a few occasions, and I can say they were 1000 percent professional and compassionate. Walk a mile in their shoes before making idiotic general statements like that. How about I say something stupoid like if Luj gets killed violently, I know longer care.
ron at June 17, 2011 7:48 AM
Sorry ron, it be one thing if the mcso dealt with criminals, but theyre too busy busting
1 corn venders
2 junk shop owners on weapons trafficing charges for having dud ordence from WW2
3 burning down houses and dogs while serving becnch warrents with a swt team for a guy wo missed traffic court
4 arresting journalists for writting stories about illegal warrents issued without authorization for either a grand jury or a judge
5 carring out private vendetta against joe political opponents and criticizers
6 illegally funding latin america para military police
7 somehow misplacingmis spending 100 million dollars
try again ron
fuck the mcso, and that media junkie joe
lujlp at June 17, 2011 8:07 AM
I forgot to add that they do 1-5 inside of cites that have their own police forces and completely ignore the small towns outside of the phx metro area where the msco is literally the olny police force
lujlp at June 17, 2011 8:15 AM
>>Most cops are the very front line of defense against anarchy.
BWahahahahahahahahahaha! Thanks for the laugh. I'm sure they'd like you to believe that. In fact that's their main argument whenever they try to grab more power to violate our rights. "We're violating your rights, in order to better protect you from the anarchy that will consume us all if we back down one little bit! Thank us, we're protecting you!" I don't buy it.
Matt at June 17, 2011 8:41 AM
"Most cops are the very front line of defense against anarchy. In southern california and phoenix they dealer with shit like MS13 and violence on an hourly basis."
Credibility is lost by such grandiose overstatements.
Spartee at June 17, 2011 8:56 AM
This sounds like trickery from the likes of Boss Hogg and his minion Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane.
So where are the Duke boys to foil their dastardly plans?
In other words, where are the outraged citizens meeting this week to demand that the government not run fraudulent businesses to take money from ordinary citizens?
Just gotta remember for every corrupt Coltrane, there is an Andy Taylor too.
Cat at June 17, 2011 9:19 AM
I'm kind of confused as to how a municipal police department would have the authority to do this. The dishonesty on the part of the federal government isn't a suprise, though. (My company server won't let me go to the story... because it's classified as a gambling site.)
ahw at June 17, 2011 10:33 AM
Jesus you people are fucking jaded. The police only have the power that the political overseers give them. You have a problem with your local police, then voice your displeasure at the ballot box. My god what have we become where we blame the local police for powers they only have because of a failed political system. Do any of you actually know a policeman personally? I have many relatives who in law enforcement, and the shit they put up with on a daily basis would bury you pussies.
ron at June 17, 2011 10:42 AM
Ron, you are right - but you are missing the point. The police deal with lots of scum, and it is entirely understandable that they develop an "us-vs-them" attitude. They welcome more power, as this enables them to do their jobs better.
You are also right that the political situation - in particular, the current voter attitude "safety at any price" - is responsible for giving the police that power.
However, you are wrong thinking that the police deserve our sympathy. What they are doing is wrong, and should not simply be accepted. If the police abuse the power they have been given, they should and must be called to account for it.
Frankly, the ballot box is no longer useful. It only lets you choose amongst indistinguishable professional politicians - no one else has a realistic chance above the local level.
All good totalitarian governments preserve the trappings of democracy, and so does ours.
a_random_guy at June 17, 2011 11:06 AM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2011/06/17/legally_enabled.html#comment-2277765">comment from ronI talk to the watch commander in my district almost nightly and one of my close friends is "Sergeant Heather" (of the LAPD). Don't kid yourself about what a wonderful job the police are doing. Those in my district are largely incompetents who don't know the laws, and deny the laws when I read them to them off the LAPD's website. A friend just told me about the book about the Adam Walsh kidnap/murder and what a lesson in police incompetence it is. The incompetent officer I deal with most frequently will be getting a huge pension that I will be paying for at 90 by working in a donut shop. I'm resentful. And resentful of the voters who have nearly elected dumb-as-a-ficus-tree Janice Hahn (we have a run-off here).
Amy Alkon at June 17, 2011 11:15 AM
"And resentful of the voters who have nearly elected dumb-as-a-ficus-tree Janice Hahn (we have a run-off here)."
Time for the classic: Corinne Brown, super genius!
Radwaste at June 17, 2011 7:10 PM
Many moons ago -- I moved out to my neck of the woods. The local sheriff was up for election in the general. But in the primary, there was no one running for sheriff on the Republican side. There were two running on the Democratic side. And it was an off year election.
I'm a registered independent.
So essentially the 10% of eligible Democrat voters that bothered to show up picked our sheriff for the next five years.
As far as wanting to see law enforcement die -- I can't support that. But I distrust and have little respect for them as time goes on. It used to be a percentage were bad apples. Now it is getting to whole departments and state troopers that I worry about. The confiscation laws from the war on drugs and deadbeat dads; the rest of the laws pushed down from the Fed for seat belt, DUI, and similar laws; the disrespect shown by the supreme court in states for fourth amendment rights; the suspension of the fourth to fly -- these all cause a normal person to question authority.
Jim P. at June 17, 2011 8:57 PM
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