How Asset Forfeiture Allows Cops to Steal from Citizens

It probably seemed like a bright idea at the time: Let the police seize the ill-gotten gains of alleged drug dealers and other suspected criminals and sell it, using the proceeds to buy much-needed crime-fighting gear. Unfortunately, the process—civil asset forfeiture—did not require convicting anybody of a crime.

Tennessee Woman Goes to Jail for Not Mowing Lawn

If you are a resident of Lenoir City, Tennessee, you might want to remember to mow your lawn — otherwise, you will be spending the night in jail. Karen Holloway just spent six hours in a jail cell for failing to maintain her yard in accordance with the standards set by the city. The saga began last summer, when Holloway was sent a citation for her overgrown grass and shrubbery.

Land of the Free – 1 in 3 Americans Are on File with the FBI in the U.S. Police State

The sickening transformation of these United States into an authoritarian police state with an incarceration rate that would make Joseph Stalin blush, has been a key theme of my writing since well before the launch of Liberty Blitzkrieg. One of the posts that shocked and disturbed readers most, was published a little over a year ago titled: American Police Make an Arrest Every 2 Seconds in 2012.

Police State USA: Civil Forfeiture Under Presumption of Guilt

In a report called Stop and Seize, the Washington Post details how aggressive police take hundreds of millions of dollars from motorists not charged with crimes. The Washington Post noted there have been 61,998 cash seizures made on highways and elsewhere since 9/11 without search warrants or indictments. Law enforcement agencies confiscated more than $2.

Cop Smashes Through Window, Tasers Man As He Refuses To Show ID During Traffic Stop

A police officer in Illinois was filmed smashing through a car window, tasering and yanking out a passenger after he refused to show ID during a routine traffic stop. According to a Fox 32 report, Hammond police claim that they were left with no choice when Jamal Jones said he did not have ID with him and refused to leave the vehicle. Jones, his girlfriend Lisa Mahone, and their children, aged 14 and 7, were rushing to a hospital to visit Mahone’s mother, who was literally on her deathbed.

Cop Threatens To Take Man’s Baby To ‘Children’s Services’ Over Refusal To Show ID

A police officer in Ohio was caught on video threatening to take away a man’s children and place under CPS oversight because he refused to ID himself during a routine traffic stop. Andre Stockett was stopped by Sandusky police officer Christopher Denny, who said he believed Stockett to be another person, a suspect with outstanding felony warrants. At first the officer claimed he stopped Stockett and his girlfriend, Kathryn Said, because the license plate number indicated her driver’s license was expired.

Cop’s Tip For Not Getting Raped By A Cop: ‘Don’t Get Pulled Over’

In response to the arrests of three law enforcement officials in Oklahoma for sexually assaulting women while on the job, an Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper told women they can avoid getting raped by a cop if they simply follow traffic laws. Raw Story first pointed out on Tuesday that Capt. George Brown, a state trooper, shared a few tips for women in an interview with local NBC News affiliate KJRH.

Video: Cop Insists Travel is a Privilege Granted by the State

Back when the Constitution was drafted the founders did not explicitly include the right to travel. Although the Articles of Confederation recognized the freedom of movement under Article 4, the founders considered this right so fundamental they felt it did not need specific enumeration in the Constitution. So essential was the natural right of travel and freedom of movement considered, it was spelled out in Article 42 of the Magna Carta in 1215.

Newly Revealed NSA Program Allows Online Global Internet Mapping

The NSA’s “Treasure Map” project is aimed at conducting global cyber attacks and mapping the Internet in its entirety to include end users’ devices, Der Spiegel has revealed. “The breathtaking mission is described in a Treasure Map presentation from the documents of the former intelligence service employee Edward Snowden… It instructs analysts to ‘map the entire Internet – Any device, anywhere, all the time.” the media outlet reports.

FBI launches national facial recognition system

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has fully rolled out a new biometric identification system that includes facial recognition technology. The FBI, working with the Criminal Justice Information Services Division, says the Next Generation Identification System is now fully operational. The system is designed to expand biometric identification capabilities across the country and eventually replace the FBI’s current fingerprint system.

Resistance is Futile: The Violent Cost of Challenging the American Police State

If you don’t want to get probed, poked, pinched, tasered, tackled, searched, seized, stripped, manhandled, arrested, shot, or killed, don’t say, do or even suggest anything that even hints of noncompliance. This is the new “thin blue line” over which you must not cross in interactions with police if you want to walk away with your life and freedoms intact. The following incidents and many more like them serve as chilling reminders that in the American police state, “we the people” are at the mercy of law enforcement officers who have almost absolute discretion to decide who is a threat, what constitutes resistance, and how harshly they can deal with the citizens they were appointed to “serve and protect.

Stop and seize: Aggressive police take hundreds of millions of dollars from motorists not charged with crimes

Cash seizures can be made under state or federal civil law. One of the primary ways police departments are able to seize money and share in the proceeds at the federal level is through a long-standing Justice Department civil asset forfeiture program known as Equitable Sharing. Asset forfeiture is an extraordinarily powerful law enforcement tool that allows the government to take cash and property without pressing criminal charges and then requires the owners to prove their possessions were legally acquired.

Must-See Police State Video: ‘You Are At My Door With Guns And I Fear For My Life… I Have Committed No Crime’

The following video footage, captured by Avel Amarel and uploaded to Youtube, shows how easy it is to stop police state tactics dead in their tracks. When two police officers show up at the door claiming to be looking for a wanted fugitive, Avarel begins recording. What you’ll see is nothing short of shocking, as police attempt to first enter his home without a warrant, and then attempt to turn him into a criminal for refusing to submit to their demands.

Police Chief Uses Shovel To Behead Young Boy’s Beloved Pet Chicken

A Minnesota police chief admitted to beheading a five-year-old boy’s pet chicken with a shovel last month after a neighbor complained about the animal running through the neighborhood. Ashley Turnbull, the mother of the boy, acknowledged that her son was in violation of a local ordinance but says the chief violated multiple laws, including trespassing on private property, when he decapitated the red hen. “The chicken was like a puppy dog to my son,” Turnbull told West Central Tribune.

DOT Proposes Mandating Cars Broadcast Location, Direction and Speed

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, part of the Department of Transportation, published last week an “advanced notice of proposed rulemaking” on “vehicle-to-vehicle communications.” What NHTSA is proposing could begin a transformation in the American transportation system that makes our lives better and freer — or gives government more power over where we go and when. In announcing its proposed rulemaking, NHTSA is stressing its intention to protect the “privacy” of American drivers.