Texas police accused of highway robberies - Boing Boing »
Posted By tdrapeau 7 months ago in NewsCNN reports that police are accused of having robbed at least 150 drivers in Tenaha, Texas. The amount stolen is close to $3 million, says a lawyer who has filed a class action suit against the town and police department there.
Some of the victims (who are mostly African American) said that when they complained to the police about the police, the police threatened to take the victims' children away.
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tdrapeau
Tom Drapeau is the Director of Propeller social news. He enjoys all manner of geekery and internet foolishness. He has seen every episode of Battlestar ...
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Spadecaller7 months ago
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Officials in Tenaha, situated along a heavily traveled highway connecting Houston with popular gambling destinations in Louisiana, have insisted that they are engaged in a battle against drug trafficking and call the search-and-seizure practice a legitimate use of the state's asset-forfeiture law.
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That law permits local police agencies to keep drug money and other property used in the commission of a crime and add the proceeds to their budgets. At least that is their cover...
However, too many cases investigated reveal a disproportionately targeting of minorities, particularly African-American motorists of which none of these people have been charged with a crime, none were engaged in anything that looked criminal. The sole factors common in well over a hundred of these cases is that they all had something valuable, they all describe being threatened by the police, and nearly all lost something valuable that was confiscated by the police.-
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wtagg7 months ago
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This should be a warning in how laws that seemingly appear to be a good thing on the glossy surface can be used in a terribly wrong way.
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We, as citizens, need to take a close look at what the government claims to be doing for the good of the electorate.
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StevieGee7 months ago
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This is part of the funding for President Norris' plan to turn the new Christian Republic of Texas into a tourist attraction rivaling Disney. It will be called Slave World and will give African-Americans an opportunity to "stroll down memory lane" and experience the good old days of the old south. Of course, some of them may "disappear" and wind up working in the exhibits.
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pokydoke7 months ago
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Wait a minute, robbers dressed up as cops and cops robbing people are two different things. They are both crimes but cops using public trust to commit a crime is worse than some dude pretending to be a cop. Property seizure laws are getting a little carried away for my tastes.
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