Give Us Cash or Lose Your Kids and Face Felony Charges: Don't Cops Have Better Things to Do?!

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Give Us Cash or Lose Your Kids and Face Felony Charges: Don't Cops Have Better Things to Do?!

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Think speed traps are crooked? A Texas town's "cash for freedom" policy has taken highway robbery to a whole new level.

Imagine getting pulled over while on a family vacation and having small-town cops accuse you and your family of being drug couriers. Then imagine hearing that you have two options: Fork over your cash and continue on your vacation or face felony charges for money laundering and child endangerment, in which case you go to jail and your kids get handed over to foster care. That's what happened to Ron Henderson and Jennifer Boatright while traveling through Tenaha, Texas, a town that regards piracy as just another way to raise revenue.

Henderson and Boatright's case helped launch a class action lawsuit against abusive civil forfeiture laws, laws which allow law enforcement to to shake down people and cash in. And don't be fooled by officers tooling around town in Escalades seized from hotshot drug dealers--law enforcement often targets those who cannot afford to hire an attorney to fight for the return of their property.

Officers may swipe your property even if you're not charged with a crime. Cops can drive the cars they grab, and seized cash has even been funneled to officers' salaries. Booty is often a large source of law enforcement funding, and last year the Department of Justice pulled in a record $4.2 billion from civil forfeitures.

Mix easy targets with the all-too-common "guilty until proven innocent" presumption, and it's no wonder officers get distracted chasing profit instead of bad guys. In 53 percent of violent crimes nationwide, no one is arrested let alone convicted. So even though it isn't as lucrative as busting people for drug offenses, maybe cops could spend less hunting down cash and cars and more time busting murders and rapists.

2 minutes, 20 seconds.

Follow the show on Twitter (@DontCops) and submit your nominees for next episode. To watch previous episodes, go here.

"Don't Cops Have Better Things to Do?" is written and directed by Ted Balaker (@tedbalaker). Producer is Matt Edwards (@MattChrisEd). Opening motion graphics by Meredith Bragg. Camera by Paul Detrick. Music by audionautix.com and "The Contessa" is by Maurice and the Beejays (Magnatune Records).

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

I support lane change enforcement. I would charge all who fail to yield the passing lane as drug mules and make them give me six thousand dollars.

[np]

Interestingly there is something like in Germany. Not the $6k. I don't know if it's changed now, but back then, you could only pass on the left, and slower drivers must pull over to the right to allow faster drivers to pass.

If you spend some time on the autobahns, you'd see this frequently. Everyone who wanted to go faster on the left would flash their lights to signal the slower folks to move over as part of driving etiquette (and their only way actually, as horns are supposed to be reserved for emergency use only). Of course "slower" is all relative.

[Live Free or Diet]

Of course "slower" is all relative.

Yep, slower is comparative.

[anarch]

Mostly.

[Zeb]

A friend of mine who drove there a few years ago said that people also used their left turn signal to signal to people in front to get out of the way. We could definitely use something like that here. If you aren't overtaking something, get the fuck out of the passing lane.

[Acosmist]

Uh, this IS the law in PA.

[Kyfho Myoba]

According to Eric Peters, it is the statute in most states, but rarely enforced.

[Paul.]

I would charge all who fail to yield the passing lane as drug mules and make them give me six thousand dollars.

You'd bankrupt every citizen in the State of Washington within a week.

Driving in the left lane at 75% of the speed limit IS TO BE a native Washingtonian.

[larry hammond]

I would pay if they would actually drive that fast. Washington roads are full of slow, stupid and stoned. I fully support their right to be all of these things, just not in the left lane.

[reason readin female]

All true, but applies mostly to commuters. I work swing shift driving from Tacoma to Seattle. Fri. and Sat. nights I5 is filled with "impaired" drivers. My experience has been those people generally know they could be targeted and move to the right and stay there. There's the occasional amateur who slowly weaves in/out of the left lane, but they're easy to spot and steer clear.

[larry hammond]

My problem is the other places I have lived live by "Drive 80, slow down before you hit something. If someone wants to drive faster than you, get the F out of the way." Big adjustment living here where the rule is drive 15 under and 3 abreast to make sure nobody gets through.

[reason readin female]

Welcome to the passive aggressive PNW!
I've discovered that you have to try a few mind games. I simply inch up to them on the right, with my "I'm not trying to get around you" look. Then, when there's just enough room, I jackrabbit in front of them. Kinda funny to see their frustration at their own slow reaction to me! Seriously...it's a game for some.
And I'm also not joking about the commuters. I much prefer the drunks at midnight than those crazy 9 to fivers.

[larry hammond]

I pulled that move on i5 heading down to Portland. Somewhere between Tacoma and Olympia. The passive aggressive, hybrid driving lane-blocker totally freaked out and followed me while making sure I saw her making a call. She actually sped up and got in the lane next to me to make sure I saw her on the phone. I think she called 911 on me. I just looked her in the eye and laughed. True comedy.

[sarcasmic]

Guilty until proven innocent.

[Live Free or Diet]

Guilty until failed to be shown guilty this time. But we're still watching you.

[Rhywun]

Thanks for starting my day off with another scorching nut-punch.

[DJF]

Don't worry we now have Obamacare which gives everyone a free daily nut-punch.

Please secedule

[BoscoH]

Balko was the nut puncher. Balaker is more grab and pull.

[Andrew S.]

This is incredibly misleading, Reason.

These people aren't committing crimes, which is why they're not getting charged. It's their MONEY that commits the crime!

(Seriously: Can somebody tell me why this isn't extortion, grand theft, conspiracy to commit kidnapping, etc? I know, FYTW, but how in the hell do people justify this stuff?)

[sarcasmic]

Why do you want children to use drugs?

[Anomalous]

It calms them down, that's why.

[thom]

The LAW is the LAW! If you don't like it, why don't you move to CANADA, looser!

[Paul.]

(Seriously: Can somebody tell me why this isn't extortion, grand theft, conspiracy to commit kidnapping, etc? I know, FYTW, but how in the hell do people justify this stuff?)

Because it's done under the color of law.

Same reason a city council can take away your downtown lot so they can profit from it. It's legal because they did it.

[Scarecrow Repair]

It got its start, I believe, with stolen and smuggled goods, where the state needed some legal fiction to allow it to hold the naughty property until they could decide what to do with it. From there it's only a few common law decisions away from what we have today.

[Paul.]

I don't have so much of a problem if they confiscate property while they investigate a crime, for a reasonable period of time. It's when the confiscate property while they don't investigate a crime that's the problem.

Officer dumbass took $6,000 from those people. Did he spend the next two weeks tracking down leads, getting receipts,interviewing the family's friends and associates?

Nah, he just took the six grand and knucklebumped his buddies back at the station.

Any pig who can do this and not feel the slightest pang of guilt is a sociopath and should be barred from owning a firearm.

[Zeb]

A rule that they have to give it back in 30 days if no charges are brought, or something like that, might be a good start. If there are real penalties for not complying or "losing" property and compensation for any victims.

[FYTW]

Procedures were followed. </dunphy

[Libertarian Book Club]

That is some Remy-level humour, right there. Two thumbs up, Balaker!

[np]

Don't Cops Have Better Things to Do?!

Yes. Doing something other than being a cop.

[The Late P Brooks]

But this way, the cops are self-funding. All that Law and order is free.
Freefreefree!

Who doesn't like free justice?

[Francisco d Anconia]

And then we can funnel all that tax muny to teh skoolz, fer teh chilrenz other peeplz chilrenz!

[Pathogen]

Oh, so extortion is the name of your little game is it, Simpson pigs!? Very well! You get nothing everything you demand.. and more!

[Ron]

of course the ultimate goal here is not the drug war it's to keep people form using cash at all. Then people will have to use atm/credit cards which allows the feds to track every penny you spend and then tax every penny and of course if someone in the government doesn't like you they can close your account and you will be stuck with nothing. The Ultimate control is not gun control its money control no cash no guns no uprisings.

[Thomas O.]

Like we never heard of barter...

[Jquip]

Yep, in a cashless society, bribes will be paid in chickens and iPods.

[sasob]

Shaking people down isn't one of the perks of the job?

[Paul.]

The only complaint I have is that guy underacted the cop part.

[Bryan C]

Stand and deliver!

[Largebill]

This is not a matter of having nothing better to do as the headline suggests. No, this is a simple example of basic human psychology. You get what you reward. What do we reward police officers for? In this towns case (and in many others) we reward them with bonuses, cars, etc for the forfeitures. Patrolling crime ridden neighborhoods does not warrant additional compensation even though it is much more hazardous that pulling over a mini-van exceeding the speed limit.

[Habeas Dorkus]

Incomplete without cop-stache.

[JeremyR]

"After all, there is certain truth in the Chinese saying that the police are but certified gangsters."

I came across that quote in a story about Chinese police.

[uhclem]

Of course Americans know who to end this practice really fast.
Something about a tree.

[Paul.]

Drug money.

[Andrew S.]

Nope. From the looks of it, it's transsexual camwhoring.