Hoover’s newest police vehicle is a Porsche 911, which was seized in a drug bust two years ago. The Porsche will be used for community events.
Posted on 03/09/2009 10:18:56 PM PDT by nickcarraway
You can drive into this dusty fleck of a town near the Texas-Louisiana border if you're African-American, but you might not be able to drive out of it—at least not with your car, your cash, your jewelry or other valuables.
That's because the police here allegedly have found a way to strip motorists, many of them black, of their property without ever charging them with a crime. Instead they offer out-of-towners a grim choice: voluntarily sign over your belongings to the town, or face felony charges of money laundering or other serious crimes.
More than 140 people reluctantly accepted that deal from June 2006 to June 2008, according to court records. Among them were a black grandmother from Akron, who surrendered $4,000 in cash after Tenaha police pulled her over, and an interracial couple from Houston, who gave up more than $6,000 after police threatened to seize their children and put them into foster care, the court documents show. Neither the grandmother nor the couple were charged with any crime.
Officials in Tenaha, situated along a heavily traveled highway connecting Houston with popular gambling destinations in Louisiana, say 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. 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.
"We try to enforce the law here," said George Bowers, mayor of the town of 1,046 residents, where boarded-up businesses outnumber open ones and City Hall sports a broken window. "We're not doing this to raise money. That's all I'm going to say at this point."
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
My brother knows a politician in a central American country (not Mexico). My brother was remarking on the “seemingly unwarranted” traffic stops you would get down there, and that it was not like in the US. The guy said, “Oh yeah? Try getting stopped in the US and not being able to speak English and see where that gets you.”
Bottom line, if we heard about this but it was in Mexico or some other third world country, it would be what we expect but the US is so much more civilized.
Apparently not though. We just accept it just as they do in third world countries. Interesting.
Makes one kinda re-adjust their paradigms. Maybe the world is not what we thought it was...
They should figure out that it doesn’t pay to pull over cars containing obnoxious New York lawyers heading to a Yankees game in Arlington.
...actually, I can see why they would enjoy that.
Arlington cops will pull over anyone for any reason. They are hardcore at times about certain things.
>>Alright, so, the lesson here is, if we’re “going Galt,” let’s all make sure not to keep too much cash on hand while we’re on the move.<<
Or hide it in a really hard to find place and then DO NOT let the cops into your car unless they force themselves on you. Then they remove all doubt regarding who or what they are.
I like the video that shows the guy, when the cop asks him to step out of the car, locks the doors. When the cop threatens him when he won’t cooperate, the guy says, “Are we free to go then?”
Takes guts, but if you KNOW you are right, it is not that hard.
This town is out in the middle of nowhere, there is little or no reason for someone going gambling in Louisiana from Houston to go this route. Unless of course they are drug runners trying to avoid detection.
And in any case, don’t mess with small PD, in Texas or anywhere else for that matter.
In reality, what % of the people having their money taken away are white, 99%. Although the laws are written with regard to color, their application is design to hurt whites - no ifs and or butts. 20 years in that church brain-washed the idiot-in-chief
If I were a cop, I would LOVE to pull over a NYC lawyer. He’d leave the area wearing a fig leaf, if I could arrange it.
And yeah, I’d do it just to tick him off, too. LOL!!!
I used to drive a truck for a beer distributor through Tenaha twice a week. I got pulled over once for going 3 miles over the speed limit. It was a state trooper who pulled me over. He told me he would let me off with a warning if I had some “free samples” on the truck. I took the ticket.
The Tribune is hemorrhaging money and may well go bankrupt. Yet they have a reporter who scours the country looking for cases in which blacks are abused, exploited or hard done by. That is ALL this guy writes about. Last year he was wringing his hands over a gang of black Louisiana teen thugs who were arrested and prosecuted after beating a white schoolmate almost to death in a racist attack. In the reporter’s twisted worldview, the assailants were the real victims because someone had supposedly hung a noose on a tree. There was no claim the victim had anything to do with the offending noose: apparently all white persons are guilty. In today’s story, does anyone doubt that the 6K in cash was drug money?
If the story is true, it appears that public officials in that town need to go to federal prison. I hope the feds are really digging into that situation.
Hoover’s newest police vehicle is a Porsche 911, which was seized in a drug bust two years ago. The Porsche will be used for community events.
if they ever have to catch a Ferrari or Lamborghini they might just have a chance with that car.
Funky color scheme though.
my guess.. about 12%
Wow, it’s like The Cars That Ate Paris.
I’m glad so many here would rather their police officers be ordinary thieves than racist thieves. Makes me feel that some progress is being made in this country.
Civil forfeitures without criminal trials are a travesty of justice. I’m not saying they’re unconstitutional, barring bad faith, but they are a travesty.
“Tenaha, Tempson, Bobo and Blair.”
Help needed on this, maybe from the thirties or forties.
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