Tenaha, Texas is a town in the great state that has been abusing the law to seize motorist's assets who are coming from the casino in Shreveport. When, I first heard this story break I was shocked that in American this can still happen. The law enforcers of this town have been pulling over minorities, and “seizing” all of their assets, but that is not the bad part. There is a loophole in Texas law that allows for this practice to occur. The sneaky loophole in the law does not mandate that a person be convicted of a crime or even charged with one before the government the police could seize the assets. Thus, the police can pull you over, and “seize” your casino wins without you being charged or convicted of a crime. Without the victim being charged there are no formal records of the incident or an account for why the person is being pulled over, and no record of assets being seized to criminal misconduct. The police would then use intimidation by threating the unsuspected driver with jail time, turning children over to foster care, and even prosecution for money laundering. Isn’t that the pot calling the kettle black. How is this a practice in America? More than 140 victims surrendered their assets out of fear. The police were taking thousands of dollars from motorist who just came from the casino. There are cases were motorist gave $4000, and $6000 dollars to the crooks. The motorist could even account for their whereabouts, but they still were given the same options of give of the money or pay.
Nevertheless, don’t worry readers there will be some change. The Texas Legislature introduced a bill in March that would close this loophole. The police would have to go before a before a judge before attempting to seize property under the assests-foriture law. Way to go! There needs to be something in place to stop this type of activity. It is sad that the police that are suppose to protect us from thieves, are the people doing the robbing.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment