|
State lawmakers work on bills to limit property seizures by police
Efforts are under way to change Michigan's civil forfeiture laws that allow police to seize property without proving a crime occurred.You mean search and seizure would have to be reasonable? How Fourth Amendmenty.... State law allows police to take property, usually vehicles, for any reason, even in the absence of criminal activity. A Detroit News investigation in November found that vehicles sometimes are seized even when police admit no crime took place. "It's not unreasonable search and seizure. It's just a case of the state saying 'gimme yer stuff.'" Two Michigan lawmakers are working on separate bills that would restrict police power over civil seizures. I'm trying to figure why we have courts... Meanwhile, a candidate for Wayne County sheriff, who was in charge of a department that seized thousands of vehicles over the past four years, says, if elected, he would overhaul the seizure process in Wayne County. "Under the current ordinance, there doesn't have to be a crime proven in order to seize someone's vehicle," said Walter Epps, a former Wayne County sheriff's lieutenant who ran the department's Morality Squad for more than four years.
How about getting a felony conviction before they've gotta give anything up? In one case, The News found that officers from the Morality Squad seized a Southgate man's vehicle after he talked to a decoy prostitute -- even though the undercover officer admitted in her written report that the man hadn't solicited her during their brief conversation. I'm trying to figure when we came up with a Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vices... In another case, a Red Cross employee's vehicle was seized by the Morality Squad after she picked up a co-worker at a Detroit bank. Because the vehicle owner's co-worker had stood on a street corner making eye contact with passing motorists while waiting for her ride, police determined she was acting like a prostitute, even though she never was charged for soliciting. It's too bad we don't have a constitutional amendment prohibiting that sort of thing... Motorists must pay $900, plus towing and storage fees, to get their vehicles back; otherwise, they become property of the seizing agency and usually are sold at auction. The word you're probably looking for is "rapacious." Two state lawmakers also are trying to pass laws to prevent police in Michigan from seizing people's property without officially accusing them of a crime. State Rep. Gabe Leland, D-Detroit, introduced a package of bills in December that would require police to seek charges before seizing property. Posted by: Fred 2010-02-15 |
|
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=290514 |