Interesting article...

Nick Douglas

Registered User
Forum Member
Oct 31, 2000
3,688
15
0
48
Los Angeles, CA, USA
To me, it's scary when the people charged with protecting our civil liberties are the same people who want them taken away.

LOS ANGELES *?*On any given night in*Los Angeles (search), not too long ago, hundreds of drivers and fans would gather in parking lots and on back roads to street race.


The illegal competitions quickly became a deadly game and after four people died in a matter of weeks the*Los Angeles Police Department (search)*brought the racing to a screeching halt by confiscating the vehicles involved.


In the six months the LAPD has been taking cars police said there have not even been any reports of street racing.


The success of the program has prompted police to try seizing other offenders' cars for*drug dealing (search), soliciting prostitutes, illegal dumping and possibly soon, drunk driving.


"This is one more tool that the police can use to try and dissuade the people from engaging in conduct," said LAPD Cpt. Greg Myer. "And we're going to keep it up until some judge tells us we can't."


Critics of the program claim these seizures are a clear violation of civil rights, and one concern is that police departments will become too focused on confiscating property and the money that it generates. And just because it deters crime, they say, doesn't make it legal.




"All government officials, law enforcement officials included, should be concerned about whether what they are doing is legal," Scott Bullock of the Institute for Justice said.*

Also, note in the article how drunk drivers "might soon" have their cars taken away. Given that drunk driving kills far more people than all of these other crimes combined, you'd think cops might want to make that a higher priority. Never gonna happen, though.

The point of this article is that we have a well written piece about an appalling example of police reducing civil liberties by creating more punishment that doesn't fit the crime. Yet, what was the headline given to the readers of Fox News? "CAR SEIZURES HELP STOP CRIME". God help us all.
 
  • Like
Reactions: dogface

SixFive

bonswa
Forum Member
Mar 12, 2001
18,898
343
83
54
BG, KY, USA
LOL! I'd be all for taking the drunk driver's cars too. I would agree that prostitution solicitation and dumping (unless we're talking huge amounts) are not right but do not warrant cars being taken from owners. The other crimes (street racing, drug dealing, and drunk driving) I'm all for it. How is that a violation of a civil right anyway??? Those are crimes, not rights.

I went to the website http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,125749,00.html and found the article, and I watched the news video. Also these cars are seized, and that doesn't mean they weren't later returned.

Nick, how does this reduce civil liberties of lawbreakers, and what's so wrong about the headline? It's factual, is it not? Give me a break on this spin.

PS, how come u were reading FOx News? :)
 

saint

Go Heels
Forum Member
Jan 10, 2002
9,501
140
63
Balls Deep
Nick Douglas said:
To me, it's scary when the people charged with protecting our civil liberties are the same people who want them taken away.

People who are arrested for drunk driving or dealing drugs lose those civil liberties nick you know that. It's called breaking the law, and there is a punishment associated with it. If someone loses their car because they made the choice to drive while intoxicated, they have no one to blame but themselves. The way you make it sound, the police are going into bars and confiscating cars before someone attempts to get in and drive. Give me a break!
 

cisco

Registered
Forum Member
Dec 1, 2000
6,360
18
0
usa/mexico
200,000 drunk driving arrests (DUI) each year in california. One year it was 367,000.
That's a lot of cars. Sounds like a money grab to me.
Tow truck drivers must be happy.
 

timbo

Registered User
Forum Member
Aug 10, 1999
294
0
0
Northridge, CA, USA
Don't blame the cops, Nick. They are simply following orders. This insanity is the creation of our glorious leaders, Mayor Hahn and Chief Bratton, along with the blessing of the LA City Council. "To Protect and To Serve" has evolved into "Issue Citations, Confiscate and Collect."
 

Nolan Dalla

Registered User
Forum Member
Sep 7, 2000
1,201
2
0
Washington, DC/Las Vegas, NV
I went to the website http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,125749,00.html and found the article, and I watched the news video. Also these cars are seized, and that doesn't mean they weren't later returned.

_________________________

NOLAN'S REPLY

I love this quote -- about the cars supossedly latering being "returned." Question is -- have you ever dealt with city hall, the police department, or any government agency and tried to get something either done or returned to you? It's an exasperating experience.

Nick's point is right on target -- city officials will use this as a way to raise revenues and the idea will spread to other states and cities. People will be losing their cars for victimless crimes, such as prostitution, and so forth. I also take issue with the government taking a car from a "drunk driver" who might have had two beers on the way home from work and came up just over on the breathalyzer test.

The Feds can confiscate your cash (based on drug laws) if they THINK you might be a pusher -- which is a serious risk to many gamblers who carry large sums of cash. I know of one gambler who was stopped in Lousiana at the airport with a large wad of cash and still hasn't gotten back his cash yet. Now, they are going after cars.

People will totally sacrifice their freedoms for "security," and eventually find themselves surronded by walls.

-- Nolan Dalla
 

DOGS THAT BARK

Registered User
Forum Member
Jul 13, 1999
19,526
220
63
Bowling Green Ky
Agree that taking the cars and cash can lead to abuses I do not care for and can be abused to the nth degree--however on flip side when you have the civil liberties people defending child porn I think that is equally abusive.

Maybe we can find a happy medium.
 

Chanman

:-?PipeSmokin'
Forum Member
Reflections of great minds on government:

1) Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.
-- Mark Twain

2) I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.
-- Winston Churchill

3) A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.
-- George Bernard Shaw

4) A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money.
-- G. Gordon Liddy

5) Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.
-- James Bovard, Civil Libertarian (1994)

6) Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries.
-- Douglas Casey, Classmate of W.J. Clinton at Georgetown U. (1992)

7) Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.
-- P.J. O'Rourke, Civil Libertarian

8) Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.
-- Frederic Bastiat, French Economist (1801-1850)

9) Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few shortphrases:
If it moves, tax it.
If it keeps moving, regulate it.
And if it stops moving, subsidize it.
-- Ronald Reagan (1986)

10) I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts
-- Will Rogers

11) If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free.
-- P.J. O'Rourke

12) If you want government to intervene domestically, you're a liberal.
If you want government to intervene overseas, you're a conservative.
If you want government to intervene everywhere, you're a moderate.
If you don't want government to intervene anywhere, you're an extremist.
-- Joseph Sobran, Editor of the National Review at one time (1995)

13) In general, the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other.
-- Voltaire (1764)

14) Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you.
-- Pericles (430 B.C.)

15) No man's life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session.
-- Mark Twain (1866)

16) Talk is cheap- except when Congress does it.
-- (Unknown)

17) The government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other.
-- Ronald Reagan

18) The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings.
The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery.
-- Winston Churchill

19) The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin.
-- Mark Twain

20) The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.
-- Herbert Spencer, English Philosopher (1820-1903)

21) There is no distinctly native American criminal class save Congress.
-- Mark Twain

22) What this country needs are more unemployed politicians.
Edward Langley, Artist (1928 - 1995)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 

Turfgrass

Registered User
Forum Member
Sep 26, 2002
1,153
5
0
Raleigh
Chanman said:
Reflections of great minds on government:

1) Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.
-- Mark Twain

2) I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.
-- Winston Churchill

3) A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.
-- George Bernard Shaw

4) A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money.
-- G. Gordon Liddy

5) Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.
-- James Bovard, Civil Libertarian (1994)

6) Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries.
-- Douglas Casey, Classmate of W.J. Clinton at Georgetown U. (1992)

7) Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.
-- P.J. O'Rourke, Civil Libertarian

8) Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.
-- Frederic Bastiat, French Economist (1801-1850)

9) Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few shortphrases:
If it moves, tax it.
If it keeps moving, regulate it.
And if it stops moving, subsidize it.
-- Ronald Reagan (1986)

10) I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts
-- Will Rogers

11) If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free.
-- P.J. O'Rourke

12) If you want government to intervene domestically, you're a liberal.
If you want government to intervene overseas, you're a conservative.
If you want government to intervene everywhere, you're a moderate.
If you don't want government to intervene anywhere, you're an extremist.
-- Joseph Sobran, Editor of the National Review at one time (1995)

13) In general, the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other.
-- Voltaire (1764)

14) Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you.
-- Pericles (430 B.C.)

15) No man's life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session.
-- Mark Twain (1866)

16) Talk is cheap- except when Congress does it.
-- (Unknown)

17) The government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other.
-- Ronald Reagan

18) The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings.
The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery.
-- Winston Churchill

19) The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin.
-- Mark Twain

20) The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.
-- Herbert Spencer, English Philosopher (1820-1903)

21) There is no distinctly native American criminal class save Congress.
-- Mark Twain

22) What this country needs are more unemployed politicians.
Edward Langley, Artist (1928 - 1995)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Great quotes! I could have used at least 10 of them in another thread.
 
Bet on MyBookie
Top