Maybe he should have taken traveler’s checks.
But it’s too late
for that now. All the money – $16,000 in cash – that Joseph Rivers said
he had saved and relatives had given him to launch his dream in
Hollywood is gone, seized during his trip out West not by thieves but by
Drug Enforcement Administration agents during a stop at the Amtrak
train station in Albuquerque.
An incident some might argue is still theft, just with the government’s blessing.
Rivers, 22, wasn’t detained and has not been charged with any crime since his money was taken last month.
That
doesn’t matter. Under a federal law enforcement tool called civil asset
forfeiture, he need never be arrested or convicted of a crime for the
government to take away his cash, cars or property – and keep it.
Agencies
like the DEA can confiscate money or property if they have a hunch, a
suspicion, a notion that maybe, possibly, perhaps the items are
connected with narcotics. Or something else illegal.
Or maybe the fact that the person holding a bunch of cash is a young black man is good enough.
Read the rest here.
The 4th Century Science of St Macrina (II)
15 hours ago
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