BREAKING NEWS 🚨 @IJ is taking on one of the most predatory civil forfeiture schemes we have ever seen. Indiana is intercepting packages at a FedEx shipping hub, running K-9s over them, and forfeiting any cash found w/o saying a specific crime that was violated. pic.twitter.com/qjHJlmR3fb
David Codrea is a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament.
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3 thoughts on “Always Think Forfeiture”
And whose idea was it to train K-9s to “alert” on the scent of cash? Seems to me that’s not something K-9s would normally be scent-trained for.
Someone had to propose that, and someone else had to approve it.
I think the dogs are ‘alerting’ on the smell of drugs, as pseudoscience as that is, and then they search the package and seize any cash as related to drug trafficking.
Pseudoscience, indeed.
But also, according to CNN, roughly 90 percent of American paper currency has traces of cocaine (link). Most of it is cross-contamination, from being put into ATMs and counting machines with tainted bills.
I can’t comment on what amount must be present for a so-called “drug-sniffing dog” to detect and “alert”, but it’s extraordinarily likely that the vast majority of the “seized for drug trafficking” cash has nothing at all to do with drug trafficking. (It still seems plausible to me that the dogs would be trained to “alert” on the scent of cash rather than drugs.)
It’s also highly likely that a “drug-sniffing dog” could alert on you or I, just from the random assortment of bills we have in our wallets. Is that enough probable cause for arrest and detention, let alone a conviction? If not, why is it enough for asset seizure?
And whose idea was it to train K-9s to “alert” on the scent of cash? Seems to me that’s not something K-9s would normally be scent-trained for.
Someone had to propose that, and someone else had to approve it.
I think the dogs are ‘alerting’ on the smell of drugs, as pseudoscience as that is, and then they search the package and seize any cash as related to drug trafficking.
Pseudoscience, indeed.
But also, according to CNN, roughly 90 percent of American paper currency has traces of cocaine (link). Most of it is cross-contamination, from being put into ATMs and counting machines with tainted bills.
I can’t comment on what amount must be present for a so-called “drug-sniffing dog” to detect and “alert”, but it’s extraordinarily likely that the vast majority of the “seized for drug trafficking” cash has nothing at all to do with drug trafficking. (It still seems plausible to me that the dogs would be trained to “alert” on the scent of cash rather than drugs.)
It’s also highly likely that a “drug-sniffing dog” could alert on you or I, just from the random assortment of bills we have in our wallets. Is that enough probable cause for arrest and detention, let alone a conviction? If not, why is it enough for asset seizure?