Alabama police gave man a fatal heart attack w/ a flash-bang grenade in raid, then seized his house.

[hashmander]

Alabama police gave Wayne Bonam a fatal heart attack with a flash-bang grenade in raid, then seized his house through asset forfeiture, leaving his family homeless:

An Alabama man died. Then cash-strapped prosecutors fought his family for his house

 

[Triipe]

At the federal level, the Department of Justice (DOJ) inspector general reported this past March that in 56 of 100 Drug Enforcement Agency forfeiture cases examined by the office, “there was no discernible connection between the seizure and the advancement of law enforcement efforts.”

It's a war on people, not drugs

 

[88m3]

both sides...

 

[BoBurnz]

And yet Roy Moore still probably gonna win by like 10 points.

 

[joeychizzle]

American police

 

[Strapped]

Obeezy was suppose to fix this

 

[hashmander]

Obeezy was suppose to fix this

did you read the article?

 

[hashmander]

it seems like a damned if you do and damned if you don't situation. the executive branch can't change state policy, they can attempt to influence with money. so in states that restrict the use of forfeited funds (alabama isn't one of them) the local police would get adopted by the feds and allow the feds to take the money and then give them 80% while the feds keep 20%. eric holder started putting rules into place to roll back these actions. jefferson beauregard sessions III just removed them and said let's get this rolling again. the damned if you do part is this part where because it's allowed in alabama they were only using the feds because it was simpler, but when the money from the feds started drying up they said fukk that and started aggressively taking people's shyt.

The federal government has also footed the bill for countless local anti-drug initiatives in which civil asset forfeiture is a common tactic. The money flows from the DOJ through a program known as Byrne Justice Assistance Grants. In Alabama, the DOJ annually pours more than $3 million in Byrne funds into the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA), which distributes the money to local authorities. The funds come with an order to “establish and or support multi-jurisdictional drug and violent crime task forces throughout the state, with the intent of reducing illegal drug activity through increased arrests and prosecution of prime offenders.” The 22nd Judicial Circuit Drug Task Force in Covington County, which made off with the lion’s share of the proceeds from Wayne’s house, is one such creation.

In fact, the funds from Wayne Bonam’s house may help the Covington County task force, founded in 2000, make up for sharply falling federal funding.

so if the feds don't contribute to the drug war at a level the states are happy with then they'll find other means.

Made up of five agents from the Andalusia Police Department, the Covington County Sheriff’s Department and the nearby Opp Police Department, the task force has repeatedly taken advantage of federal policies and grants since at least 2008. (It enrolled in Equitable Sharing in at least 2012 and 2013, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post, though the records for those years show no forfeitures adopted by federal agencies.) The Covington County Commission, which dispenses money to the task force, received more than $900,000 in DOJ grants through ADECA between 2008 and 2017.

By 2013, though, the county commission’s Byrne funding was already falling from year to year. The drug task force, in turn, saw less and less financial support. ADECA’s grants to the county, which at their highest totaled $273,366 in fiscal year 2008, dropped to $56,601 in fiscal year 2015 and have continued to decline since then. Regardless, county officials were reluctant to shutter the task force or fold it into the drug agency in the nearby city of Dothan.

Asset forfeitures helped to plug the funding holes.

In 2011, when the county commission received $132,172 in DOJ grant money through ADECA, prosecutors filed zero asset forfeiture cases, according to court records. In 2013, after the size of the grant from ADECA fell to $81,710 – from $115,949 the previous year – prosecutors brought 13 forfeiture cases based on task force operations. A judge awarded most of the proceeds to prosecutors and the task force itself. The drug agents cracked down on people buying and selling marijuana, seizing more than $19,000 in cash, three vehicles and five guns. In a prelude to Wayne Bonam’s case, they also took one parcel of land.

less money from the DOJ means more assett forfeiture cases.

we need federal laws banning this. relying on a mish mash of rollbacks and reinstatements from administration to administration is not going to work.

 

[Strapped]

did you read the article?

I did sir