Highway Robbery - and the Thieves Wear Badges

[Berzerker]

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-st...s-wyoming-to-return-92-000-seized-by-officers

A Wyoming judge ordered the state Friday to return nearly $92,000 seized from a musician during a traffic stop that resulted in no criminal charges or even an arrest

Parhamovich said the officers implied that carrying that much cash was illegal. He lied and said it was a friend's.

Parhamovich said officers then told him that he could leave if he signed a form saying he was giving the $91,800 to the investigative agency for "narcotics law enforcement purposes."

"I remember asking them a bunch of times: 'What happens if I don't sign this?'" Parhamovich said. "I couldn't get a straight answer. What I was told kind of made it seem like I would go to jail or they'd detain me for a long time."

He drove away with a $25 ticket for failing to wear a seatbelt, he said.

Can they steal his car too if it belongs to someone else? No seat belt turns into a search for drugs and money. Why are they even asking him questions? Was there a report involving him or his car? Can they grab our credit cards and the attached bank accounts? Oh no, credit cards have a lobby, cash doesn't. All those banks issuing credit cards dont want the cops stealing them to drain customers savings, people wont use them.

Doesn't the 4th Amendment protect us from unreasonable searches and seizures? This happened because of the drug war, the legal justification for this theft is based on the idea the money is guilty of a crime. Even their ridiculous form called it a donation to drug enforcement. They cant raise taxes so they just steal from outsiders.

Wasn't Sodom and Gomorrah destroyed for behavior like that? I think there's a Hebrew legend about one of the prophets visiting Sodom. A resident hit him with a stone and then charged him for the 'service'. Upon losing the case the prophet picked up a stone and hit the judge and told him to pay the plaintiff. They were destroyed because they robbed strangers...

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Unfortunately, in many jurisdictions (almost certainly including Wyoming) the cops have at least a couple judges that they can count on to say "refusing a search of your car at a traffic stop is suspicious enough for me to issue a warrant for the search." The general line runs something like:

1) I need to check your car, is that okay?
If you respond to this with "no" you are completely within your rights. However...

2) I do not feel safe allowing you to stay in a vehicle which may contain a concealed weapon, so you will have to step out of the car.
Once out of the car you are subject to a personal check for weapons, for officer safety of course, and anything they find on you is subject to being asked about "in a conversation." You are fully within your rights to say "I am not interested in a conversation." Unfortunately many citizens think that cops engage in 'harmless small talk' when the truth is they are just fishing for anything that they can use to get a warrant issued.

3) So now you are out of your car. Most likely 'for officer safety' you are either sitting on the ground or locked in the back of a police car. You are told that you will have to "wait for the warrant" and whether it is actually going to be granted or not you will be sitting there for probably hours.

Bottom line, your protection against illegal searches and seizures, in practice, is almost nonexistent if you are in a car.