Whats with an LEO asking how much cash you are carrying during a traffic stop?

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Repeat after me:

The policeman is not your friend.
The policeman is not your friend.
The policeman is not your friend.
The policeman is not your friend.
The policeman is not your friend.

Do that daily until it becomes second nature. One day, when you're tired and your guard is down, it might save you some real trouble.

I don't do drugs. I don't sell drugs. I don't buy drugs. I don't want to do any of these things. I don't really care if you do, however.

I do want to go about my business unharrassed, as the Bill of Rights promises, and I want others to be allowed to do the same without having to fight for that right.
 
Incidentally, anyone know what the best answer is to give a cop who asks?

Objective #1 is to leave the scene, wasting as little time as possible, with all of my money. I don't want need to make a poltical statement.

I do occasionally carry a rather large amount of cash, like when I bought a truck once and a car another time. Cash is the tool of the man who wants a good deal on something.
 
I shoulda been a cop----free guns to carry anywhere any time without a permit and now a method to supplement your LEO income santioned by a seriously dysfunctional U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
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Let's be clear, SWMAN -- The officer doesn't get this money. His department does. There's usually some kind of ryder attached to the jurisdiction's confiscation laws that call for any seized property to be used for drug awareness or education purposes (which is why the school resource officers around here tend to drive Trans Am's, Z-28's, and Vette's with the "DARE" logo all over them).
The policeman is not your friend.
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Sad. It's true, but it's still sad.
 
The War on (Some) Drugs has turned the LEO's into little more than muscle for a legitimized mob. The can and will take your money if they decide you have too much. They do not have to actually convict you of anything. The attack on the money is in a separate civil proceeding, and you may never get it back. Since virtually all money circulating has some trace amounts of drugs on it, they can always show that it's "drug related." It's a vile and deeply corrupt practice. While the money doesn't go directly to the officer, it does help increase funding and a nice haul will put a feather in the patrolman's cap, leading to promotion and more income. It also brings them cool new toys at your expense, so they can go find more of that cash that's doing all the crime.
 
Sad. It's true, but it's still sad.
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It's sadder when you consider that his paycheck is paid 100% by you and me.

On the one hand, many here say, "The laws aren't the cops' fault."

That's true. But I invite you to come live in California and chat with some cops.

Some are great, especially the old-timers, who joined the force before many of our current laws were written. We get 4 new laws per day in this state. Think about that: 4 laws per day.

However, anyone who signs up for the job today knows what the laws are, and volunteers to enforce them for a paycheck. How is he or she not at all culpable in the big game that our law enforcement has become?

Again, I invite you to come live here for a while and get to know what the laws are like.

The attack on the money is in a separate civil proceeding, and you may never get it back.
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That's the most egregious violation. A city near me siezes vehicles of people who are caught talking to street hookers, and keeps them. It's a "civil assessment," so you need not even be found guilty of this minor violation. They can still keep your car, whether it's worth $500 or $150,000, with no regard to "cruel or unusual," or "excessive bail," etc. because technically, it's not a criminal punhishment.

In the private sector, this sort of thing is called fraud.
 
Let's be clear, SWMAN -- The officer doesn't get this money. His department does. There's usually some kind of ryder attached to the jurisdiction's confiscation laws that call for any seized property to be used for drug awareness or education purposes (which is why the school resource officers around here tend to drive Trans Am's, Z-28's, and Vette's with the "DARE" logo all over them).
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The LEO isn't SUPPOSED to get any of the money. I'm sure there are times when there is a difference between the amount taken and the amount reported. I had a buddy some years back who got stopped and the LEO found a 1/2 OZ. of weed on him (I don't smoke dope personally, but some of my friends at the time did. IMHO it's really no worse than drinking a beer). When he went to court he was charged with having 1/8OZ. I'll give yall 3 guesses where the other 3/8s went. It's not a big stretch to see this happening with our cash as well:cuss:


Josh
 
I'm getting jaded

I'm starting to think that with all these laws made to be able to confiscate money and property from "drug runners" are being now utilized as a "legal" source of theft by law enforcement officers. I have seen this happen, same with public domain. Just a "legal" way for the government either state or federal to steal your land, and then sell it for a profit by raising the taxes on it. I have to say I'll bet these type laws will lead to more Ruby Ridge and Waco incidents and more townships suceeding from the nation as it were. Makes me very glad I moved out of the Republik of California.
 
LEO: How much cash are you carrying?
Me: (loudly) Officer, you had better just write me the ticket, I would rather pay a fine than bribe a dirty cop.

If the situation goes downhill from there, you could argue in court (in front of a jury) that the cop was trying to extort money from you and when you refused he punished you. Some judges might side with illegal confiscation, but I doubt a jury would (especially if you have a clean record).


If a cop does seize a large sum of your money, I wonder if you could claim it as a tax write-off?:rolleyes:
 
Good idea J!

Plus, you could have a hidden video camera in the car that gets footage of the stop, get footage of you having to surrender the money and give the video to the media. See what happens then when they find out you surrendered $575.00 and the officer turned in the $300.00 he confiscated from you!
 
Threads like this kill me. First, I'm not a cop nor do I play one on TV. Second, I have no doubt that there are dirty cops out there.

However, if you take into account how many of people are stopped everyday (thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions maybe) without any trouble other than a justifiable ticket, these threads seem really stupid. I hvae no idel how the numbers work out, but we could be complaining about incidents that make up less than 1% of the situations out there.

The cop may not be your best friend, but all of them aren't out to get you by a long shot. Lets have a little dose of reality folks.
 
The LEO isn't SUPPOSED to get any of the money. I'm sure there are times when there is a difference between the amount taken and the amount reported. I had a buddy some years back who got stopped and the LEO found a 1/2 OZ. of weed on him (I don't smoke dope personally, but some of my friends at the time did. IMHO it's really no worse than drinking a beer). When he went to court he was charged with having 1/8OZ. I'll give yall 3 guesses where the other 3/8s went. It's not a big stretch to see this happening with our cash as well
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I'm sure that happens more often than any of us care to imagine.
 
I don;t agree stage because if it is departmental policy to do so you bet at every traffic stop, or dom vio visit or whatever they are asking that question and confiscating money. I'll bet there is also a loophole so those amounts are NOT a matter of public record like everything else because there is no conviction.
 
I've been saying for a long time that Prohibition got us the Mafia and the Kennedys. So far the War on Drugs has gotten us street gangs and legalized government extortion. It's pretty obvious this ain't working. The ONLY difference between the WOD and prohibition is that enough people were smart enough to see that prohibition wasn't working and had enough balls to put an end to it. I don't see that happening with todays new breed of sheeple

Josh
 
The policeman is not your friend.
The policeman is not your friend.
The policeman is not your friend.
The policeman is not your friend.
The policeman is not your friend.
Click to expand...

That is only a generalization. When you've had your car breakdown in a bad area and a LEO shows up while you get a wrecker or your elderly mom has someone break in and the cops get there and scare him away, I think we can refer to them as friends then.
 
It doesn't matter that this stuff is public record: the "civil assessment" BS is used to deny people the right to a trial.

Basically it's, "We're taking your car. It doesn't matter if you're found guilty of anything. It's public record. Try and stop us."

Here's the story from El Cajon, a town near where I am right now:
http://smallestminority.blogspot.com/2004/01/more-asset-forfeiture-it-seems-el.html

Other cities want to do it, too. It's a lot of free cash, and most johns aren't nearly as hard to catch, or as dangerous, as, well, criminals.
 
When you've had your car breakdown in a bad area and a LEO shows up while you get a wrecker
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How long until you're broke down and the LEO shows up to ask "How much money ya got?" I really wouldn't be surprised if this starts happenning

your elderly mom has someone break in and the cops get there and scare him away
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What color is the sky in your world? I'm not saying this never happens but the vast majority of the time, the LEOs show up after the fact to take a report

Josh
 
answerguy:

Nope.

You did read about Matthew Williams, right?

http://www.shotgunnews.com/cramer/

He's sitting in prison because he invited the cops into his grandmother's house to look around. He committed no crime, in any sense. His grandfather did violate the law (NFA shotgun), but his grandfather was dead. The WA Supreme Court upheld the conviction, BTW. He's screwed.

If he'd remembered that the police are not your friend, he likely would not be in prison. They're not your friends; they're the police.

That doesn't mean that I think the cops are always the enemy or something. It's just important to remember that they're there to do their jobs as assigned. This may include pushing your disabled car out of the left lane of the freeway, but it also includes seeing if you can be arrested for anything.
 
Driving black between Florida and New York City with cash
is presumed to be evidence of drug dealing. Just like having
a gun is presumed (by some) to be criminal intent. It is
called profiling. It is the old dragnet policy. So you catch a
few innocent porpoises along with the sharks, so maybe
you catch more innocent porpoises than you catch man-eating
sharks. You are still catching a few sharks, which makes it OK.
Like strip searching a white grandma at the airport just in
case she might have an Al Qaeda bomb in her bloomers.:barf:
 
Repeat after me. Officer discretion. If you look like a hippie, and have love beads on, are burining incense in your cage, with Hendrix playing in the background, they are going to ask you if you have any drugs in the car.

If you are driving a pick up truck with a bumper sticker that says "you can have my gun when you pry my cold dead fingers from it" right next to the sticker that says "God, Guns and Guts", he's probably going to ask you if you have a weapon.

And in you are driving a BEEMER with 10g gold spinner rims, 20 gold chains on, and smile with diamonds in your teeth, he's going to ask you if you have both.

Officer discretion. Are you a known drug dealer? Known to carry, armed and dangerous? Does the officer see the butt of your weapon and the little tabs that the holter make on your belt? He's going to ask.

Does he smell alcohol? Drugs? Even if you have neither in the car at that time? Cops don't smoke anymore. They have a really keen sense of smell. They can smell CLP, weed, whether or not you have a dog, etc. Plus, if they work the area, they have seen you around before, even if you haven't seen them. Most people look at a cop car, and that's all they see. They hardly ever look at the cop inside. If you live in the poor section of town, and drive a caddy, it may perk their interest. There are a lot of clues as to what they may do. But make no mistake about it. It is pretty rare for cops to do anything to people who don't deserve it. If they are feeling a little testy, there's plenty of people they can go and harrass who do.

Officer discretion. Ask them if it's possible to do a ride along sometime. You'll see things differently by the time it's over.

Stretch
Quit cigs 1W 1D 11h 50m ago. So far saved $50.95, 339 cigs not smoked.and counting .
 
It is pretty rare for cops to do anything to people who don't deserve it.
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That's little consolation to Matthew Williams as he sits in prison.

"Rare" doesn't matter, when it's you.

Protect yourself. It's ostensibly a free country. You don't have to like a cop. He gets paid (from your tax dollars). Your primary responsibility is to take care of yourself, no one else.

Therefore, remember that the policeman is not your friend. He is paid to see whether or not you can be arrested for anything. That's his job. Don't forget it.
 
Get over it, 50. Most of us who live here post the same thing in threads like this.

CA wasn't always this way, and it's not about us; it's about our government.
 
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