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agmoose wrote:Nickelless - let us know what, if anything Rand has to say...........

rickygee wrote:Tennessee is now doing road checks along with the TSA. If you check Survivalblog or SHTF Plan you've seen the links.

Thing is TN has been doing drug stops on the Interstates for at least 15 years and confiscating property. This is a real Volunteer State Industry. Yes indeedee, I was never waved over for a vehicle inspection, maybe because I was on a motorcycle loaded down with camping gear/luggage, but I-75 at the Stinking Springs exit (Google it, I don't remember the exit #) was a favorite spot for the TN state boys to set up shop. Twice I rode thru unmolested. Maybe because I looked so fierce , but probably because me and my old Suzuki looked like we didn't have a pit to hiss in.

rickygee wrote:This happened a few years ago: I have a cousin that lives outside of Nashville in Brentwood TN. No,(SHUCKS!) he's not a country music performer, just lives near a bunch of them. He found a classic motorcycle for me and I rented a car and drove to the Guitartown to purchase it after he determined it was up to a road trip back to Kaintuckee. Now we're not talking obscure and big bucks like a Vincent Black Lightning, or a Crocker, just a big old 4 cylinder Kawasaki motorbike. So to stretch a short story even longer, I drove on down with a wallet full of cash, little under 3 grand. Peeps told me later if I was pulled over for speeding or whatever in the rental I'd have lost the cash even tho' it was for the purchase of a motor vechicle that was arranged two weeks previously. Hell, I even had the deposit receipt to prove it. Wouldn't have mattered the cops would have called it drug money and it would have been confiscated.

I have heard as 'little' as $500 is up for grabs in TN.

Dear Sen. Paul:

I am no longer living in Kentucky but I'm sending this letter to you because I think you're one of the few people on Capitol Hill who really cares about the Fourth Amendment. I am sending a copy of this letter to Sen. Jim DeMint, whom I respect greatly, and to my current congressman, Larry Bucshon, who is also a friend of the Tea Party movement.

It goes without saying that government at all levels, especially the federal government, has an insatiable thirst for cash and other resources to cover trillions of dollars in red ink, with no intentions of reining in spending. The tragic thing is that civil asset confiscation laws on the books give governments the huge potential for plunder of law-abiding citizens' assets without evidence of any wrongdoing and with no recourse for those whose possessions the government wants. Under current civil asset confiscation laws, citizens have to prove that they are not guilty of allegations made against them or their property, an impossible task since, obviously, you can't prove something that doesn't exist.

There have been news stories recently about police in Tennessee stopping motorists on the interstate and confiscating large amounts of money from the motorists without charging them with any crimes, and not returning the money. And for every instance such as this that we hear about in which various authorities use their positions of power to illegally seize property from citizens to enrich themselves because they can, I think it's safe to say that there are many more instances we don't hear about, and thousands of Americans are being robbed and plundered by authority figures under the cover of dubious or nonexistent charges. One account I have read involved a woman whose house was seized because her son had been a marijuana dealer, despite the fact that he had not lived with her nor had contact with her.

The ridiculous associations that authorities can try to draw to justify the confiscation of one person's property for another person's actions are ripe for abuse, and given the hunger for resources among governments at all levels, it doesn't take much imagination to see that every American could be a potential victim of brazen government theft for just being in the wrong place at the wrong time or having the "wrong" sympathies. As you are probably aware since you are a friend of the Tea Party movement, people are ending up on terror watchlists for the alleged "crime" of organizing Tea Party rallies, and anyone who is alleged to be a terror suspect, no matter how dubious the so-called evidence, is at risk of having their property confiscated or worse, without due process and without recourse. As a Tea Party activist myself, I worry about what might happen to my own property if the government decides to brand me a "terrorist" just because I believe in adherence to the Constitution.

I am asking you to please sponsor a bill that creates bona fide protections for citizens against government abuse of civil asset forfeiture laws--criminal laws already provide some level of protection for those found not guilty, but civil laws don't--protections that demand a preponderance of evidence against the accused party before property can be seized, not merely the suspicion that a person's property might link them to an alleged crime, and which will allow those accused to keep the property in question until the government can prove that such property is directly linked to a crime. The burden of proving guilt should rest upon the government, not upon citizens who must prove that they are not guilty to be able to keep property that is rightly theirs. I realize you will probably have huge opposition to such a bill, since governments all over the country are reaping a windfall from asset forfeitures under current law, but I know that you have the courage to push a bill like this through the Senate and the determination to see it get passed. If you have to attach this bill to an unrelated measure to get it passed, please try to do so--the enemies of freedom in Washington have taken this approach in pushing through anti-freedom legislation, so if that's what it takes to help breathe life back into the Fourth Amendment, so be it.

Thank you again for your time and attention, Sen. Paul. I look forward to your reply.

Bluegill wrote:Nickelless, the majority of this is being done at the local, county and state levels. I not sure a U.S. Rep. or Senator will really be able to anything about it even if he/she wanted. Locally is where one really needs to address this problem. Be cautious though, that is also a good way to get oneself on a local "list", guaranteeing you the very treatment your trying to prevent. Still, kudos to you for making the effort.

This really illustrates how "states rights" in modern society is pointless. The local and state municipalities are more corrupt and Statist than the Feds. Where are the County Sheriffs hiding at..? These laws are blatantly unconstitutional...

The Township I live in created an "Asset Forfeiture" division a while back. The police admins were giddy with joy as they gloated about how much revenue they were going to start getting for their department.

OX6603 wrote:

Bluegill wrote:Nickelless, the majority of this is being done at the local, county and state levels. I not sure a U.S. Rep. or Senator will really be able to anything about it even if he/she wanted. Locally is where one really needs to address this problem. Be cautious though, that is also a good way to get oneself on a local "list", guaranteeing you the very treatment your trying to prevent. Still, kudos to you for making the effort.

This really illustrates how "states rights" in modern society is pointless. The local and state municipalities are more corrupt and Statist than the Feds. Where are the County Sheriffs hiding at..? These laws are blatantly unconstitutional...

The Township I live in created an "Asset Forfeiture" division a while back. The police admins were giddy with joy as they gloated about how much revenue they were going to start getting for their department.

Just because the state and local gov't is doing it doesn't make it a state issue. Violating the constitution is a federal matter.