This is sad, but not too surprising either.

[Aaron]

Luckily I never carry much cash from either country.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/americ...rge-you-but-they-ll-grab-your-money-1.2760736

 

[highgrit]

I thought this post was going to be about 9/11 the day we lost a lot of our freedom. To me that's sad and it's hard to believe we forget so fast.

 

[Stocker Steve]

Times have changed. When I was underage they just took away your beer for police parties.

 

[Jogeephus]

They started this during the war on drugs. They did a good job with that didn't they? Can't beat them just tax it and legalize it. They can now take your money, turn you in to the IRS if you cash a check and are meddling in your business. Now with 9/11, I just can't wait to see what rights we will lose with this War on Terror. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if in a few years they will be selling hunting licenses to terrorists.

 

[greybeard]

US Police were doing this kind of thing to their citizens long long before the war on drugs began.
Nothing new here.

 

[JWBrahman]

US Police were doing this kind of thing to their citizens long long before the war on drugs began.
Nothing new here.

Wasn't that the plot behind the Sylvester Stallone movie "First Blood"?

I will never forget that first week when my old man became a peace officer. He came home one day and said that we were going out to eat. He and another officer had picked up a "bum", brought him to the edge of the city, and took all of his money.

Thirty plus years later he resigned in disgrace. Turns out he was lucky because all of his buddies at the St. Tammany Parish District Attorney's office are headed to the federal penitentiary for stealing money. You cannot make this stuff up.

Type Walter Reed St. Tammany Parish DA in any search engine...

 

[greybeard]

My County:

In the 1960s, 70s and early 80s, another U.S. 59 area, San Jacinto County, became the focus of an investigation of the arrests of motorists. According to news reports and to later court testimony, San Jacinto County sheriff's officers were making arrests of "long-haired" men and the occupants of their vehicles. The officers looked for "longhairs" driving cars with bumper stickers for Houston radio station K-101. The arrests were made on various pretenses, usually some traffic violation, but the vehicles were searched and if any amount of drugs or drug paraphernalia were found, then officers confiscated cash and other valuables and more often than not released the arrested parties.

San Jacinto Count y Sheriff James C. "Humpy" Parker and four of his officers were arrested and tried in 1983 for offenses related to those "traffic stops." The sheriff and his men were convicted of, among other charges, using a torture similar to waterboarding to get confessions. They would put a damp wash cloth or towel over a "suspect's" face and pour water onto it.

Parker pleaded guilty and served 10 years in prison. He died of cancer in 1999.