Student Fights Back After Gov’t Seized His Life Savings At Airport

He was never charged with any crime, but police at a Kentucky airport still took the $11,000 he had saved up over five years, saying it “smelled like marijuana.” Now Charles Clarke has teamed up with civil liberty lawyers to try and get it back.

Geez..

Clarke was flying to Florida in February 2014, with cash he had saved up from working, financial aid, gifts from family members and benefits from his mother, a disabled veteran. After a ticketing agent at the airport alerted police that his luggage “smelled like marijuana,” Clarke was approached by an airport detective and a Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) agent with a drug-sniffing dog. Though they found no drugs or anything illegal on Clarke’s person or in his bags, DEA agent William Conrad and Detective Christopher Boyd seized Clarke’s savings “upon probable cause that it was proceeds of drug trafficking or was intended to be used in an illegal drug transaction,” Conrad wrote in his report.

Of course buddy that's how the racket works .....

Clarke says the smell may have been due to him having smoked pot in the car on the way to the airport.

“That's not really the point. ... I shouldn't be picked out because I had cash," he told the Cincinnati Enquirer.

“I’m not a drug dealer. I’ve never been,” Clarke said. “I didn’t have any plans on doing anything illegal. I was just trying to get home.”

Civil forfeiture laws at its best , take Note .

Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Airport police told the Cincinnati Enquirer that all the seizures are done through the DEA, and that airport police don’t take the money directly. However, under a federal program called “Equitable Sharing,” state and local law enforcement agencies can get a cut of the seized funds. According to IJ, 13 different law enforcement agencies from Kentucky and Ohio are seeking a cut of Clarke’s money.

"Equitable Sharing" ... How about Some "Equitable Charity" ? Give Legal seizures to those who are in need, turn a negative into a positive perhaps ? . Besides our tax dollars fund these agency's well .

In October 2014, the Washington Post published an analysis of over 40,000 documents obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests from police departments around the country, showing that local law enforcement agencies were using property seized through forfeiture to buy guns, spy technology and grenades – but also things like luxury vehicles, travel “and a clown named Sparkles.”

In almost 62,000 seizures since 2001, law enforcement agencies around the US have confiscated $2.5 billion in cash, despite never filing criminal charges or obtaining warrants, according to the Post. IJ’s review of Department of Justice data showed that law enforcement officials have seized $6.8 billion in cash and property between 2008 and 2013 alone.

“The idea of private ownership of property has become a legal fiction,” said IJ’s Flaherty.

Yep , its all about the $$$ folks , Be mart , otherwise you are going to have to jump through hoops to get it back ....



Read more HERE


your thoughts ?

Kap

a reply to: Kapusta

Maybe it's just me but, if I was him, I would have left the fact out about just smoking weed earlier.

Open mouth...insert foot.

“The idea of private ownership of property has become a legal fiction,” said IJ’s Flaherty.

The right to your life, liberty and possessions as well.

Who carries that amount of money in a suitcase?

Would you?

a reply to: Annee

I sure would. What is the alternative? Pay some 100$ transfer fee from Western Union?

No thanks.

a reply to: Kapusta

Simple....

Stop carrying Ca$h...all he had to do was get a temp bank csrd, deop the $$$ wait 3, days, after getting to destination, close the account, or travelers checks.

Didn't the patriot act change the amount of cash you could have around without been investigated?

I believe is something of that matter somewhere around, the crocks I mean (government) had it at hand whenever they need to steal it I mean (investigate you).

I once forgot to remove an empty (key word, empty) magazine from my go-right-now bag before catching an emergency work-related flight. After having it "confiscated" by airport cops, to the point of being given a receipt for it, it managed to grow legs and walk out of their office by the time I came back through.

Forfeiture knows no bounds.

I don't typically travel with thousands and thousands in cash unless I'm driving to purchase a big ticket item in cash

BUT

if I wanted to do so, I shouldn't have to be afraid that a gang of armed thugs (aka the police) are going to rob me like highway bandits and accuse me of a crime.

Meanwhile, some crook with millions of dollars in ill begotten gains sitting in bank accounts is above suspicion? Unreal. It's strange to me how so many people can so passionately defend their right to carry a firearm but we can't seem to get it together enough as a people to stand up for our right to carry our money without being robbed by members of "law enforcement."

WTF.

a reply to: Kapusta

Don't expect much to change!

Loretta Lynch the new AG? She was the famous in NY state for civil forfeiture!

"Smelled like marijuana" is a euphemism for "large amount of cash detected" when going through an airport scanner.

Civil forfeiture is a billion dollar a year industry folks, and it's overseen by the people who brought it into existence.

All part of the spoils of the war on drugs.

Better view of the chart in the OP.



source: reason.com...

originally posted by: lightedhype
a reply to: Annee

I sure would. What is the alternative? Pay some 100$ transfer fee from Western Union?

No thanks.

That's your only alternative?

a reply to: Kapusta

Anything over $10,000 in cash has always been confiscated. Especially if you're going out of the country.

Cash is the closest thing to a convenient hard to track purchase there is.

The value of it will keep going down, the effort it takes to acquire it will keep going up, the rate of taxation and confiscation will keep going up, and all of this will be considered normal until the base concept collapses. For USD, which is now a worldwide ponzi scheme, that time was due one hundred years after it was instituted.

For now, it's being held up by countless "rich" people who benefit greatly from the current way things are- but the underlying system has far surpassed any chance of repair.

Don't travel with money if you can help it- frankly, don't own money if you can help it. It's almost as bad an investment as a new car, these days.

My niece is black. Her dad was pretty well known locally as a small time player. When he died from a heart attack recently, she was driving his car to deal with some of his final matters and what not. She got pulled over 3 or 4 times over a 2 week period, The reason given every time related to something to do with marijuana. She is an athlete and chooses to not do any of that kind of stuff (it'll cost her scholarships and her place on her local team).

So we have just determined that "smells like marijuana" is code speak for "black" with police. Each time she was pulled over they detained her for a lengthy period of time because they smelled marijuana (in their imagination).

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: Kapusta

Anything over $10,000 in cash has always been confiscated. Especially if you're going out of the country.

That's what I've always been told by people who fly on a regular basis. There is no way I would have been carrying that kind of cash of me. Just like it's already been stated, the guy should have gotten a temporary bank account until he got to his final destination. You are just asking for trouble from crazy people who don't mind running off with your large sum of cash when you carry that much money.

I can not imagine carrying that much, cash so many things could go wrong. So many easier ways to do this.

I once asked a friend to walk to a furniture store with me after I got my tax return. Bought living room set, dining room set and bunk beds. Paid cash. My friend had no idea we walked with a few grand. When she said just that to me my reply was that no one else did either.

This was before I put effort into rebuilding my credit. Trust me there was no other way to purchase large items than with cash. I don't know what this mans situation was, however there are people that have no illegal purpose or thoughts that have to only work with cash.

originally posted by: Annee
Who carries that amount of money in a suitcase?

Would you?

What does that have to do with the price of pigs feet?

So... what?

He shouldn't have been carrying that much anyway so he deserves to have it stolen...? That's a criminal mentality if I've ever heard one.